The Organized Classroom Magazine February 2014 | Page 19
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