Within subject areas, grouping is necessary to facilitate learning as well as to alleviate stress for some and to ensure challenge for others. Grouping helps to better meet the individual needs of each child.

     Whole class instruction will be followed by group work based on the students’ needs. This grouping will be flexible and can change frequently. Initially, the needs of students are determined by class performance, standardized test results, and previous teacher recommendations. As time passes, I will make changes based on authentic assessment and performance. I realized some students are not great test takers but may very well have fully grasped a concept in a format outside of the traditional test taking process.

     I’m a firm believer in group work. Much can be learned collaboratively in small groups and this style of learning has proven to be very beneficial in many ways. It allows students to help one another, thereby reinforcing the skill/concept again for oneself. It allows students to share feedback and to broaden each other’s knowledge base and perspective. It also allows me to be a facilitator of learning as I can move from group to group on an as-needed basis rather than standing in front of the whole class and expecting all of the children to be on the exact same problem at the exact same time. This flexibility is very sensitive to the individual learner.