Student Grouping Analysis

Words: 784
Pages: 4

"If a student is not pushed to the limit of academic ability, it is a loss."
I agree. I am a strong advocate for Grouping by academic grouping. My school motto is in accordance as well: "To maximize every student's academic potential and personal responsibility." The pros outweigh the cons and it has been proven to work. Mixed classes are designed for the average, the middle. That leaves two thirds of the classroom not getting adequate education for their ability levels. In no other period of life is it separated by age. The lower achieving students will not participate because they are afraid of being wrong and the higher achieving ones because they don't have to.
While some have found a temporary replacement, as Ms. Vail from Brooklyn has,
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Listen to the same thing being taught four times when once was sufficient for them, and the lower students are struggling to catch up. Just looking at a classroom, any classroom, you can see every child learns differently. In my own class, we are allowed to take notes in many different styles. We are allowed to draw what has happened, take structured written notes, do them electronically or on paper. I think this point is significant in the consideration for grouping. There are always going to be the idealists, the dreamers, the artists, all full of expressing themselves with pictures. In concurrence, there will always be the worker bees, the writers, the wallflowers, the no-nonsense people who like to write and work with a goal in mind. We need to find a balance of keeping the attitude happy while pushing them out of their comfort zone and challenging …show more content…
They need to be challenged. They need to be the best of the best. This drive needs to be brought out in every student. The thing that makes them go, the fire under their feet. As an example: Whilst I was in Germany, and I had no prior knowledge of German, I was placed in the beginners level for German. I was the only student in my grade that was a beginner at German. I did not like whenever someone asked me what class I was in for German. The next year I was moved to the next class in succession and to higher level. I felt confident that in the next few years I would be proficient in German. I had strived to pass that class with flying colours so that I could join the higher levels. Many argue that grouping will challenge the lower students to do worse, I disagree. In 1968 lists were distributed to some San Francisco public schools containing the names of children which had done well on the Harvard test and were expected to do well. It was a group mixed in race and IQ picked at random. The Harvard test did not exist. The children, by the end of the year, had better had better scores than their peers in the same classroom. Attitude is important and it would be good that we start them early and see how much they actually can do. In 2011 Duke did a study on kindergarten and first grade classes of mixed ability. They were taught curricula initially saved for gifted students. Within