The Seven R's of Great Group Work
The extracts below are from the latest mini guide in my Alphabet Sevens series. You can buy a copy here.
Introduction
Group work has the potential to be a brilliant strategy for learning, with many benefits for students. However, it is a tricky technique to use well, and there are a number of potential pitfalls. For group work to be ‘great’, the teacher has to manage, structure and focus the activity so that the best possible learning can take place. We cannot simply put our students into groups and leave them to work without guidance or support. If we do, we run the risk that, while the children are working within a group format, they are not working as a collaborative group.
This mini guide will help you get the very best out of group work, whatever age group or subject area you teach. In this book you will find practical ideas and techniques to make your group work as ‘great’ as it can possibly be. As with all my books, this guide is full of strategies that you can put to use straight away. You will also find specific examples throughout this book of great group work activities.
Group work helps your students develop many different skills and attitudes, ones that are highly valued in the world beyond school. They build their collaborative skills, develop language, explore ideas and learn how to share and take turns. When working in groups, students develop their social skills, ‘rehearse’ their thinking out loud and hear it critiqued, learn how to negotiate roles and how to act as leaders. They also understand when it might work best to delegate tasks or responsibilities. Group work builds a feeling of community: the students are the crew building learning with the teacher, rather than the passengers on a teacher driven train.
Research has shown that group work is an effective way for students to build their cognitive skills*. Group work boosts relationships between the teacher and his or her students, and helps children actively engage in what they are learning. There are some curriculum areas in which group work is an integral part of the subject itself. In these subjects the ability to work with and alongside others is vital for success. These ‘group work based’ subjects include drama, dance and key areas within physical education.
In many ways, it is simpler for the teacher or the students to work alone. When we learn individually, we can focus on our own needs and desires. We can be passive recipients of learning or even switch off from learning altogether. But human beings are naturally sociable – we love to chat and share ideas and build on each other’s thinking. For many teachers, group work instinctively feels like a great method to use with their classes.
Group work is a complex teaching structure. It is a tricky strategy for an educator to manage effectively, and it is also hard for students to do well. Some teachers may lack confidence in using group work, and perhaps shy away from it as a result. But just because group work is difficult to do well, this is no reason not to use it. This concise guide will help you maximise the learning that takes place when you use group work with your students.
Sue Cowley
www.suecowley.co.uk
* www.tlrp.org/pub/documents/no11_blatchford.pdf
Extract from Section 5: The Fifth R: Relationships
Negative Group Relationships
Keep an eye out for any students who bring the following negative attitudes or approaches to group work. Intervene with individuals and use whole class discussions to identify why these roles are potentially damaging. Use peer group feedback and evaluation after an activity is completed, to encourage students to reward those who take on positive roles within the group.
Negative approaches would include students who are:
* Keen to take over – students who dominate the group, telling the other group members what to do;
* Aggressive – being rude or abusive towards other group members;
* Blocking – stopping the group from moving onwards with the task;
* Attention seeking – drawing attention to themselves rather than allowing everyone to have equal input;
* Distracting – trying to pull the group away from focusing on the task, perhaps through misbehaviour;
* Opting out – allowing the other members of the group to do all the work, without making any contributions.
Some students hate group work because they feel they are ‘above’ it and because they want to work alone to achieve the maximum grades. They do not want other students (who they perhaps perceive as ‘slower’) to hold them back or bring them down. An interesting method for dealing with these students is to put them in a group together. Because all the students have a similar attitude to group work, they are forced to learn to cooperate and negotiate, so that they do not fail at the task.
How to Counter Blocking
All the negative approaches described above can limit the quality of group work that takes place. Here is a great activity that will help you counter the student who continually blocks the forward progress of the group. This drama/speaking and listening activity shows students how they can take responsibility for moving their group onwards.
This is how it works:
* Divide the students up into pairs: one person is ‘A’ and the other ‘B’;
* Student A is going to try and persuade student B to do something;
* For instance, A wants to persuade B to go into town with her that evening.
