Learning 7: The Cross Case Analysis
Great article. Here are some things I learned. Teachers implement initiatives differently, based on many factors. One thing that influences teachers is their zone of enactment. When teachers are implementing something with a group of peeps, they tend to stay more true to the initiative than when they are implementing it individually. The teacher who had more success with leveling was implementing it with a group of teachers. Makes sense of course, but still, a cool finding. The article describes 2 teachers who implemented guided reading groups. There was a lot of emphasis on leveling the kids for the groups. The higher kids got more interesting work to do in their groups than the lower kids. Kids progressed in both classes, but the low level readers didn't make the expected gains. The researchers suggest that teachers should mix it up for these guys, let them read stuff in their interest areas, maybe? In both classes, the lowest groups spent less time reading and more time on skills. New emphasis on leveling kids is v. similar to the tracking of kids seen in earlier times that's been shown in trillions of study to not help students who are placed in lower tracks. We've learned this before, now we're going to have to learn it again. Tracking's making a big comeback now, all over the country, according to a NYT article Husbandman gave me to read. The authors in the article I read point out that leveling experts Fountas and Pinnell insist that groups should be flexible, but the teachers in this article (and probably or maybe zillions of others) found it very hard to make their groups flexible. Very little group movement happened throughout the year.
Anyway, I liked this article and I am glad I've had enough summer that I'm ready to do some professional reading again.
Comments
Makes sense of course, but still, a cool finding.
Yep! Thanks for reading and sharing.
jw
Here's the thing though, the main problem is this expectation that everyone does and should learn at the same rate and that learning can be speeded up successfully 100% of the time. I'm pretty sure humans are unique in their learning and that our uniqueness can be a strength rather than a detriment when we're learning stuff. This article is v. good.