Introduction to OER4Schools
The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Review of homework
There were four tasks set as homework, which we will now review:
- Magic microphone. Did you try this activity? What was the open question that you used?
- Share your list of examples of objectives that can be achieved through different types of groups
- Do you have any questions that arose from reading the documents?
- Did you try the new organisational strategy put forward? Share your experiences with the group!
Pace grouping
Read and discuss the following transcript. Guiding questions are below. Make sure you read the guiding questions before reading the transcript, as this will help you in analysing the transcript.
'’’OER4schools Extract from workshop 4th June 2011: Agness Tembo talking about pace grouping’’'
Agness: It was a . . . a successful lesson to see what the pupils did in their exercise books. Yes. Most of them got everything. It was only three or four pupils at Banana Group, they didn’t do well and I said that . . . she even asked me and I said, I think those numbers, they are big for them because they are slow in maths. So, I tried to give the exercises using smaller numbers so that they know the concept. Ah yes.
Brian: What was in the lesson? What was . . . what programme did you base this on?
Agness: I remember, at first, something that was the fun addition using a number tree. There was a number down there, a bigger number and then there were some branches. Beside one branch there was one number, the other branch was the other number so others, they could add that number and the number at the bottom and they could find the long number. So that was a challenge so I had to go around to tell them that this number, which you have here, you have to subtract it from this number at the bottom for you to find it . . .the missing number.
. . .So I noticed that in two groups. So I had to go there and explain. . . They did know that it was addition but in actual sense it was subtraction for them to find another answer. So that was a challenge, yes. Because I remember in the other group should have said ‘Teacher I'm through… If I go there, I could find the bigger … ‘ I said ‘No, You add when you want to check that the answers are correct. If after adding, you’re going to find this bottom number.’ So that was the challenge. Addition but it was subtraction, in actual sense.
Brian: Was it that you were reading the lesson or did . . they did most of the things themselves?
Agness: They did most of the things on their own. Writing numbers. . . I did not tell them and then they could give their friends the calculators, even the calculator, they could find the answers. The only part which, using the calculator, the Banana Group, they could press the numbers and then when they pressed on minus they wanted to see actual minus there, so they could see. . .‘Teacher there is no minus here.’ It is not shown so they continued to pressing on that. So, I went there, I said ‘No, minus, it won’t be shown here, just continue, pressing the numbers it will give you the answer.’ Those challenges were there. Yes.
Maud: Oh Banana Group. (laughs) Isn’t that where you put all your slow learners . . . on the Banana Group?
Agness: Yes, we have put them according to pace group. Yes, so that is, what is encouraging in their first time in education. First when they come, the first time we meet, let them sit according to their play group. After that, after assessing now, you give them, you know, you put them according to their pace group ‘cause they say maybe a dull person is mixed with those very intelligent they won’t participate the same. So, it’s better you take them on their own. .
Brian: Do you find any from that pace group joining another group?
Agness: They do. Every time when you come: ‘Go back to your places.’ They change.
Brian: Why can’t you allow them to remain there instead of . .
Agness: No. The rule is that those slow learners should be nearer the teacher so that you won’t . . . ‘cause if you get a slow learner, then you put him at the back, truly it will be difficult for you to monitor that pupil every time. So, always the slow learners should be near the teacher. So that even if you are seated you can do this, you can see what that pupil is doing.
Brian: Sometime maybe mixing slow learners and fast learners but the thing is slow learners will copy from their friends. They will get everything correct but they don’t know. . . so it’s better slow learners are in their own group.
Discussion (11 min).. Discuss the transcript, together with the following questions:
- Is your experience of grouping in the classroom similar or different from Agness’s experience (before she tried the new way of grouping)? Give specific examples.
- Some people worry that in mixed groups those who work at a slower pace, or are less motivated, or less proficient in the language of instruction, or less skilled at the task (including slower at typing in ICT-supported lessons), might “coast” and allow others to do the work because they cannot keep up with their peers, or they might copy. What do you think about that?
- What do you think about Agness’s idea that pupils should be asked to hide their work and then show it to the teacher by using the mini-blackboards as “showboards”, to discourage copying during group work? [pic of showboards]
- What do you think about Brian’s idea of singling out pupils who copy, for example asking them a question or asking them to “show the class”?
- What could be other ways to prevent copying, “coasting” or “free riding” during mixed group work?
