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Flexible grouping is a data-driven teaching practice. With this practice, you put students into temporary groups to work together for only as long as is needed for them to develop an identified skill or to complete a learning activity. The groups can be heterogeneous (made up of varying skill levels) or homogeneous (made up of the same skill level). The groups change often based on the learning objective and students' needs or interests.

If you're like most teachers, putting students into groups is an important part of your day-to-day classroom life. That concept of grouping dates back to the days of the one-room schoolhouse, when teachers grouped students by age or ability.

In today's inclusive classrooms, we know age and ability don't correspond neatly across subjects. Students have different strengths, interests, and needs depending on the content area, specific lesson, or even the time of day. Few students engage at the exact same academic, social-emotional, or linguistic level every day. That's where flexible grouping comes in.

What is flexible grouping?

Flexible grouping uses a mix of heterogeneous groups (made up of students with varying skill levels) and homogeneous groups (made up of students with similar skill level) to help students achieve a learning goal. The size of the groups can vary - from two or three students in a small group to up to six students in a larger group.

Students work together, often with the guidance of a teacher, only for the length of time necessary for them to develop an identified skill or to complete a learning activity. That makes it different from static groups that don't change based on students' needs, acquisition of skills, or knowledge.

Flexible grouping is driven by data. You can use data you already have about students to group and regroup them to meet their evolving needs. The data doesn't have to be fancy. It can be as simple as observing students' work during a lesson. In doing so, you may see that some students could benefit from more practice in a small group before moving on.

A key component of flexible grouping is that while all students are working toward the same learning goal, the work addresses students' varying learning needs. The work is engaging and important for all students, but the task or how they show what they've learned may look different for each group.

Why use flexible grouping?

Flexible grouping is a powerful and effective practice for improving learning. It allows your students to get the right support, in the right way, at the right time.

When flexible grouping is part of the classroom routine, there's nothing out of the ordinary about one or more students working with the teacher on a specific project. Students who struggle don't feel singled out or embarrassed. Because groups change frequently and aren't based on ability level alone, all students have the chance to get to know and work with each other. In fact, according to research, all students in classrooms that use flexible grouping show academic gains.

Not being pigeonholed. Flexible grouping allows for regrouping for different content areas. That's beneficial to students who learn and think differently because they may have challenges in some content areas and not in others. For instance, a student who struggles with reading but not math can be grouped with other students who have similar support needs in reading. That student can then be regrouped for math.

Feeling valued. Students bring their own skills, talents, and life experiences to the group. In flexible groups, students see that everyone adds value to the learning community. This follows the culturally responsive teaching philosophy of identifying students' assets and using them to create student-centered instruction. Working in student-led groups means that non-academic strengths, like leadership skills, are important, too.

Language practice. Flexible grouping is particularly beneficial to English language learners. It gives them more chances to interact with classmates who speak English fluently and to practice both academic and interpersonal language. Students can also be placed in groups with other classmates who speak the same home language. In those groups, they can discuss content or concepts before sharing their ideas in English.

The opportunity to collect data. Because flexible grouping depends on data, it also gives you a routine for data collection. When students are working in groups, you can collect observational data, as well as more formalized data. For instance, you may ask students to take pictures of their work at the beginning, middle, and end of the lesson. Or you can have an exit ticket for all students, which asks students to do things like:

Summarize key points from the lesson

Show how they can use what they learned to solve a problem

Answer an essential question based on the lesson

Identify questions they may still have

All of this data can help you make adjustments to your instruction in the moment. It also helps you tailor your future instruction, which might include switching up your groups the next day.

What do flexible groups look like?

Flexible groups come in all types and sizes. They can:

Include partners, small groups of a couple of students, and large groups of up to six students

Be heterogeneous (made up of varying abilities) or homogeneous (made up of the same ability)

Be teacher-led or student-led

Be assigned or self-selected

Last for just one lesson or for a few weeks, depending on the purpose of the activity, learning goals, and data

In elementary grades, this might look like students rotating among different learning stations, working in guided reading groups that change from week to week, or engaging in a "turn and talk" with different partners each time.

In middle school and high school, this might look like collaborative learning groups in which students have clearly defined roles, like being the facilitator or timekeeper.

How do I put flexible grouping into practice?

1. Define the learning objective for your lesson to determine what type of groups you need.

Start with a clear idea of exactly what skills or concepts you want students to master. This will help you in two ways. First, the learning objective will help you be more intentional about what groups to create, including which students belong in the group and the size of the group. Second, with the end goal in mind, you can create checkpoints to monitor each student's progress and adjust groups when necessary.

Schedule time for group work in your lesson plans.

Plan how you and your co-teachers (or other support staff) will work together during a lesson. You can maximize flexible grouping instruction when you have more educators in the room to lead learning or circulate to support groups.

Plan to work with small groups and have work stations during independent practice times.

Try out flexible grouping with your students for short periods of time or to complete quick activities so they can practice. Give them feedback on what went well.

Incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) practices into your flexible grouping lessons.

2. Review data to decide which students to group together.

Once you have your learning goal in mind, you can turn to student data to guide your decisions about how to group students. For instance, reviewing the exit tickets from a previous day can show you which students didn't fully master the learning objective. You can then group them together to practice that skill. Or the responses to an equation on the board can help you form groups for the day. The students who understood it can move on and those who didn't can be grouped to get more support and practice.

Review your students' learning profiles.

Know your students' interests.

Evaluate how previous groupings went.

Draw on several sources of data, including:

Formal assessment data, like information from the most recent standardized testingInformal observations of studentsStudent self-assessments or questionnaires, like exit tickets from the previous lessonPre- and post-testing around specific skillsUniversal screening data (such as DIBELS or other reading assessments) Data from response to intervention (RTI) programs Review of student writing

Start class with a Do Now and end with an exit ticket. They're great sources of data for future lessons.

Use data to identify student successes or misconceptions to address during upcoming lessons.

3. Set guidelines for how the groups will interact.

Use prompting and pre-correcting strategies to establish group behavior expectations and student roles.

Create a visual of the roles and expectations for each type of group.

Post directions.

Create visuals to support students with language needs.

Create a place for small group materials.

Color-code folders or baskets.

Determine set times for each group activity and provide time reminders for students to remain on task.

Assign a group member to be a materials manager.

Arrange furniture so that there is a whole group learning area and specific areas for small group work.

Teach routines for transitioning into small group work.

Teach students how to have meaningful conversations with each other (known as Accountable Talk®). Using these strategies provides a framework for interactions as well as prompts and precise language for how they are expected to speak with each other.

4. Prompt students to reflect.

Build in time at the end of a lesson for students to talk about what they learned. Did they meet the learning goal? What lingering questions do they have? How effectively did their group work together? What could they do better next time? Students can reflect in a whole group discussion, via an exit ticket, or as part of the group's assignment. This debriefing process can help you make decisions for the next groups you'll form, like which students may have the same unresolved questions or misunderstandings.

Use metacognitive strategies to ask students to reflect on their own learning. What advice would they give themselves for next time? What do they need to improve?

Ask students to tell you what they want more practice with.

Talk through how and from whom students got help when they needed it, and whether they feel they needed more support.

Ask targeted questions to gauge how well your students achieved the learning goal.

Ask students to give you specific feedback about what they may need in the future to be more successful learners.

Use the principles of UDL to give students multiple ways of sharing feedback. For example, students who need more time to process their thoughts can provide feedback later through a Google Doc or paper feedback form.

How can families support this at home?

Families may be more familiar with the idea of ability grouping than flexible grouping. If that's the case, they may be confused when their child comes home talking about moving from group to group.

To head off confusion, you can explain at back-to-school night or in a class email or newsletter that you'll be using flexible grouping. Emphasize that students will not change groups just when they need extra help - they'll switch groups as they make progress, too. Let families know that you'll keep an eye on how students are doing academically and with whom they work well. That will help you put them in groups and in turn, help students grow.

Now that you know more about flexible grouping, how do you plan on using grouping differently in your classroom? Try it out and see how flexible grouping helps you meet the needs of all learners.

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Flexible grouping: What you need to know

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Flexible grouping is a teaching practice that allows you to use data to group and regroup students for learning activities as their abilities change.

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https://sites.google.com/a/sau47.org/curriculum-and-instruction/grouping-and-regrouping

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Grouping and Regrouping - Curriculum and Instruction

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Grouping and regrouping is a strategy to support students needs in a flexible way that allows for the learners to see modeling from peers, tap into interests, and with the learning goals specific to their learning needs. This is not tracking and the expectation is that the grouping is based on inte…

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Resources to dynamically re-group students

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Access free resources including helpful case studies, articles, and more, to dynamically re-group students based on formative assessment.

