Series Creating Success in Middle School: Assess and Group

Assess and Group

Lesson Objective: Consider assessment data and relationships when grouping students
Grades 6-8 / Math / Collaboration
5 MIN

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

  1. What can you learn from Mr. Yager about grouping students?
  2. How does Mr. Yager leverage the social nature of middle school students during group work?
  3. How does having a growth mindset help Mr. Yager embrace this style of student collaboration?

119 Comments

  • Private message to Gregory Broussard

1.  What can you learn from Mr. Yager about grouping students?  Mr. Yager's process is based on information.  He focused on building strong relationships with his students at the beginning of the year in order to develop mutual trust.  He knows his students based on the Summative Assessments and is aware of friendships.  The students contribute to the learning environment as lesson.

1.  How does Mr. Yager leverage the social nature of middle school students during group work?  He realized that the students would talk about activities outside of school and the need for acknowledgement and achievement.  He focuses the students on the objectives and acknowledgements between the students of what they can do, what they are struggling with, and helping each other complete the work.

3.  how does having a growth mindset help Mr. Yager embrace this style of student collaboration?  Mr. Yager does not want his students to need him.  He leverages strong relationships in order to develop intrinsic motivation to do the right thing without needing him.  He focuses on the students not being afraid of failure and understand that weakness  represents something they have not done or practiced.  They can grow in their knowledge and ability to complete the task.

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  • Private message to Michael Daigre

Mr. Yager groups students together using different factors. Using the social nature of middle school he prefers to group friends together, because he has discovered that friends want to make sure their friends succeed in the classroom also. Mr. Yager also has a growth mindset which he uses for grouping and collaboration. This allows the students to discuss assignments and collaborate, facilitating growth and development. 

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  • Private message to Nakeisha Gardner
  1. I had learned from Mr. Yager about grouping students that if you pair a scholar student with a student that does not understand this will promote collaboration, understanding, and team work.
  2. Mr. Yager leverages the social nature of middle school students during group work by allowing students to assist other students regardless of friendships due to as a whole, he believes that the student wants everyone to comprehand the assignment collectively.
  3. Mr. Yager's growth mindset embraces this style of student collaboration by encouraging students to work with one another and embrace mistakes or difficult assignments. He desires the students to continue to practice on the items andto allow themselves more time to learn the material.
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  • Private message to DeAnna Granger
  1. What can you learn from Mr. Yager about grouping students?   Grouping students together can be valuable.  It allows students to gain knowlege from one another.  They work out problems and talk them out.  Learning from their mistakes and how to work with others.  
  2. How does Mr. Yager leverage the social nature of middle school students during group work?  Instead of the students having conversations about their social life, he groups the kids with a friend so there is a collective responsibility to get the work done.  He leverages strong relationships the students have with one another for them to do the right thing, get their work done.  
  3. How does having a growth mindset help Mr. Yager embrace this style of student collaboration?  He teaches the students to not be afraid of faliure.  The students work together to complete their work and to help one another in understanding.  
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  • Private message to Charles Miller

THOUGHT STARTERS

  1. What can you learn from Mr. Yager about grouping students?rouping students in a classroom can have several benefits, such as promoting collaboration, enhancing social skills, fostering a sense of belonging, and facilitating diverse perspectives.
  2. How does Mr. Yager leverage the social nature of middle school students during group work?Group projects, discussions, and activities can provide opportunities for students to engage with their peers, learn from each other, and develop important interpersonal skills.
  3. How does having a growth mindset help Mr. Yager embrace this style of student collaborationMr. Yager's adoption of a growth mindset can help him embrace student collaboration because he understands that students' abilities are not fixed but can be developed over time.
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Transcripts

  • Assess and Group Transcript

    Speaker 1: So, finish part B. All right. This is good. Horns up. When you finish your

    Assess and Group Transcript

    Speaker 1: So, finish part B. All right. This is good. Horns up. When you finish your horns go up so that I can come around to check your work. You may work with your partner. You can.

    Speaker 2: Okay.

    Speaker 1: I have learned how to begin harnessing the energy that kid must apply to having a conversation with their friends about what they're going to do after school to having a conversation with their friend about how to solve a problem. I want you to try out problem number one with your partner right now for the next two minutes. Go. So, we do Y2. The groups that I build throughout the year are based on data that I have one in kids essentially, several some of the assessments. They're benchmarks, they're quarterly assessments. They're a measure of academic progress and also based on someone that flies contrary to what a lot of people would want to do, I will intentionally group a kid with a friend.

    Speaker 2: [crosstalk] today we can go two more [crosstalk]

    Speaker 1: I've learned to leverage the fact that a scholar in a classroom really cares about their best friends and they want them to be successful that when that one of them is experiencing some difficulty but the other one is starting to understand, it really builds into that sense of team and collective responsibility and wanting everyone in the class to be successful. All right. So, I'm going to put you in charge of getting on the Sammy through independent back. And when I see that three of my scholars who sit fairly close to each other having the exact same problem, but one of them is not necessarily having that problem, I would not hesitate like I did today in pulling the scholar who's being extremely successful up to work with another group thatΓÇÖs having a separate set of difficulties and kind of pushing those three scholars from different groups together into one group.

    Speaker 3: And then, so it's the same thing with the bottom two. It's just adding one instead of subtracting.

    Speaker 1: By grouping those kids together instead of jumping from one group to the next and moving all over the classroom in order to accomplish essentially the same thing with several different groups of kids. I kind of put them together into one group and was able to deal with them. I want you to talk to each other. I want to see if you can explain back to each other how we end up with 11, how we know to get there. I'll be back to check on this.

    Speaker 3: And this is why we're here and then you got to get one, but then you got the second one first and you subtract by two.

    Speaker 4: So you subtracted by the opposite like here and same side?

    Speaker 3: Yeah.

    Speaker 4: Same side.

    Speaker 3: But you just switch them that.

    Speaker 1: It's really, really important like when you're establishing the sort of culture of freneticism and constant group work that the expectation be on getting the work done. Okay. Beautiful. So [?] I want you all to continue in this group into the end of practice. I want you to make sure that we're doing it correctly, okay?

    Speaker 4: Okay.

    Speaker 1: You're doing fine? I want you to do each other. I believe that when we're talking about strong classroom management, what we're really talking about is being able to leverage strong relationships into building intrinsic motivation for kids to want to do the right thing eventually without needing like my calling or my assistance to get them on the right track.

    Speaker 4: We got something different. We got like 9 and 12 and it didn't work out.

    Speaker 3: These are really interesting thoughts. Okay. So, I'm going to show you exactly how to solve this from. I want you to compare the work that you were just doing to the work that I'm going to do.

    Speaker 1: You want to teach your kid not to be afraid of failure or getting a question wrong. You want to teach your kid that areas of weakness are really just areas in which we haven't grown yet and that we still need to improve. Being able to recognize that for yourself and for your classroom I think is really important to, not only your sanity, but your ability to continually improve your practice. When I start doing stuff like this last year, it was a hot mess and a half for a lot of the time that we taught kids would be kind of all over the place and I had difficulty ensuring and entrusting that kids would be doing what was expected of them. So, what I want you to do here is I want you to explain what you did so that you actually didn't need to look at that. But what I found the more and more that I get into this, it was if I start the year out with strong relationships, then it's easier to take risks throughout the year and to do things that at first glance might seem like managerial disasters waiting to happen.

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