For 1st grade teachers, May is often the cruelest month, says Bob Johnson of the National Alliance of Multi-Age Educators. That's because May is when they must make a high-stakes decision: Do students read well enough to move on to 2nd grade, or should some be kept back for another year? A child may be only a few months of instruction shy of becoming a capable reader, but schools often force students to repeat the entire grade.
This common dilemma highlights one of the advantages of "looping," Johnson explained. With looping, the teacher has the same group of students for at least two years; then he or she "loops back" to teach a new class. For example, a teacher may teach a class of children in 1st grade, teach the same group of students the next year in 2nd grade, and then pick up a new set of 1st graders the following year. In this situation, the teacher may know that some students are not quite able readers at the end of the 1st grade. But he or she can work with students on their reading during 2nd grade until each student is performing satisfactorily.
The biggest advantage of looping is that it builds relationships, Johnson said. Students get to know their teacher very well, and "parent-teacher relationships flourish in this kind of setting." Teachers also like looping because they believe that by the second year with a group of students, they spend more time teaching and less time on record keeping and familiarizing students with classroom rules and procedures.