EDSE 500 Group Work

Thursday morning, after watching my colleague, Dewey Kid, teach, our instructor, Ms. Monroe, was about to commit to come back for 3rd period when I mentioned that we would be doing group work during 4th period. Asked if I would prefer she come 3rd or 4th period, I waffled. “It’s up to you,” I said with an accommodating shrug. Then, after a moment’s reconsideration, I added that group activity is probably an area where I need more improvement. So she came to observe my 4th-period lesson.

The idea for my lesson was to have the kids build up to the Pythagorean Theorem sort of semi-inductively using the old classic manipulative stand-by’s of cut-outs and glue. Each group was supposed to make right triangles by placing, corner-to-corner, squares I had pre-cut for them out of graphing paper. The squares were cut so as to make combinations of 3-4-5, 6-8-10, & 5-12-13, the numbers so chosen because their squares add up perfectly in the Pythagorean Theorem (e.g. 3*3 + 4*4 = 5*5). A series of questions on a worksheet was supposed to lead them to the general equation for the Pythagorean Theorem.

Ms. Monroe praised the idea for my lesson and the questions on my worksheet. Suggestions for improvement, as I expected, lay mainly in how I managed the activity. One of the most important suggestions she gave was not only to explain every detailed instruction for the activity, both orally and in writing, but to demonstrate exactly how the activity should be done with an example before even separating the students into groups. I think I did try to explain the instructions and show with a drawing how the kids would put the squares together to make a right triangle inside, but I need to focus on explaining even more thoroughly and minutely, from beginning to end, as well as showing a tangible example of what the end product should look like. As Ms. Monroe observed, I circulated around the classroom well but spent too much time explaining and demonstrating to the students after they were already split into groups and starting to make messes with glue.

One of the other problems with the activity was that the individuals in the groups were not generally staying on task. Suggestions for improvement included: Split the students into smaller groups. Make sure the kids have something to do when the project is finished or while others are working. And assign pre-defined roles, possibly by random drawing. I will keep all those suggestions in mind for the future.

Another problem Dewey and I discussed regarding group activities in our classroom is that we had no system of group rewards or consequences in our rather bare-bones classroom management system. We were left trying to pick out individuals to punish, when actually it is a class-level noise and chaos that becomes problematic. At Ms. Monroe’s encouragement, Dewey and I decided that night to implement a class point system. Points can be won or lost, according to the teacher’s judgment of how the class, as a group, behaves. After enough points have accumulated, students can vote regarding how to save or redeem the points: Possible redemption prizes include a class-wide homework pass, a “math-free period” for music or outside games, and a class pizza party. Friday was our first day to implement the plan. I felt it worked well during our first two periods, but we sort of lost our way with it when Moda taught 3rd period with his usual loosey-goosey management style and did not utilize the system at all. By the end of 2nd period, the class had earned four points. By dismissal at the end of the day, we were back down to zero again.

Part of what makes it difficult for me to manage students working in groups is that I sometimes do not have a clear idea of how I want to kids to work. I just want them to work cooperatively, productively, and within a reasonable amount of noise. Perhaps it is too much to ask for them to do all that without more specific routines and instructions. I suppose I like the idea of defining roles within the groups, but it seems like something I will have to give a lot of thought between now and then as to how the roles should work, how I will monitor them, and what even to call them.