TEXT B We find that bright
children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both
their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel that there are many
disadvantages in streaming pupils. It does not take into account the fact that
children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect on both the bright
and the not-so-bright children. After all, it can he quite discouraging to he at
the bottom of the top grade! Besides, it is rather unreal to
grade people just according to their intellectual ability. This is only one
aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of
all our pupils to the full, not just their academic ability. We also value
personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching
contributes to all these aspects of learning. In our classroom,
we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the
opportunity to learn to cooperate, to share, and to develop leadership skills.
They also learn how to cope with personal problems as well as learning how to
think, to make decisions, to analyze and evaluate, and to communicate
effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the
teacher. Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work
on individual tasks and assignments, and they can do this at their own speed.
They also have some formal class teaching when this is appropriate. We encourage
our pupils to use the library, and we teach them the skills they need in order
to do this effectively. An advanced pupil can do advanced work: it does not
matter what age the child is. We expect our pupils to do their best, not their
least, and we give them every encouragement to attain this goal. The author’s purpose of writing this passage is to______.
A.argue for teaching bright and not-so-bright students in the same class B.recommend pair work and group work for classroom activities C.offer advice on the proper use of the library D.emphasize the importance of formal classroom teaching