Tracking: Why schools need to take another route
By: Jeannie Oakes

QUOTES

"Perhaps as important as student's access to knowledge are critical instructional conditions in their classrooms, that is, the quantity of time spent on learning and the quality of the teaching" (178).
This quote is relevant because as future teachers and educators we have to realize how important our job is, not just to us but to the students. It is our duty as teachers to lead these students to a successful future. This quote is mentioned in the section on Uneven Opportunities and I think it is crucial that we recognize the opportunities that we create for every child and how every child seems to have different opportunities depending on their abilities.
"Creating constructive alternatives to tracking presents technical as well as political problems. Despite promising research findings about heterogeneous grouping, little is likely to be accomplished by simply mixing students up. To be effective, alternatives will probably require fundamental" (179). This quote is relevant also to the fact that we will be teachers and educators and we have to adapt to the changes that occur all the time with the tracking systems and testing alternatives. Tracking as positive and negative affects and can lead to many issues as well as many successes, for the children and the system. I think tracking pressures students to do better but it also makes them feel too pressured and eventually they don't care where they stand. Personally I did not like having a rank in my class because it made me feel poorly if I were below.
"Some rules of thumb can help teachers judge whether the lessons they plan are likely to help students of all ability levels succeed" (180).
Another aspect of teaching that we will have to get accustomed to is creating lesson plans and making sure they work for all types of students. This is a difficult task because it is difficult to figure out what type of lessons work for every student and we have to adjust and accommodate to all the needs of the students. It is helpful to have a student teacher in the classroom at the same time so they can work with students individually on certain subjects that they have issues with.

Points to bring up in class: Although this article was mainly discussing the differences in abilities in students and how different classrooms and teachers accommodate many different students, I want to know the opinions of my classmates of how they plan on working in the system.

I have posted a video about a teacher assigning seats, what do you guys think about it?!

  https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/assign-classroom-seats