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Ability grouping alternatives

40 replies

user1471516536 · 24/12/2016 18:39

Hello all!
I have colour ability groups in my y3 class, which ranges in ability from children working at y1 level to children working at y4 level (can even be y5 level in some areas!)
I am obviously using the mastery curriculum so we are all learning our current y3 curriculum but with interventions or reasoning challenges.

I'm concerned because my children have cracked my ability code and I don't want to demotivate my lowers. What alternatives do you have to ability groups in your class?

OP posts:
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cantkeepawayforever · 26/12/2016 17:54

Long time poster, nc for a return after a break.

To go back to the OP's original question about ability groups, what I do is, rather than start from a fixed 'plan for 3 different groups in every lesson' structure, to think about the children in the class and to think about what each individual might need in order to access the lesson.

So rather than saying 'well, yellow group is lower ability' - and thus pretending that they are all of exactly equal ability across all aspects of all subjects, and have exactly equal abilities to one another - I might think 'well, today's lesson is about written division. X has a problem with retaining information, so will need a times table grid to use so that they can just look up the answers to each of the individual division steps. Y finds sequencing steps tricky, so they might need the work colour coding or a gradual reveal or a task board. Z needs concrete objects to model division, so place value counters will need to be available. A will as usual need a copy of the questions at 4x usual size, B will need them on blue paper, and C, who has physical difficulty in recording, may need a scribe or work on a whiteboard or chalkboard, or could use the laptop with a modified input device, especially as there's a good online version of today's task.

Of course, OUTSIDE this specific lesson,each of those children will also have plans for how their individual weaknesses are addressed - X will of course have additional work learning their tables, C has physio. But for this lesson, both the input and the 'worksheet' - if any - can be the same for all children, provided that the modifications and support are present.

Of course, there are lessons where children may need to start tasks at a slightly different point, or need specific teaching input - but this is ALWAYS based on immediate prior learning / performance, not on an arbitrary grouping based on 'perceived general ability'. So I might create a group needing additional adult input - to support, or to extend and challenge - based on the previous day's marking or observation. Or I might create 2,3,5,6,7,8,10 different levels of task, to address specific needs. or I might assess 'on the fly' - from initial responses, or whiteboard work, or a short initial task - and specifcially assign specific children to specific tasks or groups.

But what I don't do is create a fixed number of 'static' groups who 'by convention' always received different work from one another.

For a comprehension lesson, the work might well be based on a full class text, that we have already read, or which they have heard read aloud. EAL pupils and those who might benefit from revisiting a text to be studied may have had additional pre-reading with another adult. Answers can be given verbally, or typed, or dictated, or drawn. Aids such as dictionaries (English, or bilingual) or specific word lists can be provided. It doesn't have to be that yellow group has an easy text, red group a middling one, blue a hard one. All can study the same text, but - considering the individual barriers for each child - may show their comprehension of it in slightly different ways.

TheTroubleWithAngels · 26/12/2016 18:24

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user789653241 · 26/12/2016 18:43

The question is, why they turn up in yr6 or yr5 so behind. If they have huge learning difficulty of some kind, they should have been dealt with separately from earlier on.

TheTroubleWithAngels · 26/12/2016 18:59

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user789653241 · 26/12/2016 19:06

I get what you mean. But I went to public(state) schools in LA and NY, with huge numbers of EAL students. They managed well, with a lot of volunteers.
How come English school cannot do the same? Or do they even try, or are they not allowed to seek help from outside?

mrz · 26/12/2016 19:22

English schools can if they have expectations that every child will learn regardless.
I had three children arrive in the week before Christmas. Aged 5 one us on their 6th school and third country. Another hasn't previously attended any school. The expectation is I will teach them both to read, write and basic maths. Interventions will be in addition to normal classroom teaching ... and I don't have a TA.

TheTroubleWithAngels · 26/12/2016 19:24

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user789653241 · 26/12/2016 19:29

I think that's the problem. They expect teachers to deal with any problem.
I had friends from all around the world. Some had no education at all.
The difference was that normal class teachers weren't expected to deal with those children's needs. School was clever enough to recruit enough volunteers to help us, and it wasn't just one school, all 4 I went.

user789653241 · 26/12/2016 19:30

And I wasn't 5 when I went to US. I was 12.

user789653241 · 26/12/2016 19:33

I mean, the year I turned 12, so the last year of elementary school. grade 6.

mrz · 26/12/2016 19:51

Since you haven't told me about your little sandpit child I can't guess

mrz · 26/12/2016 19:59

With out non reading child from Scotland, he'd learnt in the previous three years that if he acted up in class, throwing things, making noises and shouting refusing to try he would be removed and allowed to play. Day one he tried all the above and it was the disgust on his peers faces as much as anything that made him stop. His neighbour was heard to say "we don't do that here!"
In the brief weeks before he moved to secondary he was reading at a basic level (comprehension much higher level than word reading) and he had acquired basic maths skills. This involved before and after school and lunch time interventions.

cantkeepawayforever · 26/12/2016 20:28

TheTroubleWith,

I agree that I have described an incomplete range of possible difficulties - and yes, there are occasions when the barrier to a child accessing today's work is insurmountable and so there is a need for an individual child to have a different task as well as specific tools or aids (so my pupil who was working well down in the old P-scales - just verbal, but with physical, mental and visual handicaps, for example). So a lesson on addition for them would involve counting and combining very small numbers of very large counters, 'counting all' and matching the group to a Numicon piece - and i was lucky, because that child had a full statement and full time 1:1. But that is very, very different to assigning that child to a static 'yellow group', all of whose members always got a modified task regardless of what their starting point for that lesson would be. Remember that the OP was about ability grouping, not differentiation for an individual in terms of task, support, materials on the basis of their individual needs in that specific lesson on that particular day.

On the 'acting up' - yes, from a pupil with pathological demand avoidance, I have experienced that. In general, 'it's not the way we do things' - and in particular we would not tolerate an attitude that sees someone who does something mentally as being 'top dog' and someone who uses counters as being 'not top dog'.

AllPizzasGreatAndSmall · 29/12/2016 00:34

We have had no ability setting or tables for the last two years. It was decided that it goes against the theory of Growth Mindset.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 29/12/2016 19:37

The kids choosing their level of challenge themselves is massively letting down the "bright but a bit lazy" ones who could really shine and achieve amazing things if they could just be inspired to do so.

I' m not sure this is as much of a problem as you think it is if mixed ability teaching is done well. For a start, I doubt the 'bright but lazy' children are doing that well in a fixed ability classroom any way they just have an artificial ceiling put on their attainment as well. And secondly, isn't part of the role of the teacher encouraging children to make the right choices to extend their learning and to monitor those choices, challenging children to stretch themselves more if appropriate and guiding them to make better choices if needed.

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