Laying a Foundation with Kagan Heterogeneous Seating Groups

I'm all for small group instruction. Narrowing down that student-teacher ratio from 22 or 26:1 to 4 or 5:1 is ideal for my understanding where my kids are and for directed instruction that the students stay engaged in. A few questions arise when you dip your toe into a workshop model of instruction. Here are a few I had:

1. How do I group my kids? See Below.
2. What do the other kids do while I pull a small group? It depends. Coming soon.
3. How do I manage behavior in a station/center/rotation atmosphere? See #2.
4. What do I do once my kids are in small group? See #2.

I can answer Question #1 today. Heterogeneous grouping a la Kagan.

I recently attended a Kagan training that our school hosted. You can buy the book online, as I did prior to attending the training, but the training itself is very helpful in understanding the idiosyncrasies of using the cooperative learning strategies. This is NOT a curriculum. Its a great way to access curriculum in a team building, community building, cooperative manner. It can easily be incorporated into any classroom culture. The foundation of the structures is a heterogeneous seating assignment in groups of 4. There are accommodations for groups of 3 or 5 when there is an odd number of students.

I start by using the most recent piece of data that accounts for the whole child in one subject area over several learning objectives. Since I teach Math and Science only, I use my Math data. If I were self-contained, I may switch between Math and Reading data. Here are sources I have used to guide my grouping:

-previous year's standardized test scores
-mid year benchmarks
-online benchmarks (iStation, Think Through Math, IXL, Study Island, etc.)
-report card grades

Once I have my data, I divide my students into 4 groups- High, High Medium, Low Medium, and Low. I look through my data and start sorting my kids. I usually sort the data in descending order. This labelling system is only for my information and is never provided to the students. 

Now, I'm ready to assign seats to my students based on my ability grouping.  I seat my students in a particular order, as seen below. This is what each table in my room looks like.

This creates face partners (High and High Medium, Low and Low Medium) and shoulder partners (High Medium and Low, High and Low Medium. I use my groupings above to create my tables of 4 (or 3 or 5). I also number the desks/positions and give them an A or B to represent which partner they are.  I created this mat to place on my desks to signal students which number and letter they are.

You can adjust to accommodate behavior issues, IEP/504 requirements, etc. Its still a great jumping off point and its a meaningful way to group the kiddos. I try to change seating around at the recommended time lapse of 6 weeks, even though my grading periods are 9 weeks long. The Kagan trainer said 3 weeks is too short, 9 weeks is too long. I agree, and so do my kids. I have noticed behavior issues pop up right around week 6 in the table groups, and then everyone gets a fresh start with new faces. I try to mix up the groups quite a bit each time. I use this spreadsheet in Google Drive to keep track of my groups and to help me sort out my tables after I have gathered my data.

One side benefit of this seating method is class management is built in for a lot of things. I can call students by seat # to perform certain tasks. 

"I need my number 3s to collect the homework at your table and turn it in to the tray."

"Turn to your shoulder partner and list 3 thing you did this weekend. Partner A goes first."

"Turn to your face partner and solve problems 1 & 2 on page 13. Partner B writes while partner A explains."

I use face partners to work on academic tasks togethers, while shoulder partners work on social skill tasks together. 

I hope you find this useful. It has made a huge difference in my room this year. Does your seating arrangement support grouping and classroom management? I'd love to hear your strategies!