Effective+collaborative+Groups

Link to January goal to record your efforts and successes.

What works for equitable collaboration in your classroom?


 * Possible Solutions:**


 * Wikis**- Teachers can use the "History" tab...to keep tabs on who is doing what. With a wiki teachers can easily identify you logged in, when, and what they did.


 * "Old School Ideas"-** Break a project into equitable parts and let the kids pick who does what. For Example: Two kids work together on a project with four parts. In advance- the kids pick who is doing what. Example from a Science Class: Each pair will research on of the common pollutants: What is the pollutant, What are the major sources of the pollutant, What are the impacts on human health, What are the impacts on the environment.

To add to the above, I also break projects into individual parts. The students must tell me (in writing) who is in charge of what, so I know who loses points if a part isn't complete. ~Hilary

For big Cisco project, I explain this is an equal part assignment. A leader is assigned to report on the activities of each student in his/her group. Individual grades are used.- Matt

Threat of individual assignment for slackers. - Ann

Students contract for a part of the project to assign individual responsibility.- Scott

All projects presented in front of the class. Use peer pressure to assure that all parts are represented. - Hilary

Students grade each other and provide a summary of their work-ethics/participation at the end of the project. - Hilary

Individual accountability. Each student must participate in working and each must participate in presentation (Not holding the poster) - Kim

Daily sign off sheet to record what each student did each day. Everyone in the group must sign off on the sheet.- Lisa

Break project into smaller pieces with deadlines for each part. - Poll students at the beginning of the year to ascertain which students do not have internet access at home. Give alternate assignment or library passes for internet use to those students.

Google Docs - similar to Office. Students can collaborate on work. Multiple people can edit at the same time. Google can create class accounts.

As many have already noted, the key to equitable collaboration is accountability. Each member of a team has to be held accountable for his contribution to the effort. When we do labs, although they are working as a team, each member must turn in a lab report recording all that was done and observed during the experiment. So each student knows that at the end of the day their grade will be dependent on their active involvement in the activity. Often times these lab reports are finished outside of class. If they have not being actively involved in the process, they will have no clue as to how to document the results, hence accountability. -Chuck ---Have you ever tried having students use someone else's data to do their analysis? Ryan

I am starting a Comic Life group project. I have the requirements & rubric to give to the groups. They must then tell me who is doing what assignment (in writing), then each person needs to storyboard their comic assignment. They are not given a laptop until I have the assignment list and the storyboard from each person in their group. This allows two things: pressure from other group members to get the initial work finished and the reward of putting the project together on the laptop using a fun program like Comic Life. When grading, any assignments that are missing can be looked up on the original assignment sheet to see who was in charge of it. That person loses points, not the whole group. ~ Hilary R.

I have the kids keep daily log sheets. This way they have to tell me what they completed each day, as well as who did what. They complete them individually, but then staple them together. I look over them before the next class period and if I notice that someone is being a slacker, I talk to them about the issue. If they don't start doing their part, they in turn are removed from the group and have to do the entire project on their own. This usually gets everyone working. - Koren

As I have observed more and more teachers (out side of formal speech classes) have students give presenations I have been encouraging individuals to try having the students assess their peers formatively, using smiley faces and frowny faces for a few essential, but not necessarily contect, elements to their presentation. Have any of you tried this in your classes? - Ryan