Varied Group Structures

What does good practice with this look like?

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Successful group work for students with varied English proficiency levels might include:

• Grouping students carefully, e.g. grouping students who are lower proficiency in English with good models of English, and / or shared home language.
• Establishing clear expectations for behaviour, e.g. asking and answering questions, listening.
• Allowing discussions to take place in English or in first language/s if appropriate for the task.
• Modelling and celebrating inclusive behaviour. Ensuring all students have a clear role to participate in.
• Giving speaking frames to scaffold language to be used.

• Students work in pairs to discuss a question or explore an idea. They record their key ideas.

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• Each pair is then joined with another pair to form a group of four. Students share their findings and develop a more in-depth answer.

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• Teachers should give the second group a task/question that provokes deeper thinking than the first one.

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• Groups of four are then joined with another group to build on this idea further within a group of eight, with the teacher again adding a task/question to prompt deeper thinking.

Varied Group Structures: Snowball Groups

• Students are put into groups of 4-5. Each group should aim to have the same number of students in it.
• Students work together to research, learn, analyse or apply a skill.
• Each group swill then be given a different topic or skill to focus on, enabling them to become an “expert” on this topic.
• Each person will be given a number 1- 4 or 5, and then disperse as a group, finding the other students in the classroom who have the same number as them. E.g., All 1s sit on one table together. This forms the second jigsaw groups.
• Within these new groups, students take it in turns to teach each other what they have learnt in their “Jigsaw 1” group.

Varied Group Structures: Jigsaw Groups

• Students work in groups of 4-5 to explore an idea/topic.
• Students then select one member of their group to become the “teacher”.
• All groups rotate in a clockwise direction around the room, leaving the “teacher” of their group behind.
• The “teacher” will then share their expert understanding to the new students who visit their table, in approximately 2-3 minutes.
• When the time is up, groups rotate again in a clockwise direction, again leaving the “teacher” to teach the next group/s. This should continue until students have been taught by each “teacher”.
• The final task is for students to go back to their original “teacher” and to teach them everything that they have learnt from visiting the different teachers/tables.

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Varied Group Structures: Rally Robin

Teachers can either generate a set of questions before the lesson or use after a question is posed to students during a class discussion as a way of developing student confidence and for verbal rehearsal.

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1. Pose your question/s to your class.
2. Insist on individual “thinking time” in silence. One minute on a visible timer is good.
3. Give students a set amount of time to then discuss their answers/ideas with their partner. Again, use of a visible timer can create better focus and pace for their discussion, usually 1-2 minutes is sufficient.
4. The teacher then opens the discussion up to the class either by use of a random name generator, lollipop sticks or insisting on “one idea” per table to encourage wider participation.

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Varied Group Structures: Think, Pair, Share

Dragon Groups:

These are groups of approximately 4-5 students that represent a range of different abilities.

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I find that these groups are most useful when:

• students are finding out/exploring new information;
• different roles are to be given to individuals within a group; and
• when I’m working towards a meta-cognitive outcome: I want some students to understand and be able to “teach” a process with others developing their competence with the same process.

Unicorn Groups:

These are groups of approximately four-five students who are working at a similar ability.

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I use these groups most frequently as:

• a “safe” environment for students to share ideas when they are in the planning stages of a task;
• when group-writing an extended response, allowing me to differentiate the scaffolding that I offer; and
• when students are working on responding to teacher feedback at a specific level/degree of mastery.

Pegasus Pairs (or Reflective Pairs):

This is just a name for similar ability pairs that are used for the sharing of ideas before completing a task.

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• Keeping students in the same pairs for a period of at least a few weeks creates a sense of security that is highly beneficial for EAL students.
• Teachers should take care to ensure EAL students are paired with students who are good models of English and of a similar cognitive capacity.

Varied Group Structures: Unicorns, Dragons Etc.

The classroom should be set up so that students can sit (or stand) in pairs facing each other.

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• Students work in pairs to gain new knowledge on something.
• Students label themselves A and B within their pairs.
• A students should sit on the left hand side of their seating arrangement, B students sit on the right hand side.
• B students move on place clockwise so they are sat opposite a different A student.
• Each A student has 1 minute to impart their knowledge to the B student sat opposite them.
• After 1 minute, all of the B students move one place clockwise again to receive new knowledge from a different A student.
• When the time is up, B students return to their original partners to teach them what they have learnt whilst “speed dating”.

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Varied Group Structures: Speed Dating

• Students work individually to gain new knowledge/understanding of something. This can be on a study card provided by the teacher, or their own research/idea written on a post-it note.
• Students get out of their chairs with their flashcard/post-it note and find a partner in the room, giving them a “high five” to signal that they are working together.
• Students take it in turns to impart knowledge/information to their new partner. When they have finished, they swap cards/post it notes and repeat the process with a new partner until the timer set by the teacher stops.

Varied Group Structures: Quiz, Quiz, Trade

Students work together in groups of three: a speaker, a questioner and a note-taker.

• The speaker explains the topic (or expresses their opinion on an issue) as directed by the teacher.
• The questioner listens carefully and asks for clarification or further detail.
• The note-taker observes this process and provides feedback to both speaker and questioner.

Varied Group Structures: Listening Triangles

• This is a form of jigsaw activity where each member of a working group is given a different colour of the rainbow.
• When the group task is complete, students form new groups according to the rainbow colour they have been allocated within the original group.
• Within the new rainbow colour groups, students compare findings, discuss what they have achieved, or carry out another task that they all need to contribute to, for example. completing a grid.

Varied Group Structures: Rainbowing