October 25, 2000
MAC teaches students to work together
Eastern Elementary multiage class unique in TCAPS
By JUSTIN CARINCI
Herald staff writer
Traverse City Eastern Elementary School has broken the last barrier of school segregation: that of age.
Eastern Elementary teachers Jane Boerema and Julie Clark find dividing students into age groups often unnecessary. Boerema and Clark lead the multiage class, or MAC, the only of its kind in the district.
Boerema and Clark teach 52 first-, second- and third-graders in their adjoining rooms. Students work together in small, multiage groups for much of the day, separating into grade levels for subjects such as math. "We use multiage when it's beneficial for the kids and we do grade level things when they work better," Clark said.
Students stay in the program for three years, first through third grades. Returning students make the MAC a kind of family, Boerema and Clark said. Children who have spent time in the class familiarize new students with the program. Students learn to make presentations, both as individuals and as part of groups, to the entire MAC family.
"There's so much learning that can take place in the multiage groups that doesn't happen when you isolate them into grade groups," Boerema said. She started the MAC, now in its third year, to give students experience they would not get in straight grade classes.
"We build a lot of the multiage things around concepts that you go into the workplace with," Boerema said. "We work with people who are different ages and have different interests and abilities. We use those strengths to work together and we also build on each others weaknesses."
Parents initially worried about the older children becoming "baby-sitters" for the younger students. "They aren't baby-sitters but they are good leaders and they develop leadership qualities," Boerema said. "But it's not always the older students," she added. Some of the younger students may be strong leaders. "They really learn to work together and to use each others' strengths."
Teachers in the MAC face the special challenge of meeting the needs of individual students along with fulfilling grade level requirements. "We do a combination of making sure we meet all the district's objectives and goals and yet meeting all the individual goals of kids working together," Boerema said.
While MAC students may not gain an academic edge over other students, they will learn just as much as other students, Boerema said, "because we're following the same curriculum.
"What we're offering is other types of experience: the presentations, the working together and the types of things you have in a job place."
The way the children worked together and got along surprised Clark, a second-year MAC teacher. "There's a general acceptance of differences: learning differences, behavior differences, ability, special talents," Clark said. "Our kids are so flexible, it's amazing."
"Some of our first-graders are more artistic than our third-graders," Clark noted, "and we celebrate those differences."
This diversity has made the MAC attractive to parents. Dianne Jurica has two of her children in the program. Since both of her children were in Montessori school since age two, she sees Boerema and Clark's class as a continuation of their multiage education.
"I like the idea of multiage classes," Jurica said. "I think kids need more structure than in Montessori school but less than in straight classes. The multiage class is the best of both worlds."
Although popular with children from a Montessori background, the MAC is open to all students. Parents may choose either the MAC or straight grade classes for their children.
"It is a true blend of students," Clark said. "We have special needs students, we have slow learners, we have physical disabilities, we have gifted kids. We have the full range."
Boerema explained the multiage education philosophy this way: "If you have a second grade son and a first grade daughter and you send them outside in the neighborhood to play, are you going to say 'now you go play with the second graders and you go play with the first-graders?'
"We don't do that at work, we don't do that anywhere else, but why would we do that in schools? Why can't they learn together if they can play together and work together as adults?"