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. 2011. www.palheller.com. imgfxdesign.com,

2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. <http://paulrheller.com/>.• Banville, Sean. Writing. 27 Apr. 2010. Sean Banville's Blog.

WordPress Entries & RSS, 27 Apr. 2010. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. <http://seanbanville.com/tag/group-work/>.

• Elanco. Speak. N.d. Photobucket. Photobucket Corporation, 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. <http://s376.photobucket.com/albums/oo205/elanco/Blog%20Images/?action=view¤t=speak-laurie- halse-anderson2.jpg&newest=1>.

• Peterson, Karl. Farenheit 451 Poster. 21 May 2009. Sidearm. Sidearm Design, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.

<http://sidearmdesign.com/post/ 2009/05/21/fahrenheit-451-poster/>.

• Team Work. 2011. Custom Corporate Puzzles. N.p., 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. <http://www.mgcpuzzles.com/4/corporate/>.