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https://anethicalisland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/studentgroups.png

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How do you group your students? It's a teacher's challenge sometimes. They say students learn best in them but do they? In my classroom, I started noticing something... When I'd say get into groups of four (or the like), they immediately gravitated toward the same peers.

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Strategies for Effective Group Process: Establish Ground Rules - Susan Fitzell

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Common core: Ideas and techniques for establishing effective group process

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3 Group Work Strategies That Help Hold All Students Accountable

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From delegating roles to involving students in rubric design, here are group work strategies to help hold all students accountable.

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As a student, I was never a fan of group work. I still remember the time my teacher paired me with "Tyler" for a research project. I'm sure my teacher's intentions were good. But I knew from the start that it wouldn't be pleasant.

Tyler wasn't a bad kid, but he wasn't what you'd call a high performer. Our teacher assigned our partners, and we all knew the intention behind the groupings. High achievers were paired with those who could "use some help."

This wasn't my first group project, and I knew my role. Do all the research. Write the paper. Come up with something for Tyler to say during the presentation. Hassle him to learn his lines. Get the same grade.

A Novice Teacher's Perspective

When I began teaching, I was no more a fan of group work than I was as a student. It was messy. It took up too much class time - not to mention grading and planning time. I didn't understand how students would learn the content if I didn't explain it to them.

Group work was something I was to do. I had read the research on the importance of peer learning. Administrators celebrated teachers who used group work. And they encouraged the rest of us to give it a try.

But no one had shown me how to do it well. When I saw other classes doing group work, I noticed all the common problems.

One student did all the work, while others fooled around. Projects that looked good hanging on the wall, but didn't demonstrate meaningful learning. (Jennifer Gonzalez refers to these as "Grecian Urns").

I felt that group work was something you did during an observation. When you wanted your students to actually learn something, you explained it to them or they read about it in a book.

Benefits of Group Work

It took years before group work became a regular part of my classroom routine. But once it did, there was no looking back. Not only were my students getting more out of each lesson, but it was a lot easier on me as a teacher

In a lecture-based classroom, the teacher is at the center of all classroom activity. She delivers the content through lecture. She asks questions, decides who answers, and determines whether the answer is correct. The teacher tells students when they can use the bathroom and what page to turn to in their workbooks. She even provides pencils and paper to students who don't have any.

It is important for both students and teachers to know who's in charge. But teacher-centered classrooms can be terribly inefficient. With twenty to thirty students in a room, the teacher becomes a bottleneck. Students get frustrated when they don't get enough attention or have enough freedom. They begin to act out. Teachers get overwhelmed because they can't give students the attention they need. They get upset because students "aren't listening." They assert their authority more firmly. It quickly becomes a vicious cycle.

Group work isn't about making pretty posters to hang on the wall. And it's not about matching struggling students with high-performers to boost their grades. It's about giving teachers permission to solve every problem or provide every answer. It's about students learning to learn from each other and to use their resources.

Promoting Effective Group Work

For effective collaboration to occur, it's important to understand why group work is valuable. But understanding the 'why' is not enough. Establishing group work as a regular classroom routine takes time. Teachers and students both need to learn norms and develop the social-emotional skills that make group work effective.

I've worked with some educators who believed that effective group work was not possible. Some simply don't see how students will learn if they don't explain the content. Others think it's a passing fad. Still others believe that "it won't work with these kids."

Sadly, the latter is often used to justify regimented and drill-based instruction for students of color. Despite the fact that "collaboration is linked to higher grades for black students." Furthermore, similar benefits were not found for white students. (According to a 2018 report by the American Institute for Research).

If you are coaching or supervising educators who have these misconceptions, it's important to be patient. Many of these teachers have tried group work before, without success. They will need extra assurance and support to be successful this time around.

Here are some tips to make group work engaging and impactful in any classroom.

Start with an Engaging Activity

The first step to effective group work is an engaging activity. Students need to have a reason to work with their group. The right activity should be inquiry-based - where students have a challenging problem to solve. It should be a bit too difficult for any one student to do on their own. But it shouldn't be so hard that they can't get started on their own.

Some great activities for this purpose are The Sieve of Eratosthenes (math) and Team Story Analysis (language arts).

Teach Group Process

Inquiry-based learning allows students to learn content through discovery. But we still teach the process explicitly. Many students have become used to a sit-and-learn approach. If we want them to engage in active learning, we need to actively reset their expectations.

As you introduce group work to your classes, explain what is expected. Start class with a discussion of what good group work looks like: students participate equally, listen to one another, etc. Keeping groups small (2-4 students), helps ensure that everyone has a role.

You may choose to assign roles. For my short story projects, each group had a captain, a scribe, an artist, and a presenter. The team's job was to read a short story and record important information in a graphic organizer. The scribe completed the organizer. The artist created a poster or slideshow. The presenter was in charge of sharing the team's work with the class. The captain coordinated roles. If the group needed to ask me a question, it had to come from the captain.

Make it Count

There's an old saying in business, "What gets measured, gets managed." I still remember how focused and well-behaved my students were on test days. At no other time could I hand them a few pieces of paper and expect 40 minutes of peace and quiet.

Now, I could have just enjoyed the respite those days provided, but that's not my nature. I wanted to harness this focused concentration and reproduce it throughout the year. After all, part of my job as an educator is to prepare students for their future careers. I couldn't think of any job where your value is measured by what you do once or twice a month. In the real world, what matters is who you are and what you do on a daily basis.

If we want students to make an effort during group work, we need to let them know it's important. And the way we let them know is by attaching a grade to it. I use test grades as the standard unit of measure, as students understand that quite easily.

"This activity counts as one fourth of a test grade," or "this project is equal to a test grade."

I use a group work rubric so students will know how their grade will be calculated. This rubric focuses on process, product, and presentation. Students earn 'process' points by communicating well and involving all team members. Their 'product' score is based on the artifacts they produce. 'Presentation' is based on how well they share their work with the rest of the class.

Advocates of standards-based grading rankle at the idea of grading classwork. I agree that it may be more to grade students purely on mastery of standards. But such grading systems can have negative consequences for student confidence and motivation.

Set a Timer

I can't overstate the importance of using a timer in the classroom. Recording times that students are on-task vs off-task can improve student behavior, even in a lecture-based class. For group work, it's an absolute necessity.

A common challenge with group work is that students won't self-start. As teachers, we feel the clock ticking. We know how much we need to cover. Why don't our students have the same sense of urgency?

We need to transfer that sense of urgency to them using clear, measurable units of time. Before they begin, let them know how much time they have to complete the activity. When the time is up, they will be expected to present to the class and hand in their completed work. Prominently display the countdown timer for all to see.

For most students, the clock and the grade will provide enough incentive to stay on task. Others will be motivated by the desire to appear competent to their peers when they present.

It's important to recognize that clocks and grades are extrinsic motivators. When students don't believe they are able to meet external standards, the strategies can backfire. We should constantly assess students' "level of concern." If their concern level is too low, increase the challenge. If their level of concern is too high, dial it back.

Using a timer may not have much of an impact the first time you use it. Some students will not realize their time is up until it's too late. Time management is a component of social-emotional learning (SEL). If students aren't ready to present when called upon, be supportive. They are already developing their sense of time. And learning that they will need to be more focused the next time around.

At First, You Probably Won't Succeed

The key to success with group work is practice and experience. The strategies above will point you in the right direction, but they won't make all your challenges disappear.

Create room in your pacing guides and unit plans to allow for weekly group activities. If you make group practice a weekly habit, the level of engagement and the quality of work will steadily increase.

If you're not sure how to plan an engaging hands-on lesson, use a planning template. This workshop lesson plan template provides a three-part structure that is perfect for group work.

Creativity, Collaboration, and Conceptual Learning

For more ideas on promoting active learning in your classroom, subscribe to our weekly Educator's Newsletter.

You can also join innovative educators from around the world in our Facebook community. We're dedicated to bringing creativity, collaboration, and conceptual learning to every student, in every classroom.
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Group Work Strategies That Work - Room to Discover

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As a student, I was never a fan of group work. I still remember the time my teacher paired me with "Tyler" for a research project. I'm sure my teacher's intentions were good. But I knew from the start that it wouldn't be pleasant.

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These are some of the most effective discussion strategies to get students processing, talking about, and deeply learning the content of your class.

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Building an effective small group math program takes time and attention. In fact, it all starts in the first days of school. In this post, I share three steps to demonstrate how to set up small group math instruction.

