Single Gender Classrooms Creating Buzz at Parkway South Middle

In a ground-breaking experiment at , Communication Arts teachers Maria Flick and Anne Houghland divided their 8th grade students into all-girl and all-boy classrooms for a two-week unit reading the classic The Outsiders.

Their goal was to increase confidence and boost scores in a classroom setting where reading and writing is generally known to be female dominant.

As Flick explained, the boys were not excelling in the Communications Arts element of the Missouri Assessment Program (known as MAP testing), which requires a certain standard of annual yearly progress as governed by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Without formal gender specific training, but using their professional development education combined with their in-classroom experience, both Flick and Houghland found the initial results to be very encouraging.

Flick's all-girl classrooms used more visual and auditory instruction. She said, "My teaching in general of the boys and girls is so much different than it was prior to this experiment. I find that I am more understanding of the boys need to act things out, and be more verbal as we begin a new concept, and I am mindful to make sure the girls are more vocal and push through the noise of the boys so their own voices are heard."

Without the distraction to the girls who are generally more stationary, the boys were given the opportunity to move around the class; even being provided stability balls instead of chairs if they wanted them.

The girls were given a voice in their classroom, encouraged to be more vocal and depend on their writing skills less. Conversely, Houghland’s boys were encouraged to develop their written expression. The eighth grade team noticed fewer absences, less distractions and no behavior incidents during their reading unit.

As a result of this unit, seventh grade Communications Arts teachers Shannon Gallaher and Ashlee Hoffman decided to also divide their 100 students into single gender classroom for a 6-week writing unit on Memoirs.

Gallaher, who led the female students in this unit, noticed they were more willing to talk and write about their feelings.

Students also seemed to enjoy the exercise.

"The single gender unit was a lot of fun. No one was afraid to speak out. Everyone came together as a class and worked so much harder. No one was judged either. It was great," said seventh grade student Andrea Gratop.

Fellow student Emily agreed, "The single gender unit was a good experiment for me. I believe that it was easier to learn and share my ideas."

On the flip side, Hoffman stressed 'reaction' over 'feeling' to engage the boys. While the boys wrote on common topics such as sports, Cub Scouts or skateboarding, they were offered stability or exercise balls to use during class, while the girls often chose to sit on the floor using rugs and pillows.

"The single gender unit really helped my learning. I saw my Comm. Arts grade really go up," student Connor Kolander explained.

Adam Uhlenbrock also saw the benefits. "I liked being with all boys. It was nice sitting on exercise balls. This project should be continued," he said.

Beth Speckman, PTO president and mother of a seventh grade boy who participated in the single-gender unit, agrees that it was "Hugely successful!"

“My son’s elementary school offered single-gender classrooms, but not for his grade. I knew my son would have really benefited from that opportunity and am thrilled that he was able to be a part of the 6 week Memoir unit. He thrived in that classroom setting and brought home 100 percent scores for the first time ever in Communication Arts. Having just boys in the class helped him gain confidence and reach potential that had not been discovered before the single-gender unit," Speckman said.

All the teachers who taught the single-gender units agree that they saw higher quality and higher thinking in the day-to-day assignments. Hoffman and Gallaher are also quick to note that this confidence has continued into their other core subjects, like math, science and history.

Assistant Principal Dr. Angela Frye, who observed many of the classrooms during these units, addsed "It has been a lot of fun for the teachers to try this (single-gender) teaching. It's fun to see the excitement of the kids and to observe the different techniques being used in the classroom."

However, the excitement and learning opportunities did not stop with the students.

"If the students learned half as much as I did as a teacher then this was a great success!" Flick added.