G roup w ork a) how to ensure everybody's participation b) how to form groups

1. Groupworka) how to ensure everybody's participation b) how to form groups

2. Content • Why do group work? • How to set up pair and group work • General strategies • Designing group work • Allocation of roles and tasks • Organizing learning groups • Conflict • Criticism • How to deal with uncooperative students • Evaluating group work • Dividing into pairs, groups of three and groups of four or more

3. Why do group work? • Group work encourages critical thinking by discussion. • Information is retained for longer than it would be if working alone. • Group work enhances and develops the ability to learn. Students learn best when they are actively involved in the process. • Many subjects are mastered through dialogue and discussion • Students who work in collaborative groups also appear more satisfied with their classes.

4. How to set up pair and group work • Be sure to fullyexplain the procedurebeforesplitting the class up. • The teacher should demonstrate the activity (with the help of a volunteer) or show someexamples first . • Ask them to tell you what they have to do before they do it (in their mothertongue if need be) to check their understanding. • Have fill in activities ready for the quickfinishers – but be sure that they have completed the taskcorrectly first and haven’t just finishedearly because they misunderstood what they had to do.

5. How to set up pair and group work • Don’t forget to have feedback time after group work so that the children don’t feel that they have been wasting time. It’s important to share their work as a whole group although this doesn’t have to be systematic. • Set a clear time limit. • Control who works with who so children aren’t always being dominated or dominating others.

6. General strategies • Carefullyexplain to yourclasshow the groups willoperate and howstudentswill be graded. It is veryimportant to tell studentsexactly what they should do. In addition to a well-definedtask, everygroupneeds to knowhow to start, when the task is done, and someguidance about the participation of members. Alsoexplainhowstudentswill be graded.

7. General strategies • Givestudents the skills they need to succeed in groups. Many students have neverworked in collaborativelearning groups and may need practice in such skills as active and tolerantlistening, helping one another in masteringcontent, giving and receivingconstructivecriticism, and managingdisagreements. Discuss these skills with yourstudents and model and reinforce them during class.

8. Designing group work • Creategrouptasks that require interdependence. Thestudents in a group must perceive that they "sink or swim" together, that each member is responsible to and dependent on all the others, and that one cannotsucceedunlessall in the groupsucceed. Strategies for promoting interdependence includespecifyingcommonrewards for the group, encouragingstudents to divide up the work, and formulatingtasks that forcestudents to reach a consensus (opinion which allstudentsagree with).

9. Designing group work • Make the group work relevant. Students must perceive the grouptasks as integral to the courseobjectives. It is believed that groups succeedbest with tasksinvolvingjudgment, e.g. Each groupprepares a report, and a representative from each group is selected to present the group's solution. The approachesused by the various groups are compared and discussed by the entireclass.

10. Designing group work • Assigngrouptasks that allow for a fair division of work. Try to structure the tasksso that each groupmember can make an equalcontribution. All the members work together to include the individualcontributionsinto the final report.

11. Allocation of roles and tasks • Roles and tasks need to be allocated to members on the basis of strengths and weaknesses. • The hardest part is to find a role that everyone is suited to. • You will need to discuss as a group what the roles are.

12. Organizing learning groups • Decidehow the groups will be formed. Self-selected groups seem to work best in smallclasses. Still other teachersprefer to form the groups themselves. They form groups of better students and weakerones to makesure that members of each groupparticipate. • Be conscious of groupsize. Ingeneral, groups of four or fivemembers work best. Larger groups decrease each member's opportunity to participateactively. The less skillful the groupmembers are, the smaller the groups should be. The shorteramount of time available is, the smaller the groups should be.

13. Organizing learning groups • Keep groups together. When a group is not working well, avoidbreaking it up, even if the grouprequests it. When you try to formnew groups you can throw off successful groups processes. Beside that, members of the troubledgroup should learn to cope with its unproductiveinteractions. • Help groups planhow to proceed. Ask each group to devise a plan of action: whowill be doing what and when.

14. Conflict • A certain degree of conflict is useful and is a sign that the group is functioning healthily. • Too much conflict suggests communication problems which must be resolved. • Conflict usually arises from unclear aims and objectives. To avoid this, set down the aims and objectives of the group for the whole project at all levels as early as possible.

15. Criticism • Criticism should be activelyencouraged. • When you criticise, raise and analyse the good points as well as the badpoints. • When raising negative points, formulateways to build on them and moveforward. • Good criticismwill help others to evaluate their own work more effectively. • If you do not criticise well, you will not be seen as objective. • Criticism should be neutral.

16. How to deal with uncooperative students • Providemechanisms for groups to deal with uncooperativemembers. • Keep the groups of threestudents: it is hard to be a shirker (lazy, evasive student) in a smallgroup. • Make it clear that each group must find its ownway to handle unproductivegroupbehavior. • Allow the groups, by majority vote, to dismiss a memberwho is not carrying a fair share. Studentswho are dropped from a group must persuade the group to reconsider, findacceptance in another group, or take a failing grade for the project.

17. How to deal with uncooperative students • Some people recommends telling the class that after the group task is completed, each student will submit to the teacher an anonymous assessment of the participation of the other group members: who did extra work and who shirked work. If several people indicate that an individual did less than a fair share, that person could receive a lower grade than the rest of the group.

18. Evaluating group work • Ensure that individual student participates and that the groups knowhow their members are doing. (Ways toensure that studentsknow what is done in the groupincludegiving spot quizzes to be completedindividually and calling on individualstudents to present their group's progress. )

19. Evaluating group work • Givestudents an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of their group. Askgroupmembers to discuss two questions: What action has each membertaken that was helpful for the group? What actioncould each membertake to make the group even better? (At the end of the project, askstudents to complete a briefevaluationform on the effectiveness of the group and its members.)

20. Evaluating group work • Decidehow to grade members of the group. We can grade thisway: Giveallmembers of the group the samemarks. Grade studentsindividually. (Thisinevitablyleads to competition within the group and thussubverts the benefits of group work.) Grade the contribution of each student on the basis of individual test scores or the group's evaluation of each member's work.

21. Dividing into pairs 1. Compound words (cross – word) 2. Word parts (num – ber) 3. Idioms (an Achilles´ - heel) 4. Proverbs (A barking dog – never bites.) 5. Question + Answer (How old are you? – I am 13.) 6. Problem + Solution (car problem – car mechanic) 7. Object + Object (knife – fork) 8. Famous pairs (Shrek – Fiona) 9. Antonyms (good - bad) 10. Synonyms (grandfather – grandpa)

22. Dividing into groups of three 1. Synonyms (postpone – put off – delay) 2. Conversations/Dialogues (statement - reaction – statement, e.g. Can you help me, please? - Yes, what happened? – I have a problem with my car.) 3. Line-up (cat – dog – mouse / teacher – cook – shop assistant)

23. Dividinginto groups of four or more 1. Picture puzzle (parts of pictures to be matched) 2. Common denominator (run – jump – walk – go / write – draw – type – paint) 3. Line-up