Quote of the Week

Never say you are "just" a teacher. That's like saying Clark Kent is "just" Superman.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Effective Grouping, by Danielle Mercer, 7th grade Social Studies Teacher at West Wilson Middle School

How do you group your students?

Grouping has been a hot issue with teachers since I first began teaching 11 years ago.  In college I was always told to group by a student’s ability level, put the highest with the highest and the lowest with the lowest.  However, this made absolutely no sense to me.  Why would you put the lowest with the lowest? They are the ones that need help the most.

Over the course of my years of teaching I have found what works best for me is seating my students in groups of 3.  Depending on the class that I have at the time I seat my students accordingly.  For example, in an inclusion class, I would put the higher level student in the middle of the 3 seats this way they can help both students if needed.  No one knows why they are seated together, who the high or the low student is but everyone works well together.  At the beginning of the year this is hard to do without knowing your students first.  One of the best things to use is their TCAP data.  This gives you a good indication of a student’s performance. This is what works best for me, and I feel like it helps all students equally.

Here are some things that you can look out for in your own classroom when grouping students:
  • Consider your students common interests.
  • If assigning a project that will require them to work outside of the classroom, think of the students technology use at home.
  • Don’t avoid using group work, even if it does get loud!  My students know that when I turn the lights out they are immediately required to get quiet.  Come up with a signal before you start group work that will let the students know if they are getting too loud.  Students enjoy mixing it up and working with their peers.
  • Don’t use the same grouping method every time.

I would love to hear how you group your students!  What works best for you?

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