"How do you keep all your students on-task during small group math instruction?"

This is the number one question I get from teachers surrounding using small group math instruction in the classroom.

For me the answer is simple. It's all about how you start!

You have to take the time to build a strong structure before you start implementing small group math instruction effectively.

Small group math instruction has a lot of moving parts. From multiple station activities to guided math lessons to cooperative learning, there's a lot that goes into an effective rotation.

So, how do I build my small group math program? 🤔

I'm so glad you asked. Read on friend, read on! 😁

The Key Ingredients of Small Group Math Instruction

Every successful small group math rotation has three key ingredients:

1. Solid procedures and routines

2. Reliable structure

3. Engaging activities

These three ingredients are the key to creating a small group math program that runs itself and allows you the opportunity to effectively run a teacher table.

In fact, you will not be able to run small group instruction with an effective teacher table until your students can work independently, so you have to be able to manage your small groups successfully before implementing a successful teacher table.

In the following sections, I share three essential steps to demonstrate how to set up small group math instruction. Each step includes a "take action" item to help you get your small program up and running in no time.

How to Set Up Small Group Math Instruction

1. Choose the routines and procedures your students need to be successful with small group math instruction.

Sit down and make a list of the procedures and routines your students need to know to successfully participate in small group math instruction. This includes procedures and routines such as playing a game, getting a computer, getting materials, cleaning up/returning materials, turning in work, asking questions, working cooperatively, transitioning to the next station, and changing tasks when finished.

As you can see, there are a lot of routines and procedures students need to be familiar with to make small group math work. And, it doesn't happen overnight. We must be intentional about teaching these routines and procedures and providing opportunities for students to practice them during the first days and weeks of school.

Take Action!

Make a list of your essential routines and procedures and plan to embed them into your first few units of instruction.

2. Set-up the structure of your rotations.

The next thing we need to do is set-up our system. This includes making critical decisions such as determining the number of rotations you will have and how many students will be in each group.

It's also the time to think about your rotation themes. Note: You don't have to have a set of established themes you use regularly; however, I discovered it was much easier for me to fill my station baskets when I knew what I needed, i.e. math game, computational fluency activity, computer activity, independent task, etc.

To maximize efficiency, it's also a good idea to create a math workshop rotation board to program your activities and rotation order. This can be a huge time saver because once it's set, students can refer to it throughout the rotation- even when the rotation spans several days.

Take Action!

Take stock of the activities you have available and build your structure around these items because it's what you'll use most often. Then, use these themes to design your math workshop rotation board.

3. Begin with two rotations and work your way up to more rotations.

When we begin building our small group math program, we go slow to go fast! In the beginning, we need to hold our students' hands through the process to ensure they understand the expectations.

I recommend starting with two rotations and providing lots of feedback. Additionally, you want to simplify the tasks. For example, I might assign one group to do an independent task, while the other group plays a math game. This gives me the opportunity to spend more time with the group playing a math game so that I can provide feedback in the moment and ensure all the students follow the established expectations.

After using the two-station rotation model a few times, we add a third rotation to the mix. In this instance, I recommend using the same two rotations as before, math game and independent task, and adding on a new one, like computers. This gives students the chance to review the routines they already learned and allows them to focus on solidifying their understanding of the new routine- using computers.

Take Action!

Look at an upcoming unit of instruction and design a two-station rotation. After a few exposures, add a third station.

Ready to Get Started?

There's no better time to get started on your small group math journey than the present! In fact, I can help you get the ball rolling in just two weeks time!

Download my "10 Days to Small Group Math Instruction that Works" guide using the form below.

Sound Off!

How do you set-up small group math instruction? Respond in the comments below.

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How to Set Up Small Group Math Instruction

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Building an effective small group math program takes time and attention. In fact, it all starts in the first days of school. In this post, I share three steps to demonstrate how to set up small group math instruction. "How do you keep all your students on-task during small group math instruction?"

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4 Great Grouping Strategies for More Effective ESL Group Work

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This is the oh-so-simple answer to the oh-so-common question, "Why the heck are we doing group work in class?" You might ask yourself this question in more challenging moments, when it has become exceedingly difficult to rally students together, get them to choose groups peacefully, settle them down and have them really get work done together.

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Using Flexible Grouping to Meet the Needs of English Language Learners

In Alberta, English language learners typically learn in grade-level classrooms with their same-age peers. Occasionally, some students of lower language proficiencies or with limited formal schooling experiences may require sheltered classes or instruction in small groups within the grade-level class for part of the day. These students learn with their English-speaking peers for the remainder of the day.

Types of Flexible Grouping
Teachers purposefully and strategically group and regroup students within the classroom and in combination with other classes in various ways based on the subject area and/or type of task. Grouping and regrouping allows teachers to more easily address learners' specific needs and allows English language learners the opportunity to work and communicate with a variety of different students. It encourages students to develop leadership skills and take responsibility for their learning. Grouping and regrouping encourages students to develop relationships and connections with their classmates and helps minimize the stigma of being in a "special" group. Teachers should be prepared to provide guidance and training to students to help them work in groups and/or independently.

Interest Grouping

Students group themselves by selecting a topic of interest; e.g., research or inquiry, exploring the same medium, such as website, video and scrapbook.

Mixed Ability Grouping

Students with a variety of specific skill or ability levels are grouped strategically to create balanced groups, often to complete a group task or project. Student roles and responsibilities are assigned. Examples include literature circles, drama representations, science explorations and research projects.

Ability Grouping

Students with similar abilities in language, reading, writing, mathematics or concept understanding are grouped to facilitate explicit instruction; e.g., developing oral language fluency with numbers, reading comprehension strategies, such as literal and figurative, vocabulary development and communication strategies.

Learning Style Grouping

Students group themselves based on how they wish to access content (e.g., Internet, library/print or video investigation) and/or how they wish to express their understanding (e.g., website, artwork, drama).

Grouping to Create Sheltered Classes

If there are a large number of English language learners in your school with a specific need, it can be beneficial to create a sheltered class to address that need. Sheltered classes are built into the timetable and provide ongoing instructional support to English language learners. Although students spend most of the school day in the grade-level classrooms, sheltered classes provide the opportunity for English language learners to receive targeted instruction to address their literacy, numeracy, English and academic needs. Some examples of sheltered instruction include:

limited formal schooling grouping

beginner/newcomer grouping

literacy, English and academic development grouping

Level 4/5 writing grouping

Level 3 vocabulary development grouping.

Sheltered Grouping within the Grade-level Class

English language learners with similar language proficiency or academic needs often benefit from working in small groups on language- and subject-specific outcomes. For example:

students are pre-taught the vocabulary for an upcoming unit

students review and practise a concept or outcome

beginner students are taught basic expressions and early literacy and numeracy skills

students participate in guided reading or writing instruction with a structured language focus.

Small, teacher-led groups allow for more interaction, instructional conversation and individualized support. Students receive "just-right" instruction because the teacher can differentiate instruction based on student ability, readiness and proficiency, and provide scaffolding, as needed.

It is important to factor in small group instruction when creating the school and class timetables, as this allows schools to optimize student learning and instructional time.

Learning Centres

Teachers can set up learning centres in the classroom based on mixed ability/interest groups or on the independent working levels of the students. This allows students to work collaboratively and practise skills while the teacher provides more targeted instruction to a small group of students at one of the centres.

Pull Out

To create a small, ad hoc instructional group of English language learners with similar needs, it is sometimes necessary to pull students out of different classes for a short time during the day. Pull outs provide students with intensive instruction to address a specific learning need.

Teachers should be aware of the possible disruption to students' classroom learning that can be caused by a pull out. Teachers also should be sensitive to how students might feel about being pulled out of a grade-level class, especially if they are missing activities that they enjoy. To reduce the disruption that can be caused by frequent pull outs, consider scheduling sheltered classes instead (see Grouping to Create Sheltered Classes).

An alternative to pull out is push in, which involves bringing an additional teacher into the class to provide extra support. This allows English language learners to stay connected to and within the context of the grade-level class. One teacher supports the class while the other teacher works with a small group of English language learners. This teacher can teach the small group and provide explicit language instruction, guided practice or supported review.

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In Alberta, English language learners typically learn in grade-level classrooms with their same-age peers. Occasionally, some students of lower language proficiencies or with limited formal schooling experiences may require sheltered classes or instruction in small groups within the grade-level class for part of the day.

