Wendy, We did this kind of grouping for almost ten years. It has pros and cons to it. We did think it worked at the time. Some years we had 6 groups at a grade level. Top, near top, middle, low middle, low, IEP. The low groups had low numbers and the high group often had 25 kids in the group. We are now Reading First, so all kids are in one room. I like it so much better. Kids help kids and learn from each other. When you just have kids in a reading group and not in homeroom, it is difficult to build relationships with kids and parents. If they miss or need help, it is also difficult to get to them. I had to do grades for 25 kids, and others for 6. Also, when it was conference time - it was difficult to talk about reading, if you weren't the one teaching that student. Also, if kids want to borrow books - it was hard to let them take them to another room. I lost books that way. The bottom line was - the scores didn't change as much as they have changed doing Reading First. I am also a reading strategy person who uses these strategies in my classroom and guided reading groups.
Hope this helps, Linda Wendy wrote: My principal just asked us (again) today about how we would feel about ability grouping kids for reading across a grade level. So, all the low kids go to one of the 2nd grade teachers, all the low-mid go to a different 2nd grade teacher, all the middle kids go to another 2nd grade teacher and so on. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