During discussion of the last question, probe the participants to think of:
- ideas during group work that focus on learning of new concepts. This is because the issue of copying generally arises when group work focuses on ‘drill and practice’ of what has already been learnt. There could be other ‘free rider’ issues that participants have experienced and may have ideas for discouraging them
- usefulness of ‘ground rules’ discussed in Activity 2 in this context
- bring in Slavin’s criterion that groups must take responsibility for ALL members’ learning and they must make sure everyone understands, if participants do not mention this themselves; ask them if that overcomes some of the problems with slower learners not keeping up or contributing enough?
- likewise participants might mention assigning different roles within a group... if not, you can raise this...
Judith’s division lesson
Participants read and watch video. We will reflect on this later in the workshop.
Judith carried out a lesson that consisted of group work on solving four questions to practice division, besides other activities. [[Image:[photo]]] The children worked in “pace” or “ability” groups. She encouraged group responsibility of solving the problems as well as reporting of answers by group secretaries. She also invited pupils to explain how they arrived at the answers. In the end, Judith made the outcome of the group task transparent by listing the answers of all groups on the blackboard. She also involved pupils in assessing their own answers and pupils’ involvement in it. In the following clip, she is checking the groups’ answers on the board and finds that a group of “slow learners” has scored 0 correct.
Video 1: Judith's division lesson (01:38:22:02 - 01:38:53:18)
VIDEO
Judith_division_scoring_short.m4v
The description of the video
Video/Judith division scoring short.m4v, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Judith_division_scoring_short.m4v, Duration: 0:37 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)
In the next extract from a teacher workshop 2 days after this lesson, Judith discusses this episode and the notion of pace grouping with her colleagues. They agreed that the teacher’s role was to indicate that laughing at peers was unacceptable, and also that government policy for pupils to work in pace groups was problematic.
Video 2 Workshop: Judith and others discussing mixed pace grouping and change in practice.
VIDEO
Workshop_21-3_pace_groups.m4v
The description of the video
Video/Workshop 21-3 pace groups.m4v, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Workshop_21-3_pace_groups.m4v, Duration: 3:49 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)
Workshop transcript for the above video.
Judith: That was the group which is the slow learners, that group which goes to zero.
Melissa: But these students, do they usually laugh at their friends and things like that?
Judith: They don’t laugh when.... Ok, they feel like laughing but I rebuke them. Eventually, they catch up as well. But some, they try. Otherwise it is a good idea to mix up the groups because those who are slow they will remain slow. Those have accepted that us we are known to be slow learners. So usually they don’t mind. But if they’re mixed, although the clever ones may dominate but they can help. It’s a good idea what she says. So that the policy of the government also, it confuses us. When we are teaching ICT we can mix them. But when it comes to normal teaching, they say ‘put them in their ability groups’.
Priscilla: I just wanted to relate something that happened to me concerning the teaching of children according to their abilities. I taught at a private school where we were encouraged to do that. We received people from the ministry who really emphasised the teaching of children according to the ability of this, the ability of that. The underachievers are lonely, and stuff like that. You know it was quite a challenge because we asked them how we are going to conduct activities in such a classroom with children put according to... What you do is, you have to devise work for each group who come up with their own work. One topic that you find different work for, you know, the different abilities that you have in class. For the best you give them tough work, for the underachievers you try as much as possible to simplify that work. But they come up with whatever .... But it was a challenge. I had about, you know, four groups of different levels so I had to write for the best, you know, the other group that followed them and right up to the last group. So it was difficult for me to prepare for this group and that group, just like that.
Sara: Yes.
Priscilla: So we found it a challenge because these went on ... revert to the old system of mixing up children. Because another challenge which was there was the best group would always laugh at them and that is inevitable when you put the best children on their own, definitely they will be able to laugh at their friends and for those that, the underachievers, it was quite difficult for them to even take part because they always feel they are underachievers, they couldn’t do anything. So I think I concur with what she’s saying. Mixing up children really helps. As a teacher, I have to be there, making sure that even those that are performing to their best of, you know, they don’t laugh at their friends. Such things are there in the classroom when somebody tries to give an answer, the best student laughs at the underachiever. So there you have to come in, as teachers, you have to make sure you discipline such a child.
Aggie: The challenge mainly is in the exam. We do not have an exam for the whole … slow learners. So it’s better we group everyone.
Teachers: Yes.
Further reading
Participants read this section.
