Not sure if I've ever seen Odd 'n Ends juxtaposed to The Meaning of Life, but here goes. . .
Feedback needed
I sat down with our new administration yesterday and discussed some potential changes to our Language Dept. I won't offer my thoughts as I'm interested in your unbiased opinion. We're making the change from heterogeneously grouped classes to ability grouped classes. Please share your thoughts and experiences with either or both, including pros and cons. I look forward to some feedback and dialogue.
Oh, if you're wondering about the pic at the top, it's a little cookie store in Cayucos that brought many smiles to my wife, mother and children last week. The chocolate chippers weren't great, but the others were amazing.
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ReplyDeleteI only have my own experiences as a student to draw upon. I was in all the advanced classes in high school, so I'm assuming those classes were homogenous. Even among the honors kids, there were still tiers of "smartness." Competition was pretty fierce, but I'd say that was because we were overachievers who wanted good grades because they were available and because we wanted our college applications to look good. I'd say a pro of that experience was being with other kids who cared about school, were motivated to do well (that was definitely handy when group projects were assigned), and I also didn't feel as freakish being the perfectionist/overachiever I was. My elementary years were spent in a heterogeneous classroom. I was top of my class and sometimes the teachers would publicly hold me up as an example and that was very embarrassing. I do remember sometimes helping other classmates with work when I was finished with mine and I loved that. I was an avid reader and had quite the vocabulary for a young person, but when my friends were always questioning my word use, I started dumbing it down. How would things have been different for me had I been in more of a homogenous classroom at a younger age? Maybe I would have felt more comfortable being myself at a younger age or maybe it would have driven me harder to be even more of an achiever, which most likely would have resulted in a ulcer at an early age. (I used to cry over Calculus in high school.)
ReplyDeleteThis is a little scattered and I suppose I don't have strong feelings one way or the other. Although, in reading what I just wrote, it sounds like I am more in favor of homogenous classrooms. I'd love to read some other viewpoints.
Okay, that last comment was made by Joy, Cade's wife. I forgot to login.
ReplyDeleteI wish I lived close enough to meet Joy, as we have too much in common. :-) I lost a lot of hard-earned vocab when my college roommate would interrupt conversations to tell people she needed to follow me around with a dictionary. The real crux of the issue, at least in my opinion, is will the opportunities for the students be the same at all levels? In my high school, the best teachers got to pick which classes they wanted to teach, and they wanted the AP classes. The newbies always got the kids in the basic English classes. I personally benefitted from this, and I know there are arguments to be made on both sides. The struggling kids need great teachers, but so do the "smart"/hardworking students who are headed to college. If all of the homogenous classes had the same funding for materials, same access to technology, and equally talented/dedicated teachers, then I think a strong argument could be made for reaching each group where it is and focusing on its unqiue needs. But how often is that ideal reality? (Can I have a cookie now?) Keri
ReplyDeleteHi Cade,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog through Joy's. I personally prefer ability grouping. I, too, was an honor student and hated being in the same class with students who didn't care about being there. I do think there should be plenty of opportunity for testing out of/moving up a level though so a student doesn't get stuck in the system based solely on their initial placement. I'm still a little bitter that a B+ one quarter in 7th grade kept me from moving up to Algebra for 8th grade, so I never did get to Calculus in high school.