Grouping Decisions in the Classroom

My goal is to become a first-grade teacher next year and in my Masters in Education class about differentiated instruction this week we have been focusing on cooperative learning. Grouping patterns within the classroom have become a major method of teaching in the 21^st century. One important content area in this grade level is writing. Students at this age can write but are working on writing legibility and learning the structure of sentences. One grouping pattern I could use for a writing activity would be pairing. Having students check one another’s writing throughout the lesson would be a great way for them to take pride in their writing and stay engaged in the lesson. Pairing students with heterogenous strengths would be important when utilizing this pairing technique because I want the students who have stronger writing abilities to help and set an example for those students who might have poor writing skills. I want to use homogenous grouping for writing assignments involving more advanced critical thinking. This would allow more advanced or gifted students work together on writing paragraphs while other students work together on basic sentences.

There are eight learning abilities that Gardner describes as ways in which people learn: musical-rhythmic, visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. With this in mind we can find a variety of ways to group students based on what type of intelligence each student possesses. Below are some ideas I have for grouping students with different intelligence abilities.

Group 1 Configuration: Small groups of students created by grouping students from each intelligence type so that the group has a well-rounded group with multiple strengths. This form of grouping is a great way to achieve group projects containing visual, audio and written work.

Group 2 Configuration: Peer pairs using The Kagan essential method of Timed Pair Share. Using this grouping allows students to have a set amount of timed to take turns sharing what they have learned with each other one at a time. Pairing students with the same intelligence would be beneficial in this grouping method because the students can better understand one another because they have the same learning strengths.

Group 3 Configuration: Individual design can also be differentiated by asking students to complete an assignment or task but give them a few different ways to decide how they present what they have learned. This allows visual learners to use visual items, kinesthetic learners to use something active and even interpersonal students to use basic writing skills to present their knowledge.

When group strategies are utilized in differentiated teaching lessons it’s imperative to give each student a rubric that allows them to see exactly what will be expected of them. Letting them know that group work is team work and they all need to put forth their best effort for the team to get the best grade they can get. In a team, you are only as strong as your weakest player. Cooperative learning is the future of the classroom environment and will allow are youth to experience the classroom in a new and exciting way where learning is student led and collaboration is a strength.