Heterogeneous Grouping: Research and Rockademix Support It!

Though classrooms tend to be made up of very different students, most teaching materials and curricula don’t meet the needs of a wide range of kids. To make up for this, teachers often create leveled work for their students, resulting in lots of extra hours of teacher prep time, planning, and consideration. I taught first through sixth grades in elementary school for fifteen years, and my teaching colleagues and I always wished we had something that would meet the needs of all kids and promote total class engagement. Teachers are also not typically provided with resources that help integrate technology, music, art, collaboration, and movement.

To meet all of these needs, I am working with a diverse team of educators, historians, artists, musicians, and tech experts to create the Rockademix program. Rockademix is being created with all children in mind. It does not target high or low achievers, students from a particular socio-economic background, or kids from particular backgrounds or ethnicities. Rockademix takes learning a step further and can even be effectively used in multi-grade classrooms.

I know this because for the last 10 months I have been using Rockademix with a group of twenty kids, ages 5-11, who meet twice weekly after school. We’ve got kids in the Rockademix “test group” who read at a 7th grade level, while others are learning their first words! Meeting the needs of this extraordinarily diverse group of students has forced our team to create a program that works for all kids. Furthermore, this “test group” class has operated under a no-strings-attached policy where kids of any age and ability can attend the class for free. So, if it wasn’t or isn’t awesome at any point, they simply wouldn’t be coming back week after week.

Because accommodations and adaptations have already been created and tried, any teacher can use Rockademix, and every student can benefit. Rather than fear a diverse group because of the work often involved to meet their varied needs and interests, Rockademix makes learning come alive, creating excitement and interest for all students. No matter how diverse your class may be, Rockademix works, and that’s something to be excited about!
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