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Framework for teaching mathematics

Can we plan work for groups of children?

All pupils gain from working in groups, in pairs or as individuals from time to time.

Whether you have group work may depend on where you are in a series of lessons. For example, you might introduce a new unit of work with a main teaching activity that is mostly with the whole class while you explain, demonstrate, ask questions and discuss answers. Short tasks for pupils to do, perhaps in pairs, and a short written exercise that children tackle individually, may also be appropriate in this lesson. Another possibility when you introduce a new unit of work is to begin the main part of the lesson with some teaching input to the whole class, then to start the more confident pupils on an activity or exercise while you continue to teach the rest. When they too are ready to work independently, set them going while you support the one or two pupils who are likely to have the most difficulty with the task.

In the next couple of lessons, the main activity might consist of group work on the same theme, although your lesson will still begin and end with the whole class. Occasionally, group work should allow pupils at all levels of attainment to work with each other on an equal footing, but grouping pupils by attainment - perhaps two groups in the middle range, one of higher achievers and one of those who find mathematics more difficult - allows for a controlled degree of differentiated work on the topic being taught to the whole class, with a simplified task for some pupils and a harder challenge for others.

If, for example, you have four groups, you can teach two of them during a lesson for about 15 minutes each, giving positive direction and guidance; in the next lesson you can teach the other two groups. In the groups working independently children can, of course, work on the group task as individuals or in smaller groups of up to four. In your plenary, if different groups are giving feedback, they have a common interest since they have all been working on the same topic, albeit at different levels of difficulty. You can draw together ideas that all pupils have worked on and make an informal assessment of their understanding to help you plan the next lesson.

The final lesson of a unit of work might centre around one or more open-ended problems, games or puzzles for the whole class which allow responses at different levels. After you have introduced an activity to everyone, children can continue it in pairs. During the paired work you can support and teach particular pairs or individuals you wish to target, such as pupils who have been absent.

You need to prepare your class for these ways of working, so that pupils and adult helpers don't interrupt you when you are teaching a group. Pupils need to know how their lesson time is to be used and what routines they should follow when they are working independently before they ask an adult for help: for example, how to collect and return any resources that they need, what to do if they have finished something or are 'stuck', and so on. There may also be implications for how you arrange tables and chairs (see question 9).