In our large country there are more than 155,000 settlements, while many of them are so small that they do not have their own educational institutions, others have schools, but the number of students is negligible. How to organize the educational process in this situation? As part of this article, we will talk about ungraded schools. Consider the principle of organizing the training and education of children of different age categories, track the specifics of simultaneous work with children during class.
What is a small school?
With a small number of students, the formation of classes is not possible. Children have to receive primary and even secondary education in a low-grade school. In rural schools, there are 2-3 students per parallel. In this case, it is necessary to unite students of different classes and conduct joint classes. Let us consider in more detail the features of the organization of a small school.
Currently, there are several tens of thousands of ungraded schools in the country. What are the characteristics of these schools? In the USSR, the concept of "low class" was very common, because in rural schools not enough students were recruited to form parallels. Elementary classes were combined into "sets" - classes that included students of different age categories. The peculiarity of a small school is not only in the presence of sets, but also in the complete absence of some classes. For example: one class includes 5 students, 2 of them are in the 1st grade, 1 - in the 2nd, 2 - in the 4th, while the 3rd grade is completely absent in the school in this school year.
If a rural small school is located in a particular locality, then children from nearby villages must also enter it for training if there are no educational institutions of this format in their place of residence.
With a small class, one teacher works. The educational process is organized in such a way that all students are included in the work. This is achieved by alternating the activities of students. A large role is given to independent work, for the activity of a small school is a necessity. While some students are engaged in independent tasks, the teacher works with the rest of the students who need to explain other material.
In recent years, one can observe the development trend of small schools. This is due to a decrease in the number of children, the birth rate has decreased. General secondary schools located in large settlements are also forced to transform into small schools due to a lack of students and teachers.
Elementary classes
Work with primary school children requires special attention from the teacher. The activity of a small school should be aimed at productive student learning. Primary school children may not immediately understand the new material, which will become an obstacle when doing independent work, and the teacher is forced to switch to explaining the material to another group of students. What to do in this situation?
A teacher in a small class should be able to quickly switch when problems arise. If the new material is explained to a group of children, then you can ask one of the students to read part of the paragraph. At this time, the teacher will have 1-2 minutes in order to approach the student who has a problem with independent work and to help him. Conditions in a small school are not the most favorable for both students and the teacher, but, over time, the team adapts to such factors.
In the primary grades, the teacher has the opportunity to work individually with each student, so the solution to most problems is much faster than in the classic version of the class with a large number of students.
Primary school students find it very difficult to concentrate on doing independent work, so the teacher’s work with other students should be moderate, without raising their voices and screaming.
Lesson planning
A lesson in a small school should be organized in such a way that each student is involved in the educational process. The parallel work of the teacher with the students goes on throughout the lesson. A large role is given to the independent work of students.
Currently, there are no special manuals and programs that could provide a basis for organizing the learning process in a small school, so educators should independently develop planning for joint classes. The plan should include the steps of combining independent work and explaining new material. The more competent the plan is made, the more productive the learning process will be.
Planning should include the following categories of student work:
- verification of knowledge on the material passed;
- explanation of new material;
- consolidation of new material in the process of independent work.
Planning can include student collaboration. The fact is that in the elementary grades some topics are repeated, consolidation takes place at different levels of difficulty. You can organize a lesson in which all students will be included. New material for some children will be a repeat for others.
For example: a math lesson in a small school can take place together. At the same time, some children will get acquainted with the numbers and master the score, others will study actions, and others will solve problems.
General characteristics of a rural child
A child who grew up in a village or village is different from a city child. He is adapted to life, work and is much more responsible. Such children grow up faster, as they are attracted to work from an early age.
As for the level of education, then everything is not as good as in the city. According to statistics, first-graders come to a rural school with a fairly low level of knowledge. Many of them do not know letters and numbers, while the vast majority of urban first-graders already read and count. In the city there is an opportunity to send a child to a weekend school, in which the kid will be prepared for school. Parents tend to devote more time and attention to this issue. Some schools organize entrance exams that a child must pass to enroll in first grade, so preparation must be serious.
Any child, even those with minor developmental disabilities, will be taken to the village school. And it turns out that a universal teacher sometimes has to work with such children, who would be placed in a specialized educational institution or correctional class in the conditions of urban life.
Organization of the educational process
At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher should familiarize students with the work plan. Each group of students in one class receives a task, while the teacher explains the new material to other students.
A small amount of time is allocated for testing knowledge; the teacher should spend the bulk of the lesson studying and consolidating new material. If the lesson is conducted with students of three classes, then the teacher should distribute the time into 3 parts, paying attention to each group of students. It turns out that most of the lesson for students should be occupied with independent work.
If you plan a lesson in the form of an excursion, then you will have to conduct it with all the students. Each group of children of the same class will have different goals for this lesson. Let us give an example: some children will collect samples for herbarium, others will observe the landscape for writing an essay, others will conduct experiments, etc. Each lesson involves collaboration, but the forms of interaction may vary.
If it is planned to issue volumetric material to one student, then for others it is necessary to choose a lesson that involves and allows independent tasks. For example: to one group of students, the teacher explains the rules for the placement of punctuation marks in complex sentences, while other students in the lesson of fine art paint pictures on the theme "How I spent the summer."
Due to the fact that in a small classroom there may not be strong students, which weaker students should reach for, the interaction of students can be unproductive. Indeed, a significant part of the knowledge children receive from each other, while the assimilation of the material is much faster.
