No matter what classroom setup or configuration I have each year, I’ve always established collaboration groups with specific student roles in my science classroom. Some years, I have been able to push together my tables or desks and create a group configuration of 4 students (my most favorite classroom configuration). Other years I’ve needed to add groups of 5 to the mix. I try to keep my groups between 4 or 5 and I’ve found that it’s better to have more groups in the classroom than students per group.
While I prefer to organize the seating in my classroom by groups, there have been years when I’ve needed to situate my students in rows. When I’ve had to work with rows, I’ve placed students in partners, next to each other (Partner A and Partner B). Then the partners in row 1 can become a collaborative group with the partners in row 2, generally the pair that sits behind them.
I’ve even had hybrid classroom configurations that consist of part groups and part rows, all dependent on what my class needs are at the time. Sometimes space is restricting or I have a particularly large class load, so the hybrid configuration is necessary to maximize space. Sometimes its due to behaviors that rows become necessary. But regardless of the situation, I put so much value on the system of collaboration and group roles in our science classroom, that I don’t allow any of these barriers to prevent it from happening.
Once I have configured my physical classroom setup, it’s time to establish group roles. I realized pretty early on that working in collaborative groups was a skill I would need to teach, just like I would teach about cells and genetics. It’s a soft skill, and an important one, but leaving my students to their own devices on the matter meant there were lots of squabbles over who got to pour, cut, or carry, and not a lot of note-taking or scientific discussion. So, I established 4 group roles that were general enough to be used for all classroom tasks but with enough specificity to be designed for the middle school science classroom. Those roles are: Facilitator, Materials Manager, Communications Specialist, Recorder. In the case of a 5-person group, I add in the role of Participant.
Here’s a little more about how I build collaboration in my middle school science classroom…
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The roles and their responsibilities
Facilitator – This is the time keeper and task monitor. During collaboration projects, they keep an eye on the clock and the conversation to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Materials Monitor – This individual is responsible for collecting and returning materials for the group, as well as making sure materials are being used properly. (I always emphasis to my students that the materials monitor is not the person to run activities or experiments for the group. Everyone gets to do that.)
Communications Specialist – The spokesperson for the group, this is the individual who shares out responses on behalf of the group, requests teacher assistance, and adds data and ideas to any class charts.
Recorder – The recorder takes notes during group discussions which are then provided to the communications specialist to share out. They also ensure that everyone has collected and recorded their data during activities. (Note – the recorder is not the only one recording data, unless the data is being recorded on a group worksheet.)
Participant – While ideally I love to keep my groups at 4, that doesn’t always work out. If I have a group of 5 , I include the role of the participant, which primarily acts as an assistant to the facilitator and recorder.
Questions worth considering
What if you have a group of 3? In the situation of a 3-person group, I like to double-up either the Facilitator and Materials Monitor OR the Communications Specialist and Recorder. Those job pairs seem to compliment each other best, so it works out smoothly for the group.
What if someone is absent? In the case of an absent student, I use the same job pairings as I do for the group of 3. Facilitators and Materials Managers fill in for each other, and Communication Specialists and Recorders fill in for each other. In fact, when I set up my 4- (or 5-) person seat groups, I always place the Facilitator and Materials Manager side-by-side and the Recorder and Communications Specialist side-up-side.
How do you assign roles? I give my students as much say as possible in their group role but emphasis that the goal is to fill a role that best plays to their strengths. I also let them give feedback on where they work best in the classroom (close to the board/ teacher; away from the air vent). Personally, I don’t ask about preferences in regards to who they sit with as I am trying to build skills of collaboration, which should transfer to any group regardless of makeup.
How often to you change roles? I like to change groups once every unit (usually 4-6 weeks), the goal being that students stay together in a collaborative group for the duration of an entire unit, completing any group task necessary for that unit together. I use a Google Form to elicit information from my students which helps me build the next seating chart. This is a time-consuming way to build my seating chart but the pay-off comes in the collaboration skills that my students are developing which ultimately aids with my classroom management and saves me time there.
Final Thoughts
You’ll notice that none of these roles have a “director,” “leader,” or “manager” position included or implicated in their title, and that’s by design. When creating the group roles, I want to make it clear to my students that this is a collaborative effort, that no one position contributes more than the other, and that no one has authority over the other.
The roles have defined tasks assigned to them which helps both myself and the students set guidelines and boundaries for how things should run in a successful collaboration group. But this does require a lot of practice, just like any other skill I’m teaching during the year. In the first units, I lean in heavy on making students practice their group roles as much as the content. I monitor that each person is carrying their responsibility for the group and that they are suited for the role they are in.
Below is a link to the Google form I use. Feel free to make a copy and use it yourself, or edit it to make it work for your classroom.