On 5/07/09, MC wrote:
> I teach grades 9-12, and I have 3 class periods. I have
> never taught so many grade levels before. my first period
> is a 10/11/12 split and my other classes are 9/10 split.
> Here is my issue:
> At first, I was coming up with different things for each
> grade level to do, but I felt unorganized, like I was
> going insane. I had to teach four different lessons,
> assign four different novels, find four different levels
> of grammar material, and then I discovered that many of my
> kids were only 9th grade level, (even my seniors) and had
> a hard time with things that they were supposed to have
> known already.

What class will the 9, 10, and 11 graders have next year? Is
there a completely different English class for them to "move
up" into to, or will they be in the same type of mixed grade
level class when they are in the next grade level?
In other words - were all of these students placed together
in one class because it's the only class available, or
because they all had similar needs (for example, because they
were all at ninth grade level)? How you teach and how you
differentiate will be different depending on which situation
you're in.
Were they in a mixed grade class last year? If the previous
teacher taught ninth or tenth grade material only, that could
explain why your seniors don't know some of the things they
are "supposed to have known" already.
Just as one quick suggestion, you might focus on a particular
topic but have each grade level use different stories or
material for that topic. For example, you might teach a
lesson on symbolism for the whole group, then have each grade
level read a different short story to identify examples.
Symbolism is probably not a great example here (one of the
harder topics to do this with), but that's the general idea.

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