Visibly Random Groups - A Love Story (Building Thinking Classrooms In Mathematics)

Visibly Random Groups - A Love Story

11/11/2023

"Love is a fire. But whether it will warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell." --Joan Crawford

A year and half ago, when I committed to seating my students in visibly random groups on the first day of school and every day thereafter, I didn't know if this new, curious practice I had read about just three days ago would warm my hearth or burn down my house. Both possibilities seemed equally likely. I mean, is it even possible to be a teacher and not have a seating chart?

For my entire career, a seating chart has been lauded as the all-in-one solution for:

The kids who can't see
The kids who can't hear
The kids who talk too much
The kids who don't talk enough
The kids who want to answer all the questions
The kids who don't want to answer any questions
The kids who need "a role model"
The kids who are "role models"

and so on. Without spending hours making, re-making, adjusting, and editing seating charts, what would even occupy all my time? Would I need to take up golf or bird watching to fill the new, gaping hole I foresaw in my workload?

I digress. When I read about the practice of visibly random groups in Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, the reasoning made perfect sense and I decided to do it on the spot.

And it has been true love ever since.

Visibly random groups - how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1. All Of the Kids Know each Other

Both years that I've used visibly random groups, I've taught 6th grade - the first year in a middle school in my district. The kids start the year terrified that they aren't going to know anybody or be able to make any friends. That's always the story at Open House - "he/she is really nervous about making friends."

Visibly random groups to the rescue.

When I make my "how's-the-beginning-of-middle-school-going?" phone calls throughout August, probably 25% of the parents specifically tell me how much their kid loves the daily random seating. By the end of the second week of school, they've sat with almost everybody at least once. Throw in the challenge of getting through a challenging thinking task, and now we've not only met everybody - we've accomplished something with them.

This year, I even had a new student move in mid-year, and when I called home to hear how her first day went, her parents gushed that she had already made friends on the very first day. "She had a great day - we can hardly believe how happy she was when she got home!"

Everybody knows everybody.

Everybody has done meaningful work with everybody.

Everybody feels like they belong.

They really do. The kids love the daily random seating. They're almost never complain about who they sit and work with. Sure, they like certain people better than others, but in general, they - middle school kids! - genuinely like each other.

I use playing cards to show the kids where to sit and where to work on thinking tasks. They get a new card every day, totally at random.

2. The Kids don't fall into work identity roles

When kids are seated in long-term groups via a seating chart, one of two things happens when it comes to group or collaborative work. One possibility is that, over time, they fall into "roles." All right, we all know Suzie is going to take charge and tell everybody what to do, so there is no point in anyone else trying to lead. And we also know Lisa isn't going to do anything, Heather will come up with the ideas, ...." and so on. Stay together long enough, and everyone knows their part (or that they don't have to do a part because others will cover), and they just fall into those habits. They simply carry out their "role" in the group dynamic.

The second - and worse - possibility is that everybody already knows that the teacher has put them into that seating group for that reason. We all know that Suzie is a model student, that Lisa is a slacker, that Heather is smart, and so on, so we assume we've been tacitly assigned to those roles.

Different group every day? Nobody has a role. Every day is a chance to contribute, to lead, to follow, and to learn, depending on where the task takes this one-time grouping.

One lucky (or unlucky, depending on their tastes) group gets an old chalkboard I have each day.

3. No seating chart games or resentment

Much like the roles, the kids catch onto the social games we play with seating charts, too. "I see what's going on here - he's put me clear across the room from my best friend so I won't talk or pass notes with her, and next to the bad kid so that she doesn't have anybody to get going with, just like every teacher always places me. So, as usual, I'll pass notes with the bestie when I pretend to go get a Kleenex four times a day and I have to make sure this bad kid does even worse so he'll move her away from me. Game plan... go!"

With visibly random groups, in addition to saving the time and frustration of making a seating chart, I also find that I have to deal with very little resentment or games from the students that goes along with one. Sometimes they sit with their friends, sometimes they don't, and they can live with that. Some days they have to carry the load with a less motivated thinking group, and sometimes they get to work with a group of only highly motivated kids, and they can live with that. Nothing feels permanent, so there are no games to play.

Drew an 8 or a 9 today? You're writing on the windows!

4. It's Fun

Finding out where they'll sit is actually a small, exciting event each day! Where will I sit? And who will end up next to me? It's nice to start class off with a little anticipation.

Plus, my class has gotten pretty into figuring out the card tricks that Liljedahl recommends as non-curricular thinking tasks, so I've tried to learn a little sleight of hand to make the kids smile when they get their cards and to make card tricks a little bigger part of our identity.

5. The Kids Learn How "Random" Works

The idea of randomness is not an easy one for the human brain to comprehend, and it becomes particularly important in understanding certain elements of math at some point. Over the course of the year, I get to see the kids gradually learn that "random" doesn't mean "always different." One of the kids recently got a 9 five days in a row! It was a great opportunity to develop that understanding that randomness can include such an outcome. One of the cards also gives one lucky student the highly coveted teacher desk for the day, which I've explained to them, they should get once every 30 days on average. One of them just got to sit there for the first time on something like the 70th day of school, and we got to talk about that, too.

Randomness is not easily understood, and doing this type of grouping over the long-term gives them a great, tangible experience with it.

6. Some Kids Who Don't Like Math Like Math Class

This is partly attributable to the Thinking Classrooms philosophy as a whole, but I have more kids this year than ever who would tell you that they don't really like math, but they like math class. They know everybody, they get to sit with and work with their friends every few days, they're up and active - they like the feel and flow of the class even if they don't necessarily love the content.

Just this week, I had a girl tell me "math isn't my favorite subject, but it's my favorite class. The time passes so fast every day."

That's a big deal if you're a math teacher.

Math causes all sorts of problems for all sorts of people. It makes a lot of kids absolutely miserable year after year after year. A willingness to be content and happy there is a major, major, MAJOR upgrade for a whole lot of kids. Math literally has its own corner of the anxiety market. Anything that makes kids feel less of that is a service to society, and I really feel like the social upgrade of visibly random groups has a lot to do with it for me.

Look at these people! Smiling! In math class!

A Change That Can Be Made OVernight!

One of my favorite things about visibly random grouping is that it is the rare change that can be made in any classroom overnight. There's nothing to learn, nothing to practice, nothing to study. You can just... do it. I did this last year without any other Thinking Classrooms practices. I did it when I taught science, too. Any teacher can have these benefits tomorrow.

I love you, visibly random groups. You have warmed the hearth of my classroom. Until death (or at least retirement) do us part.

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