Event Information
Group work doesn't have to be completely unstructured time that leads to over socializing and an inequitable allocation of work and learning. Structures, protocols, and expectations increase the depth of understanding and the efficiency of time when students work with their peers. Making these small tweaks to yield positive results requires us to reflect on how our planning, activation, and monitoring of group work impacts the students' effectiveness. Not only will we identify these common pitfalls, but we will offer replacement methods that make a big difference in the success of collaborative learning.
Teachers as Students: Self assessment and reflection (2 minutes)
Assumptions and Beliefs about Group Work: Agree/Disagree Hold Ups (3 minutes)
Tips 1-3, Grouping Structurers: Start-Stop-Continue (5 minutes)
Tips 4-5, Giving Directions: Cause/Effect Map (5 minutes)
Tip 6, Answering Questions About the Task: Replacing Reaction Matching (5 minutes)
Tips 7-9, Assigning Roles: Pick 5 for Your Class (5 minutes)
Halfway through reflection: Triad (6 minutes)
Tips 10-12, Supporting Learning: Do/Avoid Commitment Task (5 minutes)
Tips 13-14, Teacher's Primary Role: Make an Analogy (5 minutes)
Tips 15-17, Learning Tasks: Glows and Grows (5 minutes)
Closure: Priortizing Impact: Done and Run (9 minutes)
Transitions and Q&A: 5 minutes
Peer collaboration and group work is heavily researched yet, isn't a primary method for student learning in many classrooms. The ideas in this sessions come from the presenter's book, Hacking Group Work. This is not a sales pitch for the book; the workshop models the ways collaborative learning can be facilitated and brings the strategies alive for partipants to experience.