Group Dynamics

These are the most useful dynamics that you can try in your lessons.
1. Teacher to the whole group
Useful for presentation activities where the focus is on the teacher and the students are usually quiet. Advantage: easy discipline. Disadvantage: students' participation is limited to choral response or individually answering a direct question from the teacher.
2. Small groups
Useful for communication activities, acting and project work. Walk around the classroom intervening occasionally in the groupwork. Advantages: increased co-operation between students; more student autonomy. Disadvantage: increased noise levels; you may need to exercise your authority to settle disputes between students.
3. Pairwork
Useful for guided dialogues and roleplay. Set the task and then walk around checking and correcting. If it is difficult to walk around the classroom, arrange the pairs in such a way that you can supervise them from two or three points. Advantage: all students get the opportunity to speak in class. Disadvantage: not possible to check and correct all the mistakes.
4. Individual work
Useful for writing exercises in the activity book where each student works alone. It should be preceded by some form of presentation to the whole class. Walk around correcting the students' work as they progress through the exercise. Advantages: allows some quiet thinking time; changes pace and calms children down. Disadvantages: more of a possibility that students might do a whole exercise incorrecrly. Supervise the first part of the exercise quickly to avoid this. Students will not all work at the same pace. Always have some activities ready for the students who finish first.