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Four Corners is great because it sets that expectation of covering 4 topics: gives variety, and a clear progression through the activity.  Each partnership can manage their energy accordingly.

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Sometimes the groups are created nicely where students are partnered with others that aren't necessarily their friends to build social skills. Sometimes the groups will put all of the stonger students in a group and it's nice to have a balance.

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Helps students get to know each other. Some students may need explicit modeling to help develop skills needed to fully participate.

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I like the benefit of creating a stronger sense of community by doing this often. Every student has conversations with every other students, many times during the year. A caution is that this seems to work better for shorter, lower stakes activities. When doing project based learning over multiple weeks or months, or even something short but with bigger grades attached, it seems better to make sure kids are grouped based on like interest and other factors, including ability range.

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I like the benefit of creating a stronger sense of community by doing this often. Every student has conversations with every other students, many times during the year. A caution is that this seems to work better for shorter, lower stakes activities. When doing project based learning over multiple weeks or months, or even something short but with bigger grades attached, it seems better to make sure kids are grouped based on like interest and other factors, including ability range.

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Students are often more comfortable when working with their friends - especially the shy students. But these types of groups can also unintentionally cause exclusion and hurt feelings. Also, sometimes friend groups are less productive because they spend most of the time goofing off - it depends on the friend groups.

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Students are often more comfortable when working with their friends - especially the shy students. But these types of groups can also unintentionally cause exclusion and hurt feelings. Also, sometimes friend groups are less productive because they spend most of the time goofing off - it depends on the friend groups.

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having similar students discover and discuss a range of perspectives and ideas help students in clarifying their personalities to and ideas about that subject. They can also test their own ideas and attitudes against others.

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Random groups take out any haggling over who's in what group, and it works on important social skills. However, the teacher needs to monitor for slacking/lack of engagement.

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Obviously there's a fear of rejection for kids who may not have as many friends. But also I've noticed that some friends recognize that they don't work well together but they won't say anything. It really helps when kids can tell you who they feel they work well with or who they know they'll have problems with so grouping them doesn't leave them miserable, but also doesn't allow them to just stick to the same group every time.

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Think-pair-share or write-pair-share. I like the way each of these pushes students to have sustained time to really develop their own thoughts. The book Quiet focuses a lot on how constant groupings can take away from solo flights of thought, and I like this argument. Often pair (and group) conversations are engaging and fun but shallow, lacking the depth that would come with sustained individual thought to prepare it.

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Think-pair-share or write-pair-share. I like the way each of these pushes students to have sustained time to really develop their own thoughts. The book Quiet focuses a lot on how constant groupings can take away from solo flights of thought, and I like this argument. Often pair (and group) conversations are engaging and fun but shallow, lacking the depth that would come with sustained individual thought to prepare it.

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Studies show that when you are able to teach a concept to a peer, you will have a deeper understanding of the concept and remember it longer.

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Sometimes when I have mixed ability groups, it seems clear that getting help from peers can be a very effective way of learning for some students. It makes the task/skill seem more do-able. However, we need to beware of segregating the class into those who 'get it' and those who don't.

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Benefit: allows for maximum mixing of students if used frequently. Sometimes a group works well who you might not have purposefully put together.

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Teacher needs to create structures to ensure the students share the task at hand.

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This can cause anxiety for students that are shy and/or don't have a lot of friends.

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In off-campus PD I've done, sitting at a table withe a mixed group is amazing, because you really get the kind of feedback that comes from outside, from people who see your issues in a different, objective way. Tough for kids though! (Awkward.... "we have nothing in common"...)

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Students have many common interests and different interests and this seems like a less effective way of splitting up the students because it's hard to define which categories each student falls under.

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Students may feel more engaged if they have been given the autonomy to select their own group.

If groups are always self-selected clique-y-ness may be exacerbated

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Gives students the opportunity to learn about something new that they may not be exposed to in a similar interest group.

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Fun for some, too friend-groupy for others.

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Fun for some, too friend-groupy for others.

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Students with weaker social skills may struggle in random groups and need more guidance on the role they play or how to participate effectively in the conversation.

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Students with weaker social skills may struggle in random groups and need more guidance on the role they play or how to participate effectively in the conversation.