Abstract:

In this primary school, 150 students participate to our study. Many of them experience learning difficulties, especially in reading. The regular classroom teachers and the learning specialist wanted to innovate and develop a project that favoured the integration of students with learning difficulties to regular classes. The project should also develop the students’ reading level of competence. The objective was to base the pedagogical interventions on research results and, thus, be able to collaborate with the scientific community while improving the pedagogical practices. One key element was the pedagogical differentiation because it respects the student’s learning style and confronts them to learning challenges. The integration of students with learning difficulties in regular classes improves their success in school (Bear & Proctor, 1990). However, it entails a great challenge to the teachers of regular classes (Meese, 2001). The difficulties these students face in the different disciplinary skills, such us reading, writing and mathematics, calls for a reaction and an innovation of the school (Dubé, 2007). It is thus vital to establish a link between the research and the practice so that the education community can benefit from the results of research projects (Buysse, Sparkman & Wesley, 2003). The flexible grouping seems to enhance the skill development of students with learning difficulties when it is associated to a structured teaching program (Gullatt & Lofton, 1998; Baumgartner et al., 2003; Khun, 2004; Castle et al. 2005). Empiric studies results show that explicit teaching could be particularly successful for students with learning difficulties (Rosenshine, 1986; Beckman, 2002; Swanson & Deschler, 2003; Gauthier et al., 2004). The structures were differentiated by regrouping the students in subgroups which respected their needs on a half-day per week basis. A mixed method was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The teachers and the specialist wrote a weekly journal (Van der Maren, 1987) to let traces of the component skill “read literary texts”. The journal also registered the modifications made to the subgroups. In order to evaluate the progress of the students’ skills development, two reading tasks were conducted for all the participant students (n=150); the first one was held at the beginning of the school year (September), and the last one at the end (May). The results showed that the students with severe learning difficulties developed their writing skills while performing complex but differentiated tasks in their own subgroups. As they had fewer students, they allowed them to participate more actively and to have a more direct interaction with the educator. The integration of students with difficulties was favoured because all the school students participated in the activities proposed and they all did it simultaneously in order to participate to an education community where the school participants differentiated the tasks respecting each student’s level of competence. The differentiation of structures via the flexible grouping has positive effects on the development of the competence “to read literary texts”. It should be noted that the subgroups of needs must be constantly reconfigured according to the students’ specific needs and the progress they make; thus, the name “flexibles grouping”.

Keywords:

Reading, primary school, learning difficulties, teaching, flexible grouping.