Beth Rohloff

Beth Rohloff, a K-1-2 multiage teacher at Buckman Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, describes the cooperation, social skills, and positive role-modeling that students display in a multiage classroom. Excerpted from a videotaped interview with Beth Rohloff (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1998).

"I think the biggest benefit that I've seen in a multi-age classroom is the degree of cooperation, some positive role-playing or role modeling experiences that the younger students can see the older ones. I think that you can see the adaptability, the ability for the older students to understand I remember when I was just learning how to use computers or I remember when I was just learning how to get in line-a kind of big brother, big sister feeling that some of the students get, especially the trend is for smaller families, and many kids come from a single child family and it's really nice for them to develop the social skills, and see that for some kids, they are more socially ready to be hanging out with someone who is a seven or eight year old and there isn't the limitation for the five year to have to play with all five or six year old, that they can make decision about that, and again I think that brings up the issue of being able to make choices. I think it's a really beneficial situation and that they're given lots opportunities to see kids are doing different activities and know where they can go with that. As they move up in the years, they eventually get to do some of the things that the older kids didn't get to do."

This Critical Issue was written by Debra Johnson, a freelance writer who also is a multiage resource teacher at Lincoln School in Mundelein, Illinois, in collaboration with Cheryl L. Fox, K-12 districtwide curriculum director, Grand Rapids (Michigan) Public Schools.

Date posted: 1998