Stephen van Vlack
Sookmyung Women`s University
Graduate School of TESOL
Teaching Reading
Week 11 - Answers
Optiz (1998), Chapters 3, 4 and 5
1. In what way can groups be flexible?
The basic idea behind flexible grouping is that we need different groups for different purposes. There is little efficiency and very little effect of the students are always in the same group because they are supposed to be doing different things. Based on a very simple idea that in reading we want to do not only various things with texts but we also want to have varying types of texts, then a flexible type of grouping system makes absolute sense. For each different task, for each different text we create new and different groups. In this way the students can benefit the most through their different interactions, provided the groups are constructed carefully.
There are several the variables we need to consider when we make our groups flexible. The first of these involves creating different groups based on different considerations or techniques. These can include such variables as the students achievement, their social nature, their area of interest, the task itself as well as the specific knowledge of the students related to the topic area. It should be clear from this that within the same lesson and within the same class we might have dealing with different texts. This of course is the ultimate in flexibility and of course allows us to make more efficient use, particularly in the face of classes with a great amount of diversity in the student population regarding proficiency. In order to do this we also need to know very carefully not only about the students but also about the tasks that were having them engage in and what is required in those tasks.
Another element of flexibility involves our own teaching. As they are having the students engage in a reading task, again depending on the task itself and goals, we are probably not going to be teaching it in exactly the same way, or at least we shouldn`t. So the lesson here is that we not only had to be flexible in grouping students but as we group the students differently for each reading task we also need to vary our teaching techniques and procedures.
Within a given lesson we might also want to change groups. As we change the task itself the groups should also change. Your students do not have to sit in the same group for the whole class simply because you have put them in that group initially. While it might take time at first to get the students use to the idea of getting up and moving around, and you might actually need to practice how you go about doing this, it is something he can be done efficiently once you and the students are used to it.
The last element of this overall flexibility should be crystal clear to us and that is the basic idea that we need to use a variety of different tasks as well as texts. In the classroom there needs to be a marriage between task, text, and the group which is going to be dealing with the first two elements. This is how we make our teaching not only effective but also efficient.
2. What is the optimal size for flexible groups?
When deciding on group size for flexible grouping we can use the same basic determinants that we use for grouping students in general. The first to consider relation to size is to make sure that all the students are going to participate. It is clear that the larger the group the easier it is to hide inside that group. Therefore, the smaller the group the better. So, pairs are nice because obviously everybody is going to be busy all the time, but the interactions can be more limited. Also, from a practical perspective the teachers going to have to work much, much harder monitoring each of the pairs. For this reason groups of three or four are often deemed optimal with six being possible (depending of course on the students in the group) but really only at the upper Limit.
3. How often should the groups change?
There is no specific time related to how long a group should stay together. It is obviously up to the task that they are engaged in. Also, as was mentioned above even within a larger task or reading project which has several subtasks the group may change at the subtask level rather than at the larger project level. So, really it all depends.
4. How are books selected for flexible grouping?
Selecting books for not only flexible grouping but teaching in general is always a difficult task. What is most striking about Optiz`s reading level list is the basic idea that even at the most challenging level students need to recognize 90% of the vocabulary in the text. I guess this means that the reading we have our students do would be super mega challenging. So in reality every reading that we usually do with our students is way beyond the instructional level. Yikes! After introducing these three basic levels even goes on to introduce 10 other concerns which we can use to help us select the right types of books. But the most of these pretty straightforward and are obviously things that you`ve either thought about reporting talked about in this class.
Determine the range of reading levels in the class
Determine student`s interests
Choose books you like too
Consider readability
Consider language features
Look at illustrations and format
Think variety
Think multicultural
Consider literary elements
Choose groups that relate to your curriculum goals
5. How can you teach your students to select their own books?
For both this is as well as your summer reading you have become familiar with the idea that you need to get your students to select their own books. This of course is easier said than done. Some students will pick books weigh about their level so they can compete with other higher-level students. This is dangerous because they are in effect dooming themselves to failure. The important thing you need to do here is first let students be aware of their own reading level. They need to be where we really what they can do. The second thing you need to do is make your students aware that it`s OK to read books that are fun and easy. Encourage them to feel comfortable in choosing books that interest them and not books that they think they need to read. Eliminating or at least diminishing the overly competitive spirit in your classroom may be a very important aspect of actually getting the students to wisely choose books that really do so at their level. In addition to this giving them some of the simple rules and charts (questionnaires) Optiz presents can be very useful in helping students do something that they are not used to doing.
Personally, I really like the idea of having the students set up or determine guidelines regarding their own problems or actions when reading as a way of determining which level the book might fall into. Students themselves need to get a feel for what they are doing as they read a book. As they struggling, stumbling? How well do they understand and of course this can only be determined by thinking about explaining it to others. Have the students make their own personal chart of different books and their relative difficulty. Of course to make such a chart by themselves requires actual experience reading books or other more different types of reading material. Students need to be able to feel, categorize and record differences in their reading related to different texts.
6. How do we set goals for our reading program?
Even though reading is one of the major areas in Korean English education currently it seems that there are not clear goals that teachers use. Surely the Ministry of Education must have specific reading/literacy goals set up for each school year which teachers can make use of. It seems that though these goals must undoubtably exist, teachers find them hard to follow or implement. For teachers working at independent languages institutes or cram schools there are often no real guidelines or goals set up. So, really most of us are on our own in setting up goals and guidelines for our student`s more holistic literacy development.
7. How can we ensure that all students will be successful in their groups?
Flexibility is the key to ensuring success in all students, regardless of their level.
The three different stages Optiz (1998) gives us as a way of improving how the students deal with the reading should be nothing new to us. The specific techniques he gives for each of the three phases can be useful depending on our classroom situation.