1. By: Sarah Vasquez Rikki Hubbard Nylma Jorns Natalie Bushman

2. Everyone Plays A Part! Efficient and Effective Groups Secret? It lies in the teachers’ careful planning and preparation and making sure that every member has something specific to do. Nylma Jorns

3. Roles/Jobs Leadership role (obviously the leader, but can’t be someone that will dominate everything) can also be called the facilitator. Materials manager (manages materials ) Checker (checks on everyone and everything) Set up (sets up ) Reporter (be careful, can be boring) It is important for groups to discuss what to report to the class and have more than one member share. Most important thing: EVERYONE MUST KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO DO!!! The teacher must communicate rules, roles, and expected behavior. Nylma Jorns

4. Teacher’s Role Let go! You set up the rules, you train students, give directions, give norms, assign groups, plan lesson, plan groups, plan questions, plan roles, hold students accountable,etc… the list goes on. So, let go! Even when a problem arises, ask that group how they think is the best way to handle it. You are there to guide them, not tell them what to do! Nylma Jorns

5. Connection Plan! Plan! Plan! To create the most effective and best experience, plan each step in group work 1.) lesson 2.)Groups 3.)student’s roles 4.)teacher’s role Make sure all students are involved Even for those that love to day dream Teacher needs to let go and be a guide Nylma Jorns

6. Christian Worldview Just as the church is one body and we all have different parts…The class as a whole is one body and each play different parts. We all can’t just play the same part. Ex. We all can’t be pastors. Some are worship leaders, some are ushers, some do behind the scene tasks,etc… Same applies to students! Nylma Jorns

7. What is Groupwork Defined as, students working together in a group small enough so that everyone can participate on a task that has been clearly assigned. This is done without direct and immediate supervision. Rikki Hubbard

8. Why Groupwork? It helps achieve intellectual and social learning goals. It facilitates conceptual knowledge by encouraging students to exercise their thinking of abstract concepts. Students develop higher order thinking skills. Assists students in the retention of basic skills and their oral language proficiency. Rikki Hubbard

9. The Dilemma of Groupwork Unequal participation may occur. Dominance and inequality in group members who are equal in status may arise, creating competition. The student with the most knowledge of the subject in his or her group may take the lead and do it all. Popularity (social status) and societal status (sex, race, ethnicity, etc.) may keep some students from participating. Rikki Hubbard

10. Preparing Students for Cooperation Students must be prepared for cooperation so that they know how to behave in the groupwork situation without direct supervision. The norms need to be set. They are rules for how one ought to behave. Sometimes they are written, sometimes they are unspoken (see next slide for some examples by the author). Explain to students the purpose for groupwork. Rikki Hubbard

11. Norms of a Traditional Classroom Do your own work. Don’t pay attention to what other students are doing. Never give advice from a fellow student while doing an assignment in class. Pay attention to what the teacher is saying and doing and not to anything else. Keep your eyes toward the front of the room. Be quiet. Norms should be reinforced by repetition, reward and punishment. Rikki HUbbard

12. Social Learning Principles Bandura (1969) created these simple principles of social learning to help introduce new behaviors to children. 1. New behaviors must be labeled and discussed. 2. Students must learn to recognize when new behaviors occur. 3. Students must be able to use labels and discuss behavior in an objective way. 4. Students must have a chance to practice new behaviors. 5. New behaviors should be reinforced when they occur. Rikki Hubbard

14. Teaching Specific Cooperative Behaviors

15. Special Norms for Group Behavior

16. Effective Group FunctioningSkillbuilders - Each of these core skills can be developed through a series of targeted group development activities called “skillbuilders” (see Appendix A). Exercises should meet the following principles: Label and describe new behaviors Teach kids to recognize new behaviors Students should be able to discuss new behaviors Students should practice new behaviors Immediately reinforce new behaviors Natalie Bushman

21. Involve routine learning

23. Require multiple students to make small contributions

24. Require a variety of skills and behaviors

25. Is challengingNatalie Bushman

27. Planning and Orientation

28. Written Instructions

29. Size of Groups

30. Composing Groups

31. Classroom Ecology for Groups

32. Planning a Wrap-upSO WHAT? Teachers should think about each of these issues prior to formulating group activities. Natalie Bushman

35. Two strategies will have some impact on this issue:

36. Establishing cooperative norms such as “everyone participates” and “everyone helps”

37. Giving every student a part or a role to play.Sarah Vasquez

38. Make it Work! Working on Different Levels Make the Students the Expert! Every student in your class is an expert in something-work with that! Have low status students become a teacher of high status students on a new and challenging task. Multiple Abilities Strategy: Convince the students that many different abilities are required for the task. Creating a mixed set of expectations for each student. What does this mean? We must cater to the specific learning needs of all of our students! Sarah Vasquez

39. Effective Assignment of Competence Three Critical Features Evaluations must be public The evaluations must be specific, referring to particular intellectual abilities/skills The abilities/skills of the low status student must be made relevant to the groups task. Matter of fact Be honest. Be specific. There are many students that ranger from the middle to the low status that will benefit from your constant evaluation. Use more multiple ability tasks featuring higher order thinking and integrating basic skills. Sarah Vasquez

40. Evaluating Your Engineering Be critical of your groupwork the first time you try it. Even if you have faithfully adhered to the general principles for designing groupwork, principles do not fit concrete situations without adjustments. Even with the best laid plans, there is room for improvement. (pg. 136) In doing so YOU benefit by learning from reflective thought and implication of adjustments for the benefit of the groupwork. Sarah Vasquez

41. Tools for Evaluation of Your Role Before and During Groupwork Have a peer teacher observe you as your class performs groupwork. Use a student questionnaire. Use systematic interaction scoring-score each group as they are working. After Groupwork Improving the Groupwork: Confer with the peer teacher you had observing you, take the criticism as constructive. Look at everything REFLECTIVELY. What worked well and what needs to be adjusted? What does this mean? By looking reflectively at our roles, we give our students OUR very best, this will reflect in the students’ performance. Sarah Vasquez

42. Groupwork in the Bilingual Classroom Working with Muliple Languages Strategies for ELLs The issues of social class and of culture are thoroughly mixed with the issue of language. There are several approaches to ELL groupwork. It is up to us to discern what approach works best for our current students! Oral proficiency: second language learning is accelerated when learners have meaningful interaction with peers who are native speakers of the language. By developing heterogeneous groups, students are able to teach and learn from one another in spite of language barriers. Sarah Vasquez

43. Finding Out Activity Learning Stations: Activity Cards Each child is responsible for completing the task or activity that is on the card or worksheet that they are given. Worksheets and cards are in English and Spanish. Otherwise information will be lost in translation! Management: Its is essential to assure that all students have access to a task. Provide a forum where differences in ideas about what to do and about what good answers are can be shared and discussed. Take care of the problems of children that tend to become frustrated or who often become disengaged. Sarah Vasquez

44. Achievement Results Putting Groupwork to the Test Students that are LEP that were tested at the beginning of the school year and later in the year showed significant gains in EP. Gains are connected to specific experiences in the classroom. Students whose teachers set the stage for more talking and working together had higher average gains in abstract concepts. Conclusions and Christian Worldview You can create an active learning community with Active learning stations with effective heterogeneous group work. Deuteronomy 32:2: “Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” NIV. Sarah Vasquez