Thursday, January 23, 2014

Who will work with whom?

In my classroom, collaboration is key.  If students are going to speak French, they need someone with whom they can speak.  Small groups and partner work is essential in getting students to use the language.  Plus, when working with a small group or with a partner, students have a low-risk environment to speak up and contribute.  In previous posts, I have mentioned the importance of creating activities where everyone in the group has a responsibility and is contributing to the end means in some way.  I want everyone to feel needed and I want everyone to know that they are, in some way, responsible for getting the job done.  I do everything that I can avoid the "bogs and logs" mentality.

But, how to divide the students into those very important groups??  I subscribe to the thought process that the students need to work with the same groups for at least six weeks. I usually keep them together for an entire unit.  New unit = new groups.  At the beginning of the school year, I took great time in sculpting my groups.  I would often put strong students with weak students in order to have students with varying abilities in groups.  As the year has progressed, I wanted to get a little more creative in my grouping.  When we came back for second semester, I decided to randomly choose groups.  But, to make it more exciting (and to get kids up and moving--which is the key to an active class) I had students write a sentence/word on a piece of paper. In level 1, they had to write the French word for one of their favorite gifts or something that they bought over the break.  In level 2, they had to write a sentence about a gift that they gave to someone.  It worked out to be a great review, especially in level 2. As students were writing, I walked around and talked to them about it, so that I knew at least one thing about each student. Then, I had them line themselves up alphabetically by the gift that they received or gave.  I loved this part because they had to get up and, like it or not, talk to their classmates.  Then, I walked through the line and gave each student a crayon, alternating the colors between the number of groups I wanted.  (I used ROY G BIV).  This REALLY helped to review colors with my level 1 students.   Then, the students found their like colors and formed their groups.  Immediately, this gave the group something in common because I could name them the color that they had.  (I like to have a name for each group.) Before the activity started, I have them a few minutes to discuss what they had written on their paper.  Kids love to talk about themselves, and this gave them a chance to get to know each other which helps to create a necessary bond between group members.

It sounds like a very lengthy method to divide kids up, but it works.  It's creative and different, and the students like that.  It gave them a chance to use their individual experiences and to talk about them.  The entire process didn't take more than 8 minutes, and that's because 5 minutes was used to write the sentence.

Partner work is something else that I love to do.  Typically, I assign partners which are seated near each other. But, during those long winter months, I like to mix things up a bit.  For a continuous writing assignment (where students write a little bit of a story based on a picture or goofy photograph as we learn more grammar in the chapter)I wanted random partners.  (And,I wanted them to get up and walk around.)  I had each student write a sentence on a small piece of paper.  We were learning daily routine vocab, so I had them write a sentence to describe what they do to get ready in the morning.  Again, I walked around as they were writing to help with grammar and sentence structure.  Then, I collected each nameless paper in a box and had students choose papers from the box.  They had to then, get up and find the person who either had their paper, or the person who wrote on the paper that they had chosen.  Whoever they found first, was their partner.  They grabbed the activity and sat down and got to work.  As students were pairing up and sitting down, there always happens to be students who can't find their matches, so i just paired them up and they got to work.  Again, a crazy chaotic method, but it got kids up and moving, and speaking French because they had to read the paper aloud to find their match.

Another random way of finding a partner, is to put two corresponding vocabulary words on a card, cut them apart and have students find their match.  For example, I put the action on one side of the card, and a noun that would complete the action on the other side.  I cut them apart (sort of like a puzzle), then the students had to walk around to find the matching pieces. Once they found the other half of their card, they could sit down and get to work.  It's a great way to review!  If time allowed, I could have each group share with the group the words on their cards and have the rest of the class say the English, as if they were flashcards.

There are hundreds of creative ways to get kids up and moving to find a partner or group.  The important element, is to keep them guessing.  I love that my students never know what to expect.  We rarely do the same thing twice which keeps them interested.