Heterogeneous is to be diverse in character or content while homogeneous is to be the same kind or alike. It is very important that we understand those two words and know what we are trying to accomplish before we, as teachers, seat our students.
I group heterogeneously, and I do so in a very systematic
process. It is a technique that was
conveyed to me by one of my administrators, who had read it in a book. I have since tried to find the book to give
you the direct source, but to no avail. --->Thanks to the wonderful comments, I have learned that this is a Spencer Kagan technique. You can learn more directly from the source, by checking out their blog post here.
To correctly utilize this method, you will need standardized
scores for your students from any assessment you would like to use. We take MAPS tests at our school every fall,
so those are the scores I use to help group and seat my students.
You will also need to place the desks in groups of four
(pods, rows, etc.) and mark the desks in such a way that every four desks have the
same demarcation. I use four colored
dots (pink, green, yellow and blue), but there’s nothing stopping you from
using animal stickers, planet stickers, numbers, etc. These are the stickers I use. (This is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
Now, how does this work?
Well, studies show that I can bring up my lower students by pairing them
with higher students. Being exposed to
the higher-level thinking processes, verbal expressions, and greater growth
mindset of other students will often rub off on the lower students and result
in some positive and lasting effects. I
need to be careful; however, as those same studies show that I can bring down
my highest kids if I’m not vigilant and very purposeful in how I match those
interactions. 
This is where the real work comes in to play. If you’ve ever sat back and watched a dinner
party, you’d notice that people tend to talk to those right next to them, on
their left or right, or those directly across from them. But what doesn’t happen very often is for
conversations to start up diagonally.
Thus, if we place our highest and lowest students diagonally across from
each other, they are less likely to affect one another. Instead the low student makes connections to
the two middle students sitting across and next to them, and the high student
does the same. Using the colors on the
pod above for an example, the yellow sticker would be a student from the lowest
group, green would be a kid from the third group, blue would be a kid in the
second group, and the red sticker would seat the student from the highest
group.
Step 1 is to list your students from highest to lowest score
Step 2 is to then split them into four even groups.
Step 3 is to take one student from each group and place them
together into a pod.
Step 4 is to arrange your pod following the placement
guidelines.
Now let me add one caveat here…our classes are already grouped somewhat by ability so there is not a radical difference between the top and bottom students. If this was truly a heterogeneous group I would probably want to rethink my seating arrangement some more.
But I urge you to give this type of grouping a try and see
what happens with your students and their overall abilities. If you can raise the scores of your lowest
learners simply by having them surrounded by higher learners, then it’s a
win-win situation.
How do you group your students? Let me know in the comments.
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