Multiage classrooms

For most high school students a typical day is separated into individual subjects, taken in classrooms, divided by grade level. But the Director of Education at Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board is challenging Principals in the board to think of new ways to teach that blur the lines of those traditional boundaries.

Imagine a high school classroom that is made up of students in different grades working together on projects that may earn them credits in more than one subject. it sounds complicated. but today we visited a classroom that has *started* to explore this way of learning… and students seem to be excited about the prospect of taking it further.

No, this isn’t a music class. This is grade 11 physics. And these students are working together to build their own instruments to help learn physics concepts.

Julia Bryson, Westmount Secondary School student: “We have to record the frequency it’s producing and then make calculations based on the length and the air calm and the frequency it should produce and what frequency it is producing.”

The project-based class at Westmount Secondary is part of the school’s self-directed program. Where students take more ownership in pacing their learning. But Principal Rick Kunc says the musical instrument project could be taken a step further. So these students may be earning a physics credit: “While another person in their group may be getting the construction credit and another student in the group may be in a grade 10 math class and be getting a grade 10 math credit because and those math concepts are at the grade 10 level.”

John Malloy is the HWDSB Director of Education: “The world doesn’t work English separate from math separate from science and so forth.”

Hamilton-wentworth district school board director of education john malloy says he’d like to see more learning environments that would allow students in different disciplines.. and even grade levels to be more integrated — and based on students’ interests.

Malloy said: “So for instance, if they’re really concerned about something related to the environment, why couldn’t we help them create a critical question and together with their classmates, potentially from different grades allow them to explore that.”

Malloy has asked teachers and principals in the board to consider different ways this type of learning can be implemented. They’ll meet in February to discuss their ideas: “And even if we have 15 different projects going on in our board next year that has this integrated interdiciplinay approach where students lead the learning. Then we can learn from it and potentially the year after expand.”

Grade 11 students like Ashante Daley see the potential: “Having different people in your classes, there might be people who know more than you so you can ask them for help or people you can help. And by explaining things sometimes you understand it better.”

As does Principal Kunc: “These opportunities where its hands on problem based learning, for kids that gets them enthused. And that’s our business.”

Malloy says every board does some kind of work like this but under the mantel of ‘alternative education’. He says eventually he wants to have the opportunity for students to collaborate beyond the traditional classroom in every high school in the board.