Implementing Group Work

Hey Everyone,

Since we have started working on our Unit Plan together, I have been thinking about how I might utilize group work in my classroom. I would first like to say that I am a strong believer in collaborative learning. I feel that implementing group work in that appropriate situations, it can really prove to be a meaningful learning experience. Learning to work with others as early on as possible is important because so many times in the real world they will be expected to work with others to complete tasks. That said, there are many other things to consider when implementing group work in your classroom.

First of all, I feel that you must really know your students in order for a collaborative work to serve its purpose in learning. I feel that it is also important to remember that not every class will respond the same way to certain collaborative learning experiences. So, it is important for any teacher to be flexible enough to have different lesson plans for each class.

I think that in my classroom, once getting to know my students, I will implement collaborative work as often as I see fit. I do not think that I would implement group work for projects as extensive as ours was simply because many middle school or high school students aren't as invested in their education as a college student is. I really think that group work is beneficial during individual class periods in which a more difficult topic is being taught. I truly feel that pairing or grouping students together with different levels of ability can really help to effectively teach that topic. I would go out on the limb and say that some students would rather listen to their peers talk about a particular topic than their teacher.

I think that grading any kind of group work can be tricky. When implementing group work for a single class period, it might be a wise idea to assign each member of a group a job (e.g. reader, speaker, scribe, etc.). Also having them hand in their work is a way to keep track of who is or isn't doing the work. For more extensive group projects, I feel that each member of a group should have a particular job to do to ensure that they are doing their part. I have also thought of each member filling out a "Collaborative Work Statement" at the end of such projects where each group member is able to evaluate the entire experience. I think it is also important for the teacher to scaffold projects in such a way that it is not difficult for them to grade each member of each group and each group as a whole.

I'd love to hear all of your feedback on my thoughts!

-Meaghan