DD is in year 2 and all of her class have been assigned "buddies" for doing pairwork. These pairs appear to combine very mixed abilities and personalities. My super-sensible DD has been paired up with a little boy who has a reputation for extremely poor behaviour. DD is no fool, and realised from day 1 that they had been put together to discourage this little lad from "being too naughty".
I am eager to believe that this is a tried & tested approach, and that it will be of genuine benefit to all of the children. Honestly speaking, though, I am struggling to understand what dd is going to gain from this arrangement, and I can't help wondering if it is fair for her to have to do so much work with a child who seems to spend most of his time disrupting the class.
Just to be clear, I don't need persuading that all children can benefit from mixed ability groupings - the school has been very good at differentiating work so far, and I trust them to keep doing this. Besides, I learnt a lot at school through being asked to explain stuff to other children. However, I am less convinced that a highly motivated and well-behaved child will benefit from working consistently with a child who is disruptive and doesn't want to be there.
Can any teachers please convince me that I'm wrong?
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Buddy system
6 replies
magicmummy1 · 04/09/2011 22:48
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