Independent Together: Supporting the Multilevel Community

Learning Community for Learners

As a multilevel learner, you are responsible for your own learning and for making choices to improve it.

You are a role model and guide for your classmates.

Children in the classroom

How can you benefit from being a multilevel learner?

  • Real-life learning: Students always learn more about themselves when they interact with friends of all ages. You will participate in classroom groups that are similar to groups you might find in a workplace, in your community, or in your family. View Picture
  • Changing roles: Because your classroom "position" changes each year, you will learn valuable skills from other classmates, and you will be able to share those skills with others or teach them to others. Watch Video Clip (266 KB)
  • Setting your own pace: Students don't spend time on learning goals they have already achieved—instead, they move on! But if you have not reached some of your goals by the end of a school year, you will have time to achieve them next year.
  • Simple September: You will worry less about moving to a new classroom at the beginning of every school year. In a multilevel classroom, you will already know your classroom's routines and the expectations of your teacher.

What can you do to support the multilevel learning community?

  • Collaborate: Independent learners join the "learning team" with their teacher, with parents, and with other students. You will learn to work together with students your own age and with classmates younger or older than you. Remember, even in a group with multiple ages, each student contributes and participates.
  • Use reflection: Students who choose and use reflection strategies are responsible for their learning and are independent. You can help make the multilevel classroom successful. View Word Document
  • Become a self-assessor: Students who self-assess understand what quality work looks like and sounds like. Reflecting on what is powerful in your own work and in the work of your peers is important.

You are an important team player in the multilevel learning community.