There isn’t one right way to group students in your math classroom. Your teaching style, classroom dynamics, and grade level all play an important role in determining the best way to manage small groups.
Grouping students is crucial for student learning and development, but can get sticky at the high school level. When students have the opportunity to work together on projects, they can share ideas, learn from each other’s strengths, and develop a deeper understanding of the math concepts.
Collaboration also helps students develop important social and communication skills, such as listening, problem-solving, and negotiation. One of the most important skills we need as adults both in our personal and professional lives is effective communication and conflict resolution. Group projects are the perfect place to teach these skills and help our students grow as young adults.
There are a lot of benefits to group projects, but these also come with added challenges. I was always the student in the group who did 90% of the work and everyone else just added their name to the project at the end. This can be incredibly frustrating for our overachiever students who feel like they need to do all of the work and aren’t getting any help from their peers.
However, I didn’t realize until I actually started teaching that this can be problematic for the other students in the group as well. If the overachiever is too possessive of the project, the other group members can feel left out or unheard.
In these situations it’s so important to guide your students to find a balance that works for them. Of course, this will never be perfect and you won’t be able to prevent arguments, but you will be able to have meaningful conversations with your students about effective group work.
Class dynamics significantly impact student learning when completing math projects. A few ways to develop a respectful and supportive environment in your classroom are setting clear goals and expectations for group work, modeling open communication, and varying the way you group students.
Random Grouping
Random grouping is the method that I use the most in my classroom. Not only is it fair, but it sets a clear expectation that the groups are non-negotiable. My students always knew that because it was random they would sometimes be with their friends and sometimes they wouldn’t.
After a few days of random grouping, they came to accept the fact that they didn’t get a say and everyone was in the same position.
Not only does random grouping make classroom management and routines easier, it also gives students the opportunity to work with the classmates they typically wouldn’t interact with. I’ve noticed that my students work much better with the peers they aren’t friends with because they know the task that needs to be completed and are less likely to get distracted.
It’s also a great way to teach professionalism. Everyone has that coworker (or two) that they just don’t get along with, but sometimes you need to be able to work together on a project. The sooner our students can learn conflict resolution and listening to other perspectives the better off they will be in “the real world.”
A few ways to randomly group students:
Card matching:
This way of grouping students takes the most prep on the teacher’s end to make sure that there are enough cards and that everyone will have a match. When the students enter the room, they are given a card. Each student will then have to find their partner based on their specific card. This could be done using flashcards with math facts, problems and answers, or a deck of cards.
Online Randomizer:
Using an online randomizer is a quick way to group students and easily adjustable based on student absences. The randomizer that I use can alter the groups based on your preferred group size. These websites also make it easy for students to get into a routine of seeing their group on the board as soon as they enter the classroom.
Popsicle Sticks:
Popsicle sticks are a classic way to randomly group students. Each student has a popsicle with their name on it and you’ll pull them out of the cup one at a time revealing the groups.
You could pull a whole group at one time or spread it out by alternating names for each group. For example, the first name you choose will be in group 1, the second name you choose will be in group 2, and so on until all of the students are assigned to a group.
Teacher-Selected Grouping
There are pros and cons to teacher-selected groups. When done strategically and infrequently, it can be very beneficial to all students. However, if it ends up becoming a common practice, it will cause a lot of prep for you and the students will get frustrated with constantly being separated from their friends.
It is easy to think that you should pair your really strong students with weaker students, but this isn’t always the best case scenario. First of all, it’s usually super obvious to the students that this is your strategy. Additionally, it can become very frustrating for all parties involved.
Let me explain. Ideally, your higher level students will be teaching and supporting the weaker students in their group, right? Sometimes this is the case and it works out beautifully, but a lot of the time the opposite happens.
Your high achieving students want to feel challenged and work with peers that can add value to their group and the lower level students can get frustrated because they can’t keep up or don’t know how to add to the conversations.
To combat this issue, try this instead. Group your “middle of the road” students with both levels. Your weaker students will feel supported and can learn from the middle ground students much easier because they aren’t working as quickly.
The middle of the road students also understand how to explain concepts in a simpler way since they most likely have felt confused and frustrated at some point during the year as well.
With this strategy, the stronger students can challenge the mid-level students and help them think outside of the box.
The most important part to remember about teacher-selected groups is to use them sparingly and make them feel “even” to the students. Also, be sure to rotate your groups so that the partnerships aren’t always the same.
Student-Selected Grouping
Student-selected groups are usually a fan favorite because students are more comfortable with their friends, but there are A LOT of drawbacks. Sometimes student chosen groups can work out really well because they are already comfortable with each other and they are motivated to stay on task.
However, depending on the class, you may be faced with students feeling excluded, low productivity, and increased distractedness. Although there is no prep on your end, managing student-selected groups can be much more challenging and you may find yourself managing behaviors more than actually supporting students.
If the main goal of group work in your classroom is for students to practice collaboration and build independence, it will most likely be challenging to actually see that progress with student-selected groups.
Final thoughts about how to group students in your math classroom
Understanding how to effectively group students for math lessons is plays a large role in student success and development. By implementing a variety of grouping strategies, teachers can create a respectful and supportive environment where students can collaborate, share ideas, and learn from each other. Random grouping, teacher-selected grouping, and student-selected grouping all have their own advantages and disadvantages.
It’s essential for teachers to carefully consider the dynamics of their classrooms and choose the grouping strategy that best suits their students’ needs. By doing so, teachers can foster a positive learning environment that encourages collaboration, communication, and critical thinking, ultimately leading to improved student outcomes.