Student grouping consists of a variety strategies used to foster collaboration between peer learners and facilitate a a diverse learning environment where all students can contribute to and learn from each other. The two main classifications we discuss in student grouping are heterogeneous and homogeneous groups. There are very good arguments to support the use of both at times in the classroom environment.

When considering grouping students there are a number of factors that influence my decisions. Primarily, I must consider my learning goals and use them as the basis for structuring my groups. Here are a few scenarios where I would use different types of groups:

• If my students are beginning to explore new content, I like them to share background knowledge and gain new perspectives about their current beliefs on a topic as they prepare to study. In this setting, I find a diverse heterogeneous mix of students provides the variety of perspectives needed to broaden students’ thinking.
• If my students are engaging in a project or task, I might take two separate approaches. One would be to create homogenous groups of students based on interest or learning style and allow them some autonomy in customizing the activity to their taste. Whereas another group strategy I might use would be to carefully create heterogeneous groups of students with differing strengths who would then have specific roles in the group.
• If my students are at a stage where we are beginning to synthesize and analyze new content, I am more inclined toward ability grouping. Admittedly, this is somewhat an attempt to satisfy management issues. It is easier to meet the needs of students who require more support and to ensure they are active participants when they are grouped together. Whereas higher ability students grouped together can accomplish more complex tasks without students checking out of the process or feeling lost or inferior.

Ability grouping like in the last example, also, plays a part in developing students reading and writing skills. I like to create diverse environments for students to brainstorm and participate in meaningful conversations, and most students are able to actively participate in this type of dialogue and communication with little obstruction due to literacy abilities. However, reading and writing can be difficult if high ability students feel burdened by average or lower ability students or when struggling students are insecure or need significantly more support to achieve the learning goals.

During reading and writing tasks, I like to incorporate groups for the benefit of analyzing a text or peer editing and other tasks. I heavily consider their reading and writing skill-level and tend toward ability grouping at the onset of these tasks. As students gain confidence and comfort with the concepts, I revert back to more diverse groups where they exchange their new ideas and defend their positions. This provides some scaffolding for the students in need, while other students can continue on to deeper content without stalling out.

A magnet summary is a strategy used to guide students in connecting the concepts and key terms in a text and manipulating them to synthesize new learning into a meaningful summary. Buehl uses the analogy, “just as magnets attract certain metals, magnet words attract information.” to describe magnet words. The process consists of first identifying the key terms, or magnet words. Then searching the text for supporting information. Buehl suggests the students organize their findings on an index card with the magnet word at the center and the supporting words and phrases surrounding it. Each individual card would then be used to construct one or two succinct and coherent sentences summarizing that portion of the text. Finally, the sentences developed for each card are organized and edited to represent a clear narrative, summarizing the main ideas presented in the text.

Follow along below, where I have implemented this strategy using the text, Why metals have a blast in water.

First, I identified these magnet words and related important words and phrases found in the text:

Alkali metals

• elements in the first column of the periodic table
• very reactive, easily sometimes violently react with other materials
• naturally occur in combination with other elements

Metal-water reactions

• metals release electrons that generate heat
• break water molecules releasing hydrogen
• hydrogen reacts with heat resulting in explosion
• incomplete explanation
• old assumption

Spikes

• missing puzzle piece
• spikes appear to grow on metal before explosion
• negative electrons released leave behind positively charged atoms
• like charges repel pushing the atoms away from each other exposing more electrons
• chain reaction occurs leading to explosion
• deeper understanding

Then, using these magnet words and their related information, I’ve constructed these sentences:

1. The alkali metals are elements residing in the first column of the periodic table, and known for being highly reactive. In nature, they are most commonly fond bonded to other elements, which inhibits the sometimes violent chemical reactions that occur when these unstable elements are isolated.
2. It had been believed that during metal-water reactions, heat generated by metals losing electrons broke hydrogen bonds in water molecules and the freed hydrogen ignites in an explosion.
3. After the negatively charged electrons escape the metal molecules, the remaining positively charged atoms repel each other forming spikes. The increased surface area exposes more electrons that are released creating a chain reaction, which builds enough heat to ignite the hydrogen.

Finally, I’ve reorganized my sentences and edited parts to improve fluency. The completed summary reads as follows:

Recent observations offer a deeper understanding of the sometimes violent reactions that occur when alkali metals come in contact with water. The alkali metals are elements residing in the first column of the periodic table, and known for being highly reactive. In nature, they are most commonly fond bonded to other elements, which inhibits the sometimes violent chemical reactions that occur when these unstable elemental compounds contact some other substances. It had been believed that during metal-water reactions, heat generated by metals losing electrons broke hydrogen bonds in water molecules and the freed hydrogen ignited in an explosion. This explanation, however, was incomplete because it didn’t  account for the amount of heat energy needed to ignite the hydrogen. New research reveals a more complex process in the metal-water reaction. After the negatively charged electrons escape the metal molecules, the remaining positively charged atoms repel each other forming spikes. The increased surface area exposes more electrons that are released creating a chain reaction, which builds enough heat to generate these famous explosions.

Generally, I am one of those students that could be classified as a ‘reluctant writer’ and this strategy really helped me feel more confident about the structure and level of detail I was able to provide in my summary. I have witness many of students struggle with writers block, when asked to write a summary, and I found this strategy to be extremely helpful toward getting started. It help me to sift out the important information and construct a more substantial summary than I would likely have come up with simply by free writing.

I struggled for a bit trying to choose the vocabulary, because I wanted more ‘sciency’ words. However, I settled on the very un-‘sciency’ word, spikes, as it and the related details seemed to capture the main idea best. This might be a problem for some of my students, too. Though, I have observed a heavy emphasis on using context clues to identify supporting (not necessarily content specific) vocabulary in PARCC, so this could be seen as an advantage with explicit instruction in choosing magnet words.

In the classroom, I think this strategy offers a lot of versatility for differentiation. For example, I could jump start low-ability students by providing specific words, and for high-ability students I could set a higher minimum number of magnet words. Also, the chunking of the writing process-phrases from the text, paraphrasing in sentences, constructing a cohesive summary-provides a useful scaffold for learners at multiple levels and a checkpoint to provide additional support when needed. I look forward to testing this strategy with my students soon.

Explore this text using the QuIP strategy modeled by Juanita and the Sketch-to-Stretch technique modeled by Amanda.

References:

Buehl, D. (2014). Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning (4th ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Content Area Reading: Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness. (2nd ed., pp. 63-64). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Ornes, S. (2015). Why metals have a blast in water. Retrieved from: https://student.societyforscience.org/article/why-metals-have-blast-water?mode=topic&context=6