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Teaching guides: grouping students well

Practical, research-based guides on group work: which groups to use, how big they should be, how to form them fairly, and how to run roles and stations. Each guide says what the evidence supports and where it is thin.

All subjects

Types of student groups, and when to use each

Pairs, trios, small groups, stations, jigsaw and whole class: what each type of student grouping is, what it is good for, and how to choose.

Why group work matters: what the research says

What decades of research say about cooperative learning and group work, why it helps, the two conditions it depends on, and what goes wrong without them.

How many students should be in a group?

The best group size depends on the task. A practical guide to pairs, threes, fours and larger groups, with the reasoning and research behind each.

How to make fair groups quickly: random, strategic or student choice?

Random groups, teacher-chosen groups, student choice and ability grouping compared: what the research says, when to use each, and a quick routine for forming fair groups in under a minute.

Flexible grouping in an inclusive classroom

How to group students flexibly so every learner belongs and is challenged: what inclusive education means, what the grouping research says, and a practical week of groupings.

Language arts

Group roles in language arts: groups of 4 to 6 that actually discuss

How to set up discussion groups of four to six with roles in reading and writing classes, which roles to use, how to rotate them, and how to avoid roles that make talk mechanical.

Math and science

Learning stations in math and science: how to set them up so they work

How to design and run learning stations in math and science classes: the number of stations, task design, timing, group size, accountability, and an honest look at what the research says.

Classroom routines

Classroom jobs: ideas, and how to rotate them fairly

How to run classroom jobs well: what makes a job meaningful, how often to rotate, how to keep it fair for every student, ideas by age, and an honest look at what the research does and does not say.