- Illustrate how you will group students based on abilities into heterogenous and homogenous groups for a lesson or content topic. Include sample content and activities as embedded links within the infographic.
There would be various ways in which the students could be grouped based on their cultural backgrounds, male-female ratio, ELL vs. non ELLs, or combination of ELLs and non ELLs and so forth. The heterogeneous groups would include group with mixture of various backgrounds, identities and capabilities. An example of heterogeneous group would be group with boys and girls mixed, or group with both ELLs and non ELLs grouped together in one group. An example of a homogeneous group would be a group with all ELLs grouped together, or girls grouped in one group. Appropriate activities for homogeneous groups of ELLs and non ELLs grouped in distinct groups might be assignments where extensive writing is a big component of the group project where proficiency in English would be a determining factor in how well they are able to cooperate with one another and produce a high-quality final product. For homogeneous groups of just having girls might be more appropriate for a sex education class where they might have to work on topics related to gender specific topics. But as for most group projects, heterogeneous groups would be more appropriate where students from various backgrounds and proficiency would be intermingling and working together as a unit as would best reflect the nature of the real world for which they are being prepared for. Perhaps for projects requiring research of their own countries, students from the same countries could be grouped together for the sake of the purpose of the assignment, but even in those cases, groups could be mixed with one another to hold up to the values of diversity that the international schools around the world value and uphold. - Give examples of activities from your subject area for remediation for special needs students, and acceleration activities for gifted or talented students.
For students with special needs, extra help could be provided by the teacher or teacher assistants who have extensive knowledge about the background of students requiring special needs support. For instance for dyslexic students, there could actually be shadow teachers who are hired by the parents in collaboration with the school to help accommodate the students’ needs throughout the school hours if extra help, care and supervision is necessary. For students with ELL needs, they could be attending ELL classes during Language Arts classes to be making up for the skills and knowledge they require to take Language Arts classes with their peers. Or if they are able to join the rest of the class but require extra help within the classroom, they could be provided with textbooks, grammar books, and relevant resources and guidebooks that would be helpful in terms of getting their English be at a level where they are expected to be in order to succeed and meet the expectations of the classroom requirement. As for gifted students, students could be provided with extra reading materials with accelerated curriculum and materials where they would be given assignments and resources one or two grades advanced for their level, and start prepping for the the next grade level. For instance, they would be given more advanced literature texts and given assignments to write literary analysis on those topics (practicing IB and AP in advance)
3. Present an example of how you will create mixed student groups of varying abilities and talents for a particular lesson or project.
For a given literary project where they would have to come together to analyze Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mocking Bird, they would be forming groups of four with randomized groupings where they would be working together with students with varying abilities and talents in reading and writing. Hence they would have to come together to identify characters, plot, setting, tone, motifs, and any other literary devices they are able to find, as well as research about the Jim Crow and its particular relevance as a historical event in terms of the context of the novel and when it was written. How did Atticus (the father or Scout and Jem, and the attorney of Maycomb County) illustrate some of the ideals that were considered controversial during the times? Why was To Kill a Mocking Bird tabooed at certain districts during certain periods of time during the American history? Why do you think Harper Lee chose this very narrative and this framework (with father and two children, colored caretaker, attorney and county members) to illustrate these ideas concerning race in the book? Such would be guiding questions for them to explore during the group discussions and they would be given the class period to have discussions on these topics before they reconvene at the end of class to report back to the rest of the group what they had discussed among themselves, and be listening and learning from the presentations from each of the groups.
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