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Some mash-up of course instructions and rants; hoping to remain constrained to the first, but seduced by the second...
“Norms as a practical classroom tool”:
ReplyDeletethe contention put forth is that through the teacher investing time and effort into training the kids on the appropriate rules and norms of cooperative learning, the students will internalize these norms and the groups of students will self-regulate and manage themselves. Ideally, these norms provide training for the real world that transfer with the kids to the outside world as a type of “moral socialization.” Training the students in the rules and norms of cooperative work, the book contends, facilitates learning and order in the classroom, allows the teacher to better apply his or her professional educator skills, and it creates better citizens out of the students.
My master teacher this semester certainly practices these concepts daily, and my site supervisor reminded us just the other day that as important as teaching content is teaching manners, citizenship, good character, and interpersonal skills. I think that if teachers realized how influential they are on the malleable adolescent psyche, they would take being a life coach on the road to socialization as seriously as they take their content standards.
How do we accommodate our students who learn best independently and actually are distracted by the busy controlled chaos of groupwork?
"Creating the Task"
ReplyDeleteThis section was about choosing an appropriate, productive, and engaging task depending on what it is that you're teaching and what your goal is. The section emphasized the importance of designing a task for groupwork that meets all sorts of guidelines, like having more than one answer, being so interesting and appropriately challenging that students can't help but be engaged, allowing for individuality and individual contributions, involving multiple senses and academic skills, etc.
Half of me thinks this is taking groupwork planning to a slightly ridiculous or unattainable level. The other half of me can see what the author is talking about, particularly in relation to developing a task specific to your goal.
Even the best planned group activity is probably not going to be riveting for every last one of the 40 students in a class - is assigning group roles and leaving room for some creativity really enough to keep those students engaged and contributing anyway?
A section that really stood out to me was the section on "individual and group accountability." There has always been the problem of the 'free-loader' or students individually completing tasks but presenting them as a whole. To solve this each student needs to produce an individual part based on their participation in the group and the group collective activity. Groups rewards are also introduced into cooperative learning assessments, while individual incentives need to be applied as well. The individual group members need to feel accountable and important for the entire team's outcome.
ReplyDeleteI do not remember any cooperative learning going on when I was in high school. I remember group projects but everyone did their individual parts then produced a summative project. We were always in individual desks, I wonder how it would have been if I had those experiences.
If a group isn't working out how will I know what to do to correct it without disrupting other groups already benefiting from cooperative groupwork with their members?
One area I seemed to focus on was “Training During Group work.” When one assigns group work it is easy for the students to get off task or have problems with one another. However, I find the challenge from group work comes from students sliding into the trained habits of individuality. It is here that students stop asking each other questions and they seemingly follow an individual or follow an idea that was not discussed in length that leads them to the wrong conclusions. As the teacher we must make sure to constantly ask questions to clarify were students are headed with the work to ensure they are on the correct path. If there are not, we can guild them back through questions, and not give them the answer. They would still need to work out the issues for themselves. Group work should still be viewed as on the job training for the students. Some students might be able to take right off, but other may struggle and stop asking the higher level questions to effectively complete the task.
ReplyDeletePersonally I agree that teachers need to move around each group making sure they are on task and are moving in the right direction. What I find could be the challenge to group work is students may work well with each other and ask the questions necessary to complete the work, but if they are asking the wrong questions, the are advancing in the wrong direction.
If students are on task and they believe they are answering the question, it might be hard to spot that they are doing the work incorrectly. How do teachers assign roles such as student leaders of groups or observers making sure they are asking the correct questions and keeping the group moving in the right direction?
"Cooperation and Anti-Social Behavior" blended w/ sweet tasting notes of "Skills for high-level discourse."
