Over the past couple of terms in our collaborative classroom we have been using the "Power of Three" with our learners for collaborative group work.
The idea came about initially because we have a few rather low learners who struggle to keep up on occasion, when working with just one other buddy. This therefore, leaves the other buddy within the pair swamped with most of the hard work.
By adding another student into the mix, it enables a weight to be lifted off the one student who would have otherwise been "weighted down" with the majority of the tasks involved in the learning and creates a shift enabling the work load to be shared.
However, as with any way of learning- problems do still occasionally arise. The main problem that my collaborative teaching partner and I have encountered is forming the right combinations. We learnt the hard way.
Initially we let the children choose their combinations- mistake number one. This was just too hard. All our most difficult children seemed to place themselves within the same sets of three. Our effort that went into management seemed to escalate incredibly.
We then tried to choose the groups ourselves but even sometimes this wouldn't work because some children would just not work together. It was like a clash of heads- nobody would co-operate.
Lately we tried letting them choose their groups but giving them guidelines they had to meet e.g. one year 5, one year 6, one girl, one boy, someone you haven't worked with before etc. This tends to work really well because they still have some control over the people that they are working with and everyone is included.
The latest way of forming groups we tried is by using an online random group generator and then moving some children around that wouldn't work in some combinations. We have done this with our most recent writing groups and the combinations are a dream!
The best thing about children working within a group of three is there are more ideas floating around rather than just two heads working together. The work load is shared more equally and there is a broader range of skills that can contribute to the learning. The children also actually seem to be way more on task as well.
I personally find the "Power of Three" to be highly beneficial to children of all learning capabilities and will endeavour to continue using it within our learning space.
