EFFECTIVE GROUPING STRATEGIES

1. EFFECTIVE GROUPING STRATEGIES ALS/RES/INC/CO-TEACH Presented by Sarah Johnston, M.Ed. April 22, 2010

2. agenda • Introduction • Cooperative Learning Groups • Research-based Cooperative Learning Strategies • Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) • Flexible Grouping • Key Research Finding • Grouping Strategies • Reflections

3. Cooperative grouping Effective cooperative learning occurs when students work together to accomplish shared goals and when positive structures are in place to support the process.

4. Criteria for effective cooperative learning groups

5. Criteria for effective cooperative learning groups include: • Students understand that their membership in a learning group means that they either succeed or fail ~ together • “Positive interdependence” includes mutual goals, joint rewards, resource interdependence (each group member has different resources that must be combined to complete the assignment), and role interdependence (each group member is assigned a specific role).

6. Criteria for effective cooperative learning groups include: • Students help each other learn and encourage individual team member’s success. • Individuals in the group understand that they are accountable to each other and to the group as a distinct unit. • Interpersonal and small-group skills are in place, including communication, decision making, conflict resolution, and time management.

7. Research-based cooperative learning strategies

8. Teachers who are successful at facilitating cooperative learning employ research-based strategies, such as: 1. Create the right type of group for the need. Sometimes an occasional informal group is needed, such as pair and share. Base groups are formed for long-term social and interpersonal support. Formal learning groups are used when a commitment of time and effort is required. 2. Keep group size small. Ideally, learning groups include no more than four students. Base groups may be larger, up to 6 students.

9. Teachers who are successful at facilitating cooperative learning employ research-based strategies, such as: 3. Use ability grouping sparingly. Students across the spectrum of abilities benefit by heterogeneous grouping, especially low-ability students. 4. Don’t use cooperative learning for all instructional goals. While cooperative learning is a powerful strategy, it can be overused, or misapplied. Students need time to investigate ideas and pursue interests of their own.

10. Teachers who are successful at facilitating cooperative learning employ research-based strategies, such as: 5. Use a variety of strategies when choosing students for groups. Many selection strategies (common clothing, favorite colors, letters in names, birthdays) will work when attempting to randomly group students. 6. Facilitate success. Develop organizational tools, forms, learning journals, and other structuring documents that foster the smooth processes needed for effective cooperation and group work. 7. Support new groups. Cooperative learning is a practiced skill that requires monitoring and adjustment. Teach specific skills before grouping students, define criteria for success, and develop rubrics for key expectations. Meet with new group members to support their success.

11. Peer assisted learning (PALS) strategies

12. Peer assisted learning strategies • Instructional program for use in elementary school classrooms to improve student proficiency in reading and math. • Developed for use with students with diverse academic needs, including English language learners. • Usefulness with students with diverse academic needs, including English language learners with learning disabilities. • http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/english_lang/pals/

15. Finding the Right Size FLEXIBLE GROUPING

16. Flexible groupinG is often needed to facilitate differentiated instruction • Students need to be placed in groups that maximize their instructional time based on their performance levels. • Students are grouped to meet their instructional, emotional, and personal needs. • If a group of students get along socially, they will usually meet the instructional expectations.

17. GROUPS need • Ample space to work • Clear directions and procedures • Rules and guidelines established • Individual roles assigned for group responsibilities • A time frame assigned for on-task work • To tap into all members’ strength

18. TAPS…REMEMBER! Some things need to be taught to the class as a whole. There are certain things the Total Group should be told. Working Alone, students get to problem-solve In their own way. They will be in charge of what they think, do, and say. With a Partner, many thoughts and ideas they can share. They can work and show each other the solutions there. Effective Small Groups work together to cooperate Using the group’s ideas and talents their learning will accelerate. So use a variety of ways to group students you see. This TAPS into student’s potential, as it should be. (presentation)

19. Key research findings • Organizing students in heterogeneous cooperative learning groups at least once a week has a significant effect on learning (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). • Low-ability students perform worse when grouped in homogeneous(similar) ability groups (Kulik & Kilik, 1991, 1997; Lou et al, 1996). • There may be no other instructional strategy that simultaneously achieves such diverse outcomes as cooperative grouping. (Cohen, 1994a;Johnson, 1970; Johnson & Johnson, 1974, 1978, 1999a, 2000; Kohn, 1992, Sharan, 1980; Slavin, 1977, 1991).

20. GROUPING STRATEGIES Knowledge of a Subject Ability to Perform a Task or a Skill Interests in a Specific Area of the Content Peer-to-Peer Tutoring Community Clusters

21. KNOWLEDGE of a Subject • Cluster grouping of a small number of students (4) within a heterogeneously grouped classroom can be used. • Students are grouped according to their prior experiences and knowledge about the topic. • Pre-assessment is given to determine what the students know at the beginning of study. This allows each group to be given tasks that involve a variety of opportunities for novices as well as experienced students. • When grouped in this manner, students are challenged and are interested in the work rather than being bored by information they already experienced or frustrated by something they know nothing about.

22. Ability to perform a task or a skill • Everyone has talents and skills that they can do better than others! • The purpose of ability grouping is so that the student can work with materials and information that is challenging and stimulating at a personal level. • Assignments differ by making adjustments consisting of varying levels of difficulty. Questions are molded to pull information from students according to what they can comprehend. This fosters continued growth because one size does not fit all. Differentiated instruction accommodates academic diversity!

23. Interests in a specific area of the content • If a student is interested in a topic or subject, the desire and emotions involved engage the student. • Conversations, interest surveys, and inventories give teachers information to weave this information into the learning. • By addressing the student’s interests, teachers have a link for the new learning. The desire to learn more is there. Learning comes easier, and attention spans are longer on content students are interested in learning.

24. Peer to peer tutoring

25. Peer-to-peer tutoring • Having students assist each other with specific needs is a way to give them responsibility for understanding what they know and for how they can use the information. • The student who is tutoring is gaining from this experience. If you teach something, you remember it, and realize what you know and how you know it. • The learner is gaining from the experience, too, because it is an individualized instruction that is tailored to a personal need. Often times the way a student explains something may be easier for the peer to understand as they communicate using different words that the teacher.

26. Community clusters

27. Community clusters Community clusters use small groups(4) to discuss strategies or to share personal thoughts, products or facts. If the assignment calls for conversations, the teacher can decide the length of the conversation and can ask for the students to stand in a “talking circle,” which may be held at a table, on the floor, or at a desk cluster.

28. Community clusters This group may be used to: • Share work findings • Prepare a side of an issue for debate • Process, reflect, and give input into the lesson • Share personal information

29. Reflections Teachers choose the type of group that is appropriate given the task, needs of the students. Student need experiences in all group types to become effective working citizen’s in tomorrow’s world. Throughout their lives, students will need to work alone or with others. Adjusting, compacting and grouping are important aspects of the differentiated classroom that meets a diverse audience with curriculum that is more “sized to fit” rather than “one size fits all.”

30. references Cooperative Grouping/Research-Based Strategies/Focus on Effectiveness http://www.netc.org/focus/strategies/coop.php Gayle H. Gregory; Carolyn Chapman. (2002). Differentiated Instructional Strategies One Size Doesn’t Fit All. Thousand Oaks, Corwin Press.