There is always a debate on how to group students when working in small groups. Should the above average students be grouped together? Should the groups be mixed levels so the above average students can teach/help the below average? Should it be random? There are pros and cons to each way. I’m going to outline some of my ideas and strategies for you.
By Level
Homogeneous grouping – Students of similar levels together
I find this works best in a few situations. The first is reading comprehension; you can give each group a different article, based on their level. The website Newsela allows you to use the same article (in Spanish!), but vary the word length of the article – perfect for this type of grouping. Another perfect time for this grouping style is when students are doing grammar activities. Often times, the above average students will grasp this concept much quicker. You can give them more difficult work, extra work, or even questions that promote deeper-thinking while you work one-on-one with the students that need extra help.
Heterogeneous grouping – Above average with below average students
My biggest fear when grouping students this way is that the above average students will do all the work, while the below average students just sit back and watch. Here are some suggestions to avoid this.
- Assign each student in the group a role: note taker, presenter, illustrator, etc. This requires students to each have a specific task they must complete
- Give each student a number (1-4). After small group work is done, and you discuss everything as a large class, call out a number. Every student with that number will answer the question you asked. This holds all students accountable for everything
- Have all students in the group write down the answers to the questions. At the end of the activity, you will collect ONE paper from the group (they don’t know whose you will take!). They can work together to correct each others’ mistakes, but everyone must be writing their own. I always warn them “If Student A is sleeping during the activity and I take Student A’s paper at the end, you all get the grade Student A would get!” This promotes teamwork and helping one another succeed.
Random
Sometimes it is fun to group students randomly. In my classroom, I have 2 sets of cards I use to do this. One set is for forming groups of 2. I pass out one card to each student, then they have to find their matching partner, i.e. sal y pimienta, leche y galletas, zapatos y calcetines. My students always comment that they enjoy doing this. But, when I want to form groups of 3-4 students, I use another set of cards. This set has 4 matching cards (i.e. 4 sombreros, 4 tacos, 4 matadores, etc.) Students must find everyone that has the same card, and this forms their group. You can see my pair cards here and my group cards here. A bonus benefit to this… they get new vocabulary not related to the unit, and if you use them frequently enough they will start to really learn the words!
Similar Interests
When doing a group project, and students have some choice in their topic, you can group students with similar interests together. This eliminates arguing over the topic, having difficulty understanding each other’s ideas, and promotes a culture of self-motivation and teamwork. Additionally, students will enjoy working with their group members and hopefully provide a better final product, since they all support the same general topic. An example: You are doing a unit on traveling abroad to Spain. Each group must find a cultural activity to do, explain how to get there, what you can do there, why it is famous, etc. One group might be students interested in music/art, they may present about El Prado; a group of students from the soccer team might teach the class about going to see Real Madrid play a game; or a group of students who are into pop culture and fashion may present on various shopping centers and famous stores. Now, think if one student from each of those groups was in a new group, they may have a difficult time deciding on an idea, which would waste work time.
The best thing you can do is switch up their groups often. They should be doing communicative activities all the time, so they need to learn to speak to everyone in the class to be a well-rounded Spanish speaker. Also, by changing the groups, they won’t develop preconception about their own ability level. This tends to happen when you homogeneously group students. Keep them guessing – change it up frequently!
