Random Post #2

I just wanted to talk a little bit about the things I saw in my classroom on my last visit. I know we talked about tracking in class recently with the Oakes article and I've seen some of the effects of it in my classroom. On the positive side, like Oakes says, the teacher in my class is helped out immensely by having different types of tracking groups and levels to be more organized in educating her students best. She can read at different levels and gear different sorts of questions and assignments to her kids when she spends time with these separated groups.

However, I think there is a greater downside to the tracking. I heard many comments from some of the higher level kids directed towards the kids tracked at the lower levels. They make fun of them for being at a lower reading level. This does terrible damage to the lower kid's self-esteem. This feeling that the children get from the lack of self esteem isn't the only downside that I see. I see kids in the lower levels just stay at the levels they are at. They are not challenging themselves and more importantly, the teacher is not challenging them. The lower level kids are getting the short end of the stick in the process of tracking I believe. As much as there are positives in tracking, I believe the downsides that I've seen and Oakes talks about outweigh the positives.