Teaching Strategies that Work
How to Implement Co-teaching Models with Flexible Grouping
Flexible grouping can be a great strategy to incorporate into your lessons, especially if you are co-teaching. With flexible grouping, students’ level of learning, no matter what the curriculum, is assessed when leaving class, usually with exit cards or some other form of assessment. Then, students are grouped according to their level of understanding. With this strategy, students are not put in a group and then forced to stay at that level- they can advance or get more instruction at their own pace.
Implementing Co-teaching Models: Examples of Flexible Grouping Include:
1) Flexible grouping is the most commonly referenced form of station teaching when researching co-teaching models. Exit cards work beautifully for flexible grouping. For instance, if I’m doing flexible grouping, I might have one enrichment group, one on-track group, and one review group. I could have each teacher facilitate one of the two groups and one group working on its own.
2) You might also have three mixed-ability groups differentiated by process. For example, one group of students engages in a hands-on activity to learn the planets. Another group of students uses a computer-based activity to determine how far apart planets are from one another. The third group creates a dramatic skit to teach the rest of the class about the solar system and the planets. This type of flexible grouping is ‘differentiating by process.’
3) Another model for flexible grouping has each mixed-ability group working on the same concept and output requirements. However, each group may vary on how they collaborate to accomplish that assignment. In this model, teachers circulate among the groups, supporting students as needed. Another option: one teacher supervises and supports while the other teacher collects data.
Implementing Co-teaching Models: Flexible Grouping Basics
For teachers who are most comfortable with direct teaching via whole-class teaching, moving toward small groups and flexible grouping can be very intimidating. This is especially true in situations where group dynamics in the classroom are extra-lively and teachers are concerned about managing behavior and keeping kids on task. This section provides strategies and techniques for effectively implementing small groups and flexible groups.
What Constitutes Effective Small-Group Construction?
Effective small-group instruction:
- Uses assessment data to create lesson plans and determine the groups.
- Keeps groups small, preferably three to four students to a group. Sometimes it might even be appropriate to have pairs.
- Groups are flexible. This means that groups change as students grow, test out of a curriculum section, choose activities based on the type of activity required, etc.
- Learning profile instructional materials are geared toward student ability levels when activities are not based on differentiating by process or student.
- Small-group activities are tailored to address student needs.
Ineffective small-group instruction:
- Has kids in groups, but all activity is directed by the teacher.
- Keeps kids in the same groups continually, usually in same-ability groups. This is actually tracking within a class.
- Uses the same materials with all students in all groups.
- Uses the same independent-state work assignments for the entire class.
- Uses small groups to complete worksheets, and more worksheets, and more worksheets.
When Implementing Co-teaching Models, Remember:
- An ability group is a group where all the students are at the same level.
- A mixed-ability group includes students of all different levels together, strategically placed.
- A flexible group is one which will have different members at different times. That, by the way, is the main goal. Students don’t get pigeonholed or typecast this way.
Excerpted from Special Needs in the General Classroom, 500+ Teaching Strategies to Differentiate Instruction
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