Individualized Language Arts in the Middle Grades

Author(s): Mallie Slater

Source: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Dec., 1973), pp. 253-256
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Literacy Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20193467
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Individualized
language arts in the

middle grades
MALLIE SLATER

chanicsprocedures
for carrying out
PROPER
andindime

vidualized instruction in the ele

mentary classroom are not only
necessary for the success of the
program, but they may provide the

child with a new view of his own

competency as a person and as a
learner.

Frequently pupils become insecure

and hesitant when they experience for

the first time the flexibility and

freedom of an individualized learning

situation. Without the firm structure

of teacher-led lessons, they may

flounder and lose confidence in their

ability to progress. The child may

feel that since everyone is doing
something different, no one really

knows or values what he is learn

ing, or indeed if he is learning at all.

Evaluating only himself and "ad

Instructor at Florida State

University, the author has
published poetry and is now
writing a book on mythology.

vancing at his own pace," he loses his

reference points, and the landmarks

along the road of his "own ability

level" may become obscured in the

mist.

For these reasons, it is important

to organize procedures in such a way
that the child may profit not only

from the content of the program, but

from its structure.

Paradoxically, individualized pro

grams often reduce feelings of indi

viduality because of the lessened op
portunities for group recognition.
Even though the teacher may have a
number of personal contacts with the
child, it is not the teacher in the upper

elementary school with whom the

child wishes primarily to have

interaction, but his peers.

The following describes the opera

tional dilemmas faced by a teacher
253

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with thirty children to whom she begin, a testing program should be

teaches reading, English, spelling, implemented. The tests administered
and writing. (If the teacher is should reveal as clearly as possible

working in a departmentalized situa

tion, the number of students will
double. If she is not working in a de
partmentalized setting, she will be
responsible for other subjects as well
as language arts.)

How does one prepare to indi

each child's abilities and needs.

During this period of preparation all

the materials that the class will have

available should be demonstrated,

explained, and sampled thoroughly.

Practice copies of the assignment

sheet should be given to the children,

vidualize instruction? Three or four and the names of the books and ma
weeks before individualization is to terials listed on it should be matched
Photo by James Smiley

254 The Reading Teacher December 1973

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up with the materials themselves so How is it possible to account for so

that the child will be able to identify many assignments? Faced with
them easily.
checking, evaluating, recording, and
Discussions should be held with the filing forty-five or fifty different lan

class to explain the reasons for the

new program and efforts should be

made to use an approach that will

result in acceptance and, if possible,
enthusiasm for a new way of doing
things.

How does a teacher assign work

on an individual basis? With test

results at hand and a personal

knowledge of each student, the
teacher should fill out the student's

first assignment sheet, "prescrip

tion," or "contract."
The assignment sheet consists of a
detailed list of the books, booklets,
kits, programed lessons, workbooks,
basal readers, and other materials the
student will use. These listings should

be grouped under headings which

might be as follows: Study Skills,

Decoding, Processing, and En

richment, or any other categories

that describe the class resources.

Directions at the top of the sheet

show how the assignments will be

designated. There is also a place for

the assignment sheet number, the

student's name, the date the assign

ments are made, and the date they

are completed.

Generally, the student should be

assigned (or later, assign to himself)

minimum work to be done each week

in each category. However, this

practice should not be followed
slavishly, as individuals may have

guage arts papers each day, a teacher

quickly sees that merely ferreting out
keys for so many answers is virtually

impossible, to say nothing of giving

the student any meaningful feedback.

As a classroom teacher this writer

has found that in the majority of

cases it is desirable for the student to

become his own accountant, and

furthermore, it is a practical ne
cessity that he do so.

But student accounting must be in

dividualized too! The teacher must

let him know that she is well ac
quainted with his modus operandi
and that it is acceptable.

To accomplish this, weekly con

ferences should be set up for each

child. Students A, B, C, D, E, and F

may have conferences with the

teacher on Monday, another six on
Tuesday and so on through the week.

The student is expected to present the

work he has done the past week,

papers clipped together with the

assignment sheet on top. Each paper

should be labeled as to its source. He
will have filled in scores and other
necessary information beforehand.
With the student participating, the
teacher goes over his whole program,

discussing any matters that seem

pertinent.

If the student is using prepared

answer sheets that come with many

reading materials, or if he is re

proficiency in certain areas and thus

cording answers in a special booklet,

them. Some students can easily make

use of the option to create their own

other papers are stapled to the

not require weekly experience in

these are returned to him, but all

assignments (or part of them) and

assignment sheet for the student to

file in a specified place. These files

provided.

ference time.

child provide specified times for

either by the student or by the

write them on the sheet in the space

Weekly conferences with each

student and teacher to rethink jointly

the direction and progress taking

place.

are very valuable at parent con

A new assignment sheet is marked,

teacher, and the student is then ready

for another week's work. The sheet

should be punched with three holes so

S LATE R : Individualized language arts 255

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the student may keep it in his note

book. The teacher keeps a record of
the work done by simply marking a
page in an ordinary grade book into
squares of a size convenient to write
in assignment numbers and the dates
of beginning and completing them.

and so forth, but such classifications,

although valuable and necessary,

have little dynamism and remain
rather academic. It seems more to
the point to describe the develop

mental traits of the elementary child.

The six to twelve year old lives in

Each student will need a separate the age of industriousness wherein he

page.

Placement of materials so that

thirty children can reach them is a

problem that has to be solved in

terms of the physical facilities.
Window ledges, tables against the
walls, and open topped shelves are
the best locations for kits. Booklets

and workbooks can be grouped with

them in labeled boxes. Answer keys

should be made available in logical

places, and in a short time the

students will be able to find what they

need on their own. Students will

quickly see how important it is to re

place each piece of material they use
so that others will be able to find it.

Noise and movement must be kept

to a level suitable for study and

concentration.
There are a number of other dilem

mas to be faced in individualizing

instruction, and the foregoing sug
gestions do not attempt to come to
grips with them. What will be done

about grading? How will scope and

sequence of skills be monitored?
What about motivation?
Not every child will be "turned

on" by having his own personal

is beginning to turn his back on home

and parents and reach out for tasks

that he can do, things he can produce,

proof that he is a separate person ca

pable of doing something. The worst
thing an elementary child can learn is

that he is inferior or inadequate. The

best thing he can learn is that he is
competent. Childhood ends with ele
mentary school and before puberty
arrives he must know that he is not

weak and powerless, confused and

ignored.

An eleven year old sixth grader,

still reading on primary levels, can

obtain and develop a sense of

competence by mastering the

mechanics proposed here. With

multilevel reading going on all
around him, his sense of accom
plishment is just as keen as that of the

advanced reader because he can

pursue the program with just as much

sophistication as anyone else.

Every student using this system

can develop initiative; learn to take

care of papers; maneuver a paper clip
onto a set of papers he has stacked in
the sequence the work appears on the

program. The weekly conference will

assignment sheet; use a calendar to

however, and will help to some extent

mark the length of time taken to get

the job done; increase his precision by

provide a definite checkpoint,

in encouraging each student to meet

his responsibilities. This checkpoint
will also insure the teacher's paying
attention to each child.

matching up assignments and ma

terials, labeling papers, and inter
preting graphic symbols. He can
learn to file, to "order," to feel

benefits from the structure of the

of a workable future. He will sense

program as well as from its content?

his autonomy and see evidence of his

What are some of the child's

The growth of children in a

classroom can always be labeled in

tellectual, cognitive, affective, social,

satisfied about himself as a possessor

productiveness, benefits that may

well equal or outweigh his gains in
language proficiency.

256 The Reading Teacher December 1973

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