The first time that you run this exercise, student B must respond to every suggestion with ‘No’. Whatever A suggests, B must give a firm negative in response. For instance:
A: We could go to the cinema tonight, couldn’t we?
B: No.
A: Well, we could go out for a meal together, couldn’t we?
B: No.
A: How about if we go and play in the park for a bit?
B: No.
Once the students have done this for a few minutes, pull the class back together and ask how it felt to have the response ‘no’ to every suggestion they made. Now run the activity a second time. Student A carries on making suggestions, but this time student B is going to say ‘yes but’ in response, giving a reason why the suggestion isn’t a good idea. So the activity might run something like this:
A: We could go to the cinema tonight, couldn’t we?
B: Yes, but there’s nothing good on so there’s no point.
A: Well, we could go out for a meal together, couldn’t we?
B: Yes, but I’ve got a sore tooth so it’s really painful for me to eat.
A: How about if we go and play in the park for a bit?
B: Yes, but they said on the weather forecast that it’s going to rain later.
Again, talk about how it felt to have every suggestion greeted with a negative response. Now run the activity a final time. Student B is going to say ‘yes and’ to every suggestion, adding their own ideas to those of their friend. So, the final version might sound something like this:
A: We could go to the cinema tonight, couldn’t we?
B: Yes, and afterwards we could go for some food.
A: How about if we go and play in the park for a bit first?
B: Yes, and then we can see if there’s anyone there who wants to come with us to the cinema.
Again, discuss how this felt with your students. They should notice that, by accepting and then building on each other’s ideas, everyone feels more positive and they are likely to develop far more interesting ideas together.
Getting into Groups
For each group task you need to make a decision about whether you should use random groupings, allocate groupings yourself, or allow the students to choose the groups in which they work. The choice you make will depend on lots of different factors, including:
* The relationships your students already have with each other;
* The ethos that you want to build;
* The age group you are teaching;
* The subject area or topic that you are studying;
* How well motivated your students are;
* The kind of mix of abilities you have in your class;
* How far social interactions filter into or disrupt learning in your lessons.
There are advantages and disadvantages to getting into groups in different ways, both in terms of building relationships, and also in terms of the learning that will take place. For instance, in drama lessons I have found it works well to insist on completely random groupings right from the very start. If you never offer any other approach as an alternative, it does not even occur to the students that it might be possible to pick groups in any other way.
You might like to try asking your students what they think the best way to get into groups would be, for a particular task. Consider too whether there would be benefits in keeping your groups the same over time, for instance when working on long term group projects.
Here are some thoughts about the positives and negatives of different approaches to choosing groups, and the kind of activities for which they might be most useful.
Random Groupings
Advantages: This can throw up some very interesting and challenging mixes of students; it creates an ethos of ‘everybody works with anybody’; over time, all students should end up working together with everyone else in the class.
Disadvantages: Sometimes clashes may occur between individuals, and you need to be confident that you can handle these.
Works well for: Creative subjects and groups of students who need to learn to work in a more collaborative way.
Teacher Allocated Groupings
Advantages: This helps to limit the amount of differentiation needed in subjects such as literacy; the teacher can aim for the right mix of abilities and personalities; set groupings give a sense of continuity over time.
Disadvantages: This relies heavily on the teacher’s knowledge of the individual students – both their personalities and their ability levels; it can also lead to a static situation where groups rarely mix.
Works well for: Literacy and numeracy in a primary class with a wide mix of abilities; group activities where there are a number of clearly defined roles that would be suited to particular students.
Student Chosen Groupings
Advantages: Students tend to feel more relaxed when they are working with their friends; where cohesion and collaboration are already at least partly in place, being allowed to choose groups can be used as a reward or a motivator for hard working students.
Disadvantages: Less popular students may get left out of groupings; this approach can limit the development of collaborative working, as students do not try to work with those outside their normal social group.
Works well for: Older students and highly motivated classes, where there are no students likely to be left out; GCSE tasks in creative subject areas where achieving good collaboration is the key to success.
