“Students generally have an idea of the relative competence of each of their classmates in important subjects like reading and math acquired from listening to their classmates perform, from hearing the teacher’s evaluation of that performance, and from finding out each others' marks and grades. They usually can, if asked, place each of their classmates in a rank order of competence in reading and math. This ranking forms an academic status order in the classroom” (Cohen, 28-29).
This quote really resonated with me for two different reasons. First, throughout my entire education (from elementary school through college) I can remember being able to put my peers in this academic status order. When my teachers placed students in groups, I can remember thinking “Oh no, I’m with him…that means I’m going to have to do everything.” Second, I found this quote to be so fascinating because I’ve already noticed students in my first grade classroom ranking each other in an academic status order. Specifically, we have books placed in leveled bins (red, green, orange, yellow) which vary in difficulty. The other day I heard one student who was picking books from the green bin tease a student picking books from the red bin, saying “Look how easy those are. Those are baby books!” So already, at 5 and 6 years old, students are beginning to compare and rank themselves academically among their peers. Overall, this academic status order is an unfortunate and real part of our classrooms. It especially comes into play when working in groups, as the perceived “expert” in the group will likely influence and dominate over the entire group (Cohen, 29). To combat this, I like the idea of assigning particular roles for each group member (i.e. recorder-responsible for writing, reporter- shares to class, etc.) to ensure that every student has the opportunity to participate! Overall, now that I am aware of the academic status order which is already developing in my classroom, I can talk with my mentor teacher about ways to address it and ultimately limit its impact.
I understand exactly what you mean! I have seen that happening in my classroom as well. Growing up, I never remembered this happening as much as I see it now. I do not see it yet when it comes to reading because we do not have guided reading yet, but I can see it in other subjects. It would be interesting to know though how to address that problem and find a way to make students feel more comfortable. I would find it interesting that in a book club group, if students were to choose their own book out of a group of 5 choices if it would be as noticeable to other students. This could also start problems though as well because student would know what books are being chosen. The only benefit to this would be for students to be the ones picking the books rather than being assigned. This is something I feel that students and teachers will be facing for a long period of time until a better method is found.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading your response to the quote you picked, I of course read the quote. I thought the same thing…about how I had always put my classmates in academic status order as well. I remember thinking the exact same thing about how if I was put in with certain people that I would be doing most of the work, or they would be just a distraction. This shows that if we as teachers can help stop this from the start, all our students might benefit greatly! I like the idea you mentioned about assigning particular roles for each group member. I feel that this could help “combat” as you stated, all the ranking of status in the classroom. I also read in the article of making each student an “expert” at something. This is similar to assigning roles, but additionally gives each student the feeling of power and importance over their particular expertise. Not only will each student have the opportunity to participate but each student would also realize that there are some things that someone else can be an expert at, while they might be an expert of something different!
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