I was doing a little research and I came across quite the gem – rules for teachers in 1872 and 1915. I’ll share just a few here:

• 1872 – Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.
• 1872 – Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.
• 1915 – You may not loiter downtown in ice cream stores
• 1915 – You may not wear bright clothes. You may not under any circumstances dye your hair

Needless to say, I think most of us would be out of a job, mostly just for that last rule!

While I am not sure that what Khan sees for the One Room Schoolhouse model is truly what occurred in the original one room schoolhouse, I know my own experiences echo his. I whole-heartedly agree with Khan and the concept that something magical happens when you partner younger and older students. This year more than in the past, my class has spent time with their kindergarten buddies. My favorite interaction was one focused on writing. Both classes were writing narrative stories. I watched as students who can often skim over misspelled words in their own writing slowed down to sound out words and point to phonics charts to help their buddies figure out the spellings. Students who don’t always put their best effort in had deep conversations with kindergarteners about what makes writing challenging and the tools they use to get past those challenges. The most memorable – students sitting side by side, writing their own stories, checking in with one another only to give encouragement and support when needed. Both fully engaged in writing their own stories at their own levels, and both equally excited to share with one another what they were learning.

(In an attempt to organize my thinking, I’m borrowing from an earlier post)

My thoughts on the One Room Schoolhouse model in 5,4,3,2,1…

5 Questions I have:

• What would it look like to transition from today’s school system, using today’s learning standards, to a one room schoolhouse-type atmosphere?
• We wouldn’t be able to put a whole school of students in one room, so how would we group students?
• Would teachers continue to teach all subject areas at the elementary level, or would we specialize in one so that we can have a deeper knowledge of the content area?
• Would students stay together all day, or change groups based on what they were learning, or what they needed most?
• What expectations would be set for the goals that students would be accomplishing so that we could hold ourselves accountable that all students are making as much growth as they need to be throughout a school year?

4 Ideas to try: As Khan discusses on p. 194, the older students become mentors and tutors and sharpen their own skills in the process. The younger students benefit from having role models and many more teachers in the classroom. In any subject area, this becomes true. So how do we try this now to see what works?

• Math: Rather than using the Common Core standards as divided by grade levels, we could use them as stepping stones, goals, that students would move from one to the next. The entire group could be learning about fractions, working toward a goal of their own, practicing the skills they have already learned by teaching students whose goal is below theirs.
• Reading: With a common language such as book clubs, and annotating marks all students know, we could put a variety of kids together to read the same book. They could read aloud to one another, annotating as they read, writing discussion questions and points as they go. At the end, they could reflect on what they read, answering a question at their level in a way they are best able to respond. Or students could read books with the same theme or main idea, coming together to share what they are learning as they read in discussion groups that center around understanding choices authors make and comparing how authors share information.
• Whole school PBL: We tried this to a small degree already. Having an authentic task and outcome would be important to making sure students are reaching for standards. Service learning is something that schools already do that would easily adapt to multi-age groups. This can also tie into a Genius Hour or Passion Project.
• STEAM: We have seen this at work already. Problem solving and perseverance does not require an age level. Giving students a problem to solve with criteria to stay within would ask all students to reach into their own understanding of the academic task at hand and use critical thinking skills to participate.

3 Social-Emotional Benefits

• Build leaders: Students are role models for other students, and have role models and mentors to look up to. The social issues that can sometimes be labeled as “coming with this age” are changed as students are interacting with students of a variety of ages, many who are younger and give them a reason to act as strong role models. Younger students would see this model and grow into it.
• Build responsibility: As Khan stated, “We deny them the chance to mentor or help others, and we thereby conspire in their isolation and self-involvement.” (p. 193) By asking students to work with one another and take responsibility in their own learning as well as others’ learning we are giving them authentic responsibility that will support them in their future lives.
• Build a growth mindset! Students would have such a spectrum of where they have been and where they are going. As one student in the multi-age math class at the Marlborough School in California shared, “Before Khan, no one ever asked me for math help. I was definitely not the person they came to. But now I feel like, given my new confidence, and my new skills, people are willing to ask me for help.”

2 Leader in Me connections

• Seek first to understand, then to be understood: In order to teach others, you have to understand what they need. Teachers work to become experts in this, learning how to listen in many different ways to figure out what students really need to know. If students learn this at a young age and see it modeled through their school career, they will be more successful at this throughout their lives.
• Synergize: Of course, students would have to work together every day to be successful. Those that understood the importance of learning from each other would grow even more in their own learning.

1 Last thought…

• On p. 194, Khan makes a point that is hard to ignore: “And the schoolroom, rather than being an artificial cloister shut off from the rest of life, comes to more closely resemble the world beyond its walls – and therefore to better prepare students to function and flourish in that world.”

To quote Richard Sheridan and Joy, Inc. – Anyone want to run the experiment?