Good job Greg!
I like your idea of "self governance" with your guiding hand. When we feel empowered,we are more likely to be successful and empowerment starts in the classroom in the education arena.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
I usualy let the students pick their own groups at first and see how well they work together , I observe who is taking what role in the tasks and after the first set i advise them to rotate the roles in the groups from one writing the data ,one processing the procedure from the workshop manual , and one actualy performing the hands on part of the task . Then after some evaluaation i may move students form one group to another to try to balance the skills and participation of the group as a whole .
Hi Elizabeth!
Sounds like this is a good idea. I often let the students decide how the class as a whole can make a decision on group selection. I might make a few suggestions to lead it in the direction I hope they take.
Keep up the good work!
JaneDavis
Ed106 Facilitator
I assign numbers from 1 to 5 and all the ones, twos, threes etc..form their groups.
I agree, students form clicks very quickly and then it is harder to make them form groups of the instructor's choice. Then some students do prefer to work alone..but I still think it is a good idea for the instructor to decide the groups and have control over that. It also eliminates the problem of the one student who doesnt know anyone and doesnt know where to go!
I like to organize students in groups so that they are able to work with different people everyday and increase their comfort levels
When I have students work in groups I either let them work with students around them or I assing them a group by using numbers. Both systems work.
Sometimes I have the students get into groups by using a counting method (1,2,3...)or sometimes I let them decide on the people in the group. i depends on the abilility of the students to get into a grouod and I like to sometimes assign the studnets into certain groups so that they get a different understanding form sonmeone different then tehmselves. It really depends on the activity that is involved.
I randomly assign students into groups at the beginning of my course. Midway through the course, I evaluate the students as I have gotten to know them individually. By doing a regrouping I am able to balance the groups with leaders, doers, student that are wallflowers and students who need a little extra encouragement.
Initially, I organize groups after researching student experience (as much as possible)allowing placement of at least one person with some degree of history in that given subject. I have found, as I am sure many of you have, students are more likely to communicate with each other than with the perceived all-powerful instructor/teacher. This can and usually does get the ball rolling for a more informal lecture setting & allows those who are somewhat timid in open forum to recognize that they are not alone in their apprehension. Using this process & monitoring the group activity will allow one to recognize those that are of a shy nature and from that point a casual communication can take the edge off for some of those students. Once one sees the involvement from those of his or her type, it has a seemingly domino effect, whereby others may participate.
Schedule and plan diverse learning groups to enable fuller participation, expand interaction, and provide students a broader range of different perspectives. Can also use more informal spontaneous learning groups when structure is not needed as much.
For my spanish course, I create "situation cards" with the situation of a patient or a medical professional. I hand them out randomly to students. I ask them to write out the necessary phrases/questions in Spanish and then, while speaking Spanish only, find their "match" (each medical professional situation has a corresponding patient situation).
When it is effective to use groups, I find that separating "clicks" is essential. Then I divide the students so that as fair as I can make it, they are equally composed according to cultural diversity, age differences,knowledge, and enthusiasm. This way, each group has the same chance of doing well and also learn from others without the stress of feeling that they will not succeed because they may not have the same knowledge or intelligence as another group. Barb Jarosch
I used to teach a class where we would have a day called "Restaurant Day" where all the student s wetre broken into small groups to create their own menu and really create their own "restaurant". It was fascinatin always to see how a leader would develop and become the "Chef" and others would would for him/her. It was a very rewarding day for all, as everyone had important roles in their team.
after letting students form their lab groups i found that sometimes have to move one or two to other groups either to gain a leader in the group or to let a student be more sucessful .
Another thing I have tried one time.... at the first class I have the students fill out an index card with their name and contact info (since sending around an email list is a FERPA violation) then I shuffle the cards and deal the cards out in however many groups I want/need and call out the names of the students in each group. This works best if the class is larger. This keeps the instructor in charge of the groups a little more but also allows for randomization.
Yikes! If I ever did this I think there would be major complaints! It seems like this would be embarrassing for the stdents on the lower end of the spectrum. How does this fit with FERPA?
I like to use GPA occasionally. I ask the 4.0-3.5 to line up, followed by the 3.5-3.0, and then everyone else. I then have them count off (i.e., 3 groups, 1-3; 4 groups, 1-4; etc.)This assures me of having a fairly even assortment of GPA in each group so no one group has an abundance of overachieving students.
This course provided good ideas on how to organize students into work groups and I plan to implement some of them. I taught a class before with 4 males and 16 females. For one break out activity, I had the men serve as the leaders and the women were divided into groups of 4. It was kind of nice seeing the men lead because majority of the conversations are women led.
I teach online, and try to keep my students in the same time zone or at least one time zone difference. When I have students who are overseas this becomes a challenge. I also use random selection once I have placed the students into their respective time zone categories.