The extracts below are from the latest mini guide in my Alphabet Sevens series. You can buy a copy here.
Introduction
Group work has the potential to be a brilliant strategy for learning, with many benefits for students. However, it is a tricky technique to use well, and there are a number of potential pitfalls. For group work to be ‘great’, the teacher has to manage, structure and focus the activity so that the best possible learning can take place. We cannot simply put our students into groups and leave them to work without guidance or support. If we do, we run the risk that, while the children are working within a group format, they are not working as a collaborative group.
This mini guide will help you get the very best out of group work, whatever age group or subject area you teach. In this book you will find practical ideas and techniques to make your group work as ‘great’ as it can possibly be. As with all my books, this guide is full of strategies that you can put to use straight away. You will also find specific examples throughout this book of great group work activities.
Group work helps your students develop many different skills and attitudes, ones that are highly valued in the world beyond school. They build their collaborative skills, develop language, explore ideas and learn how to share and take turns. When working in groups, students develop their social skills, ‘rehearse’ their thinking out loud and hear it critiqued, learn how to negotiate roles and how to act as leaders. They also understand when it might work best to delegate tasks or responsibilities. Group work builds a feeling of community: the students are the crew building learning with the teacher, rather than the passengers on a teacher driven train.
Research has shown that group work is an effective way for students to build their cognitive skills*. Group work boosts relationships between the teacher and his or her students, and helps children actively engage in what they are learning. There are some curriculum areas in which group work is an integral part of the subject itself. In these subjects the ability to work with and alongside others is vital for success. These ‘group work based’ subjects include drama, dance and key areas within physical education.
In many ways, it is simpler for the teacher or the students to work alone. When we learn individually, we can focus on our own needs and desires. We can be passive recipients of learning or even switch off from learning altogether. But human beings are naturally sociable – we love to chat and share ideas and build on each other’s thinking. For many teachers, group work instinctively feels like a great method to use with their classes.
Group work is a complex teaching structure. It is a tricky strategy for an educator to manage effectively, and it is also hard for students to do well. Some teachers may lack confidence in using group work, and perhaps shy away from it as a result. But just because group work is difficult to do well, this is no reason not to use it. This concise guide will help you maximise the learning that takes place when you use group work with your students.
Sue Cowley
www.suecowley.co.uk
* www.tlrp.org/pub/documents/no11_blatchford.pdf
Extract from Section 5: The Fifth R: Relationships
Negative Group Relationships
Keep an eye out for any students who bring the following negative attitudes or approaches to group work. Intervene with individuals and use whole class discussions to identify why these roles are potentially damaging. Use peer group feedback and evaluation after an activity is completed, to encourage students to reward those who take on positive roles within the group.
Negative approaches would include students who are:
* Keen to take over – students who dominate the group, telling the other group members what to do;
* Aggressive – being rude or abusive towards other group members;
* Blocking – stopping the group from moving onwards with the task;
* Attention seeking – drawing attention to themselves rather than allowing everyone to have equal input;
* Distracting – trying to pull the group away from focusing on the task, perhaps through misbehaviour;
* Opting out – allowing the other members of the group to do all the work, without making any contributions.
Some students hate group work because they feel they are ‘above’ it and because they want to work alone to achieve the maximum grades. They do not want other students (who they perhaps perceive as ‘slower’) to hold them back or bring them down. An interesting method for dealing with these students is to put them in a group together. Because all the students have a similar attitude to group work, they are forced to learn to cooperate and negotiate, so that they do not fail at the task.
How to Counter Blocking
All the negative approaches described above can limit the quality of group work that takes place. Here is a great activity that will help you counter the student who continually blocks the forward progress of the group. This drama/speaking and listening activity shows students how they can take responsibility for moving their group onwards.
This is how it works:
* Divide the students up into pairs: one person is ‘A’ and the other ‘B’;
* Student A is going to try and persuade student B to do something;
* For instance, A wants to persuade B to go into town with her that evening.
