We had some success with the idea that Andy suggests.  Because our students were placed according to CASAS listening scores, we had varying degrees of literacy within a class.  During the first week of class we gave the students a writing evaluation based on the writing skills in the Maryland Content Standards. We then regrouped the students for the last 45 or 50 minutes of the three-hour class to work on writing.  My favorite anecdote from this program came from a student who had placed into the intermediate level for listening but into the first literacy level for writing.  He refused to be regrouped.  He came to me well into the year asking to change into the literacy writing class because he could see that the students in that class then wrote better than he did. He changed and saw his own writing skills improve as well.
Kathryn Quinn

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Andy Nash" <andy_nash at worlded.org>

> Hi,

> This issue of mixed literacy levels in one class may be better addressed by 

> program-level solutions rather than instructional ones. One strategy I've seen 

> is to organize half the class hours by literacy level and half by oral 

> proficiency level. That means that the students regroup so that for each time 

> slot they are working with peers at a similar level. 

> 

> Andy Nash

> 

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