Cluster Classroom Grouping Model

What is the Cluster Classroom Grouping Model?

It is a method for providing full-time gifted education services without major budget implications and with the potential to raise achievement for all students.

In this model, all students are purposely placed into classrooms based on their abilities, potential, or achievement.

Gifted Cluster Classrooms – Numbers of classes per grade levelNumbers of classes

per grade level2 - 34 - 56 - 8

Number of giftedcluster classrooms

needed• 1• 1 – 2• 2 – 3

Example of Classroom Composition for Cluster Model School(source: The Cluster Grouping Handbook by, Susan Winebrenner, M.S. & Dina Brulles, Ph.D.)

Looking at FUSD’s TAG history & Pilot Implementation of the Cluster Classroom ModelSince my employment in this district (2004 to the

end of the 2008-2009 school year each elementary school provided a 1 hour/week pull out program for TAG students using teachers hired to teach this class)

Budgetary concerns necessitated the removal of TAG teacher positions at the end of the 2008 – 2009 school year

Starting district wide – In July 2009 representatives from each school were trained to be Differentiation Instruction trainers at each of their schools – this training took place throughout the district during the 2009 – 2010 school year

Looking at FUSD’s TAG history & Pilot Implementation of the Cluster Classroom Model (continued)During the 2009 – 2010 school year, each school in the

district scheduled time for the DI (Differentiation Instruction) trainers to review differentiation instruction strategies that can be used in their classrooms

Starting in the 2009 – 2010 school year and currently continuing – TAG services are administered at varying times and in varying ways based on individual elementary school sites:RTI time (enrichment activities/studies)Teachers establishing a routine enrichment time in their

class or at their grade levelPrograms such as Master MindTeachers using DI strategies more consistently in their

classrooms

Differentiation InstructionStudent focused learning – developing

independent learners Student paced learning (challenging

advanced learners ---’buying time’ for struggling learners)

Use of collaborative flexible student grouping – interest, ability, teacher directed heterogeneous grouping

CompactingExtension menusIndependent study projects

Looking at FUSD’s TAG history & Pilot Implementation of the Cluster Classroom Model (continued)The Cluster Classroom was a model that I

became interested in two years ago and I took the initial training with Dina Brulles Gifted Coordinator of the Paradise Valley School District

Visited the program in PhoenixLooked for district principals and volunteer

teachers to pilot this program- resulting in Marshall, DeMiguel, Cromer, and Knoles

Many teachers participating in this pilot received training on March 2, 2010, May 7, 2010, and May 12, 2010. In addition a few of the teachers went to a DI training institute over the summer

Looking at FUSD’s TAG history & Pilot Implementation of the Cluster Classroom Model (continued)School year 2010 – 2011 participating cluster classroom

pilot schools, Cromer, DeMiguel, Knoles, MarshallSupport and additional training in the 2010 – 2011 school

year:9/24/10 – workshop on teaching skills that will assist in

setting up a thinking- centered classroom for gifted learners (fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration skills)

10/29/10 – workshop on Independent Project Based Learning

01/14/11– workshop on developing common assessmentsTo be arranged – book study/discussion on DI strategiesDay visit to a cluster classroom in the Phoenix areaSIOP coach support of teachers implementing this pilot

What it means to place students into cluster groups

A group of gifted identified students is clustered into a mixed ability classroom with a teacher who is trained to differentiate for gifted students

Cluster Grouping Classroom Model allows:

Critical elements of effective gifted programsFlexible groupingDifferentiationContinuous progressIntellectual peer interactions

(Program elements identified by Barbara Clark)

Perception that cluster grouping is the same as trackingNO – In tracking, students are grouped

into classrooms with others of similar ability and these students remain together throughout their school years. Curriculum is based on the ability levels of the students in each track.

Clustering students – classes arranged this way have students with a range of abilities. Teachers modify or extend grade level standards according to student needs and abilities. The classroom composition changes each year.

?: Why should gifted students be placed in a cluster group instead of being assigned to all classes?Gifted Students:

Need to spend time learning with others of like ability to experience challenge and make academic progress

Better understand their learning differences when they are with learning peers

Teachers are more likely to differentiate curriculum when there is a group of gifted students

?: Won’t the creation of a cluster group rob the other classes of academic leadership?Looking at the earlier slide regarding the

distribution chart of students there are either gifted or high achieving students in every class; therefore, all classes have academic leaders

Gifted students do not make the best academic leaders because they make intuitive leaps, and therefore do not always appear to have to work as hard as others

High average students have new opportunities to become academic leaders

?: Can I create small groups of gifted students in all classes?The desired outcomes of the Cluster

Classroom Model become diminished because:

All teachers have the full range of abilities in their classrooms

There is less accountability for teachers to facilitate progress of their gifted learners

Providing teacher training becomes difficult

Example of Academic Effects of Cluster Grouping in the area of Math (source: The cluster Grouping Handbook by, Susan Winebrenner, M.S. & Dina Brulles, Ph.D.)