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Cards are one of my favorite tools for grouping students because one simple card gives you multiple ways to mix up a class. Playing cards, UNO, Five Crowns, Dutch Blitz, or other card sets can all work. The key is choosing cards with at least two identifiers—such as a color or suit and a number or value.

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Use them to create completely random groups, plan groups intentionally, or switch between the two.

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Keep It Random

Let each student choose a card without telling them how the cards will be used. Once everyone has one, announce how they should find their group.

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Try:

• Find everyone with the same color or suit.

• Find everyone with the same number or value.

• Find a partner with a different color or suit.

• Find a partner with a different number.

• Create a group with one person from each color or suit.

 

Change the rule regularly. Students may think they know where that card is going to take them—and then discover they don't!

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Teacher Tip: Have students show their cards when they find their group. Otherwise, a few creative students may discover that cards are surprisingly easy to trade when the teacher isn't looking. 😉

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Making Groups as Students Enter Class

Have students draw a card as they enter the classroom and use it to find their group. Students walk in, find their matching table, and the groups form without taking additional class time.

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Before students arrive, place one set of cards on tables around the room. For example, place the diamonds from a standard deck on different tables. A student who draws the king of hearts finds the table with the king of diamonds; a student who draws the 5 of clubs finds the 5 of diamonds, and so on.

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One teacher I saw used this strategy on Monday to create groups of three. Those became the students' groups for the entire week. The following Monday, students drew again and started the week with a new group.

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This can work especially well at the beginning of the year, when you want students interacting with people they may not already know. It's also an easy way to reshuffle groups throughout the year—or on those days when enough students are absent that your usual groups no longer work well.

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Decks with additional colors or sets, such as UNO, Five Crowns, or Dutch Blitz with an expansion pack, give you even more possibilities for changing the number and size of the groups.

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Use the groups for whatever length of time makes sense: one activity, one class period, a week, or a longer project.

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Group Intentionally—Without Making It Obvious

Sometimes random isn't what you need.

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Before class, assign meaning to one characteristic of the cards and distribute them intentionally. To students, they are simply receiving cards. You know there is a reason behind them.

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For example, you might use numbers to represent where students are currently working with a particular skill. Don't put the numbers in an obvious order. A 2 might represent students ready for greater challenge, while a 7, 5, and 1 represent different amounts of support.

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Now you have choices:

Same number → students currently working at similar levels

Different numbers → mixed-level groups

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You can do the same thing with classroom dynamics. Perhaps one characteristic helps you distribute students who tend to lead discussions, students who need more space to speak, or students who work particularly well independently.

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And because each card has more than one identifier, one characteristic can be intentional while the other remains random.

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That gives you a lot of flexibility from one little deck of cards.

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Don't Let the Cards Become Labels

Intentional grouping can be useful, but there is a danger in always grouping students according to what we think we know about them.

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A student we think of as a strong reader, a quiet student, or a student who needs extra support may show us something entirely different when placed with different people.

That's one reason I like using both intentional and random grouping.

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Intentional groups allow us to respond to what we know about our students.
Random groups give us opportunities to discover what we don't know yet.