Dealing with diverse students-
It can be quite challenging for teachers to dealing with diverse students in the same class who are all at very different levels of intellect. In our language arts class the other day someone mentioned an approach that they observed a teacher use in her classroom. The teacher had divided the students into several distinct groups, each of them consisting of students with similar abilities. She had these groups sitting at separate tables and would get them to work on the same activities as one another. Where as the other tables all focuses on the activity designed specially for their group.
We talked about how this could be a good approach to use when giving spelling tests or working on other activities where children who were below-grade level and others that were gifted learners needed to be working on different modified activities to suit their particular needs and be appropriate for their particular level of learning. Then our professor made a great point. She said that students are pretty cleaver and will start to notice and pick up on which groups are the smarter and below-grade level groups and the children who belong to each of them. This can lead to discrimination and lowered self-esteem. Students who know they are in the “below-grade level” group will most likely start to think that they are not good enough and this could ruin their education experience and lead to decreased motivation and overall decreased student potential.
It can sometimes be helpful to separate students into groups depending on their intellectual ability but as a teacher we need to make sure that if and when we use this strategy we are not harming our students or making them aware of what is going on. I think the best way to do this is to only use this strategy when appropriate, which is not all the time, and to give students the chance to work with all of their classmates because they can learn a lot from one another as well.
5 comments:
Yes, it is a challenging kind of decision to make.
I can remember when my teachers started to implement literacy circles for students of different abilities. However, I never remember thinking that those students reading the easier novels were not as intelligent. The teacher planned different activities for them which helped highlight their strengths. (Worked from a strengths-based philosophy.)
My mother is teaching grade one and two and she and I have been talking about why a similar model has not be introduced in the maths/numeracy, for example. She told me that some teachers have already caught on to this and started to do it. Note: Different children end up in the "smart" group in each block of time.
We also discussed problem-based learning, which doesn't focus on moving children along a particular spectrum, but helps students learn to interact with people of varying abilities, interests, and backgrounds.
I agree that choosing a particular teaching format to suit the lesson and students is absolutely necessary. However, I still recognnize that more democratic learning environments, such as Writer's Workshop and Galileo actually require more planning, organization, and social responsibility planning.
What do you think?
I forgot to mention that a few special education teachers have started to work with groups of students, not all of whom have a learning disability. I wonder what the philosophy behind this is. Is it just to prevent children from feeling bad about themselves as learners (operant conditioning)? Or is it to include more opportunities for peer-modeling? Or is there a humanistic or cognitive processing reason?
In response the Sheyla's and Alison's comments about teaching students with varying learning abilities and needs, I feel that it is important to accommodate children according to their ability level but also challenge them so that they are able to achieve a higher order of thinking and learning. I think by modifying activities and having separate groups for children according to their learning level is a great way to accommodate children so that they are able to feel comfortable and learn at their level. I think it is important to do this to an extent. One way to challenge these students or to encourage a higher level of thinking/learning is to put them into groups with those students who are at or above the grade level they are currently in. This strategy of challenging them will expose them to those ideas that will make them think that much harder. It is important for students to not only feel comfortable, but to also know that they are supposed to be challenged.
I agree that grouping students according to level can be a great way to challenge everyone, but as was already stated, it can lead to some students feeling bad that they are not in the "smart group". I remember in grade 6 we teamed up with the class across the hall for math, and at the beginning of the year we had to take an assessment test that decided which math class we went into. They were even called the advanced group etc. I remember being incredibly nervous to take the test because I wanted to be in the advanced class just because they were the "smart" ones. It turned out I was in the middle class, and I always felt bad about that.
I think it is very important to only use this type of strategy part of the time, and have the groups for more than one subject so that the students have a chance to perhaps be in that "smart" group in a subject that they are good at just in case they have figured out what is going on. Kids need to realize that everyone has strengths AND areas they need to work harder at to succeed and that is ok.
I agree with Kristen's comments on providing students with opportunities to demonstrate their strengths in various subject areas. I particularly don't like the idea of a labelled "smart group" and I think to avoid any negative self-fulfilling prophecies we need to give students these opportunities. I think this way promotes a higher sense of equality.
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