Flexible Grouping, Flexible Teaching!

On my journey to differentiated instruction, I know one non-negotiable of DI is strategic flexible grouping. During the past few years, I have worked diligently on grouping my students, but I know I need to improve the strategic part of my grouping process. 

(By the way, I use the "Touch Blur" app to blur students' faces.)

I also learned that differentiation doesn't always mean group work, nor does it mean that groups are based solely on ability levels.  Some lessons require "whole group" instruction, and then we can move into individual, partner, or small group work as necessary.

Types of Groups:	And groups may be based on...
Whole Class	Readiness
Small Groups	Interest
Pairs	Similar Learning Profiles
Individual Work	Random Selection
	Choice

In addition, I learned you must establish a community in your classroom to make the different groups most effective. Students must be willing to talk with each other, take risks together, and know how to truly collaborate on their work.  To help with the community building in class, as soon as I change my groups, I ask students to introduce themselves and answer a question that requires collaboration.  (Rate yourself from 1-10 on how you're feeling today, and average all of your ratings.  Come to a consensus about the best thing to eat in the cafeteria.)  I love Sarah's idea for establishing group norms, and you can download her posters from her blog.  And finally, let's not forgot about the classroom management aspect of the group process. When working on building community and flexible grouping, it's so important to have those procedures in place about moving desks, turning in work, getting materials, ...

To help students understand that grouping is a norm in our class, at the beginning of last year (and I will repeat) we did a quick "line up" activity.  I had huge classes, so the students actually remained seated, but I participated, too. I projected the list shown here, and we went through the items one by one. It is more effective when you can demonstrate a line up and have your kids move from one end of the spectrum to the other, but they got the point by their self-assessments. After we went through the entire list, I asked questions such as who had a chance to rate themselves as a 4 or 5?  And who rated themselves a 1 or 2 at least once?   The final reflection: in our class this year, there will be times when you will be an expert and times when you will be a novice. You may sometimes be grouped with like team members, but sometimes, I will want you to "stretch," and you may be grouped outside of your comfort zone.  (Here's an opportunity to share a bit about making mistakes, grit, and growth mindset!)

The line-up activity is great for establishing the understanding of groups based on readiness, but since I'm on a quest this year to group by learning profile, I think (hope!) it will work for the idea of any changing groups.

Unfortunately, I only strategically grouped a few times last year, but it was a great victory for me when a student walked in and asked, "Do you want us to sit in our CAP groups or our random groups?"  So at least I'm getting the grouping thing down a bit better.  Another bit of great feedback--an end of year note included the comment, "I learned to collaborate with my peers, some of whom I had never talked to before."

Unsolicited advice: if you want to start changing up your class, try random groups, but make certain you include the aspects of community, group norms, and class procedures.  If  you're looking for ways to try random grouping, there are so many available resources.  Our science teachers recommended this site to create random groups, and I found a collection of sites to create groups here. On this post, Beth at Algebra's Friend also suggested Super Teacher Tools to generate groups, and this site provides no-tech options for grouping students.

So now I have the grouping component ready to try again, and I really want to focus on differentiating by learning profile...next steps: put the two together and work on specific lesson components!



Any suggestions for creating a community of learners in your classroom?  How do you create groups?

Read More

Made4Math - Partner Quizzes + Extras!

Today's #Made4Math post has once again been inspired by a few tweets and blogs!  Thanks to @druinok for organizing the posts, and I look forward to reading and learning from so many others.

I am what is politely referred to as a veteran teacher, so when I first started teaching (ahem, 1990) everything was teacher directed, i.e. stand-and-deliver, students in rows and quietly taking notes.  When teachers realized that we had to change our ways, our district helped us get our feet wet by using Kagan cooperative structures.  I probably use variations of "Think-Pair-Share" more than any other technique, but my second favorite strategy is the 2-person Rally Coach, or as my students call it, a partner quiz, and I have included one example is below:
Rt Triangle Trig Rally

The Rally Coach was a great way to ease my way into successful group work. Directions may be found here, but I've included a few additional hints and benefits:

• When writing the quiz, I try to divide the questions' difficulty level as even as possible, so person A doesn't have all of the "easy questions."
• Use only one piece of paper and one pencil (and calculator) per pair, so the students truly have to share and work together.
• The first times I give this type of assessment, I also talk about the benefits of teaching others.  I tell students if you can explain something to someone else, or if you can analyze work and find an error, you've got it.  My favorite part of the activity is listening to the students' great math conversations.
• I also talk about the importance of coaching, being positive and how to politely disagree.  As person A explains her problem, person B listens and coaches.  Once person B agrees with person A's answer, he initials the paper to confirm the work.  (In my class, I ask students to initial and write a positive comment.  Best comment written on this quiz: "That's Shrek-tastic!")
• I usually make at least one of these questions very interesting, and students really need to use each other to complete the activity.  (The quiz above isn't difficult, but I provide too much information, so the kids have little debates about how to answer the last question.  It's great!)
• This type of activity always takes longer than expected, so plan your time accordingly.
• Floating teacher bonus: since I do not have my own classroom, this activity gives us an easy opportunity to practice moving desks and returning them to the original position in another teacher's classroom.

Building relationships bonus:  At the bottom of my quizzes and tests, I usually write a little non-math question, such as "What great books have you recently read?" or "Any good news to share?" and I always respond to their notes.  If I forget to write a question, they ask about it and/or write a note to me!

Making students self sufficient (and classroom management) bonus:  I try to give this type of activity very early in the year to allow students to learn to rely on each other for help.  Several years ago, I heard a teacher say, "Ask 3 before me!" which has become a motto in my classroom.  Students must ask at least three of their classmates before asking me a question.  For today, I made a new flyer, so it's easy to simply point to the sign before students run to me with their questions.  (I'm not the most creative person--you can make it prettier!)

3 before me

After reading a tweet about desk signs and red/yellow/green paint chips (and later the dry-erase bins found by @jreulbach) I recreated a desk tri-fold used by my favorite French teacher.  If a student is stuck on a problem, he may be tempted to sit and hold his hand up (and possibly distract others) until the teacher can respond.  As a gentle reminder, the side opposite of PLEASE HELP says PLEASE KEEP WORKING.  The sign alerts the teacher, but it also reminds the student that he can move on to another problem, keep working, and try something else.  Students can decorate their desk sign and keep it in their notebook to use throughout the year.

Desk Trifold

(By the way, I used "Ray of Sunshine" and "Seven Sixteen" fonts, and I have downloaded more of her fun fonts here.)

And finally, my priority is to make respect central to the cultural of my classroom, and one way I do this is by using common courtesies for everything.  For example, as used above, please and thank you are on all flyers, instructions, and interactions.

I enjoy the partner quizzes because they give students the opportunity to communicate mathematically, but I also love all of the other "lessons" that this activity provides. 

Have a great week!  Good luck with all of the back-to-school happiness!

Read More