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Two widely accepted principles about learning-learners construct their own knowledge and learning is an inherently social phenomenon-support the use of group learning. Working in small groups provides learners with opportunities to articulate ideas and understandings, uncover assumptions and misconceptions, and negotiate with others to create products or reach consensus. Group activities enable students to discover deeper meaning in the content and improve thinking skills. The most effective use of group work is that which engages students with higher-level content that is thought-provoking, difficult to understand, or has multiple interpretations.

The terms collaborative learning and cooperative learning are often used interchangeably, but a distinction is helpful. Collaborative learning highlights the contributions of individual group members, stresses the sharing of authority, and leads to dialog and consensus building on topics without a clear right and wrong answer. Group governance and group processing remain in the hands of the students (Panitz, 1997). Cooperative learning is often thought of as a subset of collaborative learning that involves more teacher intervention. The instructor designs the task and a group structure for accomplishing the task, including the assignment of roles to group members. Students then interact under specific conditions set up by the teacher: positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual account ability, collaborative skills, and group processing (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 1998). Both collaborative and cooperative learning can take place with informal and formal groups, however both settings will require that the instructor plans carefully how the assignment is designed, monitored, and assessed.
Short-term groups
These are temporary groups, with little or no time spent on assigning people to groups, getting into groups, or assigning roles. They last one session or less and are used to ensure cognitive processing and engagement in learning. Some informal short-term group activities include the following:

Think-Pair-Share: Students are given a prompt (a question, problem, visual, etc.), and asked to think about the prompt individually and jot down ideas. Students then form pairs, talk about their responses, and formulate a joint response. Some pairs are called on to summarize their discussion for the class.

Think-Pair-Square: Same as above, but two pairs of students join together to share and compare the results, rather than moving to a whole group discussion.

Turn-To-Your-Neighbor Discussions: Students "turn to a neighbor" and brainstorm answers to a question or discuss a solution to a problem. Call on students for answers. Ask the class for a show of hands of who agrees or disagrees with an answer.

Pair-And-Compare: During a two to three minute break in lecture, students form pairs and compare notes, rewriting the notes by adding information or correcting as needed.

Small-Group Homework Check: Have students do their homework individually outside of class. During class on the day the assignment is due, have students form groups and then compare their answers to the assignment. The students in each group must agree on answers and turn in a group solution along with their individual work.

Some short-term group activities require a bit more structure and planning. These include the following:

Jigsaw: This structure is useful when a topic or problem is complex and involves multiple perspectives. Each group member takes responsibility for one part of the problem, meets with students from other groups who have the same responsibility (expert group), and then teaches his or her part to the members of the original group.

Roundtable: After the group is given a prompt, the group members take turns recording a response to the prompt on a single page that is quickly passed from one member to the next for a specified amount of time.

Send-A-Problem: Problems or issues are identified by the groups or by the instructor. Each group proposes solutions to these problems or issues.

Dyadic Essay Confrontation: In response to an assigned reading, each student writes an essay question and model response to that question. During class, students pair off, exchange essay questions, and each writes a spontaneous response to the question he or she receives. The pairs compare the spontaneous responses with the model responses for the two questions.

Long-term groups or teams
These groups are formed by the instructor and may stay together for an extended period of time (weeks or even the entire semester) to work on a broader task or project. One type of formal group is the student team-a stable group that works on major course projects and often involves peer evaluation. Some specific suggestions for getting started with organizing long-term group projects include the following:

Develop a clear description of the project and what you expect.

Decide what kinds of team compositions are critical for the project.

Break the project down into smaller pieces, establishing a timeline, and having the teams submit progress reports on their learning and how they are working as a team.

Provide students with a rationale for the team project. Include an explanation of the value and purpose of working as a team, and establish guidelines for how the teams should work together.

Establish clear and fair guidelines for how the team project will be graded.

This depends on your purpose for using groups. Teams usually have three to five students who are assigned to the group randomly or purposefully by you. Capstone projects may require a larger number of students. Student-selected groups are not generally recommended.
Random selection
You can form random teams by any of the following methods:

Simply having students "turn-to-your-neighbor" or "form teams of three."

Counting off-24 students would form groups of four by counting off from one to six. All of the ones would become a group and so on.

Using color-coded cards or playing cards-students pick up cards as they enter class and all students with the same color (or same number) work together.

Instructor-selected teams
For longer or more complex projects, instructors may want to create heterogeneous teams that distribute students into different groups based on ability, strengths, experience, gender, ethnicity, or some other characteristic. Instructors first learn about the students and then form teams according to the plan. You can learn about your students in one or more of the following ways:

Collect student data sheets that include the following:

Course-related information: Major, courses taken in the discipline

Experience: Work, travel

Personal information: Where they live, phone number, e-mail address, interests

Administer questionnaires with questions relevant to the project:

Strengths: Self-rating on ability with computers, writing, organization

Learning styles

Have students prepare a resume. Doing this may be most appropriate when the students are likely to have a resume already prepared.

Cooper, J. (2003). Group formation in cooperative learning: What the experts say. In J. L. Cooper, P. Robinson, & D. Ball (Eds.), Small group instruction in higher education: Lessons from the past, visions of the future (pp. 207-210). Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.

Cuseo, J. B. (2002) Igniting student involvement, peer interaction, and teamwork: A taxonomy of specific cooperative learning structures and collaborative learning strategies Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Smith, K. A. (1998). Cooperative learning returns to college: What evidence is there that it works. Change, 30(4), 27-35.

Millis, B. J., & Cottell, P. G., Jr. (1998). Cooperative learning for higher education faculty. Phoenix: Oryx Press.

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Two widely accepted principles about learning-learners construct their own knowledge and learning is an inherently social phenomenon-support the use of group learning. Working in small groups provides learners with opportunities to articulate ideas and understandings, uncover assumptions and misconceptions, and negotiate with others to create products or reach consensus.

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If I am continually vexed by any one question in education it is ' how can we enhance student motivation? ' Of course, I do not have the answer, and if there is one it is multi-faceted, complex and, frankly, not going to be solved in this blog post.

From my position as a classroom teacher, I am always on the look out for those strategies that create a state when students are motivated and in their element, where they work furiously without even realising they are doing so, without realising the clock is ticking down to the end of the lesson. There is no better compliment than when students question how long there is left and express genuine surprise at how fast time has passed, and that they have actually enjoyed that lesson.

My, admittedly non-scientific, observations are that many of the times students are in ' flow ', or their element, in my lessons is when they are collaborating in group work.

Why is this then? I believe that we are obviously social beings and we naturally learn in such groups (not always effectively it must be said), but that, more importantly, when working in a group we are able to correct, support, encourage, question and develop ideas much more effectively. The power of the group, guided by the expertise of the teacher, accelerates learning, makes it richer and demands a learning consensus that can push people beyond their habitual assumptions.

Don't get me wrong, there are pitfalls and obstacles to group work. This constructivist approach should build upon expert teacher led pedagogy - ensuring that students have a good grounding in the relevant knowledge before undertaking in-depth group work. Group work can also be beset by issues in many nuanced forms: whether it is subtle intellectual bullying, where the student who shouts loudest prevails; or the encouragement of mediocrity and laziness, as students let others do all the work; or simply by poor, distracting behaviour.

Another issue is 'group think' miscomprehension - indeed, how does prejudice flourish if not in social groups? Yet, this failure is often great for learning as long as the teacher can illuminate the error of their ways. Of course, no teaching strategy is foolproof and plain good teaching should remedy many of the potential ills of group work, just as good teaching can make more traditional teacher-led 'direct instruction' wholly engaging and effective.

I am intrigued by the idea of ' social scaffolding ' (Vygotsky) - the concept that most of our learning is undertaken in group situations, where we learn through dialogue and debate with others, not simply by listening to that voice in our head! That being said, I am not talking teachers out of a classroom here.

The role of the teacher in devising and planning a successful group task takes skill, rigour and utter clarity and precision. Students need to be clear about a whole host of things: from their role, to the purpose of the task and the parameters of expected outcomes to name but a few. Teachers need to keep groups on track, intervene appropriately to improve learning and regularly regain student focus. Teachers have a pivotal role in guiding the group work at every stage.

Group work certainly isn't the lazy option: it takes skill in the planning and the execution, and sometimes, despite our best laid plans, it still fails. That shouldn't put us off - aren't all teaching and learning strategies subject to such risks?

