departmentalization

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Home : 2002 : November : 27

departmentalization
By Jo

At our school we do graduated departmentalizing. In fourth grade all three teachers teach one section of science. They divide up topics and teach the same ones yearly. Then they each teach one section of math which is divided
into high, medium, and low groupings. Each teacher teaches their own Social Studies and Language Arts.
Then in fifth grade one teacher teaches all science, one all math, and one all reading.(This is the first year for us to departmentalize for reading in the past it was Social Studies.) Now we all teach our own Language, Spelling, and Social Studies.
In sixth grade one teacher

teaches math and problem solving(separate classes), one has science and social studies, and the other has language arts.
In Junior High they have a different teacher for each subject.
It is progressive and the children seem to adapt well. We are a small district, so you know the children better in the beginning. We decided to go with reading in fifth grade this year due to the No Child Left Behind legislation. I'm not sure we will continue with this, but we haven't really decided yet. We do group for math and reading--which I know is unpopular with some, but it seems to be working with this group this year. Most travel in the same groups to all three classes, but some differ.
I was very hesitant to departmentalize in the beginning. I felt like they still needed one more year of the "mother hen", but they have adapted very well. Those that haven't probably would have had problems the other way too. It does take a LOT of communication among teachers to be sure a child isn't "getting by" the easy way in all classes.
Behavior problems have been better. I'm not sure if it is because you can handle situations for a short time that become unbearable after all day or if the moving around is helpful and the differing teaching techniques and personalities. Personally, I like it now and would hate to go back to the other way of teaching.