Here's a discussion starter. I find that my classes, which are homogeneously grouped by ability for reading and math, respond differently to WBT. My "higher" achieving students seem to act as if I'm talking down to them when I use WBT. However my "lower" achieving students eat it up! They absolutely love it. I'm wondering if I need to adjust my approach with WBT for these different classes. Has anyone had this happen to them? Any suggestions? Our plan for next year is to heterogeneously group because we believe WBT is the equalizer that will allow us to reach all ability levels at once.
p.s. I teach 6th grade.

My students are grouped both ways, I have groups of 4, two low students and two high students. The high students are even numbered and low students are odds and every group is numbered 1-4.

When I have them teach I use the following combinations:

1. Evens teach! (Both evens teach to their odd partner, I use this for tougher topics, to give the high level students a chance to actually explain to the low level student)
2. Odds teach! (I let odds teach first when we are reviewing, or on simpler concepts)
3. Everyone teach! (Everyone is talking at the same time)
4. 1's and 2's teach! (This partners homogeneously, so that one odd and one even are teaching)

I teach 7th grade and it took no time at all for them to get used to the partnering and numbering. I mark their desks with numbers, and they have no concpet of the even/odd system. Sometimes they have to remind me to tell them who is supposed to teach first.

I teach a highly inclusive (gifted, SPED, EIP, and general ed) 3rd grade class. It may be because they are in a lower grade, but they all respond very well to WBT. I am glad you brought up that poing. When I get a different group next year, there could be the potential for this!

I started about three weeks ago with my (heterogeneous) third-graders. I've found that some students are liking it more than others (though in general they all like it), but this doesn't seem to be determined by ability level. The two students that love it the most are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

I do agree with your plan to go heterogeneous, for the exact reasons that SReevesTX cites. Grouping partners with students of other ability levels has worked great for me. I don't put my highest with my lowest, but rather my highest with my exact middle, my second highest with the student below that middle, and so on (obviously ranking them this way is an oversimplification, but it works fine for determining partners).

Finally, re: SReevesTX, I started out with 1s and 2s in a similar way (1s high and 2s low), but don't actually use it much. I use Switch instead. If I give a difficult topic, the 1s are more likely to start anyway, and if the 2 starts instead, all the better! Switch makes sure that no matter the difficulty of your discussion topic, all the students are talking.