Departmentalization

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Home : 2003 : August : 3

Departmentalization
By ddp

In our school the fifth grade is the only grade to work this way. But it's great. We have three classes of fifth graders. We rotate our students through Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts. We all teach Math - we level
students there according to their abilities (only subject we do this in). We teach our homeroom reading and spelling.
When you work this way, you can spend more time on your area for preparation. I teach the three Science classes. It's much easier to prepare for less subjects. My room decorations basically look like a science lab.
You must share students, so you have to be consistent.

We have team meetings where we discuss and set our policies so that they are basically the same in each room. We discuss students and their needs. We even coordinate some projects, ie. writing in the science area.
You need to get along with the other teachers. Planning is essential.