Student Groupings
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 time I thought this was my best attempt at behavior management. As I grew as a teacher I realized my groupings did not support instruction. I attended a Kagan Cooperative Learning training in which the idea below was shared with me:
In a group of four:
High |
Medium High |
Medium Low |
Low |
The theory behind this strategy is the “low” student is surrounded by peers closest to their learning level where they will not be frustrated. This is also true for the “high” student. Thus, the “medium” learners act as a buffer zone. 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 times “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 often times learn in progressive chunks can fill in the gap and expand on the thinking. Now the “high” learner is better able to explain their idea or strategy because their peers helped them fill in the blanks. Often times, the “low” learner looks at things in a completely different way than their peers. Now students are sharing multiple strategies and cognitive processes, thus strengthening their knowledge base on a topic. Win-Win! 🙂
In addition to student groupings, naming groups can be quite fun! I allow my students to come up with a group name that represents themselves, make a sign to hang from their group materials basket, and then present their name to the class. Students love being creative and enjoy receiving instruction based on their group name (ex. Tigers, you may line up!). As I move students around in groups, I thought I might have to have a team meeting to ensure the team name still resonated with the group members. To my surprise, new additions to the group find it exciting to try out a new team name. Every quarter or so, I offer teams the opportunity to change their team name (color, mascot, sports team, etc). I have yet to have a group want to change. That tells you how much they are invested in their team representation!
Lastly, I like to place students in groups for activities in a fun way. Instead of saying “Group A” and “Group B” or “Group 1” and “Group 2,” I like to give groups names. When it is time to get into groups, I either have the groups projected on the Smart Board with the location in the room I wish for them to go:
Tigers |
Back Table |
John Beth Mary Joe |
Or I will have students line up and begin counting off based on the group names:
Lions, Tigers, Bears, Oh My!…. Lions, Tigers, [cont..]
Below I have put together a list of group names I use often based on the amount of students in each group.
2’s |
3’s |
4’s |
Salt and pepper PB and J Mac and Cheese Marco Polo Milo and Otis North and South Pumba and Timon Lilo and Stitch Peter Pan Snow White Micky Mouse Ketchup, Mustard Shampoo, Conditioner Rocky and Bullwinkle Milk and Cookies Tom and Jerry Cheese and Crackers Batman and Robin Surf, Turf |
Alvin Simon Theodore Larry Mo Curley REd, White, Blue A, B, C 1, 2, 3 Winnie the Pooh Billy Goats Gruff 3 Little Pigs Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria 3 Blind Mice Reading, Writing, Arithmetic Core, Mantle, Crust Frankencense, Gold and Myrrh Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness Hear no Evil, See no Evil, Speak no Evil Rock, Paper, Scissors Snap, Crack, and Pop Winken, Blinken, and Nod On Your mark, Get Set, Go |
North, South, East, West Eenie, Meanie, Miney, Mo Summer, Winter, Spring, Fall Heart, Spade, Club, Diamond Liquid, Solid, Gas, Plasma Earth, Air, Fire, Water Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide
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Please add to my list! Share below the name of the group and for how many students! Thank you 🙂
for 2 groups 1 used to have Niger and Benue (the two major rivers in Nigeria)…also Sahara and Kalahari(the 2 major deserts in Africa)…for 4 groups i used the names of the boarding houses in the school i attended (Harding,Mason,Dallimore and Babamuboni)…more will be added later after checking remedial/leisure activities records of my school…thanks for the write up…will “reblog” this on ours soonest…
I appreciate the reblog! Thanks for adding on to the ideas for grouping names 🙂
Hi Gretchen…I group like this too! I got it from the Kagan Cooperative Learning training. I call mine pods or quads with a number.
Yes- that’s it! Thank you so much. Ill be sure to update 🙂
Love it! Very clever!