Wednesday, March 11, 2009 By Ani Shaboyan [ArticleImageHyperLink] Advertising Calculus AB and BC at once? (September 28, 2006) -- As junior Tigran Minasyan took a seat in his first period cinematography class, he noticed some students had previous knowledge of the subject. "I realized the class was not only composed of cinematography 1-2 but 3-4 students as well," Minasyan said.   Split classes have become more common in Clark Magnet classrooms; they have taken over the subjects of cinematography, calculus and Spanish. Most students seem indifferent about it, while some teachers are thrilled about the idea. However, if not for the school’s use of split classes, courses without a substantial number of students would not be offered. Counselors Linda Doll and Karen Carlson, along with Principal Doug Dall, had to come up with a solution to the problem: a lack of student interest had made several classes too small to merit a separate class. According to Carlson, eliminating the class wouldn’t be fair to those who didn’t have transportation to nearby community colleges. For example, eight people had signed up for Spanish 7-8 and 13 had signed up for Spanish 9-10. Spanish teacher Julie Ann Arenas-Melville was one of the many teachers who took on the responsibility of split classes. She said that this decision benefi ted the students and classroom environment. Carlson said that Spanish was one of the subjects that was hard to decide—whether to eliminate the individual classes or create a split class. The concept of split classes is not new, however; Fred Blattner’s computer programming class that combines 1- 2 students with AP has occurred for approximately four years. Programming students learn how to write programs in Java and use various programming tools. Blattner said that he doesn’t mind having split classes. " When students cooperate it doesn’t matter what I teach, " he said. Senior Nada Hashem remains unbothered by her split calculus class, which is also taught by Blattner." I’m indifferent about it and this doesn’t really have an affect on me," Hashem said. Most of the course content is similar and they spend more time on any uncommon content. Second year cinematography teacher Matt Stroup teaches a split class of beginning and returning cinematography students. The first weeks of school for the cinematography 1-2 students are spent on terms and getting acquainted with the equipment, while the 3-4 students have "task-oriented" projects where they get to go outside of class and film. Veteran students help the new class members with their projects. Two weeks into school, Stroup was unsure about how he was going to regulate his full house. "I felt I was put in the frying pan," Stroup said. Nowadays, how ever, he said he is more comfortable with the split curriculum. Stroup usually assigns similar projects in order to get the ball rolling for cinematography 1-2 students who are just beginning their journey into film. According to Carlson, teachers like Stroup, Melville and Blattner have to work twice as hard to plan lessons for two sets of students, hoping that the "hidden benefits" compensate for the teachers’ hard work.

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