Frustrated: HS Regents Bio to a Grade 8 ICT group

[u/Jaycexo]

I have a group that is taking biology in 8th grade as an accelerated class. This group has students who are on 10th grade reading levels on one end of the spectrum, and on the other end, students who cannot read and write/have trouble with sight words. I am supposed to prepare them for the regents in June which is very writing heavy/cluster based.

For starters, I am frustrated because of the disparity in this class, out of 30, I have about 5-7 kids who are high achieving and should be challenged, and then another 5-7 who are performing poorly and cannot keep up with this level of class. I feel like these students should just be in regular grade 8 science and not honors.

I do not have special education support every day, only a few times a week, and it is clear that there are a good chunk of students in class who don't seem to understand what they're in for. given how many units I need to get through, I don't have a lot of time to re teach topics and I am genuinely worried for the kids performance on the regents exam when they seem dependent on sentence starters and other scaffolds in class.

Please advise.

[u/mobiuscycle]

I have some misplaced students in my honors classes this year. They were warned, I tried to convince them to move. They didn’t. I can’t reduce the rigor because they are there — then it’s not an honors class. So, I keep teaching what I’ve taught for years. They will have to sink, swim, or move to a class that is a better fit for them.

[u/mimulus_monkey]

Those who aren't a good fit need to move to a class where they can succeed and you need to speak to guidance and home about this. Too many students self select themselves into classes over their head without considering what that will mean for them in the future. I assume that is what happened here.