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Unit 31. Grouping Learners

The document discusses grouping learners in the classroom. It explains that grouping learners refers to organizing students to work individually, as a whole class, in pairs, groups, or teams. When planning lessons, teachers should consider learners' styles, abilities, the activity, and learning purpose when deciding on interaction patterns. Examples of patterns include whole class, individuals, pairs, groups, and mingles. The document also provides tips for effectively grouping learners.

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César Cárdenas
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219 views

Unit 31. Grouping Learners

The document discusses grouping learners in the classroom. It explains that grouping learners refers to organizing students to work individually, as a whole class, in pairs, groups, or teams. When planning lessons, teachers should consider learners' styles, abilities, the activity, and learning purpose when deciding on interaction patterns. Examples of patterns include whole class, individuals, pairs, groups, and mingles. The document also provides tips for effectively grouping learners.

Uploaded by

César Cárdenas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What does “Grouping Learners” mean?

There are different ways in


which we can organise our
learners in the classroom. For
example, learners can work on
their own, as a whole class, in
pairs, in teams, in groups.

Organising learners into


different working patterns is
what we mean by ‘grouping
learners’.
What should we consider when grouping
learners?
When planning our lessons, we decide which way of grouping learners or interaction patterns to
use. The interaction patterns we choose depend on the learners and their learning styles, our
own teaching style(s) and preferences, the teaching approach, the learning context, the type
of activity, the aim or learning purpose of the activity and the stage in the lesson. Very often, the
activity itself suggests a particular interaction pattern.

There are many different interaction patterns to choose from:


• Whole class (the teacher leads the class and the learners focus on the teacher)
• Individuals
• Open pairs (two learners do a pairwork activity in front of the class)
• Closed pairs (learners all do an activity at the same time working with a partner)
• Groups
• Teams
• Mingles
Grouping Learners

How would you group learners for the


following activities?

BRAINSTORMING BINGO GAME

READING AND CLASS SURVEY


FILLING A CHART
TASK 1 -
Grouping Learners
REASONS FOR USING THIS INTERACTION
ACTIVITY INTERACTION PATTERN
PATTERN
• Reviews and shares students’ knowledge of
• Groups or Pairs: Students working with
vocabulary and/or structure and the topic or
Brainstorming other students.
context; develops learning strategies; energises
• Students to teacher (feedback)
the students and gets them all involved.
• Reviews students’ understanding of vocabulary;
• Whole class: teacher to the students.
Bingo Game gives a change of pace; gives the teacher
• Student to the teacher.
feedback; energises.
• Individuals (students complete the chart
• Calms students down, allows students to practice
on their own)
Reading and scanning in their own time; enables students to
• Pairwork (student to student)
filling a chart check their work together to give confidence before
• Open pairs (checking answers) Student
the class check.
to student with the teacher facilitating.
• Mingling activity: students move around
• Gives students practice in all four skills and in
the classroom asking questions to other
managing their learning: gives opportunities for
students.
Class survey large amount of practice; gives a change of pace;
• Groups or Pairs.
develops learners’ autonomy; every student in the
• Teacher asks different students in the
class is active and involved.
class what they found ound.
TASK 2

Match the interaction patterns described below with the diagrams on worksheet

Platform
Grouping Learners
Appropriate learner groupings have a positive effect on class or group dynamics (the
relationships between the learners in the class or group) and on the teacher's ability to
successfully manage the class and facilitate learning. Whole-class activities, such as
mingles, enable all the students to practise the language at the same time.

These activities are good for increasing confidence, especially amongst shy or
weaker learners. Individual activities give students a chance to work at their own pace
and to focus and organise their thoughts. Pair and group activities provide students
with opportunities for developing longer turns and fluency through interaction. They
also help with confidence building and give students opportunities for practice in a non-
threatening environment.

On the other hand, poorly chosen groupings can result in problems in the classroom.
Factors to consider when grouping learners

• The aim of teaching.


• The learning styles of the students.
• The ability and level of the students.
• The personalities of the students.
• The size of the class.
• The previous experience of students.
• The activities that have been chosen.
• The balance of interaction patterns in a lesson.
• The group dynamics of the class.
TASK 3

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different


groupings and interaction patterns on Worksheet 2. Give examples
of activities that could be done using these interaction patterns.

Platform
Grouping Learners
TOP T IPS / T IP TOPS
• It is useful to include a variety of interaction patterns in a lesson to keep
the students interested and motivated and to give them different kinds of practice.

• Young learners do not have such fixed learning styles as adults and it is an important aspect
of their development for teachers to introduce them to a range of learner groupings.

• All classes are mixed ability: students are at different points in their language learning, have
different learning strengths and different intelligences.

• When grouping students in young learner classes, it is important to consider their cognitive
and physical development. Young learners of the same age may not be at the same point
in these aspects of development.

• Most of the time learners work well together in different groupings, but sometimes individual
learner characteristics mean that some learners find it difficult to work together, e.g. one
learner is shy and another is quite dominant.
TOP T IPS / T IP TOPS
• With a class of between 20 and 30 learners, we can manage a range of
interaction patterns quite easily. With classes of more than 30 learners, interaction
patterns such as pairs, groups, mingles, teams are possible, but need more careful
planning.
• Gradual introduction of pair and group work is important when learners are used to
working as a whole class. It is useful to start by doing short, quite structured pairwork
activities and gradually introduce longer and more varied groupings.
• Activities do not always have to be done in the same learner groupings.
Discussion activities can be done in teams rather than in groups or as a whole class,
and role-plays in groups rather than pairs.
• Learners can be absent from class. It is frustrating when we plan groups for an activity and
one or more of the learners are absent. So it’s important to consider how we will manage,
for example, if the predicted class of 20 (5 groups of 4) is a class of 18 on the day.
• Sometimes a student arrives late for class after we have organised the groupings for the
activity. You can deal with this by putting the student in a group and have the group
explain quickly to him or her what they are doing.

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