Grouping the students: the Tribes philosophy

Last year when I was teaching Grade 4 in a double unit with Leigh James we decided that we would use the Tribes philosophy. We put the children into tribes at the start of the year and they stayed in that tribe for the whole year: it worked out extremely well. I felt so inspired that I thought I would try it again this year with the Prep/ 1's.

At the start of the year I observed the children for a few weeks and looked at the friendship groupings, who knew each other, which children were able to work together. I got an idea of where the children were with their learning so that I could make sure that the groups were mixed ability. Then I put the children into groups based on mixed ability, children who have certain friendships and children who I felt would mix well together. As a whole class we sat down and talked about those groups and asked if any children felt uncomfortable being with a certain person or if anyone was unhappy about being in that group or if there was someone else that they felt they really wanted to work with. We talked about things like working well together and being with friends and made a couple of changes. The final groups were put up on the wall. Each group chose a colour that they would like to be and we ended up with Red, Yellow, Blue, Green and Orange.

The groups have proved to be an extremely useful organiser because Monday is basically Red group's day, Tuesday is Orange group's day and so on. They share their show and tell, it's their day to share their work with the class and those sorts of things. I also helps with minor organisational things like, Red group can go and get their lunch first and line up first etc. on Mondays.

To take the tribes idea further, we began having community circle meetings where we got together as a class. We worked on whole class activities from the Tribes book, like JOY. This activity is one where I ask the children to share something that has Just happened to you, One thing that is special about you and one thing that You would really like to do. During the community circle they have the right to pass if they feel uncomfortable about sharing but it has bonded the class together really well. We have an activity like that where people share every day. Again we use the colour groups on their day - for example, Monday is Red group.

We also allow time in the community circle to share anything that might be of concern to them. It may be something that has been happening out in the playground. We like to finish the session with something like passing our warm fuzzy ball and sharing a compliment or some very positive, affirming activity. One of the things I really like about the community circle is that it does bring the children together and it gives them an opportunity to raise issues that are important to them.

A really positive aspect of having tribes as we've had all year is the bonding that goes on between those groups and the support network that's built up among the children in the groups. Also, having mixed ability groups means that children who need some support don't have to rely on me all the time to give that. They can speak to somebody else in their group to ask for help or clarification. It also gives the Grade 1's a little bit of responsibility: they enjoy feeling able to help some of the Preps.

I found that the behaviour problems of some of the children at the start of the year have lessened because the people in their group have started to exert some influence on them. When they're working if they start to be too noisy or if to get off task then there will always be someone in the group that will re-focus them. This saves me a lot of time - it frees me up for doing other things, like teaching. So that's worked really well.
For more information on cooperative learning see collaboration in Key Learning Processes.

The English program We use the hour and a half session between recess and lunch for dedicated English time. We start with a modelling session followed by writing than we have a sharing time before we begin our explicit spelling time.

Organising the classroom