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| ability grouping unequal? hell yes http://forum.gayleturner.net/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1926 |
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| Author: | susan meadows [ Sun Sep 26, 2004 5:28 pm ] |
| Post subject: | ability grouping unequal? hell yes |
We as educators should teach a class regardless of the students ability. I feel like it is my responsibility to create lesson plans that touch every ability level. I know this is asking a lot, but who said teaching was easy? I mean, seeing that the Synthesis of Research/ Is Abiltiy Grouping Equitable article states that grouping does not produce higher achievement overall, why continue such practices? I see similarities in the low-ability grouped students and in the students who attended the "working class" schools that were defined in the Hidden Curriculum article. In both instances, you have the same lower social class students recieving a curriculum that is constructed just to get these kids by. I hesitate to generalize about the low social class, but as our previous readings have pointed out, it matters what social class you fall into |
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| Author: | Ashley Huskins [ Sun Sep 26, 2004 8:07 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Plain and simple...grouping is stupid. Everything proves that I'm right with a few skeptical opinions coming from the other side. Nobody gains from grouping, everyone loses from it, but yet we still insist on it. How come something with such an obvious solution is still such a big problem? |
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| Author: | Telena Snyder [ Sun Sep 26, 2004 10:48 pm ] |
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i completely agree with Ashley. Grouping makes no sense at all. If there are studies that prove that there really isnt any change in high track kids wether they are grouped or ungrouped and low track kids do worse in gouped and better in ungrouped why do we have grouping? It makes no sense in my mind at all. I see it as just another social barrier that seperates the "haves" from the "have nots" |
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| Author: | Mark Pendergrass [ Mon Sep 27, 2004 2:20 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I totaly agree that grouping is not beneficial for students, but im sure that the reason it persists is that parents of upper class students think that their kids deserve more somehow, they are not interested in the progress of the group. They just want their kids to have the best, its pretty shortsided, but i think its a pretty natural feeling for a parent to have. |
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| Author: | Kate Padgett [ Mon Sep 27, 2004 3:02 pm ] |
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Mark is right - - there is a reason that ability grouping stays with us no matter how many of us shout about it being so unaffective. Parents are a huge part I'm sure... but don't you think that teachers are a part of its continued legacy as well... how much easier is it to teach your curriculum if your students are on the same level? you can move your advanced students quicker to the levels that they want to be at by the time they graduate. You can also supposively "challenge" the lower level students at the stage that they are at. I completely agree that ability grouping should be reassessed if not just done away with completely - - - but I can definitely see why it still hangs on. Not a good situation. |
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| Author: | Leslie Woody [ Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:07 pm ] |
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Most teachers you ask about grouping say it is bad, but why are they the same teachers that want to be the teacher of the AG class? I think that grouping is bad, but I think schools should come up with a way that the grouping isn't so obvious. I think lots of times kids don't like other kids, simply because they are in the smart class or in the stupid class. This idea of grouping just reinforces the smart kid, dumb kid idea. In middle school I was put in the AG class, and this class remained the same for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. The other classes didn't like our class because of it, but it wasn't our fault. I now can see why they didn't like us; we had better teachers, more opportunities, and generally speaking, better treatment. I don't think that this grouping thing is going to change anytime soon; so I think that we as future teachers need to make the best of it and treat all of our classes the same. If anything, we need to do what Dr. Turner was talking about and use acceleration with the top group. |
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| Author: | Amy Middleton [ Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:45 pm ] |
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I have heard the saying "A team is only as fast as its slowest member". If we look at the class as a team, where students support each other and help each other so they can all rech the same goal, grouping and tracking would not be needed. You could push the class to learn its best, as a whole, and not just push the "smart kids" and let the "dumb kids" just do the minimum to get by. |
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