Educational work
Educational work in a small school plays a very important role. Currently, there are a number of socio-economic factors that have a negative impact on the development and upbringing of a rural child. We list some of them:
- Multinational students. Parents of such children can have their own views on life, religion, and norms of behavior. In some cases, conflicts may arise on this basis.
- Financial situation. In most cases, rural families are below average income. This situation does not allow parents to fully provide the child or children with everything necessary for full education and development. A child’s nutrition can be inferior, which leads to vitamin deficiencies and diseases.
- Well-being of the family. In rural schools, children who grow up in a dysfunctional family are much more common. Parents in such families have a socially unstable position, the causes of which may be: alcoholism, immoral behavior, hooliganism, violation of the law.
Rural children are most often brought up by the street, which does not always positively affect the formation of personal qualities. For this and other reasons, the school should take the issue of educational work more seriously.
A small class allows you to conduct educational work more efficiently. The teacher has the opportunity to work with students individually. It is much easier for a teacher who has detailed information about the families of children (in small settlements everyone knows each other by sight) to build a plan for the educational work of a student.
In some cases, the teacher will have to assume the role of a psychologist and a correctional teacher, since there are no such specialists in the rural school, and never will be. Educational work should be carried out not only with the child, but also with his parents. The teacher-psychologist must find ways to resolve conflict situations that arise in a child in school or family. If the teacher sees that the parents cannot provide the child with a normal life and a favorable environment for development, in this case he is forced to respond - contact the authorities of social guardianship and guardianship.
Reporting at the end of the school year
At the end of the school year, each school sums up the results, which include not only student performance statistics, but also the results of educational, extracurricular activities. A small school report should include the following items:
- Analysis of the effectiveness of the educational process.
- Student performance analysis.
- Identification of class leaders and students with backlogs in school subjects.
- The results of work with parents.
- Analysis of the effectiveness of the tasks set for the school year.
- Analysis of the final certification of students of 9th and 11th grades.
- Report on activities and open lessons.
- Report on the participation of students in district, regional and national olympiads.
Final reporting should be based on planning, which was compiled at the beginning of the school year. The teacher should conduct a detailed analysis of all points. The conclusions reflect information on whether the goals were achieved and the tasks set for the school year were completed.
Graduation and last call
Despite the fact that 2 or 3 students can graduate, the celebration must be organized. You can connect other students and parents to a graduation in a low-grade school. Each of them can contribute to the organization of the holiday. The scenario of the last call in a low-grade school needs to be compiled based on the number of students and spectators.
Each child should have a role in the celebration. Primary school children should be instructed to learn poems that they will read out at the festival. The content should be approximately as follows:
Today is an extraordinary day:
The sun rose, washing with dew,
To the lesson for the last farewell
Graduation class is sent.
May Day on the line plays
A breeze whispers softly in the foliage
On the way to see my pets,
The school will give them the last bell.
Will the sea of guests worry
There will be many verses and flowers -
Oceans of stormy applause
We welcome graduates!
For the event, you need to choose an active and creative presenter. This role can be taken by one of the educators. If the school has active and responsible primary school children, you can assign this task to them.
Be sure to invite a photographer who can capture the most memorable moments of the holiday. Each child should have their graduation photographs that will remind him of a carefree school life.
Be sure to give the floor to educators. You can do this in the following form:
We begin the long-awaited holiday
And the word represent
To those whom we have been waiting for
Honored guests in our room.
It is necessary to give the floor to the students themselves. Surely, they will want to thank the teachers for their patience, understanding and guardianship. Words of gratitude should be prepared in advance by graduates. You can approach this issue creatively and prepare a metaphorical sketch.
At the conclusion of the holiday, a solemn presentation of matriculation certificates should be organized.
Benefits
If the educational and pedagogical processes are built correctly, then the ungraded class becomes very united and friendly, despite the age difference between the children. Older children help kids, answer their questions, suggest.
A school of 20-30 people is like a large family in which teachers play the role of parents. Relations between teachers and students are much closer and warmer when compared with the situation in a classical school.
The teacher can control each student by monitoring problems that arise in the learning process. It is possible to work with students individually. A personality-oriented educational process is being formed, which is capable of producing excellent results.
Teacher requirements
The learning process in a small school is built a little differently than in a classical secondary school. The distribution of subjects between teachers is absent. One teacher must conduct various disciplines, which significantly increases the load on him.
A teacher in a small school should carry out a wide range of works that are different in their orientation, since the school lacks not only subject teachers, but also a supply manager, librarian, psychologist, and correctional teacher. A universal teacher is a multidisciplinary specialist who must not only conduct different subjects, but also understand them well.
Sometimes it is difficult to find a person who agrees to such working conditions, because the teacher’s activities are not limited to school, he should prepare for classes at home, draw up planning and final reports, meet and talk with parents, check notebooks, etc.
The peculiarities of organizing a small school include a very poor material base. Sometimes a teacher has to independently produce school paraphernalia, which is necessary for conducting classes. It can be cards, posters, handouts.
The teacher must organize the learning process so that its productivity is high. If, for example, grades 1 and 3 are combined, then the teacher should pay more attention to first-graders, since they only learn to write, read and count, and children from the third class can be given individual tasks, children are old enough to work independently .
Reviews
In addition to the large number of negative aspects of teaching in a small class, there are also positive aspects. , -, . . , . .