I think it really depends on what you are going for. If you want to see improvement within a student you think could be helped by another student, I would match the high and lows together. If it's just any activity, you could do random groups with popsicle sticks or desk numbers with a random generator. I think based off how the classroom set up is, if you have table groups, you could just use those pre-made groups. It really just depends on what you are looking for within your groups and what is being achieved.

Depending on your class you could have the students choose their partner, they could work with their person next to them, or you could just start counting up to a number in Duck-Duck-Goose fashion (i.e., One, two, three, one, two, three...) and have all 1's group together, 2's work together, 3's work together. Or you can just assign them a partner.

You could group students who are high with students that are low in order for the low students to receive help or ideas from their peers that are higher. This might help them to think more broad and give them idea they might not have thought about before.

I typically will pair up students I know will work well together. I dont love to pair students who are best friends because they may talk a lot. I also dont want the two highest kids together because they may just work on their own. It could take some trial and error!

If you have gotten to know your students a bit, you can pair the students that may have similar likings with certain things. For instance, if two people like comic books, you can use that as a way for them to connect with each other. Maybe allow for 10-15 mins of interaction about their similar likings before beginning the assignment.

I think there are different options, you want to pair students together that you know are going to work well together. I wouldn't necessarily choose high and low, because that can be unfair to some students. Also not students who you know are going to mess around and talk the whole time without getting work done, and mix them up every time. In my class, the students have a clock with a different partner for each time and when I say get with your 4 o'clock person they do and they cannot argue with the method.

I believe there are multiple options. I'd base it off personality, grades, and if you feel the students will get along. Rather than high and low, I would do moreso who understands certain parts.

Could group them in based on similar academic achievement level. You could also pull popsicle sticks with names to make groups.

I have asked teachers in the past what they have done and I have always gotten mixed answers. I have some teachers that say they often group together low performing students together so that they will be on the same pace and I have heard of mixing high/low performing students together. I think that a key part of group work is to have an even distribution of work. This will ensure that if you have mixed groups, no one student is doing all the work. Personally, I think that creating groups is trial and error since there are many factors to consider like performance but also personalities.

For diverse and well-balanced groups, take into account a variety of skills, behaviors, and personalities. While combining personalities can encourage collaboration and creativity, pairing high achievers with lower achievers can encourage peer learning and support.

Letting kids pick a partner could be a good option because then they have some freedom and could feel more comfortable with their work. If this doesn't work you could pair them based off of who you think could help each other out the most.

I would group students up using the high low method. This method ensures that the low performing students learn something from the high and the high can possibly learn leadership skills and learn more from helping their groupmate. The only downside is that the high performing student may do most to all of the work. You have to observe the groups to make sure the whole group is participating equally. You should also have a grade for individual and group work.

I believe pairing a student that is high and low a great idea!

You could assign them each a numbers and then group them by numbers.

You could allow your students to pick their partners

In the class I observed the teacher always had a group of four and she always had two high students and two low students, and she never kept the same group members she would switch it up every now and then. This way the students would work together to solve problem and help one another, but the groups always had new faces to look at.

I would try to do groups of 3-4 because you want to have one student that can push the other students to work, you want to have one student that is struggling so they can learn from others, and the other one or two students somewhere in the middle.

That is a good approach to support learning, it depends on what you want for an end result and the activity. If it is highly social, maybe let friends pick each other.

While you should avoid pairing students who frustrate each other, it is beneficial to pair mixed ability groups.

I like to group students together based on who I know will help each other. One or two high students with one or two low. Troublemaker with a quiet one. So on and so forth. I try to avoid putting friends together unless I know they can actually get work done

I think pairing students up like that is a great idea, but then eventually though your lesson you might want to rotate groups around. Having a high level with a low level allows them to help each other, as they might have strengths in different areas.

You should be using data from their previous years in school, or data you have collected thus far in the school year. Their reading levels should be in place. I always suggest pairing at-level students with my lowest level students. The at-level students seem to assume the teacher role and it is a great ego boost for their academic achievement.

Yes! Heterogenous groups really help students to teach each other and understand concepts in a different light