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I connect with student grouping structures in many ways but the one that stood out the most to me was Ability Grouping. I remember in one of my classes when I was younger there seemed to always be groups of kids who were seen as smart and other groups of kids who were seen as not as smart. This always would kill my confidence when it came to math. I have learned to know that I do have math ability but I did not believe I did until I got older. I do believe that was because of the grouping that occurred within the classes as I was growing up.

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I never knew how much grouping students could affect a kids learning experience before watching the videos and going through the other resources. This made me dig deeper into why students tend to feel less confident when put in groups according to their learning level and really made me think about how I would like to use grouping within my classroom to have a positive learning environment. I never knew how much this would effect a students learning and it definitely made me re-think what a good classroom would look like because the videos pushed you to see and learn about what can happen to your classroom if grouping is used in the wrong way.

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After going through all of the resources I decided to challenge myself to coming up with ideas that involve grouping in a positive way. I would have never thought of going through this if I did not read through the resources and really dive deeper into students feelings when they are put into groups in certain ways. There are some limitations to grouping that I did not know and even some ideas that I have previously had that needed to be thought about again when it came down to grouping.

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In middle school, I was placed in the honors/advanced track. As the videos and other resources detailed, it was damaging. The high ability label put this immeasurable, yet invisible weight on my performance and grades. It created a fixed mindset, and I have grappled with my desire to achieve perfection for years as a result. It is still something that I continually have to bring awareness to and work to change. The resources also described the lack of or limited mobility between groups, and this was equally damaging. After being placed in the high ability group, it felt like it was quite literally impossible to leave. There was this elitism surrounding it, and it was expected that you stayed because it was supposedly the most desirable one.

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When I first considered ability grouping, I thought of it on a smaller scale. I was thinking of it within small groups, and my perspective was initially positive because I thought teachers would be better able to address students’ shared needs. Though I also acknowledged that there is much to be learned from student to student. Within mixed ability small groups, students can teach to and learn from each other. These resources ultimately prompted me to think of ability grouping from a larger, more worldly perspective. I had also failed to recognize my own experience with ability grouping and reflecting on that extended my thinking.

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The podcast “Lets remove the labels” challenged my thinking about grouping students and teaching the most. I had not considered the influence of ability grouping on teachers’ perspectives and perceptions of their students. I would like to think that the low or middle ability labels would not change my drive or desire for those students to meet the highest level of standards. However, this episode proved that all teachers are susceptible to the effects of these labels. Labeling students as low, results in educators teaching them as such.

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watching the video about Ability grouping, it made me think back to when I was younger. I remember being split into these groups often almost for every subject and I always wonder what it meant. I remember vividly the math group I was in, in 5th grade, I remember seeing people I knew smarter than me in a group and then seeing people who weren't smarter than me in another group. I just never knew what it meant. it definitely didn't make me that great knowing I wasn't in the smart kid group, so it definitely crush my confidence a little bit.

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after learning more about these videos I have defiantly understand what some pros and cons are to having these groups. it made me think more about when I was younger but it also made me think about the present. when I volunteer I see the teacher pull students in the back of the room to work in their groups with her and thats exactly what I thought about when I was learning about the ability grouping.

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this made me think hard whether or not the students should be put into these groups. it's hard to make groups to make all students happy and I think that is definitely a challenge. making groups positive is important and letting students know how or why they're in these groups would help them and even challenge the students because they will want to advance to the next group if you do it in a positive way making the students have groups but encourage them in the groups to achieve so much, which will definitely be a challenge, but its worth it.

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After I listened to the podcast “How do we create thinking classrooms”, I am interested in the author talking about diversity and randomly the group structure. This helps me to connect with my math course in the past and current semesters. Professors randomly put 3 students into small groups and assigned roles for each member such as group leaders, question people, and recorder. This provides me a clear task of what I need to do in the small group compared to with no assigned role for students.

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I know that students benefit from small groups. But I don’t know that when teacher groups students in one group, they need to randomly choose students and notice the groups’ diversities. In my mind, I think that I need to put students who have the same abilities in one group, which will more benefit than different math level students in one group. I also don’t know that teachers need to assign roles to students in the groups. Teachers assigned roles to each other in one group, which makes students feel they are not feeling out of the group. Everyone has specific to do.

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After listening to the podcast “How do we create thinking classrooms”, I think that the biggest challenge is that teachers randomly put young students into one group and assigned roles for them in an online class, does that still work efficiently as the in-person class? Although I heard the author say teachers need to put 4 students in one group which can increase the diversity of groups,  I think that it will be a big challenge for the young students assigned one group online class.

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I related to Ability Grouping. Throughout my k-12 schooling I was never great at math. Therefore, I was grouped with other students who were not great at math. This led me to believe that no matter what I did I would never be capable of doing/learning math. I did not feel that I was getting the support I needed from my peers nor my teachers. Which instilled a sense of failure in me on terms of my academic career.