If I was to define a simple and straight-forward basis for the rules for group work it would be:
- Have clearly defined tasks, with sharp timings and with the appropriate tools organised
- Have clearly defined group roles
- Have clear ground rules for talk, listening and fair allocation of workload etc.
- Target your support and interventions throughout the task, but make them interdependent of one another, not dependent upon you
- Always be prepared to curtail group work if students don't follow your high expectations.
So here it is, my entirely subjective top 10 strategies for group work that I believe to be effective (ideas for which I must thank a multitude of sources):
1. 'Think-pair-share' and 'Think-pair-square'.
Well, no-one said this top ten had to be original! This strategy is one of those techniques that we employ so readily that we can almost forget about it, it is simply so automatic for most teachers; yet, because of that we can easily forget it in our planning. We need to use it regularly because it is the very best of scaffolded learning; it almost always facilitates better quality feedback by allowing proper thinking time and for students to sound out their ideas and receive instantaneous feedback from peers. 'Think-pair-square' adds a touch of added flavour, involving linking two pairs together (to form the 'square' to share their ideas before whole class feedback). I defer to this blog post by @headguruteacher for the skinny on 'Think-pair-share' here.
2. Snowballing or the Jigsaw method
Similar to the 'square' approach mentioned in 'Think-Pair-Square', the 'snowballing' activity is another simple but very effective way of building upon ideas by starting with small groups and expanding the groups in a structured way. As the metaphor of the snowball suggests, you can begin with an individual response to a question; followed by then pairing up students up; then creating a four and so on. It does allow for quick, flexible group work that doesn't necessarily require much planning, but does keep shaping viewpoints and challenging 'answers' is a constructive fashion.

The 'jigsaw method' is slightly more intricate. David Didau describes here how it is the "ultimate teaching method", but that it benefits greatly from careful planning. Put simply, when researching a topic, like the causes of the Second World War, each member of a group is allocated an area for which they need to become the 'expert', such as 'the impact of the Treaty of Versailles', or 'issues with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary' for example. With five or six ' Home' groups identified, the ' experts' then leave that group to come together to pool their expertise on the one topic; they question one another and combine research, ideas and their knowledge. Then each ' expert' returns to their ' home ' group to share their findings. It is a skilful way of varying group dynamics as well as scaffolding learning.
3. Debating (using clear rules)
As you probably know, our own inspiring leader, Michael Gove, was the President of the Oxford Union. Clearly, these ancient skills of rhetoric and debate have seen him rise to dizzying heights. Perhaps we need to teach debating with great skill if we are to produce citizens who can debate with the best of them...and with Michael Gove. The premise of a debate, and its value in enriching the learning of logic, developing understanding and the simultaneous sharpening and opening our minds, is quite obvious so I will not elaborate. If you are ever stuck for a debate topic then this website will be of great use: http://idebate.org/debatabase. The Oxford rules model is an essential model for the classroom in my view. It provides a clear structure and even a level of formality which is important, provide coherence and greater clarity to the debate. The rules, familiar steps though they are for many, are as follows:

Four speakers in each team (for and against the motion)
First speaker introduces all the ideas that team has generated
Second speaker outlines two or three more ideas in some depth
Third speaker outlines two or three ideas in some depth
Fourth speaker criticises the points made by the other team
Each individual speaker has two minutes to speak (or more of course), with protected time of thirty seconds at the beginning or the end
The rest of the team is the 'Floor' and can interject at any time by calling out 'Point of Information' and standing. The speaker can accept or reject an interjection.

You may wish to have the other groups work as feedback observers on the debate being undertaking (a little like Socratic circles - number 8). This has the benefit of keeping the whole class engaged and actively listening to the debate.
4. Project Based Learning/Problem Based Learning
I have to admit I have only ever undertaken project style work on a small scale, but in the last year I have been startled by the quality of work I have observed in project based learning across the world. The principals of Project Based Learning are key: such as identifying real audiences and purposes for student work (a key factor in enhancing motivation); promoting interdependent student work, often subtly guided by the teacher at most stages; letting students undertake roles and manage the attendant challenges that arise; learning is most often integrated and spans subject areas; and students constructing their own questions and knowledge. Truly the best guide is to survey these great examples:

The Innovation Unit has also produced this brilliant must-read guide to PBL in great depth here.

'Problem based learning' is clearly related to the project model, but it explicitly starts with a problem to be solved. It is based primarily upon the model from medicine - think Dr House (although he is hardly a team player!). David Didau sagely recommends that the teacher, or students in collaboration, find a specifically local problem - this raises the stakes of the task. Clearly, in Mathematics, real problem based learning can be a central way to approach mathematical challenges in a collaborative way; in Science or Philosophy, the options to tackle ethical and scientific problems are endless. There is criticism of this approach - that students struggle with the ' cognitive load' without more of a working memory. Ideally, this learning approach follows some high quality direct instruction, and teacher led worked examples, to ensure that students have effective models to work from and some of the aforementioned working memory.
5. Group Presentations
I would ideally label this strategy: ' questions, questions, questions' as it is all about creating, and modelling, a culture of enquiry by asking students questions about a given topic, rather than didactically telling them the answer - then helping shape their research. The teacher leads with a ' big question '; then it is taken on by groups who (given materials, such as books, magazines, essays, iPads, laptops, or access to the library or an ICT suite etc.) have to interrogate the question, forming their own sub-set of questions about the question/ topic. They then source and research the key information, before finally agreeing to the answers to the questions they had themselves formed. The crucial aspect about presentations is giving students enough time to make the presentation worthwhile, as well as allocating clear roles. High quality presentations take time to plan, research and execute.

Personally, I find the timekeeper role a waste of time (I can do that for free!), but other roles, such as leader, designer and scribe etc. have value. Also, the teaching needs to be carefully planned so the entire presentation is not reliant solely upon any one person or piece of technology. Developing a shared understanding of the outcome and the different parameters of the presentation is key: including features like banning text on PowerPoints; or making it an expectation that there is some element of audience participation; to agreeing what subject specific language should be included. The devil is in the detail!
6. 'Devise the Display'
I have a troubled relationship with displays! I very rarely devise my own display as I think displays become wallpaper far too soon considering the effort taken to provide them - like newspapers, they become unused within days. I much prefer a ' working wall ', that can be constantly changed or updated (or a 'learning continuum' for an entire topic when can be periodically added to each lesson). That being said, I do think there is real high quality learning potential in the process of students devising and creating wall displays. It is great formative feedback to devise a wall display once you are well under way a topic. It makes the students identify and prioritise the key elements of their knowledge and the skills they are honing.

I find the most valuable learning is actually during the design ideas stage.You can 'snowball' design ideas with the students; beginning individually, before getting groups to decide collaboratively on their design; then having a whole class vote. I do include stipulations for what they must include, such as always including worked examples. Then, the sometimes chaotic, but enjoyable activity it to create the display. I always aim for the ' 60 Minute Makeover ' approach - quick and less painful (it also makes you less precious about the finer details)!

I think they also learn a whole host of valuable skills involving team work, empathy and not to annoy me by breaking our wall staplers! I think it is then important to not let any display fester and waste, but to pull it down and start afresh with a new topic. I know this strategy does put some people off, because it can be like organised chaos, but if everyone has a clear role and responsibility the results can be amazing. [Warning - some designs can look like they have been produced by Keith Richards on a spectacular acid trip!]
7. Gallery Critique
This stems from the outstanding work of on Berger. Both a teacher and a craftsman himself, Berger explains the value of critique as rich feedback in his brilliant book ' The Ethic of Excellence'. It can be used during the draft/main process or as a summative task. This strategy does have some specific protocols students should follow. The work of the whole group should be displayed in a gallery style for a short time. Students are expected to first undertake a short silent viewing (making notes to reflect is also useful here). The students make comments on the work - post it notes being ideal for this stage. Then the next step is a group discussion of ' what they noticed' in particular, with debate and discussion encouraged - of course, the feedback should be both kind and constructive. The next step for discussion is talking about ' what they liked ', evaluating the work. The final stage has the teacher synthesise viewpoints and express their own; before ensuring students make notes and reflect upon useful observations for making improvements.
8. Socratic Talk
I have spoken about this strategy before here. What is key is that like the debating rules above, a clear and defined structure is in place, particularly with ' Socratic circles ' which embeds feedback and debate in a seamless way. It takes some skill in teaching students how to talk in this fashion, but once taught, it can become a crucial tool in the repertoire. In my experience, some of the most sensitive insights have emerged from this strategy and the listening skills encouraged are paramount and have an ongoing positive impact. It also allows for every student to have a role and quality feedback becomes an expectation.
9. Talking Triads
Another simple, but highly effective strategy. It is a strategy that gets people to explore a chosen topic, but with a really rigorous analysis of ideas and views. The triad comprises of a speaker, a questioner and a recorder/analyst. You can prepare questions, or you can get the questioner and the analyst to prepare questions whilst the speaker prepares or reflects upon potential answers. This can be done in front of the class as a gallery of sorts, or you can have all triads working simultaneously. If they do work simultaneously, then a nice addition is to raise your hand next to a particular triad, which signals for other groups to stop and listen whilst that specific triad continues, allowing for some quality listening opportunities.
10. Mastery Modelling
This involves a form of formative assessment from students, whereat the teacher gives a group a series of models, both exemplar models and lesser models, including some with common errors that students would likely identify. The students need to do a critical appraisal of the these models as a group and identify their summary assessment of the models first, before then devising and presenting a 'mastery model' that is a composite exemplar model of work. This strategy works in pretty much every subject, with the subject being either an essay, a piece of art, or a mathematical problem. This presentation should include an explicit focus upon the steps taken leading to create the ' mastery model ' during the feedback - this unveils the process required for mastery for the whole class.
Useful links:
A great research paper that analyses group work and its importance:
'Toward a social pedagogy of classroom group work'
By Peter Blatchford, Peter Kutnick, Ed Baines, and Maurice Galton