The first time that you run this exercise, student B must respond to every suggestion with ‘No’. Whatever A suggests, B must give a firm negative in response. For instance:
A: We could go to the cinema tonight, couldn’t we?
B: No.
A: Well, we could go out for a meal together, couldn’t we?
B: No.
A: How about if we go and play in the park for a bit?
B: No.
Once the students have done this for a few minutes, pull the class back together and ask how it felt to have the response ‘no’ to every suggestion they made. Now run the activity a second time. Student A carries on making suggestions, but this time student B is going to say ‘yes but’ in response, giving a reason why the suggestion isn’t a good idea. So the activity might run something like this:
A: We could go to the cinema tonight, couldn’t we?
B: Yes, but there’s nothing good on so there’s no point.
A: Well, we could go out for a meal together, couldn’t we?
B: Yes, but I’ve got a sore tooth so it’s really painful for me to eat.
A: How about if we go and play in the park for a bit?
B: Yes, but they said on the weather forecast that it’s going to rain later.
Again, talk about how it felt to have every suggestion greeted with a negative response. Now run the activity a final time. Student B is going to say ‘yes and’ to every suggestion, adding their own ideas to those of their friend. So, the final version might sound something like this:
A: We could go to the cinema tonight, couldn’t we?
B: Yes, and afterwards we could go for some food.
A: How about if we go and play in the park for a bit first?
B: Yes, and then we can see if there’s anyone there who wants to come with us to the cinema.
Again, discuss how this felt with your students. They should notice that, by accepting and then building on each other’s ideas, everyone feels more positive and they are likely to develop far more interesting ideas together.
Getting into Groups
For each group task you need to make a decision about whether you should use random groupings, allocate groupings yourself, or allow the students to choose the groups in which they work. The choice you make will depend on lots of different factors, including:
* The relationships your students already have with each other;
* The ethos that you want to build;
* The age group you are teaching;
* The subject area or topic that you are studying;
* How well motivated your students are;
* The kind of mix of abilities you have in your class;
* How far social interactions filter into or disrupt learning in your lessons.
There are advantages and disadvantages to getting into groups in different ways, both in terms of building relationships, and also in terms of the learning that will take place. For instance, in drama lessons I have found it works well to insist on completely random groupings right from the very start. If you never offer any other approach as an alternative, it does not even occur to the students that it might be possible to pick groups in any other way.
You might like to try asking your students what they think the best way to get into groups would be, for a particular task. Consider too whether there would be benefits in keeping your groups the same over time, for instance when working on long term group projects.
Here are some thoughts about the positives and negatives of different approaches to choosing groups, and the kind of activities for which they might be most useful.
Random Groupings
Advantages: This can throw up some very interesting and challenging mixes of students; it creates an ethos of ‘everybody works with anybody’; over time, all students should end up working together with everyone else in the class.
Disadvantages: Sometimes clashes may occur between individuals, and you need to be confident that you can handle these.
Works well for: Creative subjects and groups of students who need to learn to work in a more collaborative way.
Teacher Allocated Groupings
Advantages: This helps to limit the amount of differentiation needed in subjects such as literacy; the teacher can aim for the right mix of abilities and personalities; set groupings give a sense of continuity over time.
Disadvantages: This relies heavily on the teacher’s knowledge of the individual students – both their personalities and their ability levels; it can also lead to a static situation where groups rarely mix.
Works well for: Literacy and numeracy in a primary class with a wide mix of abilities; group activities where there are a number of clearly defined roles that would be suited to particular students.
Student Chosen Groupings
Advantages: Students tend to feel more relaxed when they are working with their friends; where cohesion and collaboration are already at least partly in place, being allowed to choose groups can be used as a reward or a motivator for hard working students.
Disadvantages: Less popular students may get left out of groupings; this approach can limit the development of collaborative working, as students do not try to work with those outside their normal social group.
Works well for: Older students and highly motivated classes, where there are no students likely to be left out; GCSE tasks in creative subject areas where achieving good collaboration is the key to success.