Grouping Students

how to group students

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Grouping Students by Mind Map: Grouping Students

1. How to make groups

1.1. You have to take into consideration different factors when you are deciding how to put students, if is going to be in gruops, pairs or by their own:

1.1.1. The task

1.1.1.1. if it requires a discussion (in groups), a comparison of their answers (in pairs) and so on...

1.1.2. Variety in a sequence

1.1.2.1. it will depend on how the activity fits into the lesson sequence we have been following.

1.1.3. The mood

1.1.3.1. the mood is set by the students (how you will be grouping them) based on their interaction.

1.1.4. Friendship

1.1.4.1. when putting students in pairs or in groups we have to make sure that we put friends with friends.

1.1.5. Streaming

1.1.5.1. the pairs or groups should have a mixture of weaker and stronger students.

1.1.6. Chance

1.1.6.1. in this category it does not matter if the students are friends or no. you pair them ramdomly.

1.1.7. Gender and status

1.1.7.1. In some contexts it may not be appropiate to have men and women working together, we also have to bear in mind the status of the individuals in their living outside the school.

1.1.7.2. at the end we should not always have students working wtih the same partners or group members.

2. Teacher behaviour

2.1. before

2.1.1. we want the students to follow an "engage-initiate" sequence. because they have to feel enthusiastic about what they are going to do.

2.1.2. the instructions will involve a DEMOSTRATION. The important thing is that the students should understand them.

2.2. during

2.2.1. we need to stand at the front or the side of the classs and keep an eye on what is happening.

2.2.2. other option is 'monitoring', here we go around the class to help them with the task.

2.3. after

2.3.1. when the students stop working we need to organise FEEDBACK. We'll let them discusss the class in order to make corrections.

3. Troubleshooting

3.1. Finishing first

3.1.1. to avoid this problem we have to have a series of challenging task-related extensions for early finishers. While we wait for the whole class to finish.

3.2. Awkward groups

3.2.1. in such situation we can stream groups or reorganise them in other ways so that all group members gain the most from the activity.

4. Types of sitting arrangement

4.1. Orderly rows

4.1.1. the teacher has a clear view of all the students

4.1.2. it allows the teacher to work with the whole class

4.2. Smaller groups

4.2.1. circle

4.2.1.1. the teacher will be where the board is situated (which is less dominating).

4.2.2. horseshoe

4.2.2.1. the teacher will be at the open end of the arrangement.

4.2.3. with these types of sitting arrangements the classroom is a more intimate place where students feel comfortable to share their experiences and emotions.

4.3. Separate tables

4.3.1. the teacher walks around cheking the students' work.

5. Use of different groupings

5.1. Students in their own

5.1.1. they work in a pattern of "individual learning", they do the exercises on their own.

5.2. Pairwork

5.2.1. students can write dialogues

5.2.2. they can predict the content of reading texts

5.2.3. they can compare notes on what they've listened to or seen.

5.3. Groupwork

5.3.1. students can write a group story or role-play a situation

5.3.2. they can prepare a presentation or discuss an issue.