Journal Question of the Day!
15 years ago
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Do you agree?
I have a question and I was wondering if anyone agreed with me. Is it possible that students can be grouped together to help one another if the levels are far different from one another? I do believe students should be grouped together by level, higher with a lower, but I also feel that is not always the best choice. Higher students need to feel they are making progress at their own pace, and not taking forever to help another student. I believe higher levels should be with lower levels once the higher levels have done their part. Most of the time, these students finish assignments quickly and then sit until the bell rings. If they finish their work, they can do more for their fellow classmates by helping them complete tasks. If higher and lower are partnered together, they could use the same material to work, but have different forms of assessment work to submit for grading. I think having two students around the same level, who may need assistance, would not benefit one another because they would be sitting confused, going, "I don't know..what do you think?" If this is the case, those students will never get any work done. Am I wrong?
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Hi Katie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you to the extent that mixing ability levels that are far from one another can be a dangerous thing. If we put our lower-level students with our higher-level students, especially in reading, it can be detrimental to both parties. Therefore, I would recommend groupings of high-middle, middle-low, and middle-middle. If they are groups of four or more, I would recommend one higher-level, two middle-level, and one lower-level to balance-out abilities. I have actually used these settings in my field experience classrooms and they worked quite well. I believe students, especially lower-level students, do not feel as intimidated when they are paired with a middle-level student. I hope this somewhat helped to answer your question.