Ahh group work. This concept brings back not-so-fond memories of my educational experience. Group work or cooperative work often meant that high achieving students who cared about their grades (me) were stuck with classmates who were less than concerned about the project. My teachers’ hope was that I would bring up the lower achieving students, using scaffolding, etc etc.
In short, I HATED group projects! I would have been much happier to work by myself to create the project. Many of my students fall into this same camp.
Student accountability seems to be the biggest concern when it comes to group work. Who is responsible for the research? Student A isn’t participating as much as Student B. Student C is doing all of the work!
In group activities, I don’t think every student will contribute the same amount of work and effort to activities. I may be wrong…that’s just what I’ve observed from the student and teacher perspectives.
To alleviate some of this concern from my student groups, and to attempt to increase student accountability, I developed a cooperative guide I call “C4.”
Here is my basic premise…
- I want students to Collaborate Cooperatively, Creatively, and Constructively (the title for my collaboration tool isn’t terribly creative!!)
- I want to hold students accountable for their contributions to the group project
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