056: Blog Series - 3 Strategies for Creating a Connected Community of Learners - Re-grouping Students

 As educators, we understand the profound impact a sense of community can have on student engagement, learning outcomes, and overall well-being. A classroom environment prioritizes community-building and fosters collaboration, empathy, and a supportive atmosphere where every student feels valued and included. This three-part blog series provides three effective strategies for cultivating a connected community among students in the classroom.

Strategy 1: Re-Grouping Students

Does your heart start racing whenever someone tells you to find someone you don’t know in a room and partner with them? I immediately start to worry that I won’t be picked or that I’ll “bother” someone by selecting them when they didn’t want to pick me. Whether in a classroom with students or facilitating professional learning with educators, my main desire is to create and maintain an inclusive environment where participants feel emotionally safe to learn. As such, I always recommend providing specific directions for partnerships that promote connection and reduce stress and anxiety. 

Below, I have listed my top 14 re-grouping strategies and noted the preparation time for each:
* = Little or No Time Prep
** = A Bit of Time Prep
*** - Significant Time Prep

Re-grouping via Matching. 

• * Ask students to “Find someone who has shoes similar to yours,” which provides a way to find a partner that involves options such as color, size, style, heel, etc. 
  
  Before sending them on their way to compare shoes, I ALWAYS share that our number one priority is inclusion, and they CAN and SHOULD create groups of three if they notice someone near them not finding someone with similar shoes.

• * Ask students to select an item and find others with a similar item. For instance, I have a bag of differently colored pom poms or beads for students to select from a bag. Consider also using notecards with numbers, colors, or pictures. Students then group with peers with similar images, colors, or numbers. 
  
  
• ** For an extra level of challenge, adjust the images so students have to find matching pictures (e.g., peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper, ketchup and mustard, pencil and paper). Asking students to contribute associations for pairs is a great way to include them and learn more about their likes and dislikes. 
  
  Note: Although these two options might take a few minutes, they allowed me to approach each student and have a quick 1:1 check-in. The selection process can also happen while students work on a “do now” opener for class. (In my experience with high schoolers, I wouldn’t distribute the item as they walk into the room as they might switch items to group with their friends, thus defeating the purpose of randomized grouping.)

Re-grouping via Non-verbal Actions. 

• * These activities allow students to gather in rows or lines based on pre-determined criteria. A common request is to ask students to get in order based on the month and date of their birthday. Direct students born closest to January 1 to move to the left and students born on December 31 to move to the right. Or, you can ask students to line up alphabetically based on their middle name. 
  
  Students need to find a way to communicate using non-verbal communication. Once the line exists, ask students to share their responses. If there was an error, just have the students switch places and keep moving forward. Then, create groups of 2, 3, or 4 based on the existing line. 
  
  
• * More challenging instructions include “Line up by the time you woke up this morning” or “Line up by the time you went to bed last night”  because there is no definitive start or end, like with dates and the alphabet. 

Re-grouping via Movement.

• * Rotating Trios is one of my favorites for the classroom and professional learning! Have students count off so they end up in groups of three. Once they gather with their trio, ask them to label themselves A, B, or C. Once they have worked on a task together, ask everyone who is a B to rotate one group to the right (clockwise). Then, allow them to work on a second task in their new group. After that, ask everyone who is an A to rotate one group to the left (counterclockwise). This process works for groups of four as well. In truth, you can have students rotate across two or three groups. The goal is to keep changing group members so they can develop a sense of comfort with one another. 

Re-grouping via Auditory Cues. 

• ** In the card game Dude, each student is given a card with the word DUDE written on it with a hint as to how they should pronounce it. For example, it might ask them to pronounce the word “Dood” or “DUUUUUDE.” Students read their cards out loud according to the instructions as they walk among their peers. The goal is to find partners who had the same card as theirs by listening to the dialect, intonation, and emphasis placed on the word “Dude.” There are enough cards to get students into 6 groups (unless you buy the extended pack), but you can also have students then count off one through six and divide each large group into two smaller groups (i.e., 2s, 5s, and 6s in one group; 1s, 3s, and 4s in another group).
  
  
• *** Another way to group relying on auditory cues involves putting beans into plastic eggs (groups of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, etc.). I give each student an egg to shake near their ear. As they listen to the sound, they move through the room, listening to other’s eggs and trying to find group members with the same number of beans. Once students have “found” their pair, trio, or quad, they carefully open their egg to reveal a little slip of paper with the number of beans. Depending upon how students have grouped themselves (i.e. if they can work productively).

Re-grouping via Seating. 

• *** A local high school math teacher regroups her students’ seats at the end of every Friday in preparation for the next week. This allows students to sit with two to three new peers and collaborate for a week on math. She admits that the students complain about the switching at the beginning of the year. However, by the end of the year, they discuss who they haven’t had a chance to sit with YET and try to help with the regrouping. Interestingly, she shared that it used to be on Mondays when the new seating chart was introduced. However, students asked if it could happen on Fridays because they felt more stressed coming into class on Monday, not knowing who they were sitting next to. This small shift to Fridays showed the students she validated their experiences and increased their willingness to partake in the seat changes.

Re-grouping via SEL Strengths. 

• *** Within the self-awareness competency, a key skill is " identifying social, cultural, and linguistic assets and strengths.” Ask students to take the CASEL survey or self-identify their top five of the 40 SEL skills. Once students have identified their SEL strengths and written them down, you can group them with others whose strengths complement theirs. (More on this in the upcoming blog post around Cooperative Learning.)
  

Re-grouping via Skill Acquisition. 

• *** Heterogeneous and Homogeneous grouping based on formative assessment. This document provides examples of how to group students in these manners and includes important considerations. 
  
  Note: This grouping will be done before meeting with the students. Do not have the students line up by academic scores in front of one another. In fact, if students are used to being in different groups often, they don’t even need to know that they were grouped based on skill acquisition.

Re-grouping via Self-Selection. 

• *** Pass out a notecard to each student and ask them to put their name at the top. Underneath, have them list the names of 3-4 students with whom they can work effectively. Then, try to organize students into groups with at least one person with whom they have selected. 
  
  Note: This requires a bit of time, but I viewed arranging students into groups this way as a challenging puzzle to solve. In the few years I did this, it only did not work out once. In this instance, I admit to asking a student who was very friendly with most students if they would be okay with being in a new group. 

Re-grouping via Randomization.

• * An easy fallback is to have students count off by numbers and group according to the number. Remember that if you have 32 students and want groups of four, you’ll need to have students count off by eight. (I may or may not STILL be learning this one!)
  
  
• ** Another fallback strategy is an online random name group generator. These online tools ask you to add student names and how many groups you’d like to form. Some can even identify a team facilitator. The longest part of this re-grouping is copying and pasting in your class list. Quick Tip: Make sure the names you loaded are saved to the site, or the list will default to the often-silly, sometimes inappropriate ones listed as placeholders.)

What strategies on this list do you use to re-group students to build community? What strategies would you add?

(Keep an eye out for Part 2 - Low-Risk, Low Courage Questions coming next week!)