Types of Group Work
By Despina Kakoudaki
Group Work in a classroom is usually organized around the concept of the Information Gap: this means that your students' communication and exchange revolves around how they can collaborate to solve an issue or problem, combine their individual knowledge, and share their resources.
Setting up interesting topics for your students' group projects is a matter of practice, both for you and for them. You have to learn how to provide enough structure and guidance so that everybody knows what they are trying to do and why, while allowing open-endedness in how many directions or approaches they can use. Your students have to learn to respect each other's opinion, work in a constructive way, organize their tasks and respond creatively (rather than complacently) to their topic.
You can use Group Projects both in class and for after-class activities. Students can organize events, conduct interviews, reserch topics, and present on new texts. The fact that they do this as a group adds a level of engagement with their topic, and allows them to learn from their peers. Often it also allows them to find out about other resources, such as Libraries, Museums, local events or bookstores.
You should remember that students have to be trained to follow complex instructions, and to perform well in groups. Adding group projects to your classroom gradually and using group activities repeatedly are more effective than having an ambitious multi-layered project that happens once and never repeated.
Here are the four basic types of Classroom Group Set-up, described in terms of how much of the activity is open-ended:1.
** Same text, excerpt, or materials for the whole class
** Same task, exercise or question for the whole class
** Discussion in groups
** Group Notes
** Back to the center for Report of discussion
** Fast, time-efficient, basic, allows students to meet each other and exchange some ideas or help each other about plots, characters, styles
2.
** Same text, excerpt, or materials for the whole class
** Choice of issues, questions or tasks for each group to decide themselves
** Instructor provides issues, in handout or on the board
** Group Discussion
** Group Notes/ Directions/ Conclusions
** Back to the center for Feedback
** Groups can respond to each other from different points of view
3.
** Distribution of 3-4 different sets of materials
** Instructor provides handout (excerpt, text, quotation, short essay)
** Choice of issues, questions or tasks
** Each group decides task, direction or issue themselves
** Instructor provides issues, in handout or on the board
** Group Notes/ Directions/ Conclusions
** Back to the center for Feedback
** More combinations allow for more engaged feedback session
** More time has to be allocated to feedback
4.
** Groups are assigned a topic, issue or question to research
** Instructor may provide specific passage, excerpt, essay or direction
** Group decides on consensus, perspective, argument, approach
** For example, first group works on use of landscape in paragraph 1, second on clothes in paragraph 2, third on dialogue in paragraph 3 etc. Or students may choose which paragraph they work on (but not topic)
** Every group member takes notes
** STUDENTS REGROUP
** In new setup, groups are combined: in each new group there is one student from the landscape group, one from the clothes group, one from the dialogue group etc.
** New task is for each group to combine their previous conclusions in a specific format
** Possible assignments for this type of work: Second groups should come up with a paper topic or outline, provide a close reading guideline for other students, write an imitation of the transitions between styles or themes, make comments in peer editing session
** Feedback could be at home or due in the next class in a written or oral report style
** Maximum interaction between students, feedback period very engaged, in second group every student is a specialist. Time consuming. Students should be "trained" to respond to a lot of variables in their assignments.
Remember that anything can be an acceptable topic for Group Work: the initial question can be strange, mysterious, or seemingly unconnected to the class. The students' interaction and collective thinking will make it relevant and illuminate it. What cannot be vague or mysterious is your instructions: you are responsible for the organizational aspect of setting up the groups, clarifying the task and giving lucid instructions. The students control the results of their work, but it is up to you to make sure that they don't spend their time confused or worried about "doing it right."