I think that a typical classroom
is going have this makeup: a spectrum of students with a wide variety of needs.
I think one of the best ways to approach this situation is to pair students
together. When the students who need more of a challenge in the class have the
opportunity to aide a classmate they may feel a greater sense of accomplishment
and be invigorated. The student who is struggling will have some one-on-one
help from a more knowledgeable other (where’s this lingo coming from???).
I think the important thing
to keep in mind is the sensitivity towards what group students are put in. Yes
one student is helping the other but I wouldn’t want the student who is having difficulty
to feel as if he is dumb or not as good as the other students. It would be
important to me to create a community within the classroom. When it comes time
for students to pair up and to work together there would already be a base of
trust and openness. I wouldn’t want the student who is doing the aiding to feel
overwhelmed with this task nor would I her to think too highly of herself. It
would be a balancing act and I think at the center would be humility.
When I observed/aided in the
Spanish I/II classes at The Potter’s House in Wyoming, Michigan the teacher I
worked with often split the class into two groups and these groups varied from
week to week, lesson to lesson. The group that had grasped the concept and
showed that they were proficient at it would do some sort of culminating
activity. Often, these students would construct a skit to perform for the whole
class that encompassed the new skill that had been taught. The portion of the
class that had struggled with the new concept benefited from extra time with
the instructor, in a smaller setting, with new exercises and examples to help
them master the topic.
I like this idea because the
students who already mastered the concept are not expected to sit and be bored
while the same material is retaught in a new manner. Instead, they get to show
what they know. The students who need more time on that material are not penalized
but actually get much more attention from the teacher. And the best part of
all, just because a student is in the “review” group one week doesn’t mean that
he will be stuck there the whole school year. There is the fluidity between the
groups. Often when Christy (my cooperating teacher) thought a student was
borderline between the two groups she allowed them to choose. And more times
than not the student chose to review the material.
I hope that these and other
ideas that you all have come up with will work in my future classroom!
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