Grouping Students

Grouping students is a difficult task in the classroom.  There are many methods for doing so and some are more effective than others.  There are teachers that allow students to pick their own groups.  This is almost always an ineffective method, as students will generally choose their friends and be very distracted.  The two main grouping strategies are heterogeneous and homogeneous groups.  Both groupings can be effective in different situations.

Homogeneous groups are pairings of similar students.  This can be helpful when students are beginning to apply their learning to projects.  At this point, I would place students who were struggling together so that I could focus some extra attention on them.  Higher ability students will be able to accomplish more of their own tasks on their own without my help.

Heterogeneous groups would be beneficial during brainstorming activities.  With different background knowledge and experiences, a heterogeneous group would be able to bring a variety of perspectives to the task.  If students all had the same background, new ideas would not be introduced to the group.

Another benefit of heterogeneous groups is that peer learning is introduced.  By pairing a struggling student with a student who excels, it could go one of two ways.  First, the struggling student could learn from the other student.  This can help the teacher who may not have time to assist all of the struggling students in the class.  The other option is that the struggling student does not do any work and it all falls on the high ability student.  It is not “fair” for the high ability student to get a lower grade because of another student.  Having peer evaluations would discourage students from slacking off.  Pairing heterogeneous groups together could also develop reading and writing skills.  By doing paired reading, students will be able to practice their literacy skills.

For my ED 605 unit, I would vary the grouping of the students.  This would eliminate possible conflicts that would arise if a group member did not put forth the effort that the rest of the group did.