Mixed Ability Groups
This is such a touchy subject, yet rarely-discussed so in my efforts to bring light to real classrooms, I am going to tread lightly and broach the subject of what is one of the hardest areas of teaching: reaching all kids.
The buzz word on this subject is differentiation. Rather than give you a technical definition of it, I will give you what I understand it to be. A teacher who is an expert at differentiation successfully reaches all students by providing varied lessons in the same lesson for kids at all different levels in the same room. For instance, I might have reading ability levels in my 8th grade history classroom ranging from a 2nd grade reading level to college. So kids would be reading different levels of texts on the same subject. I think differentiation is great, but it is so hard to do. As a teacher, it is easiest to go with one lesson, but as a parent, I certainly want my daughter to be given the most appropriate curriculum. Just last night we are reading a book that she is reading as her whole school, and she insisted she was not allowed to move ahead. I do not think she understands the directions correctly, so I exclaimed that it is OK to go ahead.
In high school, students can be tracked with advanced classes, college level courses, and remedial classes. It is far less commonplace in middle and elementary school unless the child is gifted or in a self-contained classroom, the highest to lowest extreme, respectively. In one of my classes this year, I have over 30 students; their reading levels range from a 4th grade reading level to gifted students. Often, I feel like I'm ineffective at reaching any of them.
In addition to the curriculum's inefficiency at being appropriate for many individuals, the variance in ways the kids are challenged leads to behavior problems. Students whose capabilities fall short of the lesson are off track because it is over their head; kids who are not challenged are bored and disruptive. Having 30 kids in the same classroom with these levels can often be difficult for teachers and for students.
There is an abundance of research suggesting that mixed ability grouping is beneficial for the most amount of kids, but there is also research that suggests keeping gifted children in regular curriculum is harmful to them. I suspect in this paradigm of getting the most amount of kids to reach bar, we are failing the middle-of-the-road and advanced students. I know the answer is to expect teachers to step up the plate, or the podium, with herculean efforts of differentiated instruction, but that can not be the standard solutions to the ails of public education becuase it leads to teacher burnout, but that it another post.
The buzz word on this subject is differentiation. Rather than give you a technical definition of it, I will give you what I understand it to be. A teacher who is an expert at differentiation successfully reaches all students by providing varied lessons in the same lesson for kids at all different levels in the same room. For instance, I might have reading ability levels in my 8th grade history classroom ranging from a 2nd grade reading level to college. So kids would be reading different levels of texts on the same subject. I think differentiation is great, but it is so hard to do. As a teacher, it is easiest to go with one lesson, but as a parent, I certainly want my daughter to be given the most appropriate curriculum. Just last night we are reading a book that she is reading as her whole school, and she insisted she was not allowed to move ahead. I do not think she understands the directions correctly, so I exclaimed that it is OK to go ahead.
In high school, students can be tracked with advanced classes, college level courses, and remedial classes. It is far less commonplace in middle and elementary school unless the child is gifted or in a self-contained classroom, the highest to lowest extreme, respectively. In one of my classes this year, I have over 30 students; their reading levels range from a 4th grade reading level to gifted students. Often, I feel like I'm ineffective at reaching any of them.
In addition to the curriculum's inefficiency at being appropriate for many individuals, the variance in ways the kids are challenged leads to behavior problems. Students whose capabilities fall short of the lesson are off track because it is over their head; kids who are not challenged are bored and disruptive. Having 30 kids in the same classroom with these levels can often be difficult for teachers and for students.
There is an abundance of research suggesting that mixed ability grouping is beneficial for the most amount of kids, but there is also research that suggests keeping gifted children in regular curriculum is harmful to them. I suspect in this paradigm of getting the most amount of kids to reach bar, we are failing the middle-of-the-road and advanced students. I know the answer is to expect teachers to step up the plate, or the podium, with herculean efforts of differentiated instruction, but that can not be the standard solutions to the ails of public education becuase it leads to teacher burnout, but that it another post.
In this politically correct world, this is indeed a touchy subject. I complained for all of my boys' years in elementary and middle school about the lack of ability grouping and its effect on the above-average students. I appreciate the argument that mixed groups may serve the whole better, but it would seem we could find some middle ground where less rigorous subjects could be taught in mixed skills groups while math, reading, and writing could be ability-grouped. When I was in elementary school, we were always ability grouped for these types of subjects at the very least, often with less than ideal group names like "red", "blue" and yellow". My mother was once told that the students didn't know which class was "smarter" and that they didn't want to enbarrass the lower performing students. . . as you have found out with Anna Cate, kids know far more than we give them credit for. I have always wondered why it is OK to tell a child he is not skilled enough to make an athletic team, but it is not OK to have peers know which students are skilled academically.
ReplyDeleteThis should not be laid at the door of teachers. It is both a societal issue (we want everyone to feel like a winner) and a leadership issue. Education experts follow fads as much as any others and the pendulum has been swung to the side of mainstreaming. I hope some serious consideration will be given to the reality that you point out . . . we are failing the best students.
Love your blogs!