In the world language classroom, it is critical to get students talking and listening to one another. Here are twenty grouping strategies to encourage teamwork, team building, a positive class culture, and communication. I'll be sure to do another post on group work structures, which help to make many of these grouping strategies more effective.
1. Permanent seats: Groups of 4. Choose groups carefully; each group should have a student leader and be diversified for skill level and student characteristics. I found it best to have a high-performing student with two typically middle-level students and one lower-skill student. The higher and lower should not be next to each other. Place students strategically so that best friends are separate or across the room facing in opposite directions. A group of four allows for interactions with three different people, easier management, and creates an environment focused on student-centered learning. I never liked groups of three, and would rather have a group of five. I occasionally used groups of six, but found groups of four to be the most productive.
2. Group by learning preference or learning style. Give students a learning styles survey; for certain activities, put students in groups based on how they learn, and give them an activity that suits this learning style.
3. Skill level. Based on a pre-test, group students for activities designed to match their mastery of objectives. These groups are flexible and will vary each time.
4. Interest. What do students want to learn about and/or what is their focus for a project? For example, group the students who love skateboarding to create an advertisement for their favorite skateboard park.
Random groupings
These can be tailored to fit the unit of study and can be more complex for each level. Students get into one line by communicating solely in the target language. These groupings can last three minutes to an entire class period, depending upon the activity. You can then break students into smaller groups to suit the needs of the activity, maybe groups of two or groups of four, or even larger. Ideas for random groupings:
5. Hair color. A way to review appearance vocabulary.
6. Deck of cards. You can sort students by card grouping or by suit.
7. Number of siblings. Review of family.
8. Rating scale. Ask students - how they feel about certain topics, and rate from highest to lowest. In level 1, it could be "pizza." In a higher level, it could be a question about which cultural practice is preferred. You could do a number of questions like this in a row, and ask students to make comments in the target language throughout the activity.
9. Number of buttons on an article of clothing. A fun way to review clothing and create conversation.
10. Mood for the day - happy to grumpy. This would be a great way to connect with students on a personal level.
Get them moving!
These are groups that allow students to get out of their seats and having conversations with each other.
11. Inside/outside circle. Line students up facing each other; I usually ask that they "high five" so they are certain who their partner is. Give them a prompt or a survey to complete. Rotate to communicate with different partners.
12. Four corners. Ask students to choose one of the four corners in the room, where you have placed different labels. Again, this can vary by unit of study. Favorite season in level 1; weekend rating scale in level 2; favorite character from a story in level 3; most important environmental issue in the target country in level four. You could then give students a task or conversation questions.
13. What's your favorite....? Place a different picture on each group of four. As students walk in, have them select their "favorite" of the series. Then, give them a series of questions to discuss or answer within that group.
14. Stations. Make each table of four desks a different activity. Require students to complete, for example, any five of those activities. They can move on as they finish. Ideas for stations: Listening station, game review, reading activity, practice quiz, computer task, etc. Or you could have stations to learn about a time in history, such as music, literature, or historical figures.
15. Gallery walk. You can use this for students to produce work or to review and discuss each other's work. To create work, put a number of large posters around the room, either on each table of four or on the wall. Ask students to fill in vocabulary about a topic, or give a one-word answer to a question. Groups can rotate as they finish or based on a timer. To review work, ask students to place their work in visible places, and then discuss with a number of classmates. A worksheet is helpful for students to write their feedback.
Ideas for groups of four
16. Student-chosen groups. I would rarely let students choose their own groups (except for interest-based activities), but would do it on occasion. I found this a helpful "carrot" for getting students to finish certain activities.
17. Conversation tables. Put a tented paper on each group of four with questions for students to ask and answer of each other. You can ask students to record a partner's answers or assign a recorder the task of summarizing group responses.
18. Dice. I loved to give prompts with dice. On the board, 1-6 would each have a different task, and occasionally, a second die would have different characters. Students complete the random prompt based on chance.
When all else fails...
19. Who's your favorite____(team? singer?)? Create teams based on student responses to preferences, such as "Yankees or Red Sox?"
20. Ask the students for ideas! Give them an exit slip to create different groups. You will get many ideas from them.
I hope these grouping ideas can improve your class culture, energize your students, aid learning, enable teacher facilitation, and increase communication. What grouping strategies have you used in your classroom?
Showing posts with label class culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label class culture. Show all posts
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Energizers
Teaching an 84-minute class to teenagers can be, well...boring. 84 minutes in one place can make anyone antsy, especially teens.
In order to combat fatigue, encourage team building, provide consistent review, and support brain-based learning, I used a number of "energizers." These were similar to "SPONGE" activities that were popular in the nineties. I also used the well-known texts, "Reaching All By Creating a Tribes Learning Community" and "Kagan Cooperative Learning" as inspirations. Each activity lasted one to five minutes, always involved movement, and resulted in beautiful, energetic chaos for a short time. Sometimes the energizers connected directly to the current unit; at times they were from prior activities or topics.
I used these activities:
Keep in mind that these activities were used in a French class, but could be modified for any classroom.
My favorite energizers with ideas for modifications in other subjects and levels:
In order to combat fatigue, encourage team building, provide consistent review, and support brain-based learning, I used a number of "energizers." These were similar to "SPONGE" activities that were popular in the nineties. I also used the well-known texts, "Reaching All By Creating a Tribes Learning Community" and "Kagan Cooperative Learning" as inspirations. Each activity lasted one to five minutes, always involved movement, and resulted in beautiful, energetic chaos for a short time. Sometimes the energizers connected directly to the current unit; at times they were from prior activities or topics.
