The division of a class into groups is one of the best techniques an educator can employ if he/she wants to give the students more time to learn a particular language. In most cases, an educator can assign the groups randomly or use the students’ ability levels. Grouping is vital, as the educators will have an ability to individualize their instructional strategies to match the student needs.
Ms. Jensen’s 7 th -grade class comprises of students with varying English proficiency levels. When implementing the grouping activities, Ms. Jensen needs to take into consideration a variety of factors. These include the individual learner, the teaching contact, and teaching context. A teacher must also take into account the lesson has intended outcomes. The cohesiveness of the students is crucial, especially for ELL, as it will help in a more advanced understanding of the language (Hammar Chiriac, 2014). Ms. Jensen being an English language teacher, she would use the groups as a means of approaching each student’s unique abilities and ensure that her instructional strategies will meet all the pupils’ needs (Krifli &Mullan, 2007).
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According to Ms. Jensen’s English classroom, she has grouped the students basing on their proficiency labels. This will help Ms. Jensen in developing targeted lessons for each student, depending on his/her proficiency level. Nonetheless, managing students with different proficiency levels can be challenging in most cases whereby the educator cannot communicate with the students using their native language. The grouping of the students, depending on their English language proficiency, depends on a variety of factors. Ms. Jensen has grouped the student's proficiency based on their reading label, writing label, listening label, and speaking label. From this grouping strategy, the students can be divided into four groups; most advanced, average, intermediate, and need the most assistance.
The most advanced group labels will comprise of students with the highest proficiency levels in the four labels; reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This will include Aryanna, Gabriel, Michael, Petie, and Suzanne. The Average group will comprise of students with an average proficiency level in the four labels, and they include; Jade, Desiree, and Jacob. The intermediate group will compromise of students between the average and most advanced students, and they will consist of; Jerry and Noah. The final group of students will comprise those who have minimal proficiency levels in the four labels, and they will consist of; Rebecca, Ramon, Hailey, Corynn, and Carlos.
Out of the 15 students, there will be five groups, each comprising of three students. The formation of ELL groups is vital as it makes the students more motivated to engage with the content and thus can practice and sharpen their English language skills. In this case, the students will not be grouped depending on their abilities nor randomly. However, the group will be selected such that the strong students will be mixed with the weak students. The five students from the mots advanced group will be the leaders of the five groups. This will see the groups being formed by paring a low-level English language student with a higher-level English language speaker. Wilson, Brickman & Brame (2018) state that the groups will be created on a foundation that supports cohesion and collaboration amongst the members, the leaders of each group will ensure that they assist each member of the four labels; reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Group work is the key to success in any classroom. The students work together through collaboration and communication with their peers, and thus, this boots their learning. The best group is one that is mixed for the higher-level students will assist the lower levels students in catching up with the various instructional strategy as provided by the teacher.
References
Hammar Chiriac, E. (2014). Group work as an incentive for learning–students’ experiences of group work. Frontiers in Psychology , 5 , 558.
Krifli, L., & Mullan, J. (2007). Strategies to Improve Student Reaction to Group Work . Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 4 , 14-27.
Wilson, K. J., Brickman, P., & Brame, C. J. (2018). Group work. CBE—Life Sciences Education , 17 (1).
