Groupwork Strategies

iPads, Chromebooks, and other devices can often seem like individual tools. This is only heightened by what most adults use them to do outside of the workplace, like check your Facebook, read the news, or have your child play a game. However, as with any tool, devices are only as versatile as you make them. They can be used to enhance group work, bring students and ideas together, and create whole new ways for students present and share with their peers, their teacher, and their parents. However, in order to do any of that, they must first develop strong group-work habits and strategies. These tips will hopefully help your students better appreciate and use their time together, so that they can truly unleash the power of the tools at their fingertips.

Conflict Resolution System

In order for anyone to succeed in a group setting they must feel confident that they can work with others; in both the good times and the bad. The good times ten to be easy, but the bad times can be scary and challenging for many of our students. To help with this, you will want to be sure that your class has a tried and true conflict resolution system that students can fall back on to solve disagreements while working together. If they have a system, students will have confidence that even in hard times with working with others they can find the answer, which in turn will allow them to be active participants in group activities. Click on the link below to learn about some possible systems and how they can help in your classroom!

Use a Game to Choose a Role

Students, just like adults, love to do the preferred job. Unfortunately, they can't do that job every time and need to learn to share responsibilities with others in their group during different tasks. Using games can be a fun way for students to solve the problem of who does what. A few of our favorites are Rock, Paper Scissors, Odd Man Out (seen in the video above), and if you want to go way back in the time machine, Eeny, Meeny, Minny, Moe. Eventually, if groups are kept for a sustained period of time, students can settle upon a rotation for jobs and won't need these games as much.

Mix Them Up, But With Thought

When you start to form groups for students to work in, you will want to consider a few things before randomly throwing names together (although sometimes this is the appropriate strategy too). It will often pay off to strategically place students together for various reasons, such as their academic level, their English language level, or their behavior. In one project a student who is stronger in math might act as a second teacher for a student who struggles more in math. However, at the same time the latter student might act as a behavior example for the student who is better at math but makes poorer social choices. When students start to realize their power to teach each other the quality of their work goes up. They are more likely to build upon each other's ideas, to challenge notions they don't understand, and appreciate their peer's feedback. All of this equates to strong learning and exciting projects using technology.

Pass the Torch

After some practice, students will be ready for more and more responsibility. You can give this to them in several ways. For example, you may allow them to pick their own groups, or their own topic. You may also assign a project but then let the group decide what program they would like to use to present it, such as Keynote, Google Slides, or Adobe Spark Video. By passing on responsibility to the students, you are allowing them to take more ownership in their learning and giving them leeway to show what they have learned throughout the year!

Time to Gel

Allowing students to work together over the course of multiple projects is very important. Oftentimes, we can be in a rush to mix groups up after one project because some groups had challenges, or because we want everyone working with everybody. That would be an error on our part and a lack of faith in how our students can grow and learn. If you think about yourself and who you work well with, you will often realize that you had to build a lot of your working partnerships. They weren't always perfect, but over time you found ways to make your voice heard, listen, and compromise so that your partnerships worked. Students need that same amount of time. With a strong conflict resolution system, students can learn to express their needs, listen to others, and find solutions. Given time with the same partners, they will eventually find the positives in each other instead of the negatives which may be easier to see from the start. As for the students working with everyone, it is important to remember that the school year is long. There will be plenty of small and large projects for them, and they will get ample opportunity to work with each student in the class.