I have 17 students in my 4th period class. There are 8 boys and 9 girls. Of these students, 14 show up regularly to class. One of my students rarely ever shows up. In my opinion, 7-8 are higher achieving and there are about 3 low acheiving students. The rest are average,
Differentiating between the different levels can be challenging. For example, last week we were working a matrix problem as a whole class. Each student had to take a turn at the board working out a step in the solution. My high achieving students were working ahead and would stay atleast 4 steps ahead of the rest of us. My low achieving students "had no idea what we were doing" (although we had been doing this for quite some time). My dilemma was dealing with those that were behind while also trying to work with the "fast ones."
Usually, I will use grouping to differentiate. The high achievers usually stick together and work fast and go farther. The low achievers usually work together. This works pretty well. The high achievers usually require no attention. They only need to verify their answers. That gives me the opportunity to work specifically with the ones that are behind.
That's great that your ability grouping works so well in the classroom! I'd be concerned that the low achieving kids if, all put in one big group, wouldn't know what to do and wouldn't ever complete the work. Is that not an issue?
ReplyDeleteThat is a problem also in my class. What I usually do is allow the low achieving students to ask for help from a high achieving students.
ReplyDeleteI worry about my low achievers getting any work done because, like your low achievers, they claim they have no idea what they are doing. Quite a few of my low achievers are also my misbehavers, so I do not like to groups them up together.
ReplyDeleteI have a few low achievers that really just need a small push from a high achiever and they can figure out what they are doing. I would be afraid to group my low achievers together because I don't know if they would get anything done or be able to figure out problems.
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