Cooperative Groups Role Selection

When the students are working in Cooperative Groups, teachers often assign them roles. I use Reporter, Facilitator, Recorder, and Materials Manager. The group roles can vary depending on how many students you have in each class/group. Since my class desks are in quads, I use 4 roles.

Here is how we chose group roles. We want it to be random. So I use this idea:

The apples are magnetized so I can switch them around.

1. I put the 4 apples in my hand.
2. In the middle of each quad, I have 4 colored circles that match the apples above (red, green, yellow, and blue). 
3. Each student randomly chooses 1 color. The students do not know which role they have chosen.
4. I then put a colored apple by the role, as pictured above, after all students have selected a color. 

Using this strategy to choose roles stops the same people from always being the "leader" of the group.