Piedmont City School District – Differentiating Support for Students

We use a station-rotation model in our classrooms to allow more teacher-student interaction during teacher-led small groups. Teachers use various sources of data to help group students. Mostly, students are grouped with other students that are currently working on the same standard within the core class. This is because students are self-paced in a competency model, grouping within a class changes day to day. Other times, teachers group students heterogeneously to review skills for state testing standards.

We understand that all students, no matter what level they are at, need support from their teachers and other students. Students need to have more one-on-one with teachers to grow to their highest level.

Students deserve to receive more attention from teachers in their learning. In a whole group setting, students are lumped into one group and are not given the individualization that they need and deserve from their teachers. With use of teacher-led small groups, the student-teacher ratio is 5:1 as opposed as 25:1 in a whole class setting.

Students can get help from other students when needed and they are made to work together more often in this type of environment. On our overall ACT Aspire results for Piedmont Middle School, we had 10% growth in English, 26% growth in math, 38% growth in writing, 14% growth in reading, and 10% growth in science from the 2015 test to the 2016 test.

We have found that even in small group settings, there are many students that do not ask for help and they have to be prodded to see what areas need more focus.

Teachers have to leave their comfort areas of being the giver of all knowledge and give up some control of their classroom to work in the model.

Teachers must understand that it is easy to spend more time with lower performing students than the upper level students in a Station Rotation Model. Teachers have to remember that in a setting where your advanced students are able to accelerate their learning, they need as much small group time as other students because they can reach frustration levels as well.

How Mastery Learning is Empowering Students, Reshaping a Town – Piedmont, Alabama

Please contact Jerry Snow (jsnow@piedmont.k12.al.us).