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After watching the video and reading/listening to the supplementary resources, I find Ability Grouping to be very problematic. I did not realize how  greatly affected the majority of students are by Ability Grouping. Whether students are put into higher or lower groups the affects are damaging. If a student is in a higher level group they will likely feel the pressure to succeed which will causes them to see learning as negative. If a student is placed in a lower level group they may lose their confidence in their academic skills and in turn stop trying because they do not see the point. Ability Grouping also poses the problem of a group of students not receiving the support needed whether the teacher think they do not need it because they excel in math or because they will have a hard time understanding no matter if they get help or not.

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After getting through all of these resources, I was surprised to learn in the "5 Ways to Create an Equitable Math Classroom'' reading the importance of prioritizing social and emotional learning rather than just teaching students the required curriculum. For me this was a challenge to grasp because it is brand new to me. Rather than to lecture students on curriculum and have them work through problems and equations, the teacher should understand each individual student and base learning off what works for each student as well as what each student's strengths and weaknesses are.

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I was in a "Gifted and Talented Education" (G.A.T.E.) program when I lived in California. I moved to Michigan and was put in regular level classes because the curriculum was different, I haven't been able to get back into advanced classes and score an A ever since and I was really hard on myself in high school because of it. After reading "Myth of the Gifted Child", I wonder if the reason why I don't take risks or I feel like a disappointment if I don't excel is because of that fixed mindset I developed in my formative years.

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I thought it was interesting to see how these theories are flawed and show evidence that ability grouping can be more harmful than helpful, yet we as educators still practice it. I like the idea of flexible grouping because it signifies the ability to grow and expand as students and people. I used to think this was a good idea, however, I remember being put in a group where I didn't belong and feeling discouraged to speak up to not be "such a smarty pants". It was easier for me to excel in a group that was "easier" for me.

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As an educator, I plan to look for ways to avoid grouping or incorporate flexible grouping in my lesson plan. I want my students to feel heard and my classroom to be equitable. After reading, "Myth of the Gifted Child", I don't think I'll see excelling students as "gifted", but rather reflect on how to help my other students excel as well. I hope to not compare students to one another because that in it's own way is grouping.

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I connect with the video on student grouping instructions by, I understand that kids need to move around and explore new things. Being held in one group setting will not help them learn new things.

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I think the video helped me understand that I as a future teacher, need to give my students new options to explore and learn from. Before I didn't know much about student grouping instructions, but now I know more about it and I can implement new ideas in my classroom.

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I didn't know how to group students or for it least how long. But, now I know that it's not alright to keep them in 1 group forever. Changing up the group and helping them out with new stuff is good too. Explaining information to kids individually is also a benefit to them as well.

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At first I wasn't sure what ability grouping was, but when I watched the video and went through the resources, so many things came to my head from my elementary school years. One thing that I remember vividly is reading groups. In my 4th grade class, we had reading groups in which each group had a different book to read and focus on based on their reading level. I remember I was in a reading group by myself because my reading level was higher than others. I did not let this get to my head and I didn't assume I was "smarter" than others, but now that I think about it, I realize it was ability grouping.

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After watching the video and looking through the resources, I began to think more about student grouping structures. I started to wonder of the ways they were beneficial and the ways they were a disadvantage. I think grouping structures are good for some subjects, not all. For example, I do not think they are beneficial in math groups. Students who are less "gifted" when it comes to math should not all be put into a group. This is not a way to help them realize their potential to the fullest. This will actually affect their confidence and math identity. Rather than grouping kids in math based on their ability, students should be scattered. By this I mean each group should have a mix of different abilities. This will allow for collaborative working and students being able to learn from their mistakes and others.

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The video and resources made me start to think deeply on how I would be grouping students in my future classroom. Before finding out all the facts about ability grouping, that was something I would have probably started in my classroom. Now I think that I have to do more research and get input from my colleagues because I want to group students in ways that are most contributing to their improvement and success in any subject.

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I connected a lot to the ability grouping especially in middle school. For math they started seperating all the students into different classes some would go into honors others would go into basic level classes. Being in the harder classes put an extra weight on my shoulder when I was in middle school and it eventually wasn't the right fit for me anymore

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I never realized how much of an impact ability grouping has on students. While there can be pros to putting students in groups based on academic level overall, it damages students egos about what they thought they knew.

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This challenged my thinking about how I will create groups in the future when I am a teacher. I will incorporate changing up groups a lot so all students can voice there opinion and also get to hear different ideas from students.

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I did not know what an ability group was, but I watched the video, and I understood what it was. I can relate this to me because when I was in middle school, I was placed in a group with students who were higher level than me. I felt like I was less than them. Honestly, sometimes I felt stupid because I didn’t feel smart like they felt. I was also placed in the same group for almost half of the semester, which I felt was not beneficial to me at all.

