Flexible Grouping

“A single instructional response to a group of diverse learners often means that the teaching technique will help some while it ignores others”,?(Ford, 2005, p.1).

Grouping in a classroom needs to follow the psychology of the group. We can never say ‘here is a perfect strategy’. The perfect approach is the capacity to adapt the plan to suit the need. It requires being mindful, be able to swiftly switch the approach and focus on the learner. I believe that when teachers “… plan for flexible grouping, they consider the strengths and weaknesses of each grouping approach and then put them together to allow the teacher to best meet the needs of the classroom. (Ford, 2005, p.3)

In my teaching career, I have used grouping as a tool several times in maths classes.

First question would be ‘to use or not to use’?

Not every group responds well to grouping. I had a grade 10 once that would not work well at all in groups. So much so that I had to have a seating arrangement where they sat at an arm’s length to their peers. Distance made the class learn better and distance they had till they promised to collaborate well. Since “No one grouping pattern inherently is bad, but the exclusive use of one grouping pattern often leads to problems in the classroom”, (Ford, 2005, p.1), once a class adjusts to grouping, a lot of creative ways can be used.

Teacher creates groups

I would create the groups based on what I feel best. These could be same ability or mixed ability groups. They could be, during revision time, groups made based on topics to be learnt. Or could be based on bringing a sense of collaboration in class, and hence bringing students who do not gel together. The last decision for any group would be mine.

Students create groups

Giving students the choice to create their own groups with broad guidelines. For example, ‘no group should be bigger than 4 students’ or ‘each groups should have mixed gender’ etc. This is used when students have adjusted to the strategy and are aware enough to adapt to various approaches.

Same group for a certain time

Groups are created once and stay the same for some time. This is good when starting the strategy of grouping. The groups can be homogenous or heterogeneous as per the need. However, for a certain time, they work together. This also works well with special needs students as they prefer routines or many changes. A sense of safety of being in the same group supporting them day after day helps to calm them.

Change of members regularly

Once I had a class with students at war with each other! All attempts of grouping failed. I used a chit system. Numbers 1 to 5 would be on chits in a box. Each student, as he or she walked in, picked up a chit and worked with everyone with that number. Initially they resisted, however, as they saw that every day the groups are changing, they resigned to the process and learnt to work with new peers daily.

?Homogenous groups

Groups with same ability. These could be with different levels in the same class. For example, a group with low ability works with the teacher while average ability groups work on their own. The high ability group can work on a different task. This is to ensure that everyone gets the right kind of challenge at a time.

Heterogeneous groups

Grouping with mixed ability would have students from all levels of math abilities in a group. this is to ensure that students learn from each other. The bright ones can help others to learn the subject while the low ability students would teach the bright ones to be patient!

This could also be a group with students with multiple types of abilities. For example, to solve a comprehension story in maths, a group could have students who are good in maths and languages. The language experts can decode the comprehension passage and the maths students could help with the maths calculations.

Same class groups

This is when students who are grouped are all from same class or grade. This is easy and structured. It helps to focus on the curriculum in a straightforward way.

Multiple classes groups

When grouping is done by combining more than one grades. For example, in a school student of primary section were all into mixed groups. Each group had students of grades 1 to 5 in it. The school used self-learning material as the tool and also used a lot of collaborative learning between the students to manage the learning.

Buddy learning

If a class has high and low ability students approximately in a 50:50 ratio, then one can bring in buddy learning. Students can be paired up as high-low ability and work together. In this case the student with high ability acts as a co-teacher for the teacher.

GRR

Gradual Release of Responsibility has 4 phases of learning: “Focused Instruction (“I do it”); Guided Instruction (“We do it”); Collaborative Learning (“You do it together”); and Independent Leaning (“You do it alone”)”, (Fisher, 2008, para 2). I would use this at an advanced level when I have a fairly good grip on the students and the strategy.

Choice!

This is my favourite and, in my opinion, the final point of creative exploration of grouping. This is when students have the choice of whether to be in a group or not. This depends on their learning style; mood of the day or topic being taught. This is when we have brought the students to the level of awareness where they can choose how and where to learn and follow it through with the learning requirement. A typical class here would be where all types of groups are formed by students, some of them are working alone and some with the teacher. There is a healthy and robust discussion environment in the class and no requirement for any kind of discipline. Learning is joy.

(Krishnamurti, n.d.) asked, “Can you bring a child to joy through Geometry”?

Through flexible grouping, yes!

?Monica's HumaneMaths