To Bee or Not to Bee.

School is a competitive climate. Grades and tests and scores and awards are all designed to show who's best and who's not. My self-appointed challenge is to keep my class as competition free as possible while still grading, testing, scoring, and awarding.  

To stress personal successes over class or school scores, I manufacture individualized assignments and assessments. I develop rubric grading scales that are tailored for the ability levels of the particular child. I have portfolios of each child's work throughout the year so progress can be mapped and achievements concretely demonstrated. I also manipulate the lessons I give 'whole class', so that students with varied learning strengths have opportunities to comprehend the concepts being addressed. This is NOT as time-consuming or unwieldy as it might sound.  

I am mandated to use specific curriculum in my classroom that the district provides. These materials are often out of reach for my special needs students, who might be 3 or 4 grade levels below the texts and worksheets supplied. Adapting lessons has become second nature, as it is the only way I can deliver the information required and address the state's age-level standards for testing. I create my own supplemental materials, as well as employing games as part of instructional delivery.

Games and sports at school are competitive the same way grades are, as there are winner and losers. Over the years I have manufactured ways to present and score games so each child is a winner. Working together as groups is one way I can assist their success. I place students in teams so that their individual strengths can build their group strength. I want the students to experience team-building, not player eliminations!

There are weekly word searches with concept or vocabulary words I have chosen (see the blog titled SPELL IT OUT). I arrange the students in table groups with a mixed ability level, and let them help each other find and highlight the hidden words. Each member of the table group needs to have all the words crossed out in order to be finished. This gives students experience with helping and being helped. There are weekly hang-man games with the same words, and I pair up students for those games with mixed abilities - supplying struggling spellers with their word list so they may better play the game. There is also a weekly spelling bee in my class. For the bee, I will choose students with closely matched abilities for the rounds so there is not blatant disparity in their levels. I start with the smallest, most easily spelled words and move into the more difficult ones. The class is so accustomed to playing while learning, and helping as well as receiving help, that competition does not pose a threat or cast a cloud over the classroom. After days of playing with their weekly words, the students are assured and confident by their test dates on Friday. It's a WIN/WIN situation!