What are you noticing about Janet’s case? What are other people noticing? Take a minute to read other people’s first impressions, below, then submit your ideas. You will have a chance to return to your first impressions later in the case.
Read these first impressions…
“I think Janet is a little confused about how best to group first graders for reading instruction. I wonder how she used to make this decision. Did she follow a manual in a basal? Did she use some other kind of test?”
- Greg, teaching intern
“I don’t know, I guess Janet feels like she needs to improve her students’ reading performance, like most of us. We are all under a lot of pressure these days. She gets it that first grade is a critical year for reading development and she is committed to offering her students the best instruction possible. You have to follow the trends in the data that you have. I guess I agree with the literacy coach: the kids' reading levels should determine the groups not what we think is right—most everything else is just, well, not as important as forming groups around what kids need.”
- Miranda, 1st grade teacher
“Janet senses the problem here, but I am not sure that she fully understands it. She does not seem to understand that by the “default segregation” created by the benchmark data, many children could associate black and Latino students with failure. She will need to learn to recognize the potential for labeling, ostracizing, and other kinds of racist thinking that could emerge in her classroom. Maybe she is starting to get it? As she stands there, she seems to wonder...but will she learn that fixed, homogeneous reading groups will prevent children with different skills from learning from each other, and create a level of frustration and humiliation among the struggling readers?”
- Gigi, 3rd grade teacher
“When Janet notices the students who are in the lowest reading group, she has reason to wonder if her plan will work. Made up of children from poor homes, children who don’t speak English, and children who struggle with basic skills, the group is lower than any group she has seen. Given all the deficits and needs that the students bring—including probably little to no support at home—she knows that they have only a small chance of showing great strides and very little time to do it. With her school’s AYP in mind, Janet should be worried. I would be.”
- Kelvin, administrator
What are you noticing about Janet’s case? Submit your ideas.
