Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Topic: Reading Groups

10-Second Review: All of the negative effects of ability or achievement grouping occurred when struggling readers were placed in mixed groups.

Title: Interactional Differentiation in the Mixed-Ability Group: A Situated View of Two Struggling Readers.” Deborah Poole. Reading Research Quarterly (July/August/September 2008), 228-249. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Summary: The problems with students being grouped by ability or achievement in learning to read: leads to wider achievement gap between lower- and higher-level groups; inferior instruction in the lower groups (skill-based and decoding emphasized and less emphasis on meaning and critical thinking); students in lower groups stigmatized; negative effects on self-esteem leading to loss of motivation; disproportionately consist of minority groups, perpetuating inequalities beyond the school.

What happens to students who are put in mixed-ability groups? The same thing.

Comment: FYI. RayS.

The purpose of this blog is to share interesting ideas I have found in recent American professional publications dealing with the teaching of English at all levels, elementary, secondary and college.

No comments:

Post a Comment