Constructing Collaboration Heather Heeter

Heather Heeter Secondary English PDS Intern South Building at State High Dana Zuhlke Advanced English 10 English 9 CTI Justine Kononov World History II CTI

Genesis Past experience Why do I use group work? A shift in mindset Student to teacher Student survey

Formation of groups Student-selected Teacher-selected Randomly assigned Task delegation Grading group work One group, one grade Individual scores Next time... Constructing Collaboration

Group Formation: Student-selected “I like to work with my friends because we can get work done and still have fun together.” “You can do too much socializing and not enough work.” “If you’re working with friends, you don’t mind yelling at them to do some work.” “Sometimes friends try to slack off and mooch off the rest of the group.” “You can pick people that actually work and avoid the freeloaders.”

“The teachers know how to even it out better.” “If a teacher chooses our groups it gives us a chance to get to know other people better.” “If the teacher picks, I might actually do some work.” “I don’t like to pick our own groups because kids don’t usually want to sit with me.” “I might get stuck with someone I don’t like.” Group Formation: Teacher-selected

Cons Avoidable conflicts Group Formation: Random Selection Pros Removes blame Creates truly unique combinations Count off Alphabetically Pulling names/numbers Playing cards Creating random pairings

Student Task Delegation Here is your task. Go. “We know our own strengths and weaknesses, so we should be allowed to choose what we are best at to make the project successful.”

Teacher Task Creation Teacher establishes roles for individual students Students assign roles within the group Teacher creates distinct roles and/or tasks within the assignment Fahrenheit 451 teaching groups Advanced English 10

All individuals are responsible for the group portion Teacher Task Creation Googledocs: a blessing and a curse Individual tasks take over

Teacher Task Creation Teacher outlines the assignment as a whole and students delegate tasks and roles with in their groups Speak Research Projects English 9

Grading Group Work “It is a group effort, so we should all be putting in the same amount of work and effort. If that isn’t the case, it is the group members’ responsibility to address that problem.” “If you work together, then you should pass or fail together.” One group, one grade

Grading Group Work “We shouldn’t all be punished if someone is a slacker.” “Some people don’t do their part because they know someone else will do it to avoid getting a bad grade, and that isn’t fair.” “The slacker and the hard worker don’t deserve the same grade.” Individual grades

Student Suggestions “Give students reminders to get on task.” “I think it is mostly up to the students how well the group work goes.” “Explain the project very clearly with an assignment sheet.” “Let students do their thing.” “I think giving individual grades will help motivate all members to do the work.”

Next Time... What is the best way to approach group work? What would I do differently in my next classroom? Consider: Assignment Why should this be a group project? Learning goals What will they learn from this collaboration? Length of collaboration Time of year

Works Cited Heller, Paul. Blog Art imgfxdesign.com, Web. 28 Apr Banville, Sean. Writing. 27 Apr Sean Banville's Blog. WordPress Entries & RSS, 27 Apr Web. 28 Apr Elanco. Speak. N.d. Photobucket. Photobucket Corporation, Web. 28 Apr Peterson, Karl. Farenheit 451 Poster. 21 May Sidearm. Sidearm Design, n.d. Web. 28 Apr Team Work Custom Corporate Puzzles. N.p., Web. 28 Apr