Making groups in the classroom

Do you want some new and interesting ways to divide your students into groups? Then read on…

• One way to divide a class of twelve students into pairs is by using recent vocabulary they have learnt. So, if you have just completed I love gadgets in Let’s Talk Now A2 and you want your students to work with a new partner: tell student one electric cooker, student two hairdryer, student three toaster, student four washing machine, student five lawnmower, student six vacuum cleaner. Then start the list again with student seven. Finally, ask the two electric cookers to work together, the hairdryers to work together and so on.
• If you want students to work in groups and to work a bit harder to find their group members, try collocations. Tell student one hockey, student two swimming, student three yoga, student four football, student five jogging, student six judo and so on. Then ask all the students who use play plus their activity to make one group, students who use go plus their activity to make a second group and students who use do plus their activity to make a third group. You could do a similar activity with make, do, take and have.
• Another vocabulary idea is to revise prepositions of time and give students words connected with time: (in) the morning, the afternoon, the evening, (on) Monday, Wednesday, Friday night, (at) Christmas, Easter, New Year, (0) yesterday, last week, tomorrow and so on. Students then have to find their groups according to whether their word needs the preposition in, on, at or takes no preposition.