Reply to All honors, All onlevel, All blended, or leveled classes

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "All honors, All onlevel, All blended, or leveled classes - which is best?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Which of the following class set ups would you like to have?

1. All students taught honors level. No onlevel classes available.

2. All students taught onlevel. No honors classes available.

3. All students put into a "blended" class that contains honors and onlevel students. Teachers teach both classes at the same time.

4. Students are placed into an honors class or an onlevel class. Both levels are available and are taught at different times by different people.

[b]Does it matter what type of class it is? [/b]For example, does blended work better for one type of class but putting students into a leveled class works better for a different type of class?[/quote]
Teacher here (both MS & HS) - it matters what type of class it is.

Mathematics is very much a skills class and students learn at different paces. In early years, students may also learn some content quickly and take longer on other content. At the ES level, heterogeneous grouping in a class, but homogeneous small groups works well. At MS & HS level with a 7 period rotation, they need to be split into homogeneous groups (Honors/on-level) for instructional purposes.

English content spirals throughout the years, with different skills becoming more advanced through reading, writing, and analysis. Any particular lesson can be delivered to students of differing abilities, but then they work and implement at whatever level they are at. English should be heterogeneously grouped (honors) level through ES, MS, and HS until taking a specific AP/IB course with a separate curriculum. All students benefit from hearing different voices during class discussions. Students thoughts about various topics are valuable, regardless of their current reading and writing level.

I think that we should stop giving letter grades for English and Math and actually provide true standards based grading feedback on each standard. If we did this, there would be less tension about the classwork assigned in classes that is "too easy" or "too hard", which leads to the desire to sort kids by current ability.

Social studies and Science are a mix of content knowledge and skills. I think that these should be heterogeneously grouped and taught at an "honors" level through ES and MS, and kids earn letter grades based on their understanding and performance in the class. Students need the opportunity in MS to rise to the challenge of honors courses. Separating them into "easier" classes means that they don't learn the study skills they need for more rigorous courses in HS. At the HS level, I think social studies and science courses should be split into homogeneous groups. AP/IB for the most advanced students - with external curriculum and test to demonstrate actual achievement. I think that the on-level & honors courses should actually be taught as combined classes (blended - everyone in the same class, learning the same material) because there is no distinction in the HS curriculum between on-level and honors. However, I think that in order to earn the "Honors" designation, students have to pass a final exam for the semester material with at least a C grade, and it factors into their semester grade. If students don't take the final exam or earn a D or E on the exam, the designation remains on-level.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics