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7th grade, which was junior high 1st year at the time, we switched for everything.
Prior to then, we switched for art, music and PE always and sometimes for reading and math depending on your level K-6, and in grade 6 we also switched for social studies and science depending your level.
For clarity's sake, I went to a K-thru-8 school, not the more common elementary school and middle school.
Kindergarten was its own self-contained classroom for almost everything, with its own restroom and even building entrance. Only the cafeteria space and gym class was shared with other grade levels.
Grades 1 thru 4 had one main teacher in the same classroom for all subjects, except for specialty classes like art, computing, and gym, which had their own classrooms and teachers. Grades 1 and 2 had the same teacher, and grades 3 and 4 had the same teacher. At one point in 4th grade, the school did a "5th grade practice day", where our day was a simulation of what was to come next year: we switched classrooms, although each teacher did funny educational games for their subject, and one teacher gave candy. (see next paragraph)
In grades 5 thru 8, proper switching of classrooms began. We went to our homeroom teacher at the start of the day for our first class, then switched classrooms for different subjects, both regular and specialty; then we'd return to our homeroom teacher for the last 15 minutes of the day, mostly to debrief about the day's events and pick up any paper handouts we were supposed to get. (Unfortunately, the teacher sometimes gave us homework she forgot to give in the morning.) The switching happened "as a team", with all classes being with the same set of kids. We had a different homeroom teacher each year, although the subject teachers remained the same.
In high school, I went to each of my classes on my own. Different classes had different sets of kids; I didn't go from class to class "as a team". Lunch was on your own too; if your friends didn't have the same lunch period as you, you were SOL, since eating lunch by yourself was frowned upon. You had to either brave it, or make do with a Snickers bar and a Coke.
What grade level did switching classrooms for different subjects start for other people on here?
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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I was in an open classroom for 1st and 2nd (yay the 1970s!) so we moved between rooms. Then that school closed. In my new school, we moved around starting in 3rd grade (one teacher taught science, one taught math, one taught social studies. I think the homeroom teacher taught Language Arts). Did that through 6th grade and then on to Junior High where we switched. This was in PA.
My daughter switched classes starting in 3rd grade when we lived in VA. But in our new NC school, they didn't switch until 5th grade (and that was only started a few years ago).
In grade school we always had to go to another class room to watch films, we sat on the floor. Once in 3rd grade, some kid barfed down the furnace vent and for two days we had to share a different room with another class. Our room had a sickening odor for weeks.
In 5th grade I remember kids asking the teacher if we would be " grouping " next year. I didn't know what that meant until 6th grade when we switched to a different teacher and classroom after the noon recess. 7th grade is when we had 6 different teachers each day.
For me I think it was late in my third grade year. The school had a dedicated Music Room and Teacher and the same for an Art Room and Teacher. It was only once a week that started in the last grading period. This was probably to get us oriented to doing this in are grade 4 year. Grade 4 is the time kids begin to start seeing themselves less as a "me" and more as a part of "my group".
In the K thru 3 period kids seem to see the world revolving around them. By grade four they are breaking out of that and can better relate to seeing themselves as part of the larger picture. Teachers I know who teach these grades have told me that by age 4 most kids know about half of what they will know. By age 7 to 8 they will know three quarters of it. This is by second to third grade and why they believe K thru 3 is so important.
I can remember switching classrooms in the 4th grade -- one teacher taught social studies, while the other taught math.
But on a more official basis, switching classes became the norm starting in 7th grade, which at that time, like a poster above says, was the lower year of two years of junior high school.
The setup where I was in in Houston was K-5 was elementary, 6-8 was Jr. High (called Intermediate School in my part of Houston), and 9-12 was high school. Starting in 6th you didn't really have a main teacher, you had different teachers for every subject.
K-3 you had the same teacher except for PE (and music class once a week).
4-5th grade we had a little bit of a hybrid. You still had daily PE and once a week music class with the gym or music teachers. You had one main teacher who taught you the majority of the day, but the whole class would switch with two other 4th grade (or 5th grade if you were in 5th grade) teacher's classes for an hour each, and those teachers would teach the same subject to all three classes. If I remember correctly, 1 taught social studies/history, 1 taught English, and one taught math. Whatever subject your main teacher taught, she also taught to her own class, but your main teacher also taught you reading, science, as well as some health stuff.
You had gym in kindergarten? What do kindergarteners do for gym? We didn't have gym, nor a cafeteria. We brought our own lunches, and ate out on the playground.
9th grade was when we started switching classrooms.
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