I used these activities:
- When eyes were glazing over
- When I needed to answer the phone or talk to an administrator
- Before teaching something that would require intense concentration
- When students requested them
- For transitions between activities
Keep in mind that these activities were used in a French class, but could be modified for any classroom.
My favorite energizers with ideas for modifications in other subjects and levels:
- Touch. List objects and colors; partners instruct their peers to touch items around the room, and commend them for correct responses. Modifications: Students touch various posters around the room, ask trivia questions and touch posted answers, practice giving commands, etc.
- Q & A. List questions and an answer word bank. Students stand in either a line or a circle with a partner across from them. Students ask and answer questions, and switch partners after a few minutes. Can be used for quiz review, getting to know partners, warm-ups, etc.
- Fake sports. When facing a partner, students pretend to be playing a sport, with an invisible ball. This seems strange, but it really helps the classroom to "gel," add unexpected fun, and leads to better learning AFTER the activity.
- Toy toss. Each group of four gets a stuffed animal, tossing the animal back and forth. When the music stops, the student with the toy has to answer a question. These can be fun questions, warm-up questions, or review questions.
- Mirror. In pairs, students mirror the actions of a partner. Dancing, miming, charades, etc. Switch roles.
- Who's the boss? Students give commands to a partner, who must follow the command. In lower levels of French, I would use items like, "Dance the Macarena." They switch roles. Modification: Students require a partner to review certain facts, "Name three planets in the solar system while jumping on one foot."
Monday, June 24, 2013
Optional & Relevant Homework: A Path to Improved Culture & Performance
Switching to optional homework in year five of my teaching career was the absolute best thing that I ever did in the classroom. That one, successful risk, gave me the confidence to think outside of the box and to experiment in order to meet the needs of students. It also pushed me to focus on relationships with students and to choose relevant assignments based on performance.
Why I did it: A workshop about effective teaching strategies made me rethink the basic principles of my teaching. I realized that assigning, monitoring, and assessing homework was taking up too much time, and instead of improving student performance, it was hindering motivation and was ineffective in its most basic aims. In one sentence: Homework was a major downer for my students and for me. I tackled the problem in two ways:
1. Most homework assignments became optional. Thanks to the school’s online grading system and my use of “total points,” it was simple to make optional assignments “invisible” in the gradebook. I explained to students the “bank” of homework. Completing homework would lead to a better mastery of skills, higher grades on assessments, and an increased overall average. These points also provided a cushion for lower grades on various assignments. Completing fewer homework assignments meant fewer points in the bank, and thus other activities would have more weight.
2. Homework became more relevant. Instead of the typical workbook pages or worksheets, I worked to make homework more accessible and individualized, based on choice and skills. This process continued to evolve based on learner feedback and skills.
How did it go?
The initial response was puzzlement. Overachievers were angry (and relieved) and underachievers were convinced I was an idiot. Parents thought that I was lazy and crazy.
Immediately, class culture became more positive and my relationships with all students got better. I could not believe it. Those students who had felt unprepared or ready for the zero from the initial homework check now walked into the room happy and excited for the day. All students realized that their achievement and growth were my priorities, and that if they worked hard in class, they would do well. It was like we all took a collective sigh of relief and then were able to focus on learning.
And, I know it’s hard to believe - but - all grades GOT BETTER, including overall grades. I realized then that all homework I had given in the past had been ineffective.
My evolution
The next few years (and even now), I have continued to work on motivation, and creating assignments based on student performance. Last year, I experimented with goal-setting and students designing their own homework assignments and personal penalties for lack of completion.
I am still trying to find the magic formula. How can I get students to learn on their own without penalties from the teacher? How can we work together to make the most relevant homework assignments that will improve student performance? I am excited to continue to figure out how to best meet the needs of all students.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Padlet: Online Wall for Collaboration
What it is: http://padlet.com/ is a website that allows users to build a wall that can be written on with “sticky notes.” Users can post to the wall, adding words, links, pictures, or documents. Each wall has a unique URL that can be customized to be easier to find or to remember.
Some questions and options to consider when building your wall:
- Backgrounds: Which fun background will you choose?
- Positioning of posts: Do you want them random or ordered? (I personally like them haphazard.)
- Access: Which visitors can access your wall? Email invites only, password protected, public, or public and hidden?
- Power Can visitors view, add to, or edit the wall? Will posts be moderated?
- Location: Will you embed your wall into your webpage or blog or share the link?
What I like:
- Padlet is great for brainstorming or collaboration in real-time
- Users can create walls without accounts (but it is easier to track walls with an account)
- Walls can be password protected and moderated
What I dislike:
- Documents added to the wall are turned into pictures, so Padlet is not for document storage
- As each wall is only one page, they are best used for just one assignment
- In the past, I found that walls or “Wallwisher” would occasionally be unavailable, though I have not found that to be the case since this site became “Padlet”
Ideas for the World Language Classroom:
- Brainstorming session. Give students a theme, like “vacations,” and ask them to add words, expressions, sentences, or paragraphs related to the topic. This can be done in class while all in the computer lab, or at home for a homework assignment
- Project presentation. Instead of a typical poster, student groups can use this wall to create a visual accompaniment to their project. .
- Class opener/closer. Begin or end a class (perhaps in the computer lab) by surveying students on their learning or interests
- Question(s) about reading. Post questions about a homework assignment, and require students to answer the question and also respond or comment on the posts of classmates
- Advertising campaign. Students create an infographic to convince users in the target culture to use a product
Review in a nutshell: Padlet is an easy-to-use, visual tool that is a great jumping-off point for online collaboration
Sample walls (from the Padlet website):
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