When I started teaching this year, I also started to use grouping techniques because they have plenty of advantages for students' performance:
- They allow interaction which is one of the most important factors in an EFL classroom.
- Students can negotiate for meaning.
- It may be a meaningful activity if the teacher bases the technique on their interests.
- It creates a positive atmosphere and the student doesn't feel vulnerable or threatened.
- It encourgares team work.
- And my favorite: It develops Multiple Intelligences since students must make use of their abilties to accomplish a task.
1. Animals sound: Hand in several cardboard-made animals to students and make them find their peers by making the sound of the animal :)
2. Color cards: Hand in cardboard cards of different colors. Ask your students stand up and mingle to find their group.
4. Numbers: This is simpler. Just give students a number and have them group with the same numbers.
5. Birth: Group students according to their birth month. Have them stand up and ask around until they find one another.
6. Zodiac sign: Ask them to find people from the same zodiac sign.
7. Puzzles: Make 6-piece puzzles and hand them in to your students. Have them mingle in order to find the complete puzzle.
8. Sayings and Expressions: Split your expression into three or four parts. Hand them in. Let them find the expression around.
These techniques are not only useful but fun also which makes the classroom a better place to work in. Some of the activities you can implement when grouping are:
- Discussions, debates, simulations, role-plays, news forecast, creation of a story, fashion show, talk show, dramatization, jigsaws, writing assignments, projects, detecting differences from pictures, picture and/or sentence sequence... AND SO MANY MORE.
IT IS IMPORTANT WHEN GROUPING TO INTRODUCE, MODEL, EXPLAIN, ASSIGN ROLES, CHECK FOR CLARIFICATION, AND MONITOR THE TASK. IT WILL BE A SUCCESS FOR SURE :)
See you teachers!
