Essay on Grouping

The National Association for Gifted Children describes homogeneous grouping as “grouping students by need, ability, or interest.” Many children at schools all of the world are subjected to homogeneous grouping day and day out. Some children may be upset because they are not receiving the opportunity to show that they could do well with harder work, and some children may have the feeling of unworthiness because they are unable to keep up with the day to day class work. Our book that we have currently been reading, Teaching to Change the World, describes another type of grouping that may be more beneficial. This type of grouping is called heterogeneous grouping. Heterogeneous grouping would involve all types of students being in the same classroom no matter what their intellectual level may be. During this essay I will share with you an example of my past experiences dealing with homogeneous grouping and a classmates past experiences. I will also discuss the the perspective of our textbook, Teaching to Change the World.
During my grade schooling I was subjected to homogeneous grouping on numerous occasions. However, no occasion stands in mind as prominently as one did when I was in the second grade. A couple days of the week a teacher by the name of Mrs. Hamilton would come in to our class room and work with a selected few students. She would work with the students that were falling behind in the every day school work. She would do activities that looked fun and interesting. While she was doing all of these activities with students, the rest of the class got to sit in our desks and go over the lessons that the teacher had planned for that day. This was some what frustrating to me because I would much rather have been doing those fun activities instead of the boring math, science or reading that the rest of the class was doing.
Catie (whose homogeneous experience I will be sharing) was put through something similar, but on the other side of the spectrum. Five students were chosen from her class to go to an accelerated math program. Catie, however, was not one of the selected five students to join this program. She felt that she was not given the opportunity to show that she could succeed in that accelerated program.
Teaching to Change the World feels that more schools should implement heterogeneous grouping. I am not sure how I feel about this particular issue. I know that sometimes students may feel that they are not being challenged enough in the classroom. I also am aware that students sometimes feel that the class work is very demanding and difficult. However, I don’t know if it is necessary to split the two groups of children. I feel that it could possibly be beneficial if both the accelerated and the slower groups of children were paired together. Maybe the accelerated students could possibly help the slower children understand the concepts and the lesson of that day.
In today’s classroom we give the teachers an extreme amount of power. Teachers may have just as big of an impact on children as parents do. The teachers are the ones who get to decide whether or not the students are in accelerated programs or not. This could effect students self esteem and possibly hurt them in the long run. In conclusion I feel that after typing this essay I am more for heterogenous grouping. I feel that there are many positives that could come out of it and we as a community should do what we can to put it in to effect in our school systems.

State, By. "NAGC - Information & Resources - Glossary of Gifted Terms." NAGC :: Home. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. .

Essay Proposal Refletions

Andrew Costa: We were given limited information on Andrew's proposal. However, I felt that he rose a very good question and I think there will be a lot of available information on his topic.

Allison Merrill: Allison's proposal seemed very well written. She clearly let's us know the topic in which she is going to discuss through out her proposal. I really like the diversity aspect of her writing. Diversity is a very big aspect in today's education. There are many minorities in the United States and it is something that needs to be looked at. I feel that she will be able to find a substantial amount of information on her topic.

Caitlin Hodgson: Caitlin's proposal was very well written. I felt that she also brought up a very good question on how students and volunteers alike. I also liked how she brought up how teachers should be teaching in multiple ways. No student likes to learn many things the same way day in and day out. I would assume that there would be a lot of information on this topic and it will be easy to locate.

Feedback to support learning

I feel that having group give you feedback about writing projects is very helpful. It allows you to converse with fellow students about what could possibly changed. It also allows you to read over things to see if there are anythings that you feel may need to be changed in a fellow students paper. You are able to give suggestions without being rude and that could possibly help the student with grade and with future assignments.

SL Weblog 3

Do you feel that service learning is important for all age groups? Or do you feel that there is only a certain time period in ones life that they are able to be positively impacted by the benefits of service learning.

Do you feel that the service learning still has the same impact on the individual conducting the service even if they are being forced to do so? If so, do you feel that there is any positive outcome for the servicee or the child during service?

Do you feel that it is important to put past bad experiences behind you while conducting, but also using the past positive experiences to better your service experience?

Do you feel that traveling to a different country or region to conduct a service would be more beneficial than traveling to a near by school or other place of service in your home town?

Do you feel that it is important for the service to be diverse? For the servicee or individual in need?

Frist Service

Yesterday was the first communication I had with my group leader for service. She went over the dress code, where our assigned service location was, and what to expect. I will be going to a sensory room in Garity. My group leader gave me the impression that I would be working with young children. She mainly made it sound like I would be watching young children; somewhat like babysitting. There is only one other girl in my assigned my room. I am very excited to meet this kids. Hopefully, I can have a positive impact on some of their lives and bring smiles to their young faces.
The young children who will be at this place of learning will be under privileged and in need of a good roll model. I am very excited about this. I have a young brother Jacob, who is ten. I feel that played a very substantial roll in the raising and upbringing of him. I can only hope that I can also have a positive influence on some of these kids as well.
Although I am very excited for this upcoming experience, my group leader did raise a few questions when she was explaining what service may be like. She said that since the kids have had poor upbringings they some things that may make you uncomfortable, and if so, you should let the teacher know. I wonder if that will actually happen. Hopefully, since I have younger children, I will not be faced with a difficult situation like this.

