Combo Class (Kindergarten/1st Grade)

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Irvinemommy31

New member
My son is in 1st grade and just got placed into a kinder/1st grade combo class...

I don't know how I feel about this since this is all new to me.  Does anyone have any experience with a combo class that can share their experience with me?

Any feedback would be helpful!

Thanks!
 
Irvinemommy31 said:
My son is in 1st grade and just got placed into a kinder/1st grade combo class...

I don't know how I feel about this since this is all new to me.  Does anyone have any experience with a combo class that can share their experience with me?

Any feedback would be helpful!

Thanks!
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I have never heard of a K/1 combo class.  Is it in IUSD?  What are your concerns?
 
Yes, it's IUSD.

My concern is during the 1st part of the day, what are they learning?  Are both Kinders and 1st Graders learning the same thing?  How will my child benefit from being in a class with Kindergarten kids? 

I understand the upside is that after the kinders go home at 11:30, the first graders have the teacher to themselves which is a smaller teacher to student ratio.

I just hope that this isn't holding my son back academically or socially.

 
Irvinemommy31 said:
Yes, it's IUSD.

My concern is during the 1st part of the day, what are they learning?  Are both Kinders and 1st Graders learning the same thing?  How will my child benefit from being in a class with Kindergarten kids? 

I understand the upside is that after the kinders go home at 11:30, the first graders have the teacher to themselves which is a smaller teacher to student ratio.

I just hope that this isn't holding my son back academically or socially.
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Generally a combo class combining the "higher achieving" students of the lower grade with the "lowering achieving" students of the higher grade.  Generally, the teachers split time between the two groups and teach different things...however sometimes they have unified teaching.

I don't think it means a whole lot for your kid.  There may be something that he needs to work on and boys usually develop slower than girls.  On the bright side, combo teachers are usually the best as it takes a lot of planning and knowledge to teach two grades at once.
http://www.iusd.org/ab/documents/OCFamilyArticle2008ComboClasses.pdf
 
There are pros and cons to combo classes.

The pros are that the younger ones learn from the older ones, and the older ones learn how to be leaders and how to help the younger ones.

Some parents are concerned that the older ones may be "held back" because there are younger students in the class, but that is a matter of curriculum and the teacher properly managing the work and education.

At K-1, the overlap isn't that bad so I wouldn't be too worried about it... even at 1-3. 4-6 however... may be some maturity issues.
 
Irvinemommy31 said:
My son is in 1st grade and just got placed into a kinder/1st grade combo class...

I don't know how I feel about this since this is all new to me.  Does anyone have any experience with a combo class that can share their experience with me?

Any feedback would be helpful!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

my child was in kinder/1st grade combo class in IUSD school this past year. child was kinder.  the combo class worked out great.  the kinders worked on kinder stuff and first grade worked on first grade stuff.  this confirmed during open house night.  the kinders had their own projects and materials and the you can see the first graders worked on materials that were the same as the non-combo first grade classes. 

it takes a lot of coordination on the part of the teacher (hence they usually picked the most experienced and most organized teacher to teach combo classes) and the class heavily utilizes teacher assistant(s). luckily, we had a lot of great parent volunteers as well.

my child's class was first grade heavy (approximately 75% of the class).  they were very segregated from the kinders.  they had diff recess schedule.  according to the parents of the first graders, the best part of the kinder/1st grade combo class was that after the kinders were dismissed at 11:30 am, the first graders had more individual attention from the teacher since the class size was about 18-19 as opposed to almost 30 in a full first grade class.

i know when we class placements were announced, both kinder and 1st grade parents had a lot of questions.  the principal of our school sent out a very detailed email explaining that she hand picked each of the kids in the kinder/1st grade combo and for both grades, she picked students who were more independent and had less behavioral issues as the students often had to work independently given the nature of a combo class. 

the principal as well as the combo class teacher held a meeting for the parents of the first graders to address their concerns.  i would say that all in in all, it was a positive experience for both the kinders and first graders. 

if you have further hesitation about it, it wouldn't hurt to set up a meeting with the teacher and/or principal to address your concerns.

 
this is the email we received from our principal when class placements came out:

Why was your child placed in kinder/1st grade combo class?

Experience has taught me that when parents discover their child has been assigned to a combination class, they usually have two questions: What is a combination class? Why was my child chosen to be in a combination class?  The term ?combination class? refers to students of more than one grade level assigned to the same class and teacher.  In California, combination classes have been with us for a long time.

