Year 4 Reading Groups - similar ability or mixed ability ?

[LIZS]

Can anyone explain the logic behind mixed ability reading groups please ? dd seems confused and more than a little frustrated ! Last year Guided Reading was in ability groups, this consciously mixed ability which seems to expect the more competent to help the others.

I guess it may pull some strugglers up TBH I would always put similar abilities together you may have a couple of harder to place ones taht you may put up or down dependant on personallity perental input ect.

If you search for MRZ's posts, she talks about her personal experience (as a teacher) of teaching and learning in mixed ability groups. She's good at selling it as effective! I guess it can work quite well if done right.

There is an argument that you learn the most by teaching others, so it's not necessarily bad. Do you feel your DD is not being sufficiently stretched? My gut feeling is that with my own DC their reading improved most from what I brought home from the library -- the in-class reading became supplemental by comparison, because reading is a thing that only improves with practise.

Is it just reading or all of literacy that's mixed ability?

I think it is just reading but this is only week 2 so there is time for more to come yet. From those in dd's group and another she has described they are very much a cross section. Not sure she has the patience for the lowest of her range though ! She reads plenty at home and likes a challenge.