A little light at the end of the LONG DARK tunnel

After talking with our curriculum resource teacher and asking for her guidance with this project, I have decided that I am going to work with the students that I taught last year for two reasons. One, I am familiar with how they performed last year and have data on those performances in an ability grouped class. Two, the class that I am in now is not ability grouped. After further reflection though, I still feel led to use my classroom as well. I have not been able to begin the data collection or analysis because A. I'm drowning in a new grade level and can barely get my lessons planned, and B. there are still so many questions I have about the project. I have sent home the consent forms and I am awaiting the completion of these forms. I have to leave my classroom in order to observe the students which poses a problem because finding someone to cover my class while I observe is a challenge. We are getting it worked out with my administrators and I am hoping to begin the data collection next week. I am finishing up a survey that I want to give the students but I also feel led to somehow implement the affects of ability grouping on behavior and reading. I always noted that as one of my major complaints of having the same ability children in one classroom allowed for increased undesirable behaviors. I would really like to look into this or hope the observations will provide an avenue for me to explore this more.