ReplyDeleteThe "I" message. Love it! You've all heard me say that the skills we're learning in these classes are what you'll read in parenting books (should you ever decide to make pets). And, these skills are what you will pay $$$ to learn from your couples' therapist (oh, did I just say that?). "I" messages are an effective way to communicate when someone is driving you crazy (i.e. peer, teacher, mate, or kid). "She said my drawing is dumb!" (re: Pg 58) Accusations tend to fire up all parties. But by putting the accusation into an "I" message: "I feel really hurt when you tell me that my drawing is dumb", the blame game stops and a dialogue opens up. Speaking to one another constructively is just the start of being able to work collaboratively, which is why some of these interpersonal skills are essential to teach our students. Once kids get talking, then they can engage in higher order thinking skills such as "[hypothesizing, analyzing, and generalizing.]"(pg. 47) With these learned skills, students will also learn how to "come to the realization that there is often more than one legitimate perspective on a problem." (pg. 57) For me this might be one of the best skills we can teach our students (and ourselves, all of us): It’s possible to embrace many conflicting ideas, religions, philosophies at once. The world is not dichotomous. There are many shades of gray. The question this raises for me is, and I feel like I saw it somewhere in this book (really losing it at this pt.), but don't we have a moral obligation to teach our students these skills which are serious life skills, not just academic skills?
The objective and level of interaction a teacher wants students to engage in determines how students will work together. You have the routine objective where students work in groups to complete assignments they could otherwise complete own their own. This in turn creates a limited exchange model where the level of interaction is minimal and usually one or two people are taking control over the assignment. Then you have the conceptual objective that guides group work which encourages higher level thinking skills and an equal exchange model.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts; it’s a beautiful sunny, rainy day.
My thoughts on what I wrote. I think it’s difficult to try and determine the level of interaction you want students to engage in especially when projects consist of completing work outside of school. I think it is also difficult (not impossible) to ensure that there is an equal exchange in interaction and distribution of work among all members within the group when completing the task drives the focus.
"Teaching Specific Cooperative Behaviors"
ReplyDeleteThere are different cooperative learning behaviors that teachers will want their students to perform for different group work tasks. For example, in learning stations, "students must learn to give a full explanation" for the work that they are doing (Cohen, 1994, p. 45). In contrast, when students are working in groups to reach a consensus, the students must listen to each other, contribute to the discussion, and possibly compromise to reach a group decision.
In mathematics, there are many opportunities to use group work activities that require higher level thinking skills because the tasks make students analyze, generalize and find mathematical patterns. I am planning to use P.O.W.s (Problems of the Week) in my classroom as group activities because I believe that they foster deeper analytical thinking and group work is often the perfect setting to explore these in.
I am wondering how to motivate students who have given up on the problem or how to teach other students to encourage these unmotivated group members to participate?
“Planning Evaluation”
ReplyDeleteEveryone wants to know how you plan on evaluating your students. Students want to know, parents want to know, and administrators want to know too. People are going to ask lots of questions about this, so I think that it’s important that as teachers we have our system planned out as much as possible.
The way that evaluation is carried out influences groupwork. I hope that I can accomplish the same level of motivation that grades can through rich tasks, specific feedback, and positive reinforcement instead of focusing on grades as a motivator. Cohen says it’s possible. She cautions that teachers must be careful to not evaluate student understanding too early in the group process. Individual students may not master the learning objectives after one group activity. Their light bulb may go off after the second or third, but if a teacher becomes too eager in ensuring that students are understanding every concept and getting all of the right answers, they will take away from the benefits of the group process and the critical thinking of individual students. This will be a challenge for me in teaching math. I have grown so accustomed to good teachers being those who have the littlest confusion going on in their classrooms. But as Cohen suggests, confusion is not necessarily bad and can lead students to deeper understandings as they explore concepts more deeply and learn from one another.
Cohen also suggests that teachers should provide specific feedback on group process performance as well as the actual content the group produces. If a teacher wants to evaluate individual student learning, Cohen states that they might give a test after the groupwork process is finished, to ascertain what each group member learned. If group grades are given, Cohen warns that some group members may be excluded from contributing because they are viewed as having weaker skills. Further, grading individual group members on their contributions to the group project may not be fair, since some individuals may have been excluded from contributing. If students are to give constructive feedback to one another on their groupwork, they must be trained in socially acceptable and sensitive ways to do so.
I will definitely use groupwork in my own classroom and will be challenged to come up with tasks and strategies that motivate and train students to work well in groups. I will have to devise ways of evaluating student learning and assigning grades fairly. In teaching math, there are so many ways that cooperative learning can contribute to individual student learning through rich problem solving experiences. Every student is a critical thinker and can contribute when tasks are designed correctly. I think that I will likely use cooperative learning tasks as a means for students to learn about concepts in a meaningful way as well as learn to work in groups effectively. I will likely utilize individual tests and reports to evaluate whether each student has met the learning objectives at hand.
"Skills for high-level discourse"
ReplyDeleteStudents may be engaged in high level thinking during group work, but they may only verbalize the conclusions to their thinking. Students do not naturally discuss the logic which led them to their conclusions unless instructed to do so. Being able to articulate one's thinking process is important for communicating scientific ideas, analyzing social problems, and explaining the logic behind mathematical deductions. The skillbuilder "Rainbow Logic" (Appendix A, p.172-175) helps students develop the ability to communicate their thought processes.
It is important for us as teachers to help our students develop this skill, as it will aid us in assessing our students understanding of specific content. If a student can explain their thinking, we can more accurately pinpoint the heart of a student's confusion or understanding.
Training students to explain their thinking also helps them think more carefully, paying attention to why they think what they do.
Since students do not naturally engage in higher level discussion unless instructed to do so, do we simply need to ask our students to "explain their thinking" in group work, or are there other ways to inspire this depth of discussion?
Composing Groups
ReplyDeleteWe have already spent a lot of time in class discussing the composition of effective groups, but I particularly liked this section because it solidified some of my thoughts/beliefs and answered some of the questions I still had. Here are some of the key points that I found most helpful/interesting:
- Groups should be heterogeneous in nature, but "mechanically insuring that each group has equal numbers of males and females or one or two students of color has the disadvantage of making the basis of your decision clear to the students." This actually encourages students to focus on their group member as a typical representative of that race and gender and is, consequently, counterproductive in breaking down stereotypes.
- "Allowing friends to choose each other for work partners is not a good idea. Students should think of groupwork in terms of work rather than play, and there is clearly a tendency for friends to play rather than work." This is a question I have often wondered about. I agree with the point made here and think that assigning groups is a way to increase time on task as well as a subtle reminder of your control of the classroom environment.
- Labels such as "problematic student" and "natural leader" should never been seen as permanent personality characteristics. With effective grouping and training, all students should eventually be able to fill leadership roles. This is a good reminder that although groupwork is helpful in aiding student understanding of content material, it serves a larger purpose as well. We help students increase self confidence and prepare for the real world when we teach them the skills they need to be a leader.
Cooperation and Anti-Social Behavior
ReplyDeleteA section in Cohen’s Designing Groupwork that caught my attention was the area devoted to “cooperation and anti-social behavior”. This section dealt with how to deal with problems within a group, when there are disagreements that escalate to the point of name-calling and personal attacks. I was curious about this as I knew that I would deal with situations where the students could not handle being in a group when it came to arguments or disagreements. I wanted to see how to deal with a situation where conflict arises between students.
Truthfully I did not have to worry about hostility among group members when I had introduced a group “Jeopardy” activity in the classroom. It was mostly hostility among different groups that I had to deal with as the activity was very competitive in nature. I put in a few safeguards such as the deduction of points for any “trash talk” that occurred between the groups. I did worry about the complications of having heterogeneous groups where I unintentionally place students who have problems between the students. Now that I see that the best I can do is remove the students from the classroom for counseling if an aggressive confrontation ever arose. I’m actually curious to hear the arguments my students have with their peers about mathematics, be it an issue with the computations or the different method in which a problem is solved. I am not advocating hostility in my classroom. It would just be welcome to see an argument about mathematics among students. Of course I would supervise and intervene if the argument became too heated. But if you have managed to spark an occurrence to happen, you just have to make sure it doesn’t ignite into a wildfire.
