Students in the fourth grade are adapting to big changes this year. There are three homerooms to accommodate fifty students, an increase over the enrollment in previous years. Students are divided into four heterogeneous learning groups; they rotate among four lead academic teachers.
Ginibeth Thompson will teach Language Arts. Chelsey Sabol will assume responsibility for lessons in Social Studies and the famous fourth grade passion projects. Jennifer Salerno will lead students in Math instruction. Sue Frankel will work on vocabulary acquisition in “Classical Roots;” Mrs. Frankel will also coordinate the organization of fifty students across these four classes.
In addition to these core academic sections, all fourth grade students will rotate through additional classes in a math lab, STEAM tech and library, STEAM science, and Spanish during a six-day cycle.
There are many advantages to support this change in the structure of fourth grade. The student-teacher ratio in the four academic sections will be much smaller, allowing for more individualized attention and personalized interaction. All students have multiple opportunities for expanded peer social interaction, from the homeroom, to the learning groups, to time on the playground, as well as a chance for natural movement breaks throughout the day. Each student has an opportunity to get to know more adults than previously, these fourth grade teachers and the traditional specialists, including Julie Hleap, the new science specialist who will spend more dedicated time with fourth grade students than previous science specialists. This structure will prepare fourth graders for the transition to changing classrooms and teachers in Middle Learning.
The teachers observe that all students are new to this structure; the returning students have welcomed the newly enrolled students as they all learn to manage their expanded responsibilities together. “We get a head start for Middle Learning since we switch classes this year in 4th grade,” commented one bright-eyed fourth grade student.
With the start of a new year and a new schedule, our fourth graders are off to an exciting start!