Creating effective student groups has always been a challenge. Ten+ years ago I created a spreadsheet to help me group my students based on my observational and academic data, so that I could quickly create both heterogeneous and homogeneous groups. I've learned a few things from over a decade of regularly using flexible student groups. Reel Results: First, students don't like this. Changing seats is out of their depth. Talking to new people feels like swimming upstream. Working on a task with a new person makes them crabby. This does not deter me because I have seen the magic happen. Year after year my students report that even though they didn't like being in new groups, or working with new partners frequently, over time it helped them get to know many more of their classmates. Years ago a student told me, "In my other classes I only know a few people, but in this class I feel like I know everyone because you make us move a lot." Second, being able to group a...
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps