Random groupings - allowing voices to be heard

I'm fortunate to teach in classrooms that have white boards around the room. This means students in my classes are often working at Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces. I've blogged before about the wonders of VNPS but have recently discovered the power of using randomness for assigning groups.

Last week, my department head came to observe one of my classes and he happen to come by as the class was getting started. Students were working in groups and were solving several non-right triangles. It was a review class for their upcoming test. In this class, I assigned students to groups based on ability level - I created mixed ability groups. Because this was a review period, my purpose for assigning groups in this way was to make sure that each group had an expert in the group to help support each learner.

During my debrief of the lesson with my department head (@Domanator19) asked why I chose groups in the way I did and we had a good discussion about the benefits of random groupings. I know they are beneficial and look forward to hearing about them even further at OAME2018 however I was reluctant to use them in this class. I wasn't sure they would be beneficial for every learner. At the end of the debrief, I made a mental note to try using them in an upcoming class.

Today, I used random grouping for the second time in a row with the same class and had a powerful "AHA" moment.

For information purposes, groups were working on problem solving with the midpoint and length formula:
1. Find the length of the line segment from A(-3, 15) to B(5, 12).
2. Find the midpoint of the line segment from C(6, 10) to D(17, -4).
3. G is the midpoint of the line from F(-6, 8) to H(4, 19). Find the length of the line segment from G to H.
4. Point M(-8, 15) is the midpoint of the line segment from L(-15, 2) to N(x,y). Find the coordinates of point N.

My "aha" moment came when I noticed students that were often quiet in class were now contributing and talking to their group members. When I purposefully make groups of mixed abilities, the strong students often spoke up and directed the conversation. They sometimes took over the problem and presented their solution as the one and only solution. In these situations, quieter students or students that did not have as much confidence in their ability often had a more passive approach to learning. They didn't have time to digest the problem before the solution was on the board. Today, using random groupings (I generated my groups using https://www.randomlists.com/team-generator) these students were randomly placed in a more uniform ability group and had their voices heard. Today, these students had the chance to lead the solution and present their understanding. All students walked away from the lesson with a deeper understanding of midpoint and length.

I guess you can now say I'm converted to using random groupings!