Scenarios

__**Scenario Activity**__

**Directions**: Take 1 minute to use your prior knowledge to write a definition for each of the three types of grouping listed on your notecards. Next, for each grouping scenario, decide whether you think the example is referencing flexible grouping, ability/aptitude grouping or cooperative grouping strategies. Display the appropriate notecard for your choice. Be prepared to discuss your choices and reasonings with the class.


 * Scenario 1: **

Ms. Smith is dividing her fifth grade class into five groups for language centers. At different stations, students will have to complete activities such as fluency reading, summarizing, defining and finding connections for words, and guided reading. Using the data from the students' DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), she has created groups for them based on their proficiency levels. For the most part, the students stay in these groups for the year unless they show great progress.


 * Scenario 2: **

Mr. Sheldon is having his third grade students create projects to reflect their learning about their recent scientific exploration of the solar system. He asks the students to get into three different groups: each group may focus on whatever part of the solar system they would like to and portray their information in whatever way they choose. Different groups choose to design posters, work on short skits, create acrostics or make short rhyming songs.


 * Scenario 3: **

Ms. Bankson has just finished teaching her fourth grade students a unit on long division. She notices that some students are still struggling on the concept, while others seem to have grasped it completely. She divides the students into different groups. To one group she hands a worksheet with four advanced long-division word problems, and tells them to complete it alone or with the help of other group members. Another group receives division flashcards and is encouraged to use estimation to continue familiarizing themselves with the concept of dividing a whole into multiple parts. The next group joins her at the Smart Board for a restructured version of the previous lesson in order to scaffold to skills that haven't been mastered yet.