I use small groups quite often in my teaching, primarily for in-class activities rather than for projects requiring collaboration among group members outside of class time. Most of my undergraduate courses are lecture/discussion courses, so I use small group activities either early in the class hour in order to prepare students for the day’s discussion, or as a way of changing pace midway through a class period.
Give the Groups Clear Instructions
Giving students clear, focused tasks to accomplish in a group of 3-4 people is an excellent way to prepare them for class discussion. For instance, I might have them discuss an open-ended question like “who is the protagonist in this novel” first in small groups, before the class as a whole tackles it—this always helps to engage a larger number of people in the discussion.
I sometimes assign each group a particular task, usually to practice a skill I’ve been modelling for them. For instance, I might assign each group a stanza of the poem, ask them to analyze the language in it, and then be ready to explain it to the larger class. Or I might ask each group to find three passages in the day’s reading that relate to a particular topic we’ve been discussing and be ready to present them to the class. For more complex tasks, it’s also helpful to ask each group to assign roles to its members: notetaker, reporter to the class, etc.
Assign and Rotate Group Membership
In order to facilitate this group work, I assign students to small groups using a rotation system and the alphabetical course roster. I change the groups three times during the semester, approximately every 4-5 weeks. I also ensure that students are never in groups with the same students again. I do this to avoid the social problems that can arise from having students choose their own groups, either on an ad-hoc basis (“find three people next to you”) or for permanent groups. By assigning the groups, and letting students know that I will be changing the groups three times during the semester, they know that if they don’t particularly like the group they’ve wound up in, it’s not forever. By rotating them with different students, they get to know more people in the class, which tends to help them feel more comfortable participating in discussion.
With assigned groups, I can say “go sit with your small groups” and that change can be made fairly quickly. I like the added benefit that most of my students will have to get up and move around a bit in the classroom (I always request classrooms with movable chairs for this reason, so that we can move out of rows and into clusters when needed). This helps raise the level of energy in the room.
An Easy Way to Assign Groups
I use a very simple, low-tech method of drawing up my group rotation. I assign students to groups of 4. I take the course roster and number each student name with a sequence of four letters: A1, B1, C1, D1, A2, B2, C2, D2, etc. I usually have 30-32 students in an undergraduate course so the list will run A1-A8, but for the purposes of this example I’m using a total of 16 students.
The first rotation is compiled by putting the numbers together:
- Group 1 = A1, B1, C1, D1
- Group 2 = A2, B2, C2, D2
- Group 3 = A3, B3, C3, D3
- Group 4 = A4, B4, C4, D4
The second rotation is compiled by putting the letters together:
- Group 1 = A1, A2, A3, A4
- Group 2 = B1, B2, B3, B4
- Group 3 = C1, C2, C3, C4
- Group 4 = D1, D2, D3, D4
The third rotation is compiled by staggering the numbers throughout the list to ensure they don’t repeat:
- Group 1 = A1, B2, C3, D4
- Group 2 = A2, B3, C4, D1
- Group 3 = A3, B4, C1, D2
- Group 4 = A4, B1, C2, D3
Because I’m a visual learner, I can see the patterns more easily by thinking about this with letters and numbers (and thus can work with more complicated combinations of total students or group sizes). When necessary, of course, you can convert these references to the consecutive numbers on the original roster of students.
Thus the first rotation would be:
- Group 1 = 1, 2, 3, 4
- Group 2 = 5, 6, 7, 8
- Group 3 = 9, 10, 11, 12
- Group 4 = 13, 14, 15, 16
The second rotation would be:
- Group 1 = 1, 5, 9, 13
- Group 2 = 2, 6, 10, 14
- Group 3 = 3, 7, 11, 15
- Group 4 = 4, 8, 12, 16
The third rotation would be:
- Group 1 = 1, 6, 11, 16
- Group 2 = 5, 10, 15, 4
- Group 3 = 9, 14, 3, 8
- Group 4 = 13, 2, 7, 12
I’ve set up a spreadsheet that I use as a template for calculating my group rotations each semester, using simple cell references. All I have to do is copy and paste the names from my alphabetical roster into the first column. It takes a bit of time to set up initially, but then it makes things much easier for each subsequent semester.
Obviously, if you needed to have more than three rotations, there are many more combinations you could use, even with removing all redundancies.
Do you have another way of assigning and rotating your students into small groups? Let us know in the comments!
[Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user amanderson2]
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16 Responses to Assigning Students to Small Groups
bryanpark - August 30, 2010 at 2:59 pm
One method I have used to create small groups is by assigning each student in the class a playing card from a modified deck. I choose the set of cards based on the size and number of groups I want to have. The obvious divisions relate easily to Natalie’s numbers(same) and letters(suits).I can also easily divide the class in half in a number of ways(color, odd/even, face cards/numbers). Since the students learn what their assigned card is, it is easy for them to figure out what adhoc group they are in.I can even create a quick partnership by asking them to find the person with the same number and color.
brockter - August 30, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Here’s a high tech way to assign groups, and gather feedback from them afterwards, called CatMe Team Builder: https://engineering.purdue.edu/CATMEI haven’t had a chance to use it, but it looks pretty interesting…this way, for example, you could have students fill out questionnaires so that you don’t have a group of all majors and a group of all non-majors, etc.
philosophy - August 30, 2010 at 4:52 pm
For classes of 15-30, I use an extremely low-tech approach. I count the students present, quickly decide how many groups would probably work that day. Suppose it’s 4 groups. Then I go around the room asking the students to number off: 1,2,3,4; 1,2,3,4; etc. Then: all the 1′s, move over here; all the 2′s move over there; etc. So in about two minutes they are arranged into 4 groups. To mix things up on another day so the groups have different members, I simply start the numbering-off at a different place, maybe the other side of the classroom, or the middle. If it seems appropriate (eg. early in the term), I ask that the students be sure to introduce themselves to each other.
english_ivy - August 30, 2010 at 5:11 pm
[Comment deleted by editor. Please stick to the topic of discussion: "Do you have another way of assigning and rotating your students into small groups?" If you'd rather talk about something else, remember that you're free to start a discussion about any topic of your choice in the Chronicle forums. Thanks!]
hipgeek - August 30, 2010 at 6:33 pm
[Comment deleted by editor. Please stick to the topic of discussion: "Do you have another way of assigning and rotating your students into small groups?" If you'd rather talk about something else, remember that you're free to start a discussion about any topic of your choice in the Chronicle forums. Thanks!]
aristof_ns - August 30, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Thanks for the suggestions. I used to just shuffle index cards with their name on them, but having semi-long-term groups might be a better idea. We have four papers in my Frosh Comp classes, so I could rotate the groups after each paper. They could then adjust where they sit, so that we’re not having to move around in the middle of class (with all the fuss over whether to move their bookbags, etc. — very few of our classrooms have movable desks). I have two quick questions: I have an uneven number of students (not divisible by 4) — should I allow a couple groups of three, or should I go for a group of five instead? And do the irregular sized groups in any way mess up the rotation grid?
hdramsay - August 31, 2010 at 7:14 am
A method I use for business communications is very low tech as well and the students(all female)seem to enjoy the process. I cut strips of colored paper (each color with the number I want in each group), put them in a large vase and have each student pick a colored tab and write their name on it. It creates a fun atmosphere and students ‘see’ the randomness of the process and appreciate that.
mrsj02 - August 31, 2010 at 7:56 am
These are all interesting & valid ideas. By the way, though, you could have asked any elementary school teacher for ideas, since we do this on a daily basis. (Another idea is to sort them by birthday and put them in order– then Natalie’s “numbers” systems would work. Looking for an icebreaker? Require them to line up in order of birthdays– without speaking.)
22228715 - August 31, 2010 at 8:21 am
All of these methods assume that all students are equal and interchangeable, which I suppose is fine for in-class, short-term work. When I have groups that do out-of-class work, although there are still advantages to random assignment or rotating membership, I am much more aware that I have adult students, and those who commute or live on-campus, and those who work full-time or part-time in the evening hours… even though I’d like to control things, I find it works better for their schedules (and just makes life easier) if students who have similar work schedules or who live in the same city cluster into the groups on their own. Otherwise, the person with the outlying schedule in each group catches the ire of the others who consider their life structure the “normal” way.
wlgoffe - August 31, 2010 at 9:34 am
Advocates of Team-Based Learning aruge that it is better to keep the same groups for the semester as they take a long time to learn to work together. Further, the instructor should select group members such that key attributes are fairly distributed among the groups. There are numerous ways of doing this; some of them are transparent to the class. See http://teambasedlearning.apsc.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/tbl_intro_2008.pdf for a short intro to TBL; the main website is http://teambasedlearning.apsc.ubc.ca/ There is an entry there on “Team Formation.” Note that TBL is a whole lot more than just the above.Hopefully the moderator will allow this comment as it goes to the point of how to form groups.
