5 Benefits of Looping Grade Levels
Are you curious about what it’s like to loop grade levels? Or maybe you have recently been told you have the opportunity to loop with your class? I have been looping for the past 10 years and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! My first year teaching was in kindergarten and the principal at the time decided that the entire school would loop with their classes at the end of the year. Kindergarten teachers looped up with their classes to first grade, second grade looped up to third, and fourth grade looped up to fifth. From that first year teaching I have looped K-1 ever since! Essentially, looping is starting with your cohort of students in one grade and staying with them for the following grade so you have your class for two years. If you’re thinking about proposing a looping model to your principal or if you’re curious about the idea, here are five benefits of looping grade levels.
Strong relationships: When you loop with your class you get to be with those same students and their families for two whole years. Year one is spent building relationships and getting to know your students and their families. Often in kindergarten we do home visits at the beginning of the year which helps us to build even stronger relationships with those families.
Hitting the ground running on day one: The second year of a loop is the absolute best. You have spent all of year one getting to know your students and families, teaching explicit expectations, your students have practiced all of your routines, and you have plenty of assessment data on all of your students. When those students enter your classroom for the second year of a loop you are able to hit the ground running on day one. Students know where to hang their backpacks, how to get started on their morning tubs, where to put dull pencils, how to ask for help, etc. Because my students already know all of these important aspects of how our classroom run we are able to start differentiated small groups wayyyyyyy sooner than we are able to on year one.
Knowledge of two grade levels: Looping back and forth between two grade levels means that your knowledge of content, standards, and curriculum spans across more than just one grade level. This is so beneficial because let’s say you’re teaching kindergarten and have a really strong reader in your class. Because you teach first grade as part of your loop, you have the expertise and the materials to help support this thriving student. The opposite is also true. Say you’re teaching first grade as part of your loop and you have a struggling students who could use some more practice with kindergarten skills. As a looping teacher you have tools in your back pocket to support students at a lower grade level as well.
Payoff of teaching your expectations: I spend A LOT of time teaching expectations during my first year of a loop. I know that the more time I focus on explicitly teaching expectations and routines in year one, the better payoff I will have in year two. By the time we get to year two my students are experts at how our classroom runs and functions. There is no question about how we do things in our classroom and what is expected of students. I run a very tight ship and have many resources that I use to set up my classroom and build strong systems and routines that help my students seamlessly transition into the second year of our loop.
Year two is so, so worth it: This one goes back to benefit number two because it is just so good! Year two is amazing in a loop. Don’t get me wrong there can be some challenges in the second year. Students know each other really well (i.e. lots of chatting) or sometimes you have students with major behavior that can be hard to manage two years in a row. But overall, looping is amazing. Once you’ve worked your tail off to set your students up for success in year one you are ready to roll in year two. I absolutely love having all of my student’s assessment data from the first year of our loop to help me build small groups and differentiate instruction to best support my students from day one of our second year together.
Hopefully you are now convinced that looping grade levels has way more benefits than negatives. If you are thinking of looping I hope you give it a try! It is truly amazing!
-Ashley @ Little Learning Ladybugs