There are a number of issues raised about pace groups and differentiation by group:
- practical difficulties
- challenge for teacher of devising several tasks
- low achievers may be ridiculed
- challenge of same assessment for all
Also consider that “ability” and “pace” are variable and they can grow; pupils underachieve for lots of reasons, including absenteeism as in Judith’s group, and lack of home support. But their achievement levels may rise if expectations are high and support is given. As a consequence, a teacher needs to provide for all students to develop their ability to the next level and beyond. Pupils should always have a next step and a new challenge to move on to. Whatever level a learner is at, they can stretch themselves and you can support them to improve it.
Differentiation by outcome. Pupils do the same task but they respond differently, reach different levels and produce a variety of results. The task needs to be open-ended for this to work; it should allow learners to explore and be original. It can be done with ICT or without but it needs a clear time frame. For example:
- collaborate to write a story or a report (using Etherpad)
- create a piece of art with the title “new beginning”
- investigate how plants grow
Set clear expectations of appropriate kinds of outcomes! Challenge and support students to reach the highest level they possibly can.
Acknowledgement: Some of these ideas derive from the Differentiation Pocketbook by Peter Anstee. Teachers’ Pocketbooks, Alresford, Hampshire, UK.
Judith's workshop reflections
Continue with reading, and listening to the clips.
Later in the OER4Schools workshop Judith indicated how her thinking had changed through discussion with her peers, illustrating her open mind and flexibility as a reflective teacher:
“I have learnt from that to say, so those if they remain like that [slow learners together], they will remain like that forever. They can never learn anything from others. So the best I can do, just the way we have been discussing, to say, it’s better to mix them so that, at least, even them can learn something from the rest of the group. So to me this is an advantage I have gained.”
In a subsequent interview Judith was probed to elaborate and reflect further on the incident when pupils laughed at the low-achieving group. She concluded that mixed ability grouping would be better than same ability grouping. Listen to these 2 very short excerpts from that interview.
Judith's Interview - Clip 1: (For CBS, local playback, local download)
Transcript for clip 1: We have learned that if we mix them up then it is to the advantage of the slow learners because they are able to learn from their friends because when they are bringing group work every child will want to participate in group work. So, through interactive ICT, which we have learned, it is really helping pupils to share more ideas, including those who used to be idle. They are able to participate now. At a certain point sometimes, it is even them [idle pupils] now, who report, in their groups if the work is to report after finding the answers, they even get it and they report also. So, they are participating. It is helping every child in the class. Yes.
Judith's Interview - Clip 2: (For CBS local playback, local download)
Transcript for clip 2: the government has a policy whereby children have to be put in ability groups. So that time, when you came, the children were in their own ability groups. Yes. So, they worked according to their ability groups. So those four, because I put them into fours, but in that group of slow learners they are not only four, they are nine. But, the others within their group, the other group who have stayed the other side, they managed to get everything correct. But those four, they failed. The other contributing factors, those four who stayed alone, they usually don’t come to school. Yes, they absent themselves.
Reflection followed by discussion in pairs
Initially participants reflect on their own (for a short period of time), making notes if they like.
Then participants reflect and discuss in groups.
Reflection (11 min). Consider the following statements and associated questions for reflection on Judith’s clips:
In this interview Judith informed us that there were 9 slow learners in her class and only 4 formed a slow pace group; these 4 scored 0 but the other 5 were dispersed in other groups who got correct answers to the same problems. This indicates that not only is participation higher in mixed pace groups but achievement can be too (and research with bigger samples backs this up). Nevertheless, the 4 who achieved poorly were also regularly absent so their prior knowledge base was probably lower.
Do you think this means that the absentees are even more likely to benefit from peer interaction in a mixed group?
Judith was quick and effective at discouraging pupils from laughing at the low achieving group.
What other things could a teacher do during the lesson to prevent this situation?
Pair / small group discussion (11 min). Suggested questions for reflection on both examples (on the audio and video clips from Agness and Judith):
- What in your opinion is the effect of labelling groups as low, middle or high ability of the pupils?
- How would you like to form groups supportive of everyone’s learning? Why?
Additional things to consider:
- helping low achieving group while everybody else is working in their groups
- peer support within a mixed pace group
- assigning roles within group
- other ideas?
Groupwork with computers
.
If you are starting to run out of time, then skip this section - it can be done as part of the next session!
