Group Learning Routines

This group learning routine is helpful when:

• You have a series of statements which could be always true, sometimes true, or never true.
• You want students to focus on justifications for why these statements are always true, sometimes true, or never true.

This group learning routine is helpful when:

• Students have had independent time to work on a problem or task.
• Students could use an opportunity to get feedback on their work and then revise it.

This routine is helpful when:

• Students are working on a sequence of problems or tasks independently or together.
• The teacher is free to move around the room.

This group learning routine is helpful when:

• Students are working on a sequence of problems or tasks together.
• Students could use an opportunity to get feedback on their work (revision of work occurs the next time a student is a scribe).

This group learning routine is helpful when:

• Students have had independent time to work on a problem or task.
• Many students could use an opportunity to get feedback on their work and then revise it.
• You want students to develop their use of precise language.

This group learning routine is helpful when:

• You have sufficient vertical whiteboard or chalkboard space for every student to be able to comfortable stand next to the board space.
• Students are able to productively work on a problem or set of problems to which they all have some access.
• You want to be able to quickly see where all students are at in a problem solving process.

This group learning routine is helpful when:

• You have some interactive demonstration tool (eg. like an applet or interactive application) and only one computer or projector to use for the entire class. Another example might be a problem involving the use of algebra tiles that are visible underneath a document camera for someone to manipulate.
• You want all students to record observations, noticings, wonderings, generalizations, or respond to prompts based on the interactive demonstration.

This group routine is helpful when:

• You have some task or problem with multiple pieces (or clues) of information.
• These pieces of information are small and easily described verbally.
• You want students to work equitably on the task or problem.

This group learning routine is helpful when:

• Students are just getting started on solving a problem and you want some students to model an approach to solving the problem for other students.
• You want to give feedback to some students on their process and have all students benefit from that feedback.

This group learning routine is helpful when:

• There is a clear visual representation of the mathematics for the pair of presenters to reference as they describe their strategy.
• Students have had time to prepare themselves to present.
• All students have attempted to solve the given problem already.

This group learning routine is helpful when:

• There is a set of steps you want everyone to be able to follow without losing anyone in the audience. Eg. You are introducing students to using some feature on their calculator.