The beginning...

This issue of ability grouping has plagued me throughout my career and I have grown increasingly attached to the idea of finding a better way of grouping our students. My opinions are obviously not taken into consideration when the grouping decisions are made so hopefully this research project can help me prove that grouping our students based on their abilities is not our best practice. With that said, I am not so sure that I am the person who needs to be conducting this type of research. It seems, right now, to be such a difficult task that an amateur like me should not be the one beginning this process. I really have no clue where to start as far as data collection is concerned. I understand the process of Action Research and look forward to trying it, but I sure hope I am capable of creating the quality assessments and surveys needed to give this project the best implementation possible. Hopefully once I get the data collection started, things may be a little easier and the next steps may appear a little more clear. I feel like my passion for the topic is beginning to interfere with my ability to remain unbiased throughout the beginning of this process.

My Plan

As a teacher of 4th grade English Language Arts, I was given the opportunity to teach all of the fourth grade students in our building in this subject area. We are departmentalized in fourth and fifth grade, meaning that the students switch classes between teachers and have different class periods for each subject area. This also means that our school chooses to ability group the students in both reading and math. My day would usually consist of two classes comprised of mainly struggling or non motivated readers and then two class periods of more advanced students in the area of reading. My lessons would consist of several different differentiated plans for each of the class periods with all students doing the same or similar tasks. One year, I was approached by my principal who informed me that we would not be ability grouped for upcoming school year. I was very fearful of this change because I had been teaching in this way for a few years and didn't know how I was going to meet the needs of ALL of the students in my room as they each presented a different ability. As I figured out how to do teach a group of all abilities, it became the best year in my teaching career. I grouped the students in several ways throughout each class period and all students benefited so much from the arrangement of our class structure. The following years, we returned to the act of ability grouping and I have yet to have another fantastic year as I did when my students were not ability grouped. This year, I am teaching third grade so I again have all of the abilities in my classroom. We haven't had the chance to really get into groupings and content as we are still working on procedures but I hope to have another successful year with a group of students from all abilities.

The problem I have observed having taught classes with the same abilities is that there are no leaders or too many leaders. In my classes of struggling readers, there was not a high interest in reading. The students knew they struggled and hated to read. With these feelings, attitudes toward the class influenced the behaviors in the classroom. There were no students who could act as leaders because they all had the same feelings toward the subject. We spent much of our time in lots of whole group lessons and lots of guided instruction. The students were rarely able to complete activities with partners because both students struggled with the concept. There was a student that could lead and coach the other to independence. In the higher classes, there were too many students who knew what it meant to be a leader which can cause problems in a classroom as well. It was hard for several of them to resume a passive position when needed.  These two combinations made for a very long day and in my opinion, did not provide students with the best instructional practices. Having taught one year where my students abilities were mixed, I saw so many improvements in my struggling readers as their behaviors and attitudes towards reading changed and they improved as readers. My more advanced students learned patience and were also given the opportunity to use their natural leadership abilities in a positive way. This one amazing year among four not so amazing years has led me to this question of are we doing what's best for our students by grouping them with like abilities? I am hoping with the start of this school year in a new grade level, I can really gather some data on the effects of grouping students.

I plan to begin the collection of data beginning the week of September 3rd. We are still learning procedures for reading class and still getting to know one another. My data will begin with a survey for the students that asks them to reflect on their abilities as a reader and how they feel when they read with others. I will also give assessments to the students to determine their starting point and how I should group them. I plan to group the students both homogeneously and heterogeneously and observe the various behaviors as well as desegregate data to determine which groupings were more effective and improved the learning and moral of the students. I will then administer the same assessments and surveys at the end of my research collection. This data will help influence my conclusion of what might be the best practices for our students.

About me!

I am in my sixth year of teaching at Emma B. Ward Elementary in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. I am currently teaching 3rd grade for the first time in my teaching career. I was a 4th grade ELA teacher for five years. I attended the University of Kentucky where I received my Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. I am currently working on my Master's degree at Georgetown College. I will graduate in the Spring of 2013 with a Reading and Writing endorsement. I have a passion for reading and hope to teach children that reading is not just a chore but can be an adventure!