We now consider the role of computers in group work. Mobile computing technologies (such as netbooks or tablets) are very versatile and can be used as and when needed. By contrast, computer labs are now becoming outdated in schools as they remove technology from subject teaching and learning and from the normal classroom environment and teaching aids. Many do not even have a blackboard. Some of the issues are:
- Moving a class into the computer room is disruptive to teaching (especially in primary)
- Computer labs can enforce a rigid seating pattern if benches are fixed.
- If you have a computer lab with desktop machines, can it be re-arranged to support groupwork?
- If machines are located around the perimeter (learners have backs to each other and teacher), or in rows, this is not conducive to collaborative learning.
- Some computer rooms even partition off machines so learners cannot interact
The seating arrangement. Sometimes labs are arranged in a certain way, because of certain concerns. For instance, if the school administration is worried about off-task behaviour, computers are arranged in rows. However, this isn’t a good solution, as it interferes with groupwork. Instead, if a teacher is worried about off-task behaviour, they can cruise around the room!
Experience shows that an island arrangement works best, ideally large hexagonal tables, but large round or square tables are fine too.
Discuss some of the following statements and questions:
- How would you interact with learners in these various setups? For instance, if computers are arranged in rows, what would the interaction be like? If they were sitting in groups, what would the interaction be like? For these activities, refer to the two pictures above! What is the interaction like in the picture that shows the booths in the comptuter room?
- With mobile technologies, what are good ways to configure group seating? Refer to the picture of our lab!
Drawing (11 min). Draw a sketch to show how you would arrange computers among groups.
Access to computers: “We need more computers." Many schools don’t have access to computers at all, but where schools do have access, it is often felt that there are not enough computers. How many computers would a school need? While some might say that one computer per child, or perhaps one computer per two children would be ideal, for many schools (and classrooms) this is totally unrealistic. In general, when you have access to computers, you should therefore make sure that the computers are used in the best way possible in your context. We now consider how to deal with shortage of computers in group work.
Pair work (11 min).. Spend 5 minutes as pairs, considering the following scenario: You have 60 children in your class, and 10 computers. How would you arrange the groups, how would you distribute the computers, how would you structure the lesson?
To help with this, consider the following questions:
- In devising groupings consider how many children can see the screen and get hands-on experience.
- If you only have a few computers, it is better to operate a carousel so everyone gets a chance?
Discussion (11 min). Discuss the outcomes of your reflection. What different proposals are there?
Often the computers would be distributed equally (in this case one computer per group of 6), and all groups would do that same task. This distribution may well be seen a equitable. However, in practice, more than 3-4 children per computer does not work well.
Another way is to do different tasks groupwork, where some groups do computer-based work, while others do non-computer-based work. After a period of time, you can swap around the tasks, so that the groups which were not using a computer can now use one.
Refer to the two pictures above: In the picture with many children behind one netbook, do you think the children are using the netbook effectively? In the picture with the tablet, are the children interacting?
Having considered how computers are distributed among groups, we now consider how the computer can be shared equally within groups.
Pair work (11 min).. Consider the following question: What would you do if there are some students who always control the computer, while other group members never get to use it? Would you say that it is sensible to mix computer-literate pupils with novices? How will you ensure they help rather than dominate their peers?
You should discuss strategies for access to computers within the group, i.e. rotating access to trackpad. You could also discuss the benefits of using tablets or putting computer screen flat (where this is possible).
Discussion (11 min). Discuss the outcomes of your reflection as a whole class.
Pair work (11 min). What role do mini-blackboards play in groupwork? With and without computers?
Discussion (11 min). Discuss the outcomes of your reflection as a whole class.
Planning a mixed pace groupwork with ICT task
A. Planning an activity using the activity template
- Devise an open activity where groups have a shared goal and where outcomes may differ between groups, for a lesson you are teaching next week
- Decide group size and how you will formulate (mixed pace) groups (look back at documents from Session 3.2)?
- How will you ensure everyone participates and everyone learns? How will you stretch all learners?
- Explicitly ask groups to make sure everyone understands the new concept or process; make it their responsibility to support each other and check this is happening.
- Assign different roles within the group...
B. Remember to keep up the typing tutor practice too!
Homework
Try out your groupwork with ICT. Video some of the groupwork if you can (ideally a colleague can do this for you so they can capture you as well as the pupils) and upload it to the server.
Remember to think about your own role in the classroom; it is not just to monitor progress but also to interact with pupils, assess their understanding, offer support and help move their thinking forward. Sometimes a group will even need you to sit with them and offer intensive support to progress. Think about how you can identify this need?
