Grappling with the group dynamic is always a challenge in urban community college classes with wildly heterogeneous student populations. My classes include professionals alongside students with just a few years of schooling, refugees from repressive or wartorn countries along with those who immigrated for good jobs or to join American spouses, and a mix of races, religions, cultures, and ages.

Jayme’s session showed me that it’s possible to get such an assortment of students to participate comfortably in group work if you break down the tasks into small enough increments, make sure everyone knows exactly what to do at each moment, and use personal differences to the advantage of the group.

When I arrived at the workshop, people were milling around in the aisles waving small numbered cards in various colors. A red card with a “10” on it was thrust into my hand and within seconds, I was discussing something with a perfect stranger; a minute later, I was embroiled in a conversation with a new set of friends. (More on this in a minute.) Even after we regrouped to discuss what we had done, the room maintained its friendly atmosphere.

Here are some explanations of this and a few other activities that I particularly liked and hope to use in my classes.

1. Numbered Cards: Each student is given a colored card with a number written on it. A few wild cards are in the deck also. Students use the cards to find partners according to parameters announced by the teacher. For example, students might be told to find someone with a card of the same color but with a different number. For the next activity, they might have to look for someone with the same number on a card of a different color. ( Note: The numbered and colored cards were used in an adaptation of the cooperative class building activity Deuces Wild. )

This helps mix it up in the classroom and avoid the usual bugbears, like students who insist on being together, those who refuse to talk to a certain person, or the quiet souls hoping to avoid talking at all. The teacher can pull out a wild card if there’s an uneven number of students. Midpoint partner changes can be made quickly, and it’s easy to assimilate students who arrive late, as I did. (It worked for me; I participated fully once I had a card in my hand even though I had no idea what I was doing.)

2. Personality Types: Personalities are divided into classic types and classroom roles are suggested that make use of their characteristics. (The session handout includes a list.) Even students such as the nonparticipator or the inveterate translator, who are often hard to include in group work and may even be destructive to the group dynamic, can be given compatible tasks. (See Table 1 for more information from the session.)

3. Bird Walks: Students are encouraged to wander around to see what the other groups are doing.

This session was a lot of fun and very participatory, which is exactly what an ESL classroom should be. I’m looking forward to next semester when I can try out these ideas.

Table 1. Management Challenges and Solutions ([author, or title of work if no author], 2012)

REFERENCE

Adelson-Goldstein, J. (2012). Grappling With the Group Dynamic. Lighthearted Learning.

Dena Abramowitz teaches ESL at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Her students come from over 70 countries and speak languages most people have never heard of, and she is always looking for ways to get them to talk―and listen―to each other. Ms. Abramowitz earned her master’s degree in linguistics from UCLA.

Jayme Adelson-Goldstein is a professional development specialist, materials writer, and long-time member of the ELT community. She teaches in TESOL's online core certificate program and edits the Materials Writers IS Newsletter.