Wednesday, 6 August 2014

Creative Techniques for Grouping/Pairing Pupils

The 21st century classroom uses group and pair activities to facilitate student-centered learning.  However, traditional methods for grouping pupils are based on student ability level or test scores.  Group activities or tasks can be more successful overall if we group pupils of mixed ability levels.  Pupils can assist each other and increase the quality of their production activities (output) and increase fluency by creating an environment that makes it safe to experiment with language.  Please take the time to look at the educational research relating to this topic.

Grouping Students for Instruction, New York University

It is difficult to group pupils.  It is often time consuming and chaotic.  However, you can turn a tedious task into a fun introductory activity.  When you use a fun activity to group pupils, you can introduce and raise interest in your topic, therefore making your planned learning activates more productive and increasing the enjoyment of the pupils in your class.

15 Quick and Creative Ways to Group and Partner Students

Fun Ways to Group Pupils

Creative Ways to Organize Students for Small Group Activities

10 Creative Ways to Form Groups

Recently the MOE has recommended that classroom arrangement be organized in student learning groups.  This has many advantages for pupils, but can also present challenges for teachers when the pupils are placed in groups according to their ability level.  For example, if the below-average pupils only interact with other below-average pupils, then they have less opportunity to increase their fluency.  Please consider the benefits for pupils to sit in mixed ability groups.  Pupils can learn more in an environment where they are comfortable asking their classmates for help.  Additionally, mixed ability grouping can also help teachers with large class size by utilizing peer evaluation.

I hope you find this content useful, and I look forward to discussing with you individually.


-Sarah Higgs, Jempol

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