Skills for High-level discourse
ReplyDeleteYou can’t just expect that students will use group time effectively. If you want them to use higher-level discourse you need to tell them that. If you can do that then cooperative learning can be used to simulate hypothesizing, analyzing and looking for logic and patterns. You have to design activities that allow or force the students to talk to one another. The book suggests we start doing this around middle grades.
In math I think is really important. I was having a discussion the other day about how lost students have a tendency to get in math. I think we need to teach students how to ask questions that will be helpful in clarifying their learning. This isn’t exactly the idea put forth in this chapter but I think it is also necessary. Before we can get students to talk about math we need to teach them what to do when they are really lost. After that we need to show them how that translates in to higher-level discourse.
The book has an activity it suggests for this is called Rainbow Logic. It gives the students a set of rules and makes one student the teller (pretty much) this game teaches asking and responding and following logic. I really like all these activities in this book and I would really like to start them with my class. I feel like I should wait until I have my own room. Should I start at the beginning at the year?
One way to teach children the importance of working with others outside their social network is explain to them that everyday professionals in the real world work cooperatively with others who they may not know very well or whom they are not compatible. When preparing children for cooperative group work it is essential to identify “the skills and norms that will be needed for the group work setting you have in mind”. When students are able to reflect on group work experiences that are meaningful they are more likely to understand and take with them the skills necessary to work with individuals who are or who are not their friends in the future.
ReplyDeleteGetting students to work cooperatively with individuals outside their social network has always been difficult for me to accomplish. I think this is because I have not had enough time to teach my students the appropriate skills to accomplish productive group work.
I wonder if I modify the activities in Appendix A I would be able to get my own students to accomplish productive group work.
Prevention of Dominance:
ReplyDeleteIn order to prevent dominance within group work assignments/activities it is essential to create a classroom norm in which the students understand every member/s input is important. In order to facilitate the grasping of such a norm, Chapter 4 suggests a survival problem that is designed to allow all students within a group to offer their own ideas, listen to the ideas of others, ask questions and give rationales behind individual ideas in order to make an informed decision as a whole group (P. 53). In math this would be a very valuable norm. Actually, at my current school site my CT allows opportunities for partner quizzes. I had the opportunity to witness one the week before last and the conversations that were taking place were indicative of being able to listen, ask questions and present rationales and then move on from there. There was one group in particular who was working on one of the problems and each member had different ideas of how to solve it. It was interesting to watch the student who knew what he was talking about because he got really frustrated but quickly figured out that was not getting him anywhere. Once the student with the correct method of solving the problem listened to the student and identified the root of his partner’s misunderstanding, he was able to proceed in a productive manner on their partner quiz.
It’s interesting because I can see myself as a dominating presence within groups, but at the same time I am often relieved when I find myself in a group where someone else can play that role. I can see, though, how this can roll over into my teaching. The norms described in this particular section of the reading are especially valuable in a math class, and as the manager of my students’ learning I must model these norms.
'Prevention of dominance'
ReplyDeleteThis section is all about using certain strategies to ensure equal participation from group members, with 'Prevention of dominance' (p 53 - 55) a major strategy to establish. Cohen discusses a research study in which effectiveness of training students to work together is demonstrated. Results from the 'shipwreck survival' scenario and follow-up activities showed that norms for equal participation became established: students normally outspoken would be less dominating and behave equally - i.e. allow others to speak and contribute. In the scenarios used, the 'high-status' students (i.e those who would normally dominate) behaved more equitably, because they had learned that their usual behavior would hurt the group effort.
To me, these training strategies are useful, but I don't think they should be the sole method used to show students the importance or necessity of equal participation. They should be augmented with a class discussion on the benefits of establishing norms to students' achievement of gaining not only content knowledge but socially-responsible and caring behaviors - thos valued in society and the workplace.
