When I use this term, I mean putting students of roughly the same ability in the same group.

There is a huge push right now to incorporate heterogeneous grouping in all things, but I still believe that homogenous groups have their place, especially if you are delivering a tiered lesson. Here is (roughly)how I would determine groups:

Group 1 Smarty Smart 1 Smarty Smart 2 Smarty Smart 3 Hard Worker 1 Hard Worker 2

Group 2 Smarty Smart 4 Smarty Smart 5 Smarty Smart 6 Hard Worker 3 Hard Worker 4

Group 3 Adequate 1 Adequate 2 Adequate 3 Adequate 4 Adequate 5

Group 4 Adequate 6 Adequate 7 Adequate 8 Struggler 1 Struggler 2

Group 5 Struggler 3 Struggler 4 Struggler 5 Struggler 6 Struggler 7

Please note that I make these groups based on the kids ability, not their grade. For example, I super smart kid who has a C in the class because he is underachieving would still be considered a smarty smart. Obviously your class make up is going to be different, and kids are going to shift a little bit throughout the year. The idea of this method of grouping is to provide direct support to struggling students, see how I would set up my classroom below (the smiley face is me): In this way, Group 3 can get assistance Group 3 Group 2 from Groups 1 & 2, which leaves me free to work with Groups 4 & 5. This is an excellent time to introduce some Group 1 tiered lessons, or some differentiated Group 5 assignments. Me Group 4