Interactive Grouping to maximize instruction

We know the time we spend actively teaching is vital, not only to us as professionals, but because we know that it's the single most important factor in determining the success of our students.
If you are teaching elementary school, you probably have thirty to forty students the whole day and five or six subject areas. If you are at middle or high school, you teach 30 to 40 student five or six periods per day. How can a teacher make time for all of them?

The reality is that we need to come up with strategies which will help us increase the teaching/ learning time. This is sometimes called academically engaged time. One of the structures that will increase the amount of time that students can "engage" is the grouping of our students.
A word of advice here... don't do what I did my first year of teaching, what many teachers do today: arrange the class into high, medium and low groups. This is an anathema to all groups especially the low one.

A friend of mine, some years ago, proudly shared with me that in his school they departmentalized. They didn't have three groups instead, one teacher had the high group, one teacher had the medium group and one teacher had the low group. All they did was to make a bad situation worse! these foolish experiments with other peoples children will never help students meet their potential because of low expectations, low instruction and low interaction between students with wide range of abilities. There is a serious danger of locking students into low groups for the rest of their school life. Sometime later he admitted to me that eventually each teacher had three ability level with in each departmentalized class again. All they accomplished was to create more low students. Shame on them!

Hopefully by now you have studied your students school records, scores, previous teachers input in light of your own assessments and observations. You now know your student's strengths and needs, not weaknesses-their needs.

Each student brings to class different levels of ability, cognition and experience. Understanding where the students are will help you plan appropriate lessons and learning environments. We cannot teach everyone the same thing, the same way at the same time and expect them all to learn at the same rate or at the same level of cognition.

So... now that you know where each of your students are performing, it is your responsibility to structure interactions and instruction based on what the student is capable of doing and the grade level expectations (standards). The interactive structure takes the form of collaborative groupings where students of differing abilities collaborate with each other to meet the standard. The communication and interactions that transpire between more knowledgeable or proficients students will help the whole group build better understanding of the concepts being taught. Students learn better from each other. My observations, over the years, of students in collaborative groups lead me to believe that they also help each other in transferring learning into long term memory. They are exited and engaged in their learning.

In order for you to guide your students through the learning task, it is important to recognize the strengths students bring to school, their culture, environment, cognitive and social development what Lev Vygotsky* calls zones of proximal development. (ZPD**)

Using their strengths and attributes to provide and support student learning you, as a more knowledgeable practitioner, will need to guide them into making connections, predicting outcomes, compare and contrast, context clues etc. Provide them with "accurate" examples of what needs to be done and why it is important; articulate and connect the learning goal and its intent or purpose. Proper guidance and methodology connected to the learner's daily contexts of his environment will result in student's intellectual development. You can expect more involvement in class, more discussions, higher level thinking and yes more critical questions for you to guide them through.

When you change from homogeneous groupings to collaborative instructional groupings you need to remember that students move in and out of groups based on the different students ability/outcomes on the subject being studied. The most knowledgeable student in one subject will not always be the most prepared in another. As social interaction with and among students increases, so will the cognitive development of all group members. All of these wonderful interactions will be a symphony to your ears.

With time you will learn to recognize the dramatic impact that collaborative group learning will have in meeting the needs of your students, their needs and learning style. Herein lies the answer to key the question, how can I make time to meet the needs of all my student?

With respect, trust, willingness to change, and the belief that your students bring to the classroom their unique strengths; you and your students will increase both achievement and satisfaction meeting your and their needs. Yes, you in a single classroom will insure that your students will acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for lifelong learning.




* Lev S. Vygotsky is a preeminent figure in the field of education. His seminal work on Social Cognition is based on his theory that learning is largely a socially-mediated activity. Optimum/real learning takes place in one's Zone of Proximal Development.

** " ZPD is the distance between the actual development as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers." ( Lev S.Vygotsky)

Instructional Vampires

After three years in retirement I was asked to take a positions as an interim Principal for about six weeks. I was hesitant but exited of getting back to some stimulating interaction with other professional educators. I figured that it was just like being a grandparent; your grand children come to visit for a while but them you give them back to their parents. Right?


I made it a point to visit the school and principal before she went on leave. I wanted to know what were her priorities, concerns and I wanted to reassure her that I would take good care of her students, staff and school.

The most difficult part for me was getting used to LA freeway traffic again, but after a few adjustments in routes and timing I got it under control.

The first thing I needed to do was to meet the parent and staff. My mornings were taken up greeting students at arrival to school, being accessible on the yard at recess and lunch periods, visiting classrooms through out the day. This gave me an insight into the culture of the school.

Fortunately I was very familiar with the instructional programs in reading, math and English Language development used in this District. I asked the instructional coaches to provide me a set on teachers guides for each grade level to take along on my classroom visits. It was important to get to get a sound footing and gage if all teachers were following the programs and pacing plans and preparing their student's for their quarterly assessments. I reviewed the student's data, formulated and prioritized my course of action.

After my first week on the job I had a very good idea of what needed to be done; I could either sit in the principals office and wait for problems to come to me, pass half of them to the assistant principals or I could seek out the needs and work towards solving them. I chose the latter

I quickly identified a number of school and classroom activities which take up too much time out any school's instruction. I baptized them Instructional Vampires these are constant procedures that need to be completed to meet adult agendas, if left unchecked they will suck the life out of your instructional program. Lets discuss a few:

Morning business - teachers take as much as 10 minutes taking attendance each morning. They call the student's name wait for the answer "here" this is repeated 24 times daily. After attendance is taken the cards are sent to the office with two students who in turn take five minutes before returning to class. Next; flag salute, collecting homework, sharpening pencils, etc. by the time the teachers starts a reading lesson as much as 20 minutes of instructional time have been wasted. 20 minutes X 24 students=480 minutes lost in one classroom each morning before instruction begins.

What's a teacher to do!

A successful teacher know that he/she must teach procedures at the beginning of the school year. Attendance procedures; Have the attendance cards placed along the chalk rails, when students c0me in each student picks up his/her card and puts it in the office envelope. Card left on the rail are absentees. Notes from parents regarding previous absences are also put in the attendance envelope, the office will record excuses. As the class goes out for recess a student monitor takes the cards to the office then proceed to the designated play area.

Homework: After each lesson given you know what homework will be going home simply drop it in the "homework box", students will automatically pick their homework assignment from the box at dismissal time.

Returned homework: Have a designated "returned homework box" perhaps different color from the homework going home box, where students simply drop in their papers upon entering the classroom. When you get ready to check the work just pick up the box take it to your desk and go through their work.

Pencils: Have student sharpen their pencil a minute before lining up for dismissal Placed the sharpened pencil in the pencil box. Then you will all be ready in the morning.

Flag salute: it's more meaningful to have a lesson on the meaning and reason why we pay homage to our Country's flag once that is learned, if you wish, have the flag salute on Mondays only.

Following these simple procedures will give you at least 15 added minutes of instruction each day.

If you are familiar with some instructional vampires, share with our readers how you got rid of them. And how you increased you instructional time.

Stay tuned.