I don't have a question on this, but instead an observation from my student teaching:
Many times in my student teaching observations, and in student surveys, a comment I heard or was told from the so-called 'high-status' students was that they didn't like group activity because they ended up doing all the work and the 'dumb' kids didn't do anything. This is indicative of the quality of the group work that had been organized for them - norms hadn't been established. In science lessons,this type of response is common because frequently group work is aimed at solving a set of calculations requiring content knowledge acquired in earlier lessons, content which perhaps only the high-achieving students had understood. If students were made aware of the benefits to themselves as well as their lower-achieving peers of collaborative group work they would be more willing to participate as group members rather than going it alone.
testing...
ReplyDeleteCreating the task.
ReplyDeleteCohen describes multiple ability tasks which are designed to allow students to solve problems that may have multiple answers. The task "requires a variety of skills and behaviors" and "also requires reading and writing" (p.68). The multiple ability task must be designed to be challenging and interesting. This type of task works best using the equal exchange model "where no one person could do the task alone" (p.64). Participants charged with this type of task will hopefully be able to demonstrate their mastery of the concept by synthesizing what they have learned and creatively applying it in their final product.
The notion of allowing students the freedom to demonstrate ideas that don't necessarily have a finite solution lends itself quite well to the discipline of science. The prompt from me could be as simple as, "In your group demonstrate your mastery of the gas laws." The biggest obstacle for me as the teacher is to convince the groups that the task requires different kinds of intellectual ability. The obvious notion of the group would be to turn to the individual with the greatest academic status and let him/her lead the way. It is imperative that I ensure low academic status students participate and are recognized for their contributions. I think this would be an awesome tool to affirm diverse intellectual contributions from a heterogeneous classroom and create a sense of classroom democracy. However, I am still struggling a bit as to how this type of group work could best be implemented.
Lastly, one thought that was intriguing to me was Cohen pointing out that research shows that "the success of the group depends on the amount of talking and working together" (p. 65). Within minutes of entering a classroom, it is evident who the most talkative students are. In assembling groups it appears that distributing the high "expressive" status students will be important.
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"Preparing the Situation"
ReplyDeleteAs with anything in teaching, one of the most important features of effective groupwork is preparation. This section calls teachers to consider orientation (introduction to the task), written instructions (in the form of task cards), group size, group mix, classroom ecology, and a wrap-up (so as not to leave the task unresolved.) Without careful consideration of and planning for each part of the groupwork process, the task faces serious risk of failure which could result in an ineffective learning experience and a loss of order in the classroom.
As I mentioned above, the importance of preparation in designing groupwork is not much different than preparation for any other lesson. Some of my most effective teaching days in Clinical Practice 1 were the days I had everything planned out exactly with built in room for flexibility (including extra activities in the event that some students finished the task quicker than others.) One of my most ineffective days of teaching was a day that I didn’t plan enough for my class. I managed to stretch my lesson to fill the entire period for my first class, but my second class completed everything with fifteen minutes to spare in class and I was at a complete loss of what to do with them until the end of the period. This was a difficult, but valuable learning experience for me as a teacher.
Due to the extensive process involved in effective groupwork, how do you gauge how much time to allow for each step of the groupwork process? Every task is going to be different and every group of students is going to complete the task differently, so how do you effectively allot accurate time limits within groupwork design?
"Cooperating and Anti-Social Behavior"
ReplyDeleteA section that caught my eye, and one that I sort of mentioned in my reading response 3, was learning how to cooperate amongst the anti-social behavior. This section really just discusses all of the negative aspects of what can go wrong in groupwork. It talks about how the students will make fun of each other or not listen and call out one another for bad ideas. The best way around this is to teach the students proper communication skills. I can tell you right now that the new problems this poses for me as a teacher is the thought of actually teaching them something outside my content area. I must teach these kids manners. Most of the examples from the book talk about Middle school students, but these qualities follow the students to high school. Now, on top of English, I must learn how to become a parent and teach these kids things that should have been done years ago by the people closest to them. These groupwork problems are ones that I am aware of, but ones that will be awesome when they are done right.