An excellent National Strategies booklet from back in the day when the DfE was interested in pedagogy. I particularly like the ' different grouping criteria'/'size of grouping' tables:
Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools Unit 10: Group work

Nice step by step guide to the implementation and the delivery of group work
' Implementing Group Work in the Classroom '

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If I am continually vexed by any one question in education it is ' how can we enhance student motivation? ' Of course, I do not have the answer, and if there is one it is multi-faceted, complex and, frankly, not going to be solved in this blog post.

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by Ellen Parkhurst
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." Benjamin Franklin Why Cooperative Grouping?
All students, but especially English Language Learners (ELLs), need multiple and varied opportunities throughout the school day to practice and interact with the language they are learning. They need to be able to engage with their peers and really dig in to the academic and social language they're seeing and hearing all around them. Research tells us that this needs to be done in a meaningful way, by really putting the students at the center of their own learning. For some students, this can be an anxiety-producing prospect, so it's important that they feel their contributions are valued and that the environment is a safe one in which they can make mistakes as they learn academic language. A particularly effective way for this to occur is through cooperative grouping. This can be achieved in many different ways and through a variety of strategies, some of which are outlined below.
What Does Cooperative Grouping Look Like?
There are many different grouping strategies and activities that teachers can choose to use in their classroom depending on their students' needs, personalities and language levels. If one isn't working, try another! Get feedback from the students as well-what did they think worked about a particular strategy? What is something new that they'd like to try? A few grouping options (listed below with links to more information) include:

Academic Conversations: Students engage in content based conversations using explicit strategies and sentence support frames for active listening, paraphrasing, elaborating, etc. This strategy also may be referred to as "academic discussion", "accountable talk" or "talk moves."

Guided Groups: Also may be referred to as "flexible groups." Guided groups allow the student to reflect on their own understanding of the content and form their own differentiated groups based on those needs.

Expert Groups: Students each read part of a text then convene in a new group to synthesize learning on a process grid. This type of grouping is sometimes called "jigsaw."

Conver-Stations: Students are already in small groups, but then mix those groups up by having 1-2 students rotate to a different group and share knowledge. This also may be referred to as a "café."

Peer Conferencing: Students engage with each other to get feedback on their writing or whatever other project they are working on. This encourages the use of academic language, talk moves and peer-to-peer learning.

The possibilities for these groupings are endless. In general, when thinking about grouping students, it is often recommended to have the teacher place the students into groups rather than asking the students to group themselves. This way, students have an opportunity to engage with other people they may not ordinarily seek out. Another advantage is that teachers can consider their students' language proficiency levels and mix and match groups to suit whatever assignment they are working on.

Something else to think about is how the students will interact once they are placed in their groups. Students may not be used to this kind of group work and may not have an idea about how things should be structured. As is true with most effective instruction, providing students the support they need to effectively engage with the group will go a long way in creating a successful collaborative environment. Modeling your expectations will help students understand what they are supposed to do.

No matter how you do it, thinking about and implementing ways to use cooperative grouping in your classroom will reap enormous benefits for your students. Involve them, and you'll be amazed-give it a try!
To Further Your Learning:

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Cooperative Grouping Strategies - Confianza

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by Ellen Parkhurst "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." Benjamin Franklin Why Cooperative Grouping? All students, but especially English Language Learners (ELLs), need multiple and varied opportunities throughout the school day to practice and

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Small groups are all the rage these days in education. They are an effective way of differentiating instruction, and enable teachers to give students meaningful choices affecting their learning. A group leader who may be the teacher or a student can teach students in small groups, or students can teach students and collaborate in the group configuration. The main obstacle to small group instruction for music is that music study usually (or should) involves making sound, and a room full of differentiated groups all making their own sounds can quickly become counterproductive. On the other hand, because it is a proven teaching strategy, a way to make it work in the music classroom is needed.

Activities that limit one singer singing at a time, just as one person talks at a time during a discussion, is one approach. Students can prepare for performances by singing their voice part or solo alone for an audience of the other group members. That audience can assess the performance, using assessment rubrics designed for the activity. These could be rubrics used for concert assessment, seating assessments, or formative and summative classroom assessments. The model cornerstone assessment for 2 nd grade solo singing is a good example of the kind of assessment tool that would work well in small group instruction. Using it in this setting would also familiarize students with it, and prepare them for the actual solo assessment. Because the noise level in a room where group instruction is occurring would never be silent, recording performances for assessment done in small group instruction would not be possible. The same approach could be used for instrumental performances on quieter instruments such as recorder or Orff xylophones, so that the sound level remains quiet enough for all groups to be able to work effectively.

Another method that can work well in small groups is using keyboard apps on the students' smart phones. I have written about my use of these devices in other posts, but I have since found them to be useful not only in teaching students unison pieces, but also in providing them with opportunities to play parts in an ensemble. Just today, a class of 8 th grade students learned the instrument parts for 2Pak's "Keep Ya Head Up." The song uses a bass doubling kick drum, snare drum and high hat. Using keyboard apps (Real Piano on iPhone) and a percussion app (Real Drum on iPhone), students learned one or more of the parts. They had their choice of learning to play the parts by ear after listening to the song many times, or using a part written in standard music notation. Students could work independently or in groups. By structuring the class this way, I gave students meaningful choices on how they would learn, and what they would do. I did have to redirect their conversations back to helping each other learn the song, but they did learn the parts and enjoyed a level of music making that was gratifying to them and demonstrated learning to me. The same set up could also be used for creating music through improvisation. Three students create a rhythm section groove using a drum app, a keyboard app, and a keyboard app set on guitar and played in the bass range, for drums, keys and bass. A fourth student uses the keyboard app set to an instrument sound of his or her choice and improvises. The improviser can rotate around the group until all have improvised.

A second type of small group activity begins with a whole class listening experience. I play a musical work for the class, and provide them with questions about the work, and the opportunity to add question of their own. The students then go into small groups and discuss answers to my questions and their questions. I will have the selection on my phone so that if one group wants to hear it again, I can play it for them without interrupting the other groups. I encourage students to add at least one question of their own so that each group has a unique insight, and so that students practice not only finding answers, but finding questions. It is important to learning that students wonder about things, turn their curiosity into searchable questions, and then go about finding the answers. Often, one question will lead to another, and students learn things I would never have thought to teach about the work by just following their own curiosity. This too is a way of giving students meaningful choices, and these choices lead to more effective learning.

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Small Group Instruction in the Music Classroom

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Small groups are all the rage these days in education. They are an effective way of differentiating instruction, and enable teachers to give students meaningful choices affecting their learning. A group leader who may be the teacher or a student can teach students in small groups, or students can teach students and collaborate in the...

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Like some of you, I wrote it off initially as a fad, but when I dug deeper, I realized how powerful this style of teaching is and how much music teachers already use these techniques without even realizing it.

I decided to do some research as part of my Master's degree on these strategies and implement them in my own classroom.

Wow! What a difference!

Here is the Cooperative Learning In Music beginner's guide.

Note: I approach this from an elementary music teacher's perspective, but secondary music classes will benefit from this as well with minimal adaptations.

Much of the article is pulled from my literature review on the subject.

Click the button if you want to download the wordy, academic version of this post. (This is also where you'll find the sources.)

What Is Cooperative Learning?

CL is defined as the teacher setting up small-group structures and goals for students to work together to build a better product or learning experience.

The teacher must play an active role in the functioning of these groups and give students the tools to work together successfully.

In other words, the students are combining their skills and knowledge to teach each other and build a better answer.

Hallmarks of CL include student-driven instruction, social learning, and teacher facilitation rather than direct instruction.

