Day In the Classroom
Reflecting on the every day happenings in our fourth grade classroom; including the triumphs, the drama, the tragedy, and especially the comedy and joy!
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Picking Partners
In our classroom, we do a lot of partner and group work. Sometimes it can be tricky matching kids that will work well together. There are times that I let kids choose their own partners, but we often end up with more play than work that way. I have a name box that I often use for these situations. Sometimes I randomly group students by drawing their names, but that can waste time.
I like the idea of a partner wheel. I set this one up so I could pair stronger readers with those who need a little more support. We all have those students who are better off not working together, so just put their names on the same wheel, and they will not ever be partners, no matter how many times you turn and use the wheel. I saw this idea on Pinterest. The original blog by Karen Moler has templates to easily make your own partner wheels. They didn’t work for me, because I have 28 students so I needed to put 14 names on each wheel. I had a little trouble getting the wheel divided up evenly, so if you can use the templates that will be a real time saver. You can find her blog post here.
There are lots of ways to organize students for group and partner work, including using craft sticks and other tools. You can read about some other ideas here. What secrets do you have for grouping students in your classroom?
2 Responses to “Picking Partners”
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January 14th, 2012 at 9:04 pm
What a great idea, I love the idea of that wheel I will definitely make one for my new class this year. I also use paddle pop sticks with the kids names on them, pulling two out together to create random pairs or groups. I also use a pack of playing cards often these days, each card has a child’s name on it and I keep them in my hand to use to either create groups or ask random kids questions, I find it stops the know it all always getting in first.
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:04 pm
These are a terrific solution to a common problem! I can’t wait to make and use them in my own classroom. Thanks for sharing!