Student freedom in terms of grouping- Part 1

Despite encouraging the students from my first year 10 ADS group to make their choice based on the monument that intrigued them the most, I found that many students were making this choice based on their friendship groups. I allowed for this to happen and told them that I trusted that they chose these people as they knew they worked well together.

Observing this group’s work ethic, I decided to approach this decision making process differently with my second year 10 group. I explained that I wanted their decision to be based on the monument that intrigued them and to avoid their friendships interfering with their choice and would ask them discretely to give me the name of their two favourite options. If their best friend sitting next to them asked for the same options, and explained that I wanted them to try working with someone new and for that reason, I would try and put them into different groups. I feel strongly that students deserve an explanation for why you have made decisions, or why rules are put in place. I myself, would not be satisfied with ‘it is what it is’.

My observation so far is that there is a lot less off-task behaviour with this strategy.

#studentchoice #Learningfocusedculture #Professionalrelationships