more+on+group+work

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 * The Uses of Group Work**

//The work a child may accomplish with the help of others may be a far greater indication of ability than that which he can accomplish alone.// //Lev Vygotsky//

Group work is far more than a technique for breaking up the rhythm of a class by asking students to move their chairs and start talking. It does do that; it suddenly alters the pattern of call and response that dominates almost all classrooms, and anything that changes patterns is usually good for student engagement, and therefore learning.

But group work should be seen as a primary rather than ancillary strategy for student learning, for the development of reading, writing, speaking, and listening abilities. Group work, and other forms of collaboration, can become the best way for students to learn about their own opinions, their own voices, and to learn how to change and challenge those opinion and those voices. In a group, students learn naturally how diversity feeds their own understandings of the texts they read and the world they inhabit.

However, as beneficial—even crucial-- as group work is, it is also difficult to facilitate and to manage. Here are some of the principles I believe create effective groups in the classroom.

l. Create groups randomly. 2. Meet often (over a week meet two or three times, for varying amounts of time). 3. Name groups—or let students name them. 4. Teach group behavior. Students don’t naturally know how to work, or even listen, in a group situation. 5. Make group work organic. Don’t give a task to a group that can be better done solo. 6. Start slowly. Give small, low risk, assignments and activities that students can easily contribute to. 7. Assign roles that switch each meeting: president, recorder, reflector or historian, sergeant at arms! 8. Have students keep a group folder. 9. Make group work overtly a part of evaluation. 10. Give groups authority.


 * Assignments with Groups**
 * Low risk:** Cloze tests; rewriting and/or adding scenes to texts; creating questions for other groups; writing together an opening sentence; making lists of arguments or ideas for writing; reading together lines from texts
 * Medium risk:** sharing paragraphs or lines from drafts of writing; creating short presentations for class; choosing texts to read aloud to class; developing questions for research tasks; sharing results of research; observational exercises
 * Higher risk:** sharing drafts of essays; responding to student essays; making presentations and evaluating presentations; choosing members to present work or choosing student work; developing revision plans for essays; discussing varying opinions on relevant topics

l. Write an answer to the editorial you’ve read that reflects all group’s opinions. 2. Predict the next chapter of the book. 3. Write a letter of advice to David Sedaris from a student’s point of view. (from **Me Talk Pretty One Day.** Or advice to John Adams or others). 4. Describe and evaluate Internet site that gives information about Wheatley. 5. create a powerpoint presentation on the uses of the visual in a recent movie or in a novel.
 * Illustrative activities**

Group discussion boards, class blogs, other kinds of electronic communication, can be useful extensions of classroom groups.
 * Final note**

My book: Breaking (Into) the Circle: Group Work for Racial and Gender Equity in the English Classroom. Heinemann, 2003. there's lots more to be said about groups. Hope you'll talk about your experiences in using them this fall.