Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

as • Sometimes he works with an entire "class,' i introducing a new topic or theory; he also \)rks with sub-groups and with individuals as 1 moves about the room from "class" to "class." J believes he is thus enabled to give more invidual attention, when and if such is needed, talented pupils as well as to slower learners un he would be apt to provide in a class taught conventional methods in the conventional onebject pattern. It is certain that he is able to eet more classes than he could, were each sub;t scheduled for a separate period. Mrs. Margaret Law, teacher of foreign lanlages at Franklin, two years ago picked up the pe-recording technique from her colleague in athematics. She has since been using it contently in her multiple class where Latin II, •ench I and French II "classes" meet with her the same room during the same period each ly. Some of the tapes her pupils use were cut by itive French or Spaniards. Other tapes she cuts rself to provide instructions that augment those the textbooks her pupils use or on the workleets she has developed to accompany textbooks id tapes. These tapes enable her pupils to audition the sson or the drill materials over and over again, lus freeing her from routine instructional duties lid giving her more time for individual and •oup instruction. Her pupils, moreover, cut tapes lemselves and play back their own recorded renunciations. Thus pupils and teacher can comare these efforts consistently and objectively. These two teachers, one of mathematics and ne of foreign languages, report that their pupils ;am as well, if not better, than pupils in classes rganized in conventional per-subject classes and lught by conventional methods. They say they squire more time initially for making lesson lans and auditioning tapes and cutting tapes of leir own. Both say that they prefer multipleass operations and that their pupils seem to be lore alert, possessed of more initiative and acuire better study habits than do pupils in conentional classes. Such outcomes appear to charcterize well-planned use of tapes and related learning materials in multiple classes in other schools participating in the Catskill Area Project in Small School Design. Tape recordings properly used free teachers of much routine drill duty, encourage pupils to reuse these learning materials as often as needed, help returned absentees make up missed lessons without drawing heavily on the teacher's time and, in foreign languages, tapes increase opportunity for pupils to learn proper pronunciations by repeated hearing of native-speaking voices. Moreover, some experimentation suggests that a teacher of foreign languages can guide the learning of pupils in foreign tongues not known to the teacher, where adequately developed and paced tape recordings with related learning materials are available. Costs of tapes and tape recording equipment are negligible when compared to pupil needs so met and teacher-time more effectively distributed and efficiently used. Teachers say that groups in multiple classes quickly adjust to this kind of learning situation and are not bothered by activities of other groups in the room or by the tape recordings in use. Headphones for each pupil, where tape recorders and other amplifying equipment are used, are not essential although these may be desirable. Costs per pupil for individual "listening stations," equipped with (1) headphones, (2) multiple "channels" for auditioning separate recordings, and (3) volume controls, are not large either. Donald Gould, teacher of industrial arts at the Andrew S. Draper Central School, Schenevus, has constructed 15 types of auditioning apparatus, any one of which can be assembled and installed by industrial arts pupils at costs for parts per individual listening station ranging from $3.65 to $7.90 per station. Such equipment designed by him and assembled and installed by his pupils has been in use in the business education class at Schenevus for the past year where multiple classes, taught by Mrs. Mary Scott, have proved to be effective and efficient. Mrs. Mary ScoH meets three 'classes' at the same time, helped by electronic listening posts installed by boys in vocational arts classes at the Andrew S. Draper Central High School, Schenevus, N. Y. Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — May, 1960 225