EDAT 6115
Reflection Blog #6
Chapter 9 – Grouping, Differentiation, and Technology
Description
One of the challenges of teaching a classroom of children is that they will not all learn the material at the same pace. In order to meet each child’s pace there must be differentiated learning. This can be done using grouping and technology. Different options as well as their effectiveness are explored in this chapter.
Analysis
Teaching a good lesson is not enough. In order to help students learn, there are other elements an educator must intentionally consider. These can be summed up with a QAIT model: 1) quality of instruction, 2) appropriate levels of instruction, 3) incentive, and 4) time.
Because each student comes from a unique background and has individual strengths and weaknesses, there is a need to accommodate those differences in order to support learning. Two common techniques used for differentiated learning include grouping and technology.
There are two main types of grouping strategies used for differentiation. Between-class ability grouping and within-class ability grouping. Between-class ability grouping is common in middle and high schools. This is where the entire class of is a heterogenous group of students who are essentially in the same ability level – high, middle, or low. This can be helpful for older students who may have high skills in some classes and struggle with others. However, the benefits are mostly limited to students in the high achieving groups, while the low-tracked students continue to struggle and often receive less quality instruction; unfortunately, many minority and low SES students are placed in these classes. Research does not support the practice of between-class ability grouping.
Within-class ability grouping is where the students are in a mixed whole class for most of the day but be pulled into ability groups for subjects such as reading or math. This practice has been proven to be beneficial and less stigmatizing for students.
Retention is a controversial policy of holding students back to repeat a grade level. Unfortunately, this has not been proven to be beneficial for students. Instead it is one of the strongest predictors of dropping out and disproportionately affects minority and low SES students.
Other techniques that can be helpful for differentiating instruction within a mixed-class are personalization, peer tutoring, and teacher tutoring.
Extra compensatory programs have mixed results and benefits for students. Early intervention programs such as Head Start and others that help students before they start school and in their early education years seem to be the most beneficial for helping them be ready to learn in school. Title 1 federal funds are given to help schools in areas with higher levels of poverty. These funds can help low-ability students especially if they are used “whole school” or by providing tutoring. After-school and summer school programs can also have different level of effectiveness depending on the types of instruction but are usually beneficial to the children who attend.
Technology provides many more types of supports and means of instruction and learning for both teachers and students. The usage of computers, internet, email, and white boards has given teachers many tools to use in order to communicate with parents and other teachers, create interactive and engaging lessons, and provide students with meaningful assignments and assessments. Students can benefit from personalization of computer-assisted instruction, engaging lessons, assignments, and practice opportunities, simulations, WebQuests, tutorials, and instructional games. The downside of technology is that certain programs and features can be distracting, not all students have access to devices and internet at home, and schools do not always have the resources for students to use technology on a frequent basis. Also, cyberbullying, cell phones, and safety concerns must be addressed within each class and the entire school.
Reflection
These ideas of grouping are very relevant both to the ideas of differentiated learning and also the achievement gap that disproportionately affects minority and low SES students. In my local school district, parents are eager to have their children tested for gifted classes in elementary school and attend honors/AP classes in high school. Why? It’s not just so that their child will receive more enrichment and higher-order thinking. It is because they want their child to have: 1) quality and engaging teachers and 2) not be grouped together with low-ability, minority or low SES peers. The first reason is a valid concern. The second reason is elitist and hurts all students – decreasing the diversity of advanced students and stigmatizing the struggling students.
1) Lack of quality and engaging students. I teach high school social studies which is mostly between-class-ability grouping. The coaches and novice teachers teach the lower level classes. The experienced, non-coaches (except for cross-country and girls’ basketball) teach honors and AP classes. The coaches’ classrooms look bare and uninviting. The non-coach/experienced teachers have interesting and engaging classrooms and they put a lot of effort into instruction, making sure that their students are doing high-order thinking, projects, and preparation for AP exams. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE football games and sports. The coaches are GREAT people that with whom I enjoy talking. Coaching is not easy and it takes a lot of time away from the classroom. My point is – because the classes are between-class-ability grouping, the students who are not advanced are getting teachers who are not as engaged in the classroom because they are busy with their other responsibilities. Unfortunately, these are the kids who need more time and engagement.
2) The mindsets, stereotypes, and prejudices that are evident in educational practices are not an easy fix. Slavin (2018, p 219) states, “...untracking often runs into serious opposition from the parents of high achievers.” and “Teachers, parents, and students’ themselves, these researchers claim, must come to see the goal of schooling as success for every child, not as sorting students into categories.”
Within class ability grouping is not common at the secondary level.
Differentiation is currently a “hot” topic in school so more teachers are trying to figure out methods and strategies for using this in their limited 50-minute class periods. When data from assessments is analyzed, teachers attempt to identify the students who need remediation and those who can benefit from enrichment, then plan classroom activities accordingly or plan for SOAR and tutoring times.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the regular classes are cut down to 40 minutes and an additional “SOAR” period is added. This period is 30 minutes long. During this time most students have a free choice. After looking at a schedule of the classes and topics offered, the students can choose to go to classes for enrichment, further study, peer tutoring or remediation. Teachers who are doing remediation classes can also give students a ticket, requiring them to attend so that they can spend that time doing small group instruction to help them master the skill or information. This strategy gives the students 2 extra periods during the week where they can get extra help with topics or classes that challenging.
All teachers at the high school are required to have “tutoring hours’ before or after school at least twice a week. Students can come during this time to receive one-on-one or small group tutoring with their teacher or sometimes other teachers in the same content area.
Technology is a huge resource! In regular classrooms teachers use it for all of the strategies mentioned in the book – for engaging lessons, simulations, games, projects, research, lesson ideas, communication, etc. During the COVID-19 shutdown we did run into the difficulty of *most* students having access to devices and internet, but not *all. *
At the high school level, there are students who are attempting to get their needed credits for graduation but may be short because they had failed classes in the past. Computer-assisted learning programs are available for these students to use in order to take the classes online, at their pace, and enable them earn their credits for graduation.
Reference
Slavin, R.E. (2018). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education
