Week 6: Accomodating Student Variety

The question for this week is: When looking at ability-grouped classrooms, how do you feel about this issue? Is this a technique that you would use in your "classroom"? Would it be beneficial - why or why not? Are there any parts of ability grouping that could be modified to work in your "classroom"? How?

Ability groups have good and bad points, as does most anything we look at. I think though, it needs to be looked at from your class perspective. Will using ability groups help or hurt your class? Maybe using the ability groups at the beginning of the year could help you get a better idea of what will help your students excel. As the year progresses, maybe you can make new groups and mix the abilities. I think if a teacher solely relies on ability groups, he/she may become more complacent, and not want to help the lower abilities to strive for achievement as he/she would a higher ability group. Also, if you are going to use ability groups for math/reading, why not all the subjects? Every student excels in different subjects, therefore there are going to be some students that just don’t understand it. Should you not have an ability group for all subjects? That is something to think about.


A summary of what you have learned from the chapter readings.

I learned a lot of IDEA, what it does, the history of the law, and how it can help students. Defining mental retardation, emotional disturbances, learning disabilities, has helped me understand what to look for in my future classroom. One thing I noticed that each category needs is, first, patience. They also need to be helped to learn social skills in most cases, help with dealing with frustration, and made to feel as if they are accomplishing something. Social skills can be taught by something as simple as assigning them a buddy in class to help them. Frustration can be dealt with by breaking up their assignments into smaller, more manageable tasks. And Everyone needs to made to feel important, and reminded that they have accomplished something. There are times, whether you have a disability or not, that you just feel like you haven’t accomplished anything. Sometimes it takes something as simple as a checkmark on a list to see accomplishment.


Compare what you have learned from the reading with what you have experienced in life so far.

This was a difficult but informative chapter for me to read. I have two boys, and both of them are special needs students. My oldest has an emotional disturbance, a learning disability as well as a physical disability. My youngest has a learning disability as well as an emotional disturbance. While reading the section about emotional disturbances, my eyes were opened. First, I learned that my youngest is an externalizing student: aggressive, restless, negative, defiant, lies, steals and malicious. My oldest is an internalizing student: shy, anxious, fearful, often depressed, and lacks self-confidence. Both need help breaking down assignments into manageable tasks. Both need reminders (now) on social skills. Fortunately, both of my boys have had teachers thus far that were compassionate and willing to work with them in a regular classroom. They help with social skills, and encourage them and praise them for efforts and achievements. The text book states that “teachers tend to be more aware of students who display aggressive disorders because their behavior often stimulates or forces reactions. The withdrawn student, however, may be more likely to develop serious emotional problems such as depression and may even be at risk of suicide during the adolescent years.” This is very true. In the case of my oldest, we did not realize how bad the problem was until he just couldn’t take it anymore. He tried several times to hurt himself, he stopped caring about anything and constantly put himself in harms way. Unfortunately, the doctor that was treating him for his ADHD did not see it either, and we ended up having to spend several days with him in the hospital for evaluations, new medicines and then a new doctor that actually cared about him. He is now doing so much better. More social, loves school, but he also has times when he starts slipping back into his timid, anxious person. We just encourage him to do his best, reassure him, and help him get through it.


Describe how keeping this journal has helped you organize any ideas for teaching; come up with new ideas; etc.

This journal has been great about helping me keep track of ideas I want to use in my classroom. This week’s idea: I love the idea of using assignment boards in the classroom for each child. I know for me personally, when I get my assignments for the week, I list them on a sheet of paper so I will know what I have to do. If it is a long assignment (such as this journal), I will then break it down into further sections. As I finish each one, I check them off so I can see what I have accomplished and what still needs to be done. If I get a sense of satisfaction knowing what I have done, imagine how a young child would feel, seeing everything she/he has accomplished.


A summary about the education blog that you have chosen.

There is a wonderful link to a video on Youtube about Failure. I would highly recommend watching it. I would also recommend having teachers use it in high school classes. It is titled, Failure is a Good Thing. This is a great discussion opener. The blogger also added a great video as a follow up.
Today, he shared a section on Suggested Reading, and included an article called “Cover the material- or teach students to think”. It suggests that textbooks are a summary of what others believe, but do not teach the children to think for themselves and form their own ideas about things. I think this is very interesting, and had never thought about it in that way, but could honestly see how this could be true. I think I may have to dig a little deeper into this topic.