The More Things Change . . .

I am third generation teacher.   My grandmother was a teacher in a rural one-room school-house in Illinois. My grandmother had a 30 year teaching career, which was unusual for a woman of her generation.  My mother was a home economics teacher in a huge city public high school until she had children; her teaching career was a few years, which was more typical of a woman from her generation.   I am a virtual teacher; I teach middle school Language Arts online, which seems unusual to many teachers in this day and age.  I started teaching in 1995 and still going strong. During my career, I have come to learn about that old adage - the more things change, the more they remain the same.

We have a lot of “new” terms in education - differentiated instruction, full inclusion, collaborative learning, etc.  that my grandmother would never have even heard. Even if she had heard of them, she would probably have given me THAT LOOK that told me that all of this was crazy and just let her teach.  However, Grandma really did have to incorporate all of these “new-fangled" methods of teaching in her everyday classroom in her one-room school house..  

Differentiated Instruction

According to Carol Tomlinson, “Differentiated instruction and assessment (also known as differentiated learning or, in education, simply, differentiation) is a framework or philosophy for effective teaching that involves providing different students with different avenues to learning (often in the same classroom) in terms of: acquiring content; processing, constructing, or making sense of ideas; and developing teaching materials and assessment measures so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences in ability” (2001).  This is considered standard best practice in today’s classroom. Every child should have access effective instruction that will help him/her learn best.  

Grandma had to do this every day.  Every child in her classroom would have been at a different reading level and a different math level. There would be no possible way that her first graders would be doing the same work as her fifth graders.  Her expectations and lesson plans would be different for most every child in her classroom.  

I have to do this as well.  The reading level in my typical classroom can range from 3rd grade level to upper high school level.  There is no way that I can have all students doing the same work at the same level.  It is not only impossible, it is also inappropriate.  

Full Inclusion and/or Mainstream

“Under the inclusion model, students with special needs spend most or all of their time with non-special needs students. Inclusion rejects the use of special schools or classrooms to separate students with disabilities from students without disabilities. Schools with inclusive classrooms do not believe in separate classrooms. They do not have their own separate world so they have to learn how to operate with students without special help.” (wikipedia).

Grandma taught prior to the enactment of PL-94-142 The Education for All Handicapped Children Act. And back then, the most severely handicapped children did not go to school.  However, she would have had students with learning disabilities in her classroom.  She used to talk of students who were “slow learners but hard workers that school just was not their strong point” and students who “just could not sit still no matter what.” Although she may have never had to attend an IEP meeting, she would have had to include those students in the everyday classroom making accommodations for their learning.  

I have never taught without full inclusion or mainstreaming.  When I started teaching in 1995 in my first school district, my district went to full inclusion in the classroom.  I have always had multi-leveled classrooms with students with IEPs.  In my virtual classroom, I have a higher percentage of SPED students than ever had in my brick and mortar classrooms.  I participate in IEP meetings several times a month and have daily contact with the SPED teacher.  Grandma would not have had that support; however, she would have been the one responsible for making sure that her students would have the skills they needed to be successful when they left school.

Collaborative Learning

According to Cornell University, “Collaborative learning is based on the view that knowledge is a social construct. . . Collaborative learning can occur peer-to-peer or in larger groups. Peer learning, or peer instruction, is a type of collaborative learning that involves students working in pairs or small groups to discuss concepts, or find solutions to problems. This often occurs in a class session after students are introduced to course material through readings or videos before class, and/or through instructor lectures” (2017)

In a one-room schoolhouse, Grandma would have had to use collaborative learning.  She would talk on how she would get several students started on a lesson, then they would work together quietly while she got the next group started.  She would also talk about how she paired older students with younger students, especially if both students needed to work on similar skills.  It seems to me that one room schoolhouses were the original collaborative learning classrooms.  

In the virtual platform, collaborative learning is organized a bit differently. We group students together and put them together in their own “rooms.”  The students still have to work together, discuss the project or problem, and develop a project together.  

The big difference between Grandma’s One Room School House and Virtual Education?

Tools and support -  tools are the big difference between what Grandma did and what I do.  I have a computer, internet, Excel to track data,, Google, more tools than what I know what to do with. Grandma didn’t have Google to rely on. She had textbooks and her own knowledge and wits. I have more specialists - the SPED teacher, the tech teacher, the data analysis lady.  Grandma had herself, her institution, her grade book and her students' parental support.  

So really - not much has changed in the way of education.  We have different terms, but good teaching is just that - good teaching doing what is best for students so that they are ready for their real world when they graduate.

My classroom

Special Thanks to the Prophetown, IL Historical Society for the pictures of my grandmother.  

“Collaborative Learning: Group Work.” CTI - Collaborative Learning,

www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/engaging-students/collaborative-learning.html.

“Inclusion (Education).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Oct. 2017,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusion_(education).

Tomlinson, Carol (2001). How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Differentiated

Instructions provides access for all students to the general education curriculum. The

method of assessment may look different for each child, however the skill or concepts

taught is the same. Classrooms (2 ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and

Curriculum Development. ISBN 0871205122.