lifeola - August 31, 2010 at 9:39 am
How do educators see the furniture in a classroom as a way to facilitate small group discussions? Are round tables for groups of 5-6 best? Or simply moveable chairs that can be moved into groups and then back into lecture – style rows?Thank you for any input!
daveapostles - August 31, 2010 at 10:42 am
Further to wlgoffe, I agree that it’s not just a question of mechanics. People have different roles in groups, so a Belbin analysis could be important in designing the groups – considering their dynamic and how to assess the contributions to the group.
nmhouston - August 31, 2010 at 11:42 am
Thanks for the comments and helpful suggestions! How you set up your groups and often you rotate them (or not) really depends upon what kinds of tasks they’ll be doing, how group work is assessed, and what kind of course it is. For most of my courses, group work is a short (5-10 minutes) experience of active learning as part of the larger sequence of classroom activities (which may include lecture, discussion, writing, etc). I rotate groups so that students experience variety and familiarity. But for other kinds of projects, semester-long teams would be appropriate, as might more complex methods of assigning group membership. All the classrooms I teach in have chair-desks that can be moved into rows or clusters. Seems to work just fine, but I’ve never experienced smaller round tables. About uneven numbers (almost inevitable) — I tend to make one or more groups of 5 if necessary, because if someone is absent from a group of 3, it’s really tough on the 2 who are left.
proftowanda - August 31, 2010 at 1:13 pm
In a skills-based course I used to teach in a professional program, the sort of thing now called service learning — and, I read here, team-based learning — it was important to keep each team together for the semester toward a culminating project for a “real world” client. Other important factors included for each team to have and/or learn an array of skills needed for each project — and for each student to come out of the course ready to go on the job market with a great resume. I stressed the last point so often that students often asked me to review their resumes.So I learned to build that into the class: The first assignment, based on research and readings on the current expectations of resumes in the field, was for each student to do one as well as a cover letter applying to me for the team/client projects for which they wished to work (first and second choices) and why, including skills and strengths that they already had to offer as well as those they wanted to learn. From that assignment, I could put together well-balanced teams, and they could get back to work on revising their resumes.It worked well, far better than the previous methods I had used with all the disadvantages noted above of self-selecting teams, randomly selecting teams, etc. Also, to refer back to a recent post here (I think, or elsewhere in CHE columns), the process for semester-long teams, and especially serving “real” clients, needed to have an escape clause: Team members could be “fired” for dereliction of duties. And for the “F” in “fired” to not become the “f” in “Flunked,” they had to be hired by another team — so out came a revised resume and a revised cover letter but now noting not only why the team would want the student’s skills but also why the team would not encounter the same problem with the errant student (work hours or family or roommate problems fixed, lessons learned re laziness, etc.). That always worked, too . . . somehow, at least for students. As for me, it must have been entirely coincidental that those were the years when my hair went gray.
george_h_williams - August 31, 2010 at 1:23 pm
With this post, Natalie’s really addressing those times when we use small groups for (perhaps short sessions of) work to be done in class: activities like discussion, peer-editing, collaborative analysis. It’s important, for the reasons she writes above, to rotate the memberships of these small groups so that they don’t remain the same throughout the semester.In other scenarious, of course, it’s necessary to keep the same group together for extended periods of time. (See, for example, Jeffrey’s ProfHacker post “Student Contracts for Digital Projects.”) However, Natalie’s not really addressing those particular scenarios here.
philosophy - August 31, 2010 at 3:38 pm
#11. lifeola: my take is that moveable desk-chairs are best,and that there is no reason for rearranging them into lecture-style rows after some brief group discussion. My (relatively small) classes begin with all students (up to 30) in a circle, or a small circle within a bigger one – so that even when lecturing I can walk around and address any student questions in a sort of individual way, but with everyone hearing everything I say. What I often do: I give some questions about the day’s reading assignment, usually a day or two before it’s due. Then on the due-day, do the group thing so in groups of 3-5 students can compare their answers to the questions. Then I ask one or more of the groups to report on their answers, disagreements, perplexities, etc. That often gives me pretty good clues as to what needs more clarification, explanation, etc.