What do you do when you have students who will not want to cooperate, because I know they are out there!?
ReplyDelete" Prevention of Dominance"
ReplyDeleteFrom Chapter 4 from the Cohen book, I found the section "Prevention of Dominance" to be the most interesting to me. Partly because I am so outspoken and tend to be the one who speaks the most and dominates groupwork, and also because it was an obvious obstacle in the groupwork I assigned at my first school site.
The section talks about Morris's 4 rules for effective group discussion. 1) Say your own ideas, 2)Listen to others; give everyone a chance to talk, 3) Ask others for their ideas, and 4)Give reasons for your ideas and discuss many different ideas. After a certain amount of time in the groups, the teacher should stop and ask the groups to evaluate if they have been practicing all of the above suggestions. The author also suggests assigning a group monitor to report to the class the behaviors they observed, and lead a class discussion on the effectiveness of the groupwork. It also suggests keeping those rules displayed in the classroom at all times so that students can easily remember them.
I think that dominance by certain students in group work is very prevalent and hard to control. These are some good ideas, and I've heard other ideas before on the subject. It is especially important to remember these things in a very diverse school setting, where some students are native English speakers, and some are not. Getting all of the students, regardless of their abilities in the English language to participate, is vitally important for enriching the education of all the students in my classroom.
I would love to hear more about how to make groupwork more democratic in our classrooms.
Posted by Timothy Woolston at 10:40 PM 0 comments
Individual and Group Accountability
ReplyDeleteAfter reading chapters 4-5 in Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom, I thought of the classes I will be teaching this semester and the classes I am currently in at the University. One idea that we touch upon but rarely revisit is the idea of individual and group accountability. Although it is expected in our university classes, high school students are rarely reminded or reflective of this practice. How can we introduce accountability for a group assignment or project? One thing that students will always acknowledge is the fact that there will always be that 'slacker' or 'free-loader' just trying to get by. In accordance with the chapter on group size, I feel as though a group of four will hold each student accountable for each task. If there are each individual tasks to complete, the idea of rewards will help the students benefit from a cooperative learning activity. When having one big task to complete for the whole group, four students will have to hold each other accountable.
The section that stood out to me the most was Size of Groups. When I thought of designing groups for mathematics, I thought of 3 – 4 students would be ideal. I never considered five students to be an idyllic group size. This section brought some light as to what to consider in mathematics if I were to assign the students in groups of five. I agree how the author, Cohen, discussed how a group of five students can work well for group discussions and for long term projects but not necessarily for “participation in interaction”. In class, I would have to check on the progress of the students regularly when they are in the groups of five. I am apprehensive of having groups of five because of the fact that a student can be left out, the group can split into two mini groups, or the students will have a hard time to completely develop a consensus on a task. This section also discussed the disadvantages of a group of three students which I did not consider. Just like my concerns in a group of five students, Cohen talks about how in a group of three students one may feel isolated from the other two. I believe group work is important in mathematics but the size of group work is what is important in the execution. This is where the challenge comes to mind, what would the ideal size be for a mathematics class? Before reading this I thought 3- 4 students was a good size but now I am considering either pairs or a group of four students. My challenge will be to find out which size is best without affecting the students in the process.
ReplyDelete"Peer Evaluation"
ReplyDeleteCohen argues that students need to learn how to evaluate each other and give feedback that is constructive. Some students can be merciless so it is important to set guidelines and model evaluation for the students. This, like all cooperative work, will teach them an intellectual and social lesson.
I think peer evaluation is great because it forces students to reflect on their own participation, other members' participation, and the overall effectiveness of the group so that next time they can see what they need to improve or what they did well. This would also be effective to share out with the class because some groups will do certain parts of the task better and then they can help other groups by sharing their own reflection.
How often and in what way should peer evaluation be included in the grading or assessment process?