Personal Information

My name is Jarod Artman. I was born in Ocalla, Florida. My primary e-mail address is jartman13@jcu.edu. Although, I was born in Ocalla, Florida, I lived most of my life in Ashtabula, Ohio. I am currently a sophomore at John Carroll University and love every minute of it. As an aspiring teacher I would enjoy teaching Physical Education. At least, that seemed to be my initial career choice. I am currently enrolled in an Anatomy class. The class is very intriguing and has made me consider wanting to teach something more related to that, but only time will tell. I play basketball at John Carroll and enjoy it a lot. One thing that most people don't know about me is that I have a tattoo on my right rib cage. It says "Strength does not come from physical capacity from indomitable will." Underneath the quote there is the date 7-1-2010. That specific date is the day that my grandfather passed away. I felt that that quote describes my grandfather very well. I use it as inspiration to make it through life's daily troubles. I feel comfortable sharing my intellect with just about anyone. The mind is a terrible thing to waste I feel that all people can have insightful opinions. I am a very talkative person. I enjoy talking in class when called upon and giving my input on topics. I attempt to come to every class and do my work on time, but as we all know, no is one a perfect and everyone has flaws. At the beginning of this school year I told myself that would do better at reading the assigned readings for class. I am honestly able to say that I have been doing very well.
When I attempt to think of my school memories I always think about the fun times that I had with friends while walking through the halls of my old high school. I feel that some issues with the education field is the determination and the passion that the teachers have. Many students become teachers because they feel that it is an easy profession. I hope to be passionate and exciting for my future students. In this class we need to share ideas about teaching and discuss our different teaching styles. We need to avoid hostility towards one another and be a class, we need to be open to new ideas and opinions.

Webquest Proposal

Date: 4/27/10

Teacher(s) Name: Dr. Shutkin

E-Mail Address(es): ocoughlin13@jcu.edu, jartman13@jcu.edu, jgerrick13@jcu.edu

Grade Level(s): Geared toward middle school students, but could be applicable to high school

Title of WebQuest: Breaking the Cleveland Curse

Content Areas: Math, Physical Education, English (to a lesser extent)

Description/Abstract of Lesson: The student plays the role of a Cleveland Cavaliers statistician, assisting Mike Brown in putting together his most effective groups of players to play in the fourth quarter, based solely on their statistics.

Timeline of Lesson: Three days

Introduction

With the NBA playoffs beginning, the Cleveland Cavaliers decided to hire a new statistician to assist Coach Mike Brown in deciding what combinations of players throughout the playoff games will suit the team best, based solely on their regular season statistics from the 09-10 season. It is important to consider that all players need breathers, the game covers 48 minutes, so not everyone will be able to play the entire fourth quarter, and every player has a specific role on the team. The entire city of Cleveland is counting on a championship this season, so you need to do everything you can to make it happen!

Task

The Cleveland Cavaliers need our help! Cleveland Cavaliers player’s names will be drawn out of hat for fairness to all students. Use the techniques that we have learned during the year to calculate the players fourth quarter averages. Coach Mike Brown wants to know what players he needs to play, but more importantly what players to play during crunch time. So as the new statisticians for the Cleveland Cavaliers, we have been assigned to figure out points per fourth quarter, assists per fourth quarter, rebounds per fourth quarter and turnovers per fourth quarter. After you have determined all of the statistics for the players you must set up a starting roster and then times for substitutions. Let's Go Cleveland!

Resources

Statistics

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/stats/

Statistics for each member of the Cavs for the 09-10 playoffs.

[U.P] LeBron James 56 Points Vs Toronto Raptors (03.20.2005) (Career High)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEMtf1ppGJg

Video on Lebron James Career high

Cleveland Cavaliers Statistics - 2009-10

http://espn.go.com/nba/teams/stats?team=cle

Cleveland Cavaliers 09-10 regular season stats

Cavstheblog

http://www.cavstheblog.com/?p=1300

A blog that shows statistics for all teams as well as how it is explained

Cleveland Cavaliers

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2009/05/lebron_james_historic_mvp_seas.html

Cleveland's Plain Dealer online website giving Lebron James' stats for the 09-10 season

Learners

This WebQuest is geared toward middle school students in the content areas of math and physical education, and also language arts to a lesser extent. Students may need to acquire a general knowledge of basketball if they do not have one already. It is important for them to understand how points are scored, what rebounds are, what assists are, and what turnovers are.