Combination classes exist due to uneven distribution of students at a particular grade level.  As you are aware, we have a maximum class size of thirty-three in kindergarten and thirty-two students in grades one through three.  Unfortunately, students do not enroll in even groups of thirty-three or thirty-two.  Thus, we frequently must combine grade levels in a classroom in order to hold class size to these numbers.  We recognize that teaching two grade levels with separate curriculums places greater demands on the teacher and students.  It is because of these additional demands, we attempt to assign combination classes to well organized, experienced teachers.  Combination classes require additional cooperation from students, as well. At XXX School, we place students in combination classes based on the following criteria:



    Student is a strong academically
    Student has self-discipline and can work independently
    Student demonstrates satisfactory citizenship



Please be aware that the children at both grade levels are quite capable.  Each child will have the same academic core standards and curriculum as their peers in other classrooms.  As a result of the criteria used to place students, it is expected that combination classes at XXX School perform better on standardized tests than single grade classes at their grade level.  There will be no educational disadvantage as a result of your child?s assignment to this classroom. 
 
Thank you for the feedback!

And to Kalbi- my son is well behaved and works well independently and I guess I just have to give it a shot.  It is a good chance for him to become a leader to the younger kids especially because he is so young as a 1st grader... he won't be the little guy anymore.

I guess I was a little bummed because when class assignments came out, he was placed in a class with his friends... then today (1st day of school for year round), we showed up to the class he was assigned to and they said he wasn't in there (there were about 6 other kids in the same situation) which bummed everyone out because we could have prepared ourselves better for a K/1 class and not tell our son he was in a class with his friends when he really wasn't... There was some "computer" error.

Had we received that email that you received.. it would have put us at ease but we didn't find out until this morning (1st day of school).

 
Yup, year round school...

Nothing like starting school in the middle of summer... let alone... today is his birthday :)

He is a young 1st grader so he is probably closer in age to the kinders.  I think I am just overthinking it but I suppose they would never put a kid academically behind his/her grade level so I should trust the schools judgement.
 
Irvinemommy31 said:
Yup, year round school...

Nothing like starting school in the middle of summer... let alone... today is his birthday :)

He is a young 1st grader so he is probably closer in age to the kinders.  I think I am just overthinking it but I suppose they would never put a kid academically behind his/her grade level so I should trust the schools judgement.
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Happy Birthday Irvinemommy31! Trust me, the first graders in my child's combo class were far from being behind his/her grade level.  From what I can tell, they were all academically advanced and great independent learners. I would take it as a compliment that your son was chosen for the combo class.
 
I graduated HS when I was 17.  I would have preferred it if I graduated at 18 or 19.  The older I got, the more mature I became and concepts became clearer.  Being older/bigger would have helped for varsity football as well.
 
kalbi said:
Irvinemommy31 said:
Yup, year round school...

Nothing like starting school in the middle of summer... let alone... today is his birthday :)

He is a young 1st grader so he is probably closer in age to the kinders.  I think I am just overthinking it but I suppose they would never put a kid academically behind his/her grade level so I should trust the schools judgement.
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Happy Birthday Irvinemommy31! Trust me, the first graders in my child's combo class were far from being behind his/her grade level.  From what I can tell, they were all academically advanced and great independent learners. I would take it as a compliment that your son was chosen for the combo class.
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I will stand corrected!
 
Friends of ours were in your situation a couple of years ago.  Their 1st grader was in a K/1 at Woodbury.  They LOVED it.  They have said that it was their child's best school year experience. 

BTW-  their 1st grader was on the "advanced" end of the spectrum and they found that the smaller class size  (they had 8 first graders in their class) plus the full attention they received from the teacher after the Kinders went left for the day allowed the 1st graders to move at a more rapid rate than the other first grade classes. 
 
Thank you so much for all the feedback.  I feel confident now that my son will have a great experience.  All the feedback has been super positive so this is fantastic news.

You can imagine a bunch of parents freaking out this morning when they thought they were in one class but were sent to a k/1 class without being prepared... the kids were equally as confused being shuffled around not knowing where they were supposed to be.

Thanks again all! 
 
Generally, COMBO classes works fine upto 2nd grade. It is not good from 3/4 or 4/5 as higher grade kids lower grade stufff. It is nothing but repeating the course again.
Say, they club Advanced kids of 3 grade and lower achiving kids of 4th grade, 4th graders are going to learn 3rd grade suff again most of the time.
So the 4th grade kids standards in combo classes would be advanced 3rd grade standard.
 
I don't know why my experience is so different from the majority opinions here.  And as far as I know, many parents from my kids' school don't like combo class.  Is this something unique about Irvine too?

When my daughter was in 1st grade, she was placed into a 1st/2nd grade combo and she was 1 out of the 6 first graders.
Because of the smaller group, I personally think the 1st graders didn't get as much attention as the 2nd graders.
I did not feel happy by justifying that my daughter was so advanced so she got picked into this combo.

For me combo class is only a convenient arrangement when the school cannot find enough students to form a full class since the class size is much bigger now. I would do everything to avoid a combo class if I can.
 
meatball said:
For me combo class is only a convenient arrangement when the school cannot find enough students to form a full class since the class size is much bigger now. I would do everything to avoid a combo class if I can.
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That is also what I've "heard".
 
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