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I never felt that grouping students had some advantages until I saw the video and when I remembered my days in middle school. I think that ability grouping is not for every subject. For example math, there should not be much group work for students because some students might not understand the process of solving a solution. In the future, I hope that I will be able to know how to put my students in groups and how to focus on things that do not need group work.

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One thing that I will absolutely do is be able to change the students from the same group and keep changing it up. This will be challenging for me because it might confuse how we can know in what group they were the last time. Also, I will ensure they are in the right group so they won’t feel like they don’t belong in it.

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I connect with the grouping structures. When learning about ability grouping, I realized the negative effect it can have on students. I remember in high school we had normal classes and then we had college preparatory classes. In the normal classes I was considered above average, so I was transferred into the college prep classes. When I was transferred into the college prep classes my confidence went down because I was not performing at the same rate as some of the other students. I once had one of my teachers tell me I was a "low performing college prep student". This really lowered my confidence and made me feel as though I was not enough compared to the other students. Therefore, I think as educators we have to be careful with ability grouping.

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Before watching the video and looking at the resources I did not realize that the ability grouping structure can have a negative effect on a student's self-efficacy. I realize now being placed in the "low performing group" according to my teacher is what made me lack self-confidence. I think other types of grouping can be beneficial such as mixing students that perform higher with a lower performing group of students because sometimes students can learn better from their peers.

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The resources challenged my thinking about grouping. It made me realize that I want to avoid ability grouping in my classroom. It really made me think about how I can group students without hindering their learning experience. It makes me realize that I want to make sure that future grouping assignments will be used in a positive matter. I never want my students to feel like they are in a group because they are better/lesser of a student compared to another student. I want my students to feel like they have the same ability to learn as each and every other student in the classroom.

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I didn't know what "grouping structures" mean. But after I watched part 2, read and listened to the articles it made sense to me. I remember back in elementary school they used group students with good grade together, this affected me so much, I used to think that I'm not smart or not good enough. It affected my grade. They also used to focus more on the clever students.

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The video and supplementary resources extended my thinking about student grouping structures first it made my vision clearer that I'm going in the right path, because I was feeling worried and hesitate about it. listening to the interview with Peter Liljedhal and going through his book "Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics" made me realize that what we are actually missing in classrooms is engagement and balancing. Engagement is really important thing because when students are thinking they are always engaged, and when they are thinking they are engaged.

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To be honest i enjoyed watching this video but before watching this video i didn't really know what "Grouping Structures" meant. I was a bit confused but when i finished watching the entire video everything started making sense. Going back to elementary and even middle school my teachers use to put us in groups most of the time to just work on a couple activity's together. I remember that i use to always feel a bit down thinking to myself "what if i don't get this right" or "what if my classmates don't think am smart". Now that am a grown adult i wish i can go back to the past and just tell my younger self to have confidence and that its totally ok to make mistakes. Not everyone is perfect.

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Before watching this video i didn't realize how many students don't do good with groups until i remembered what i went through in the past with groups. Confidence plays a huge role especially when it comes to working together as a group. In my opinion i think its ok if a person in a group gets something wrong. To me group work should be about listening to each other first than deciding as a group what the right answer is. People shouldn't judge at all and students should not have a fear of getting together in groups. In the future i am willing to help my students in any way possible during group activity's and make sure i motivate them as well. students should never feel down and should always say "i am smart" and "i can achieve anything i want in life as long as i put my mind into it" Group work is important and i think it is really important for students to work together.

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This video honestly challenged my way of thinking in many different ways. As an educator i am willing to work with my students to see what makes them most comfortable. I am willing to allow my students to choose there own groups but it definitely cannot be the same groups over and over again. Students should get to know everyone in the classroom and should be as comfortable as possible with every classmate. Motivation is key when it comes to learning so students should motivate each other all the time during group work especially if a student got something wrong. It is highly recommended that other students in the group motivate that individual into coming up with the correct answer and not to make them feel down in any way. Switching up groups here and there is extremely important just because every student should get along with everybody in the classroom.

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I have seen the typical ability grouping done in classes, I've helped out in. I also remember doing it as a kid. I remember noticing some of my friends were doing harder stuff than me and also some were doing easier. In school math was always something I excelled at but it was the opposite for english/reading. Typically when I did struggle with something it wasn't exactly what my peers were ands after listening I realized how these groups may have hurt some of the abilities I had.

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Small groups and ability grouping is something I always just thought of as part of the classroom routine. After watching the videos and reading the articles, I realize why this can effect students negatively. It made me rethink grouping my future students. I think changing up groups often and even allowing students to do peer-to-peer work with a students who really grasp a concept would be better than the level/ability grouping. I think also pushing that teacher-student relationship is so important to ensure students will communicate when they feel they are struggling or even excelling. Allowing them to have some say with what they are really focusing on could go a long way.

