After 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. If they decide to split the task into 2, two students will do one part while the other two do the second. This way each student has a partner to hold them accountable. Each person in a group needs to feel like they are a vital part in the outcome in order to reduce that idea of the 'free-loader'. If they feel like they are an important part of the group and assignment, each student will motivate each other and allow for a better project.
For Spanish, group work can help each student become accountable for themselves and create more critical thinking within group development. The assignment may not necessarily be about the work and the learning objective, but rather the idea of creating social skills and accountability within a class. This can also be helpful when doing service-learning projects or even learning the language and culture more. If students are working on a project where they have to research and report on a Latin country, food, or famous person, they will be able to help each other with the language and the responsibilities that need to be divided between each other. I can either give them each roles, or make the directions very general so that they need to work out their responsibilities. As a concern, with the assignment being more general, I will not be able to ensure individual accountability unless I give them a group assessment at the end to grade each other. I feel that students are honest and capable, but there are times when they are not sensible. They may feel like they had done most of the work, when in reality it could have been shared evenly.
February 28, 2010
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Individual accountability and assessment can be accomplished vry well together by requiring some portion of a groupwork task be submitted by each student, or by a small quiz/exit card to be completed at the end of a class session.
ReplyDeleteI am not too keen on the group assessment activity you suggest--in essence to score each other's contributions to the group. This sort of approach might be most productive if a group must determine each person's roles, responsibilities, and timeline early in a task, have this confirmed with the teacher, return to it a few times during the task and update/edit, and then finally score. But this would work best for a very large project. Not all groupwork tasks need to be so large, or so demanding. For example, Rainbow Logic.