Despite what some teachers believe, CL isn't just for math or reading. The strategies apply to any content area and actually align themselves quite naturally with music.

Please share with link to Dynamic Music Room

What Are The Benefits Of Cooperative Learning In Music?

Whether you think cooperative learning in music classrooms is a good idea or not, you're right to question any new method's effectiveness. Let's look at the benefits, and then decide for yourself.

Social And Behavior Benefits

As part of the CL process, students are specifically taught how to work together positively in a structure designed to give each student a role.

The teacher's job of circulating and providing feedback and redirection actually improves desirable behavior and reduces the negative ones.

To many, student groups seem chaotic, but when done well, most or all students are on-task and engaged.

Even in elementary grades as young as Kindergarten, using cooperative learning techniques correctly showed a substantial (56-80%) decrease in off-task behavior.

Teachers have said they feel they're students enjoy this style of learning more, and this is backed with data collected from students across different grade levels and subject areas.

Boost Confidence And Self-Motivation

The act of teaching each other and taking turns being leaders in small groups also raises self-confidence.

These are all parts of cooperative learning, and research has shown a clear positive trend in all areas at all grade levels including adults.

Learn Concepts Faster For Longer

Another key benefit stemming from cooperative learning techniques is a quicker and longer lasting understanding of the concepts.

There is some speculation as to why this is.

Is it because students have to reexplain and define their own thinking? Possibly.

Is it because students are more engaged and confident? Probably.

I think a key part of the learning increase is due to learning styles.

We're all familiar with Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (if you're not, learn more at Edutopia).

Two of the most often forgotten learning styles revolve around social intelligences. We ignore these at our own peril.

Implementing CL learning strategies correctly and consistently provides a way to reach these intelligences on top of and combined with the more common ones.

Increased Engagement

We've touched on this before, but CL has a much higher instance of on-task behavior and equal engagement.

As part of cooperative learning (which we'll dig into a little more in the next section), students are split into groups, but many teachers who attempt group work will complain about stronger and more capable students taking over while others take a back seat.

This is true if you only do small groups and leave it at this.

On top of this, the majority of students find it more fun to be a part of a group with their classmates anyway.

More engagement = more learning = less off-task behavior

Please share with link to Dynamic Music Room

What Makes Up Cooperative Learning?

In this section, we'll go over the 5 main parts of cooperative learning. These parts are drawn from research on the top 3 CL experts, Kagan, Cangro, and Slavin.

While there are differences in the terminology and priorities of each element, all are considered a must in order to do true CL.

Common Goal Setting

It's not enough to just get students in groups, the groups must be unified in a common goal. This gives the students' an end-goal to work towards and keep them on track.

The goals may be flexible depending on the task required, and students may help to create and define the goals for their group.

For younger students and at the beginning of cooperative learning, it's better if the teacher sets a goal with clearly defined parameters and expectations.

Grouping Strategies

Grouping strategies are one of the most easily recognized elements of CL.

There is a lot going into the picking of groups, and there are some common beliefs which define these grouping strategies.

Some research debunks the effectiveness of the strategies over one another, but all these methods work well.

Here are some selection strategies you may wish to use at some point:

Random (the quickest method)

Teacher chosen (most intentional and affective, but requires extra work on your part)

Student-selected (students are usually happier and more engaged, but it may result in more off-task behavior)

When the teacher selects the groups, most experts suggest the following ideas in the picking:

Equal number of boys and girls

One high achieving student, one low achieving student, and the rest from the middle

Diverse socio-economic and racial backgrounds if possible

Group Sizes

For group sizes, consider the following rule:

The more complicated the task, the larger the group. The shorter and simpler task is smaller. No less than 2 and no more than 6. Groups with 4 students are ideal in most cases.

In music classes, especially elementary music, we don't always have time to plan out the groups for the 100s of students we see, so it's OK to do what I call a "selectively random" grouping.

Put groups together randomly while intentionally separating those who don't work well together and making sure you don't get a group of all "high" or all "low".

Accountability

Most teachers when using group work in the classroom will naturally do the first two elements, but it's here they fall off.

Without these last 3 ideas, the group work will always fail to reach its full potential.

In fact, some research shows group work without these last 3 will actually harm some students' learning potential.

You must have some way to check on the work.

Sounds simple and easy, but the accountability needs to come in 2 parts:

Accountability as a whole group

Accountability on an individual level

In this way, every student must do their part.

A simple example of this in music class is as follows:

Task: Create and perform a 16 beat rhythm in a 4 person group.

Group Accountability: The group must perform and show the teacher or class their rhythm.

Individual Accountability: Each student must create 4 beats of the rhythm on their own and contribute to the whole.

In this way, the students work together to create a whole product for their group accountability, but they're also responsible for their own work.

If one student fails to do their part, it harms the whole group.

Teacher Role

A lot of teachers who don't see correctly-used CL view it as "lazy."

In their eyes, the teacher gives the lesson and sits back while students do all the work.

This is, sadly, what some teachers do, but it's not effective or what is intended with true cooperative learning.

Teachers play an active role in the entire process; it's just different from the traditional style of teaching.

First, teachers need to plan and prepare the materials, groups, and delivery of expectations.

Then, teachers need to set up clear expectations and model appropriate social interaction.

This is where most teachers fail. Without giving the students the language and example they need, the students resort to what they know.

The default for student-student interaction is how they play at recess or interact when they hang out outside of school.

They don't naturally know how to work together constructively (many adults don't either). It's a learned skill, and the teacher needs to model and teach this.

Once students are split into groups, the teacher has two jobs to cover at the same time. Neither of them are sitting back and taking a nap.

Teachers need to facilitate deeper learning. This is done by checking the groups' work and asking probing questions or constructive feedback.

The teacher also needs to monitor and redirect behavior. It's inevitable that some students will get off-task.

But by following through with expectations right away and redirecting, the students will fall into a default of more on-task behavior.

Not lazy at all, right?

Structures

Cooperative learning structures is another one of the most important elements which set CL apart from plain old group learning.

Some methods have specific names, language, and setup used for their structures. In fact, Kagan Cooperative Learning is built almost entirely around pre-made structures.

Kagan structures aren't the only way to go, but each structure is built in such a way it hits the most important structure points.

Structures center around the types of activities used to reinforce learning, provide student roles to ensure better group and individual accountability as well as offer structured ways to interact socially.

Basically, a plan or structure will hit all the points from above in a clearly defined way.

It's OK to invent or adapt your own structures as long as everything else is covered above.

(Or you may want to check out some resources listed later in the guide and save yourself some time.)

Can This Be Applied To Music?

Maybe all of this sounds great to you, but you wonder:
Does this work with music too?
Yes! Emphatically, yes!

Sure, CL was born out of reading and math, but the strategies exist outside of these and benefit literally any subject area at any grade level from Kindergarten to adulthood!

The knowledge and activities look different for us and different for each grade level, but there are easy ways to adapt and integrate them to our content.

Don't give up because you don't see how to apply it right away.

The next 2 sections offer 3 practical examples I use with my elementary students and steps to create your own plan, and the resource section shares some music-specific CL references as well.

Simple Steps To Build A Cooperative Learning In Music Lesson

These are the steps I go through to build a CL lesson plan for music. This is usable for all grades and types of music classes.

Feel free to share with link to Dynamic Music Room.

3 Concrete Cooperative Learning In Music Activities

Here are 3 examples of CL lessons I have actually used in my classroom with success. These are adaptable to any grade level, but I'll offer the examples using a specific concept and grade to help give you an idea.

Match My Rhythm

Grade: Second Grade

Musical Concept: Rhythms - half notes, paired eighth notes, quarter rests, quarter notes

Grouping: 2-3, teacher selected

Goal: 1 student (coach) will be able to describe rhythm using syllables while the other 1-2 students (listeners) will write down the rhythms they hear.
Accountability:

Group: The group must get at least 5 successful matchings. The correctly matched ones must be set aside.

Individual: Each student must have at least one match as a leader. The 1+ they match as the coach must be set aside for the teacher to check.

Materials: White board and markers for students to write on as listeners, rhythm note cards for coaches to use and describe.
Expectations:

Only the coach is allowed to talk

The coach may only say their rhythm 3 times

Listeners may signal they've got it with a thumbs up when they're ready

All activity stops when they hear the teacher's attention signal

If a student has not gotten a match as the coach, this student gets turns until they have it correct

If the group has a question, they all raise their hands and wait until the teacher comes to them

Social Prompts:

When the listeners get it right:
Wow listeners! You heard my rhythm correctly. Nice focus!
When the listeners get it wrong:
Hmm...your rhythm doesn't quite match mine. See it here (show the card). This should be like this (say the rhythm). You'll get it next time, good focus!
When the coach says it wrong:
I like your confidence, but I think it's supposed to go like this (say the rhythm). Let's try another one. You've got this!
If there is any disagreement, the teacher may be called on to settle the dispute.

