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Social StudiesHumanitiesHigh schoolKey Stages 4 and 5

How to use flexible grouping in history class

Flexible grouping puts students in short-term small groups by the skill each one is missing. This guide shows how to find those skills in a history class with one free primary source activity, then teach each group and regroup.

Jemel Fanfan

Jemel Fanfan | Founding Member at Flint

Title card reading 'How to use flexible grouping in history class', next to three small groups from one American Revolution activity: a sourcing group of 8 students, a cause and effect group of 6, and 10 students ready to move on.

"Flint allows me to see trends in student performance, identify areas where multiple students may need additional support, and set up small groups to focus on specific skills."

Bonnie-Jean ChudzinskiBonnie-Jean Chudzinski, US History Teacher at Notre Dame Preparatory

Why this matters

In one US History class, some students summarize a primary source well but can't say who wrote it or why. Others quote the source but mix up which event led to which. The teacher has to wait for the unit test to find out, and the test gives each student one score instead of the skill they're missing.

Flexible grouping strategies for history class

Flexible grouping puts students in temporary groups for as long as they need to build one skill, and changes the groups as their needs change (Understood).

  1. Group by the skill, not the score
  2. Teach each group the skill it missed
  3. Regroup after the next activity

Sorting 30 students' work by skill takes hours by hand. Sparky, Flint's AI tutor, works through each skill with every student, and the activity page lists the skills the class missed.

One primary source activity, two different skill gaps

Lena and Jordan are in the same activity on the causes of the American Revolution. The sources and Sparky's first question are the same for the whole class. Each chat below is one student's.

The student shows the skillSparky works on the skill the student is missing
L

Lena

Strong at: SummarizingNeeds work on: Sourcing

Sparky

Here's a line from the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, October 1765: "…no Taxes be imposed on them, but with their own Consent, given personally, or by their Representatives." Who wrote this, and why?

Lena

It says the colonists shouldn't be taxed unless they agree to it, either themselves or through people they elect.

Sparky

That's what it says. Now, who wrote it, and who were they trying to convince?

Lena

The British government?

Sparky

Look at the title and the date. Who would hold a congress about the Stamp Act in 1765, the year Parliament passed it?

Lena

Oh. The colonists, protesting to Parliament.

Understanding check

Paul Revere made an engraving of the Boston Massacre three weeks after the shooting. Why might he show the soldiers firing in a neat line at the crowd?

Joins the sourcing group

J

Jordan

Strong at: Sourcing, using evidenceNeeds work on: Cause and effect

Sparky

Here's a line from the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, October 1765: "…no Taxes be imposed on them, but with their own Consent, given personally, or by their Representatives." Who wrote this, and why?

Jordan

Colonial delegates wrote it in 1765 to protest the Stamp Act to Parliament. "No Taxes be imposed on them, but with their own Consent" shows they never agreed to the tax.

Sparky

Right on both. Put these in order and tell me how one led to the next: the Boston Massacre, the Stamp Act, the Intolerable Acts.

Jordan

The Boston Massacre, then the Stamp Act made people angrier, then the Intolerable Acts.

Sparky

The Stamp Act came first, in 1765. What happened after the protests against it that put British soldiers on Boston's streets by 1770?

Jordan

Britain sent soldiers to stop the protests, and then the soldiers shot people?

Understanding check

That's the link. So how did the Boston Tea Party in 1773 lead to the Intolerable Acts in 1774?

Joins the cause and effect group

Lena summarizes the document on the first try but doesn't ask who wrote it, so Sparky asks about the author and the date until she works it out. Jordan sources and quotes on the first try, then puts the Boston Massacre before the Stamp Act, so Sparky moves to the order of events. The students and chats are examples we wrote for this page.

Small group instruction from one activity

The activity page lists the skills the class missed and how many students missed each one. Click a highlighted phrase to see the students' answers behind it.

Flint's activity page for an activity called Causes of the American Revolution in Primary Sources. Needs attention shows a live alert that one student put the Boston Massacre before the Stamp Act three times. Activity analytics lists what the class did well, two areas of improvement where 8 students couldn't say who wrote a source or why and 6 students mixed up the order of events, and a follow-up on sourcing. The Sessions table shows two submitted students graded Developing and one still in progress.

Example activity page

After an 8th grade class works through the American Revolution sources

The school and students are made up for this page. The library copy's rubric has a row for each skill: sourcing, using evidence, and cause and effect.

Teach the sourcing group at a table for ten minutes while the rest of the class moves on. For the cause and effect group, press Create a follow-up activity and tell Sparky, in the activity builder, to practice the order of events from 1763 to 1776. Then press Share activity on the new activity, add those students by name, and set General access to Private, so only they get it.

After the next activity, the activity page lists that activity's gaps, and the groups change with them.

Set up the activity for free

The American Revolution activity is in Flint's public library, with Sparky's role, the primary sources and a rubric for the three skills already written. Open it, press Use activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and move it to a class. Every student gets their own chat with Sparky, and the activity page fills in as they work.

For more history activities, see Flint for social studies.

Start the activity for free

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