GROUPING STUDENTS ADVANTAGES : reinforces sense of belonging among members of group. teacher gets overall understanding of students´ understanding. DISADVANTAGES: favours the group rather than the individual the risk of failure discourages students from participating students cannot discover things by themselves SEATING ARRANGEMENTS. orderly rows teachers have clear view of students / students can see teacher whole class gets the message circle arrangements Ideal for small groups. classroom is a more Teacher position is less dominating intimate place. horseshoe arrangements Ideal for small groups. students share feelings Teacher position is more commanding but less through eye contact etc rigid than that one of orderly rows separate tables ideal for group work and mixed ability classes. DISADVANTAGES: group activities are difficult to deal with enemy corners, opposing students may be difficult to group teams, back to back, face to face WHOLE CLASS TEACHING

GROUPING STUDENTS ADVANTAGES allows teachers to respond to individual student differences. students can develop autonomy. DISADVANTAGES: it does not develop sense of belonging. It does not promote cooperation. it means extra work for teachers PAIR WORKA DVANTAGES increases amount of speaking time of students students can work and interact independently allows teachers time to work with one or two pairs while the others continue working promotes cooperation it is easy to organize DISADVANTAGES Pair work are noisy and difficult to control. Chances of misbehaviour Students may prefer to relate to teachers as individuals The choice of paired partners may be problematic STUDENTS ON THEIR OWN Pattern of individualized SS doing exercises on their own Learning teachers working with individual SS. SS taking charge of own learning in out-of-class environment.

GROUPING STUDENTS ADVANTAGES increases number of talking opportunities for individual SS. personal relationships are less problematic than in pair work encourages more skills of cooperation and negotiation. promotes learner autonomy. DISADVANTAGES: group works are noisy some students don`t enjoy group work individual may fall into fossilized roles more difficult to organize than pairs. FACTORS TO DECIDE WHICH MODE TO USE: * THE TASK : small groups are not adequate for explanations or demonstrations / Dialogue practice can be done in pairs / students should work indivigually when answering questions about a listening etc * VARIETY IN A SEQUENCE : teaching should balance the use of different grouping techniques. * THE MOOD : changing the grouping of a class can be a way of changing the mood of a class. GROUP WORK

ORGANIZING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWOR K AGREEMENT with students about grouping techniques. PRINCIPLES for CREATING PAIRS OR GROUPS : * FRIENDSHIP Sociograms (time consuming) * STREAMING Students grouped according to their abilities different levels/ diff. Tasks mixture of weaker and stronger students composition of groups changes according to the task *CHANCE: Students who are sitting together or near work in pairs “WHEELS SCENARIO” (Scrivener) Teacher organizes games to group students ( Give each student a letter from A to E, for instance) Teacher can arrange random groups ( students line up in the order of their birthdays, for instance) The task determines who works with whom. *CHANGING GROUPS: Groups may change while an activity continues. PROCEDURES FOR PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK * BEFORE: teachers should follow the pattern: engage-instruct-initiate * DURING: teachers´ roles: monitor; resource, prompter or tutor. * AFTER : teachers should organize constructive feedback. TROUBLESHOOTING FINISHING FIRST series of challenging task-related extensions AWKWARD GROUPS teachers should make changes