I teach fourth grade and we departmentalize for reading, math, and writing. I teach reading. I really don't have an opinion one way or the other. The only time I have ever been in a self-contained classroom was during my student teaching. The school I am at has always departmentalized in 3-5 grades. I have always wanted to have a self-contained classroom because I can see the potentially positive aspects of it. My principal said to me once that if I ever got 2 other teachers in fourth grade that wanted to do it, we could try it. But I have not yet had that opportunity.
I do want to tell you that I see all of the negative aspects many of you have suggested being possible. However, my team works hard to make these negatives work for us. We have lunch together at the same time, recess at the same time, and we teach science and social studies to our own homerooms at the same time. We have 45 minutes in our schedules built in for specials each day. It is the same 45 minutes for all of fourth grade. So my homeroom might have art, the other music, and the other media. During this time, we plan together. I start by telling them what we will be reading and skills we will be focusing on. Then the writing teacher tells us what she will be doing. Finally, the math teacher tells us what she will do. Then, we try to make as many connections across the curriculums as possible. For example, when I was doing my schema unit at the beginning of the year, the math teacher began using the same word in math when doing word problems. Transitions are smooth and take just a few minutes. We use transition times for bathroom breaks. So as they are going to the bathroom, they just move to the next room. We do track the students (once again not our choice...this is made by administration). However, we have this year 21 students in our high group, 15 in our middle, and 12 in our low group. The teacher assistant follows the low group to each block so there are actually 2 teachers with that group at all times. All EC and ELL services are done with inclusion. The EC teacher goes into the math class for 30 minutes each day and in reading for 30 minutes each day. The ELL teacher goes into the writing class for 30 minutes 2 days a week. Now there are lots of negatives that I can't even talk up. However, the negatives rest on me as the teacher. For example, the amount of papers I have to grade is horrendous! We all three conference with every single child's parents 2 times a year and we conference as a team with the at-risk kids at least 4 times a year. I do all of fourth grade's running records and keep up with all of their AR points. I think the ONLY way departmentalizing can work is if the team of teachers is strong as a group. I taught in fifth grade one year with 3 other teachers. All 4 of us were very strong teachers but we didn't make a good team. We tried but we were just on different pages. It takes a lot of compromise! We do everything together. We meet at the beginning of the year with all of the fourth graders in the gym to create "Fourth Grade Rules," we have grade level meetings with all of the kids about once every 2 weeks to talk about things that are working and things that need improving, and we line up and dismiss at the end of the day as a grade level. So when someone asks me how many students I teach I automatically say 48! Sorry this was so long but I thought I needed to chime in as someone who is not dead-set against the idea but is also open to self-contained classrooms. I am still hoping one day I will be with teachers who want to do it! Angela Hatley Almond, NBCT Fourth Grade East Albemarle Elementary School _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
