What do you picture when you hear the word ‘school’?
Is it this?
Each day teachers work to instruct classrooms filled with students,
each with their own interest, academic level and way they learn.
Imagine trying to teach a class of 30 students how to add fractions.
By the end of the lesson, half the class might get it, half might not.
So what should happen the next day?
The teacher can reteach the lesson,
leaving those who got it bored, restless or disruptive.
Or the teacher can teach a new lesson,
letting the kids who didn't get it fall further and further behind
until they are discouraged or frustrated.
We need alternative methods.
We need to give students a more individualised curriculum
and ensure that students get what they need, when they need it, how they need it.
If we are serious about trying to meet the needs of every child,
we need to view traditional teacher-led class instruction as just one way kids learn.
There are other options:
students can also learn in small groups from each other,
or with videos, games, or practice problems on their laptop,
or with online instructors, or even by themselves with books, activities or software.
These are just a few ways students can receive instruction.
We call them modalities.
By joining different modalities into one learning environment
where students, teachers and resources from multiple classrooms can be combined into one open space,
we move from a model that looks like this
to a model that looks more like this
where students get instruction at their own academic level
in the format most likely to be successful for them.
For example, this teacher is helping a group with triangles,
while this student is working on algebra with his online tutor.
This is just one model.
New Classrooms is developing to reimagine the classroom to meet the needs of every student.