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When I begin teaching- limiting or avoiding ability groups altogether is one of my top goals. I think flexible may be a better option. I also think peer-to-peer work can be very helpful. I think doing one-on-one work with students is important as well. Communicating with your class individually to see what they are thinking about current material would be a good start. When I watched the video "ability grouping, tracking, and grouping alternatives" it made me think about how grouping students based on one specific ability is hurting students because a student is not going to struggle or excel the same way as their peer even if they do struggle or excel on one specific topic the same way. It made me realize the importance of individualizing lessons and learning paths in my classroom.

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I can't remember a time where we were split into groups based on ability for math, but I do remember it being done for english/language arts. I remember we would have reading quizzes that would split us into groups and each group would read different books. I remember some people judging others based on their groups, comparing books and bragging that their's was longer or more difficult. I also remember that when people realized the reading quizzes would determine groups, some people would do bad on purpose in hopes of getting easier books and less work. So all in all, the groupings probably weren't the most beneficial.

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The resources extended my thinking because I knew there were pros and cons to any way of grouping students. However you decide to do it there will be some things that are beneficial and some things that aren't, there's no perfect way to group students. It's interesting to see that ability grouping is still so common, I've seen it in the classrooms I've observed, even though it can cause so many problems.

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The resources really made me want to look further into how to group students. I have a lot of memories of being split based on ability for reading groups, and have seen it in classrooms, so I never really thought about just how many negative affects there are. I noticed some of the ways it could be problematic, but just figured the pros out weighed the cons. After seeing these resources, I no longer believe that. Grouping students based on their abilities can have long lasting negative effects.

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After watching this video I remember working at a school that thrived off ability grouping. They would take two test a year and after the results returned the students were placed in groups according to their ability level. I never agreed with this method because often time kids just select any answers when taking test. Which means the data is inaccurate! I also have witness a straight A student placed in a low level group just because of their performance on the test. Obviously in both situations you cant judge a students ability solely on how well they did on a test.

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A consistent peer support group or links group  would be a great supplement instead of student grouping. When students learn from there peers the outcome is greater. Instead of creating student ability groups, we should promote more peer groups that focus on whole academic/ personal health.

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Without a doubt I have changed my thinking about ability grouping. I challenge myself not to ever judge a students ability or create barriers. Instead, I will promote opportunities for children to develop as learners. I can start by differentiating instructions and implementing more peer groups.

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When I was in middle school the teachers used to separate the students with high level and mid-level. This really affected me and made me lose my self-esteem.
After listening to the podcast and read the article, I think as an educator I plan to look for ways to avoid grouping and I think the biggest challenge is that teachers randomly put students together into one group.

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Ability grouping is one that I relate to the most. Growing up in elementary, middle, and high school...everyone knows math is one of the hardest subjects. I specifically remember my 6th grade math teacher printing out different copies with different formulas, for different students. Some sheets had harder equations and some had easier equations. It was good for that student, because the worksheet was at their academic level...but it was also kind of off-putting, knowing that you may have gotten one of the easier sheets with easier problems.

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The video and resources were definitely an eye opener for me. We all did student grouping as kids...but after the readings and videos, I just kind of feel like it doesn't necessarily have to be a necessity. It's good to group the kids every so often, or even allow the students to choose their partners, for one on one work, but I don't think it HAS to be done. Just so that none of my students will ever feel less than.

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I read the "Myth of the Gifted Child". After reading this, it gave me a completely different mindset when it comes to the student(s) who may be doing better than the others. It's important to not completely dwell on the fact that they're doing really well, instead, I think it's good to try to figure out what can I do to get all of my other students on the same page.

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I feel like I connect to it in many ways. It reminded me of my middle school year. They used to put us in groups like the grouping structure. I struggled a lot when I was in that position for some reason. I did not like how we were in different groups because I would see the smart group and it did not feel good knowing that I was not placed there. It felt hard to deal with math and that I was not smart in it. This whole grouping structure made me think and believe that no matter what I do I would never excel in math and be part of the smart group.

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After watching the video I learned quite few things. Part of what I learned was that grouping structure can affect students in many ways. Seeing how I can connect to it and my feelings towards it made me realize how I should put my students in groups. I definitely believe that mixing up the students could be a great idea for them to learn from each other. They could teach one another. I also learned that having a small group could be beneficial.

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It definitely challenged my thinking by making me come up with idea of grouping structures. Got me thinking of ways of how to prevent my students of not experiencing what I have experienced and what have those students experienced in the video. This made me think really hard of if the students should be put in these groups and labeling them as high, middle, and low. I do not think I would do any of that. It is a process of thinking of what should I do in the future.