Literacy Moment

When I was a child in elementary school, I always excelled in language arts. I read material far above the average for my grade level, and tested far above the rest of my classmates. For this reason, I was always very excited to read a new book or to write a new story for the language arts segments of our classes. For many of my classes throughout elementary school, we were placed into reading groups based on our ability levels. I was always in the highest group with a few other students, and everyone knew what group everyone else was in.

Since I was in the highest group, I was allowed to choose my own books above my levels, and had a little more freedom than some of the students in the lower groups. We would also take time in these groups to read individually aloud to a parent volunteer or teacher in the classroom, and our group always finished first since we were more fluent readers and could understand the material at a much faster pace than other students in the class. After finishing our group work, our teacher would have us pick a book from the designated reading level bin that we were at, and we would be asked to read silently until the other students had finished. I loved being able to choose my own books, and felt very honored to be in such a high group in the class. While I loved being put into the higher group and knowing that I was doing well, there were other students in my class who despised these activities and the groups in general. If a student was in a lower group in the class, all of the other students were aware, and tended to think these students weren't as smart, or that they didn't try.

Looking back now, I do not think that I would use these group strategies in my future classroom. I think it is important for students to read at the correct reading level or just above where they may be, but placing students into physical groups based on reading level may affect the motivational levels and attitudes of the students if they are not comfortable in the level they are placed in. The students in my class who were in the lower groups would shut down when it came time for reading in groups in placement levels, as they felt they were more "stupid" than other students. A lot of time teachers do not think that simply placing a student in a particular group will affect their attitudes and views on a subject, but doing so can either work in favor for a student or in negative ways. Teaching literacy is a very important subject in school, so I want to make sure that I do so in a way that learning is not hindered for any students.