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 Grouping in Action 
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This is the first week that I went to my internship at Mountain View Elementary School. The first thing that I noticed when I began observing on Monday was that the entire school was grouped across classrooms. I know this was a subject that we have previously talked about, but I wanted to note a few things that I observed so far.

First off, the school is a diverse school where nearly 80% of students are on Free/Reduced Lunc with about 250 students from k-5. There is a scheduled reading group time for 3-5 graders who are leveled off based on their reading level where special attention is paid on reading. Then students go back to their homerooms for the rest of the day.

To sum it up quickly...I am assigned to a 4th grade class where my teacher team teaches with another teacher, splitting up spelling and social studies (math and science for the other teacher). Between these two teachers, they have to large groups....the panthers (lower) and tarheels (ag and grade level). Within these groups there are at least two more groups depending on the subject.

Based on the first week of being in school these are the pros and cons of the grouping...

Pros: Students are on appropiate level...not at frustration level
Students are so used to grouping that its not viewed as negative
Students have the abilitiy to move up
Teachers are always making new or taking away groups if needed
Time seems to go by fast
Cons: Students are constantly moving and changing classrooms
Forgetful students come back and forth to classrooms
As soon as a lesson starts it seems they have to switch
Moving students down a level can effect self esteem

I feel that overall this school has created the grouping system to work well...I wanted to explain what I saw and see if anyone had any thoughts!! :)

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Ashley Lee Wise


Wed Oct 25, 2006 11:03 pm
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I am also at Mountain View with Ashley during the day and I noticed the same things that she did. I am with a 3rd grade classroom and they do the same exact thing of switching classes. My high readers are called the hawks and the lower readers are called the panthers. The teacher that Im working with teaches the reading/writing/spelling while the other 3rd grade teacher works on science/math.

I asked Ms. Winters the other day what she thought about the grouping according to level and she said that she thought it worked wonderful. They work on the same story with the same material, it just takes the panthers a little bit longer to understand and finish reading the story than it does the hawks. They do the same exact work, just require more help with it.

I agree with Ashley. I really do think that at this school, grouping does work very well. The panthers are not feeling uncomfortable because they have to read out-loud or because it takes them longer to finish their work. They work at their own pace, which does eliminate that frustration level. They are working with their peers who read/write/spell just like they do.

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Ashley Dawn Gentry


Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:53 am
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Yay! I'm so excited that you are both at Mountain View first of all! :D Like Ashley said we have talked about it, but I still wanted to say more. I went to Mountain View and did all of the grouping and switching classes. I feel like it helped my peers as well as me throughout the years, and that's why it's been hard for me to understand the opposing views to grouping. Before I came to college, I hadn't really heard a lot about grouping, and I know I never heard anything bad about it. I guess I have a bias opinion because it did work for me. However, I'm sure that I had peers that didn't like it and I never knew about it. I hope that both of you continue to have good experiences being around that kind of environment, and just remember that it does work for many students and classes if it is conducted properly.

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Jessica Beckworth


Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:09 pm
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I think what is missing in this thread is reflection on whether it is working for the kids who come to school from environments where school isn't valued very much, and for the children who are less successful in school. Do they stay less successful?

It worked for Jessica, and I'm glad of that. But what about the "panthers"? What happens to them in middle school? :cry:

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Gayle Turner


Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:47 pm
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I think that it is funny that you asked that because my teacher and I had just talked about what happens when they get to middle school! She said that she knows that most of the students who are in the lower group will be on the bus the comes from the alternative middle school. She said because these students will end up there because middle schools are not able to group and these students fall through the cracks in sense. She also stated that most of the students come from envirnments that are barely making it to survive.

This made me question if even if middle schools could group, would these low students end up at the alternative school? Or does this grouping in elementary school give the students who are on the border a chance to "move up a level" and be successful?

So with the push of levels and grouping I think that it might give a chance of successful for those lower groups, but I am not convinced that it will carry to middle school to avoid landing in the alternative school.

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Ashley Lee Wise


Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:03 pm
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