ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF PAIRING/GROUPING STUDENTS
ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF PAIRING/GROUPING STUDENTS
For the first few years, I used to pair students either by telling them to find a partner or make a group of 3 (which is what my teachers had done when I was kid).
+ learners self-select and may have a sense of autonomy
- some kids may get left out or have trouble finding a partner/group. (I remember being THAT kid for a year or so - always the last to find someone)
+/-Pairs/Groups may end up the same again and again which can result in very high functioning pairs/groups or create cliques.
Later, I decided to 'count off students' then get them to count themselves off (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, ...) then find others with the same number. (This is another common technique teachers used when I was a student.)
+ learners get to work with different classmates and this builds a stronger community over time as well as exposes them to working with different types of people. Counting themselves off encourages them to pay attention and start looking for their group members.
- students might not get to work with who they want to each week - but hey, that's a fact of life they should learn to live with ;-)
After a while, however, I felt it was a missed opportunity to just use numbers or letters so now I use vocabulary items relevant to the lesson or previous lesson. So, rather than using 1, 2, 3, etc students might be given colours, days, months, verbs, or even medical English words (on a university medical English course)!
The key instruction is to tell students to: LISTEN, REPEAT, and REMEMBER the word you give them
You can also use opposites (antonyms), synonyms, irregular verb forms or adjectives/comparatives/superlatives, for example. This can add quite significantly to the number of times important words get recycled in class and keeps the process fresh from week to week ;-) It can be very funny, too:
S1: What word are you?
S2: I'm big. You?
S1: I'm tall.
S3: I'm bigger.
S2: OK. I'm with you.
S4: I'm small
S5: I'm smallest.
S4: OK. Let's find smaller.
S6: I'm taller
S7: I'm biggest.
S1: Oh, you're with big and bigger, over there.
etc.
For the first few years, I used to pair students either by telling them to find a partner or make a group of 3 (which is what my teachers had done when I was kid).
+ learners self-select and may have a sense of autonomy
- some kids may get left out or have trouble finding a partner/group. (I remember being THAT kid for a year or so - always the last to find someone)
+/-Pairs/Groups may end up the same again and again which can result in very high functioning pairs/groups or create cliques.
Later, I decided to 'count off students' then get them to count themselves off (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, ...) then find others with the same number. (This is another common technique teachers used when I was a student.)
+ learners get to work with different classmates and this builds a stronger community over time as well as exposes them to working with different types of people. Counting themselves off encourages them to pay attention and start looking for their group members.
- students might not get to work with who they want to each week - but hey, that's a fact of life they should learn to live with ;-)
After a while, however, I felt it was a missed opportunity to just use numbers or letters so now I use vocabulary items relevant to the lesson or previous lesson. So, rather than using 1, 2, 3, etc students might be given colours, days, months, verbs, or even medical English words (on a university medical English course)!
The key instruction is to tell students to: LISTEN, REPEAT, and REMEMBER the word you give them
You can also use opposites (antonyms), synonyms, irregular verb forms or adjectives/comparatives/superlatives, for example. This can add quite significantly to the number of times important words get recycled in class and keeps the process fresh from week to week ;-) It can be very funny, too:
S1: What word are you?
S2: I'm big. You?
S1: I'm tall.
S3: I'm bigger.
S2: OK. I'm with you.
S4: I'm small
S5: I'm smallest.
S4: OK. Let's find smaller.
S6: I'm taller
S7: I'm biggest.
S1: Oh, you're with big and bigger, over there.
etc.
Yum, yum - I like this a lot! Phil Brown
ReplyDeleteOriginal idea. I can just imagine. It doesn't matter how clear your instructions are when students number there are always those that don't pay attention, or forget which group they are in: What am I? You're Appendix - Go there with Bladder - You're not Cartilage, you're Diaphragm - Esophagus, over here. :) One of the "rules" in my class is that noone owns a seat and the students have to sit in a different location every day and they may not sit with the same person. I have good visual memory so I make it a joke that I remember who sat with who yesterday...that puts an end to the cliques.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea and a clever way to use language while getting a classroom management done. I'm going to have to steal it! Thanks a lot!
ReplyDeleteAnne Hendler Steal way and encourage others ;-)
ReplyDeleteLovely idea to recycle vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteThank you Phil. I will try it.
ReplyDelete