The Organized Classroom Magazine February 2014

Teach Me Student Groupings By Gretchen Schultek VISIT US ONLINE WWW.ORGANIZEDCLASSROOM.COM Photo Credits: bmcent1, iStock Photo There are many schools of thought on how to group students. In the ﬁrst few years of my teaching career, I grouped students in even pods with 50% girls and 50% boys. At the Fme I thought this was my best a]empt at behavior management. As I grew as a teacher I realized my groupings did not support instrucFon. I learned a be]er way to group students in four based on their ability: High, Medium High, Medium Low, Low Students learn a great deal from their peers and this grouping style allows each group member to learn from one another. You might think the “high” student has no one to learn from because they are the strongest learner in this group. However, many Fmes “high” students look right to an answer or come to a conclusion and skip through all the thinking in-‐ between. This is where the lower learners who ofen Fmes learn in progressive chunks can ﬁll in the gap and expand on the thinking. Now the “high” learner is be]er able to explain their idea or strategy because their peers helped them ﬁll in the blanks. Ofen Fmes, the “low” learner looks at things in a completely diﬀerent way than their peers. Now students are sharing mulFple strategies and cogniFve processes, thus strengthening their knowledge base on a topic. Win-‐Win! I also like to place students in groups for acFviFes in a fun way. Instead of saying “Group A” and “Group B” or “Group 1″₺ and “Group 2,” I like to give groups names. Or I will

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