Teacher training -Grouping Students

1. Classroom management –
Grouping students
By: Behrouz Saeedie
August 2014

2. Aims:
•To learn different ways of grouping students
•To learn the advantages and disadvantages of different ways of grouping
students
•To practice grouping students

3. Before deciding about grouping students, teachers
need to consider a number of factors:
•The teaching aim
•The learning styles of the students
•The ability and level of the students
•The personalities of the students
•The class size
•The previous experience of the students
•The group dynamics of the class
•Friendship

4. Teachers can group the students in the
classroom in different ways:
•Whole class teaching
•Students on their own
•Pair work
•Group work
The practice of English language teaching, Jeremy Harmer, Pearson, 2001

5. Whole class teaching
•Advantages
•It creates an engaging atmosphere
•The teacher explains and instructs as a controller
•The whole class is working under teacher authority and this makes students
feel secure

6. Whole class teaching
•Disadvantages
•It’s not very effective if the teacher wants to encourage individual
contributions and discussions
•It favors the group rather than the individual
•It privileges the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student rather
than having students discover things
•There’s not enough chance of speaking for everyone

7. Students on their own
•Advantages
•Teachers can respond to individual students
•Students can work at their own speed
•It allows them thinking time

8. Students on their own
•Disadvantages
•It takes more time interacting with individual students than with the whole
group
•Sense of belonging and cooperation are not encouraged

9. Pair work
•Advantages
•It creates learner independence
•The teacher has time to work with all the pairs
•Shy learners will have a chance to talk

10. Pair work
•Disadvantages
•Pair work is frequently very noisy
•sometimes students talk about something else in L1
•Some students prefer to relate with the teacher rather than with other
learners who have the same linguistic level

11. Group work
•Advantages
•It increases the amount of talking
•It encourages cooperation and it is more private than work in front of the whole
class
•It promotes learner autonomy
•The teacher has more opportunity to focus attention on particular students

12. Group work
•Disadvantages:
•Groups usually demand more time and the beginning and ending of group
work is usually chaotic
•Some students prefer to be the focus of the teacher’s attention

13. Presenting information Doing a role-play Filling in a chart
Repetition Writing up a report Bingo game
Drilling Working at a computer Reading
Discussing a topic Lectures
Whole class teaching Students on their own Pair work Group work
Decide which way of grouping students is more suitable for these activities. Then explain your reasons.

14. Reflecting on the aims:
•To learn different ways of grouping students
•To learn the advantages and disadvantages of different ways of grouping
students
•To practice grouping students

15. Thank you•References:
•TKT course book, Spratt, Pulverns and Williams, Cambridge university press, unit 30
•The practice of English language teaching, Jeremy Harmer, Pearson, 2001
•How to teach English, Jeremy Harmer, Pearson, 2007