Procedure Explanation:

The coach draws a rhythm card, so the others can't see.

The coach says the rhythm 3 times with a pause in between each time.

Listeners write down the rhythm as best they can. If they think they have it, they give a thumbs up.

When all listeners have a thumbs up or the rhythm has been said 3 times, the coach shows the card to the group.

The coach (only) checks the work and gives the prompt from above based on if they're right or wrong.

If all listeners have it right, this card is set off to the side.

The next listeners on the left becomes the new coach and the process is repeated.

Repeat until 5 rhythm cards are set off to the side as correct and each student has been a successful coach.

Grade: Kindergarten

Musical Concept: Singing with a steady beat

Grouping: 2, random

Goal: Students will sing a song to their partner while the partner taps a beat to match their song.
Accountability:

Group: The group will perform the song together while the teacher watches (spot checks).

Individual: Each has a turn doing the singing and the patting.

Materials: Song to play while circulating
Expectations:

Students will not talk while they move/dance.

Students won't touch each other or run during the music.

When it's the singer's turn, the patter will not sing along.

If a student doesn't have a song they want to sing, they'll sing Johnny Works With One Hammer.

All activity stops when the teacher gives the quiet signal.

Social Prompts:

When they're done singing/patting:

Great singing! I like your bravery for singing by yourself.

Nice patting! You listened and matched me!

After each has taken a turn:

Thank you for sharing! It's great to try new things!

Procedure Explanation:

Students circulate the room dancing or walking without talking while music is being played.

When the music stops, they find their nearest person and give them a high-five and stand right next to each other.

Students without partners move to the front of the class until they see someone else who doesn't have a partner.

Classes with odd numbers: the teacher lets them pick a group to join as 3.

The student who is taller (shorter, older, boy, girl, number 1, pick any quality you want goes first).

Give them time (about 20 seconds) to think of a song. Person 1 sings while person 2 pats.

Switch when done giving the social prompts in between.

Call for attention with an attention signal at the end. The whole class does the ending prompt together but looking at their own partner.

Repeat from the beginning ending up with a new partner.

During the singing, the teacher circulates and monitors for behavior and steady beat patting offering feedback as needed.

Group Compose

Grade: 5th grade

Musical Concept: Composing using known elements

Grouping: 4, teacher-selected

Goal: Create a 32 measure composition using known musical elements
Accountability:

Group: Create and perform a 32 measure composition for the teacher or class.

Individual: Each individual is responsible for their own 8 measure phrase.

Materials: Composition mats with dry-erase markers and erasers, alternatively: iPads or Chromebooks may be used, talking drum stick
Expectations:

Students will be responsible for their own measures and also for working together to decide on the order of phrases

Students will not make fun of others' ideas

The group will agree on meter and mode before working on their own

Groups will raise their hand to ask a question and/or settle a dispute

Only one person will speak at a time

When the teacher attention signal is heard, all activity and talking will stop right where it is

Social Prompts:

When ideas are shared:
Your idea was fascinating! It takes a lot of courage to share a personal idea.
When a critique is offered:
I like your idea like it is, but what do you think about this? Thanks for your input! It shows you care. I like it; let's change it (OR) Your idea is good, but I like it the way it is.
Procedure Explanation:

1. Getting Set

Groups of 4 are given composition mats and writing materials (or other technology).

The groups must discuss and vote on meter and mode for their 32 measure composition. The instrument may also be picked, but I find it easier to tell them this will be sung or played on recorder, xylophone, or piano.

Each person gets one chance to say which meter or mode they wish for and only when holding the talking stick. Then, they vote.

Majority rules, and the others must follow. Disputes and ties are settled by best 2 out of 3 rock, paper, scissors or teacher intervention.

2. Individual Work

The groups work on their own 8 measure composition. At any time, they may ask one member of their group for help by tapping on their shoulder and whisper discussing.

Every 5 minutes, the teacher will call for a group check-in where the group shares what they have so far with each other (one at a time).

Repeat until each individual is done with their part and their name is on their work.

The teacher should be helping kids stay on task and work on their parts.

3. Put together a whole 32 measure song.

Students share their ideas and brainstorm different ways to order their individual parts.

Each suggests one order and the group votes until there is a majority.

4. Practice and perform

The group must practice and perform their song either by singing or playing.

When the teacher hears their performance (either in the small group or to the whole class), the students share which part was theirs.

Why Some Teachers Hate On Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is loved by most teachers who try it, but there are those who refuse to give it a shot or attempt it and write it off.

These are the common reasons why (with rebuttals).

The Classroom Is Too Chaotic!

At first, the classroom will seem more chaotic.

When you start, your students will have a hard time staying on task because they don't know how to work together.

But if you stay consistent, teach them how to interact, and set up and follow through on expectations it gets quite smooth in a short period of time.

The problem comes when you forget to do these things or you aren't consistent.

It Requires Too Much Work Ahead Of Time.

Yes, there is more "front-loading" or planning ahead with CL. This is especially true in the beginning when you're not comfortable with the strategies.

However, I believe this "extra" work is offset by:

With practice, it gets easy

The heavy burden is off your shoulders when groups are working

No, you don't want to chill while the students are working, but you don't have to be performing. You focus on responding to the students' work and helping them where they're at.

The "Smart" Students Will Do All The Work.

In group work, yes, the "smart" ones usually end up doing the work.

But not with CL.

In CL, your structures are set up with accountability for all members, and you give each student a role to ensure equal participation.

Then, you follow this up by monitoring and redirecting when some group members try to take over.

The "Low" Students Will Be Confused And Embarrassed.

There will always be confusion and potential embarrassment in classrooms.
Confusion is OK as long as you make it OK.

Embarrassment, not so much.

However, the role system and structures make working together a bigger priority and helps build confidence.

You also monitor to help prevent and fix potentially embarrassing situations.

I'd also like to ask:
Aren't your "low" students embarrassed to try in a normal setting?
It's better to fail in a small group than in front of the whole class. With the proper social interactions modeled, this will help too.

I Question How Much My Students Are Actually Learning.

You may feel like unless you have an individual assignment turned in from each kid you can't control their learning.

Here's a secret:
You can't really control their learning, anyway!
Learning is an individual thing, but by working in a small group effectively (as CL does), the individual gets the support they need while not feeling lost and actually contributing to the group.

It's Impossible To Keep Track Of Every Student.

Isn't it already hard anyway?

This actually makes it easier. With students engaged in groups, your monitoring gives you a better snapshot of how the student is performing in a more authentic situation.

It Doesn't Work For My Subject Area.

Maybe you're having a hard time imagining it, but CL works for any content area at any age.

Collegiate and adult groups use this to work better together in pretty much every area imaginable.

Don't give up because it doesn't immediately apply to your situation. Reach out to others and get creative.

The benefits are too good to just leave this out.

Cooperative Learning Resources To Look Into

Once you've used this a few times, it becomes much easier to create new lessons using CL. But you don't have to reinvent the wheel, just look at some of these resources for a shortcut.

Kagan Cooperative Learning - This is the bible for most CL texts. No, this isn't music-specific, but it covers all the basics you need to get started.

Cooperative Learning And Music - This is the Kagan-approved text for building a Kagan music classroom based on using CL.

The lessons and activities in here are good, though they may not match up with your exact content and teaching style.

However, the thorough examples are great launching points for adapting to your own needs.

Making Music Cooperatively - This book is great for music teachers with a little background in CL and need more examples and to hear someone's actual experience using it in the music classroom.

For those in the beginning of CL, you may wish to buy this as a companion to one of the others or along with a training.

Conclusion

I hope you find this cooperative learning in music beginner's guide helpful to you.

The benefits are clear and apply to music at any level.

Avoid missing one of the 5 parts of CL and stick with it.

Anything new is always messy at first, but with practice and good resources, you'll help your students gain confidence, improve their musical skills, and learn to work better together.

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Cooperative Learning In Music: A Beginner's Guide | Dynamic Music Room

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Like some of you, I wrote it off initially as a fad, but when I dug deeper, I realized how powerful this style of teaching is and how much music teachers already use these techniques without even realizing it. I decided to do some research as part of my Master's degree on these strategies and implement them in my own classroom.

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Student Grouping: Learning Group Strategies & Tips

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Tips for Great Group Work in the Classroom