Ability and Cluster Grouping

 

Cluster Grouping

  The article “Cluster Grouping of Gifted Students: How to Provide Full-Time Services on a Part-Time Budget” by Susan Winebrenner and Barbara Devlin was an interesting read. In the article she states that us educators have been bombarded with research and that basically teaching trends are constantly changing. One such trend is doing away with ability grouping, but in her article, she disagrees backing it up with work data from Allen (1991); Feldhusen (1989); Fiedler, Lange, & Winebrenner (1993); Kulik and Kulik (1990); Rogers (1993) and others documenting the benefits of keeping gifted students together in their areas of greatest strength in groups of 5-10. If exceeding the group, then another cluster group should be formed or another collaborating teacher.

  I agree with the article that gifted students in the top 5% should be grouped together. I can back this thought up with my last two years of teaching. The 2022-2023 school year I had one GT students in my mixed ability classroom with students requiring special learning needs. He was a very helpful student and almost an extra hand at times. The other students looked up to him and he was a wonderful role model, but I could tell that he sometimes got bored. He did not have other kids in the classroom that were able to meet him at his level. I did give him challenging activities, but then he felt left out and very much wanted to be part of the class. He did not meet his end of year MAP NWEA growth goal. This last school 2023 - 2024 year I had 4-5 unintentional GT students. They were identified during the school year. This year’s GT students all showed growth including my twice exceptional student – which made me ecstatic.

  I did not make my GT students do stuff that they already knew. If they wanted, I would give them the end of week assessment on Monday and if they scored an A, I would allow them to work on something of their choosing.  Not all of them were motivated by this, but the ones that were it worked well for them. I also noticed competitiveness between them and with each improvement they made I would add to our super improver wall. They were able to visually track their progress which was also a helpful tool that I plan on implementing again next school year.

 After reading “Lesson Learned About Educating the Gifted and Talented: A Synthesis of the research on Educational Practice” by Karen B. Rogers

It discussed five reconsiderations (lesson). It was an informative read.

  Individual Learning Plans (ILP’s) can be a good way to track student progress in a formal matter, but in my opinion a good teacher should be able to assess and implement students’ needs from observation and how they are doing in class. Having an ILP would provide little flexibility for change and gives the teacher more paperwork to track. I could see it becoming a requirement if little progress is made for gifted students at a specific school.

Lesson 1: “Daily Challenge” developing a new ‘benchmark of progress”. When gifted students aren’t being challenged, they send of suffering from psychological distress (existential depression) and stress. Gifted students need to be able to move forward. The daily challenge could be given in cluster groups with students of like ability grouping.

Lesson 2: “Opportunity to work independently”. Unfortunately, younger elementary students still require close supervision and not all can be trusted to use their time wisely. I believe this one to be on a case-by-case basis. Some students are more willing than others to pursue independent learning.

Lesson 3: “Acceleration” discusses early entrance to school, skipping a grade and credit by examination. I am a string believer in testing out, when you already know the content. Why go through a whole year of learning something you already know.

Lesson 4: “Like Ability Grouping” Grouping of gifted learners is extensive and substantially positive. When mixed ability groups are put together less progress is made in studies. That is something my school did this school year during what we call “Power Hour” and found it to be very successful. It was a fun way for them to be challenged and work on higher order thinking skills.

Lesson 5: “Differentiation” offering fast paced classes, Saturday and summer classes for foreign language, science, history and math. Students should be given information at their actual learning rate. I have seen this many times – where gifted students were not able to move forward due to limited sources. Sometimes, the teacher is limited to what they can offer- if the school is not on the same page. Differentiation to the students’ needs is a good way to keep students engaged and out of trouble. (Prevent boredom, or dislike towards school).