By Richard Smith RCMS Associate Principal The 2000-2001 school

By Richard Smith

RCMS Associate Principal

The 2000-2001 school year is approaching quickly, and I would like to use this opportunity to explain some exciting changes for fourth and fifth grades this year.

An important goal for our instructional program is to meet the individual needs of our students. We know that students learn at different rates.

When my generation attended school, this fact often resulted in what was termed "ability grouping". Teachers, with the aid of various test results, grouped students with other children of similar "ability". Children could be tracked by preconceived ideas of their capabilities, rather than measures of their actual performance.

We at RCES favor a plan that groups children by their performance rather than what an IQ test might indicate to be their ability. Such performance based grouping schemes must be reviewed regularly and frequently to make certain that individual children are placed where he or she learns best.

Let me explain how that will work in fourth and fifth grades this year. Below you will see the instructional schedule for fourth grade. Fifth grade will follow a very similar schedule.

(See above graphic)

In this organizational scheme, LAlanguage arts, G-group, RWG-reading writing group, SS-social studies, and the numbers refer to groups of students.

The children will be placed in groups according to their current performance level. As performance levels change, a child's group assignment would change.

Groups one through six range from children working below grade level to those working above grade level. A child may be assigned to group three in Reading but may be working in group five in Math.

As one looks at the above schedule, it may be helpful to follow a hypothetical child through her day. Let's assume that Sylvia is in group three in Reading and group four in Math. She begins her day with homeroom followed by an exploratory class which today may be