What is groupwork? this chapter defines the notion of groupwork as group of students working together to accomplish a task. The group must be set up in such a way that all members can have a voice (contribute). The task can be accomplished at the discretion of the group, however, they are accountable to the teacher for the final product. The chapter also provides research on groupwork, citing that most teachers feel it is better than individual work.
I can honestly say I still have not seen a good example in the schools. We practice groupwork in the program, and most of them seem do be done well. However, I contribute the success of the groupwork in the program to the fact that we are all here to learn, we care, and we have been successful in school. For the kids we are trying to impact and help succeed, I havent seen good examples. Its the same as it was when I was in school. Groups are set up by the teacher and one or two of those group members end up taking all the responsibility. Needless to say, there is always a few students who love group work because they do nothing and get the A.
Chapter 2: Why Groupwork
Kind of wrapped up in the title of the chapter. This chapter spends time selling the idea that teachers should adopt the technique of groupwork in the classroom. The author makes note that one large benefit of groupwork is that students will be given more time to work on ideas and concepts, while also holding each other accountable (if done correctly). This is a huge asset to teachers since we are always trying to all students involved.
We have talked extensivley in the program about groupwork. It has become a punch-line in some of the circles. As I stated earlier, I still have not seen good examples of groupwork. I tried to incorporate it into my CP1 expereice and saw that it can be a great tool to be used. I did learn that the ideal group size is three students; this helps encourage participation from each student in the group. At Oceanside groupwork is attempted everyday in every class. In my humble opinion it still is not being done right. I know my goal for this semester is to try to find my personality for groupwork and practice it often. This is the time to try and fail, and as I always say, we learn best from our mistakes so make big ones.
Chapter 3: The Dilemma of Groupwork
This chapter discusses the challenges that teachers will encounter when designing groupwork activities. These challenges include 100% participation and the inevitable "A" student taking control and doing all the work. The chapter discusses some of the reasons students take these roles on and how they can impact the group positively and negatively. The author refers to these as "status" and lists them as: status ordering, academic status order, peer status, and status characteristic.
I think I have experienced academic status order more than any other. To this day it seems when we get into group projects the academics dictate who bears the brunt of the work. For me, anything to do with math I take charge because it is easy for me, however, if we are doing a reading and writing component I slouch down and try to fly under the radar. I saw this with my students at RBV during CP1. As much as I tried to delegate responsibilities inside groups, certain members always emerged and did most, if not all, the work. Some because of their personality, but most because they were good at math and could get the task done quickly. I have also noticed in my experiences that students just dont know how to work in groups; this is another area we need to focus on with our students.
As I mentioned, I have noticed students just dont understand groupwork and how they play a role in it. I think we need to spend more time discussing ideas and techniques rather than just doing groupwork. We are all good students in this program, we have succeeded in school and probably have all been that "A" student who took charge in groupwork. We need to take a step back from doing it and start learning it. If we spend time learning the techniques and then being given time to try them then reflect, I think we would learn more become more successful including it in our classrooms.
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