Resources

Multi-grade schools have instructors teaching students from several different grades together in the same classroom. For years these school have been considered to be an unusual or temporary project. Nevertheless, today they are recognised for their advantages over regular schools because the teachers are aware of and deal competently with the diversity of students in their charge. Both student and teacher capacities are developed in collaborative fashion.

Notebook 1. The multi-grade education situation

This self-teaching notebook offers teachers, and those studying to be teachers, information about the reality of rural schools and their experiences in developing multi-grade methodologies. With the information provided in this publication, you will be able to analyse your experiences in multi-grade bilingual education and to systematise the work you have done in the classroom plus the contributions made by parents to the development of the school curriculum.

Notebook 2. Tips for creating annual and weekly plans for the multi-grade classroom

This notebook provides support to primary school teachers who wish to innovate their teaching practices. It gives us some tips for making up our yearly and weekly work plans, which then help us to improve the quality and level of organisation of our work, as well as obtaining more active participation from students and their parents. Teachers will be able to create flexible but efficient yearly and weekly syllabi that include activities to help children learn at their respective levels of development. The notebook presents the experiences of other bilingual multi-grade teachers for you to reflect on and to help you to identify difficulties and achievements and to propose changes to your current situation.

Notebook 3. Challenges to working with students and the community

Aimed at teachers, this notebook seeks to share experiences about working actively with the community in order to improve school-community relationships. In this way, concrete experiences are brought to light regarding how to work with children of different ages and grades. In addition, it gives us some ideas on how the community, children and their teachers can participate and work effectively together.

Notebook 4. Is it possible to work with autonomy and mutual respect?

This document is dedicated to teachers. It seeks to expand on the different experiences covered so far and to find ways to apply them in the multi-grade classroom. It also seeks to make changes to current teaching practices, and provide for ongoing training in intercultural education, all the while respecting the needs of Bolivia’s children.