Bible Students

Thoughts on “Strategies and Models for Teachers” by Eggen and Kauchak (chapter 4)

This week’s reading covers group activities. Group activities are a way for students to engage in the material in a unique and fun way, through peer to peer discussions, reflections, and even teaching. Group activities come with many advantages and disadvantages, as covered in the chapter. 

First and foremost, without accountability many students will not contribute well to class activities involving groups. However, this does not mean it is not worth the effort to involve students in group activities. Social development is an important part of learning. Group work addresses social skills which are not normally covered in a regular lecture. Humans are social animals. They need to learn in a social environment.

Together, people construct better ideas. Teachers should assign groups according to seats so they can sit together easily. This prevents the unnecessary chaos of students moving around the room, bumping into one another, and generally wasting time. Teacher need to monitor groups. Groups should be strategically monitored in order to ensure maximum productivity and efficiency, while minimizing the need for breaking up groups to avoid distraction. 

As a general rule of tumb, do not pair up friends or allow students to choose  their own groups. This will inevitably lead to distractions and wasted class time, where there could be much growth from dividing the groups ahead of time. Teachers must make sure to interact with students. Additionally, one of the most helpful aspects of the exercise of group activities is that the students are able to work with other students who they would not normally work with. When students are placed in new groups, they are able to learn about new people and form new social connections, while overcoming their own biases and stigmas. 

If friends pair together they will talk to each other and get off task. Teachers must carefully monitor the assignments. If the students believe the teacher does not find the lesson at hand to be important, they also will not find the lesson to be important. The students must believe the teacher sees real need for the lesson in order for maximal engagement. 

Communication in the groups is absolutely essential. The students must work effectively in a small group. They must interview each other and be able to know each other before working together well. Students must discuss their different answers with one another and discover how to get to the correct answer. Social skills are learned through this. The teacher should move from a whole class discussion to individual groups quickly. If the students can resolve differences, they will not have to talk to more people to find the correct answer. 

With the Jigsaw method, where each student learns a different part of the lesson, only to come together at the end to teach the other class members, each person could wrongfully learn about small pieces of the lesson without interaction with their peers. The Jigsaw method allows students to learn a small section and teach the other students, and then all exam on the whole lesson. Explaining why the groups are divided the way they are could help to push down any complaining. Groups should be assigned. 

The individual students will become an expert in an area and teach the topic in order to present to the other students in the class. Review by the teacher is important. The teachers must review the information and give what else is needed to fill in the gaps. When the student presents the research material they have found, the teacher must keep a close eye that the essential material of the lesson is kept intact. If the material is not kept intact, the teacher should step in and include the missing material. 

Groups can also be cooperative groups which all learn together and then teach it. The whole group must learn together and present it as a lesson. This kind of lesson should focus on high quality examples and interaction. Teachers should organize teams which are a mix and wide spread, around 5 people. Teachers may awards points if a student increases their grade substantially. A higher turnaround may result in higher grades. 

Another way to encourage proper classroom etiquette is by pointing out how groups are using efforts to include others. Recognizing achievement will increase drive, especially public praise for highschoolers in this manner. The group score will be based on the improvement score of the individual members. People are naturally drawn away from other people who are different from them, so the teacher must make it their job to tear down these stigmas. Teachers should use cooperative tools to bring different groups together and working together. 

Model helpful cooperation and asking for help, especially for minorities. Lower performers are usually overshadowed by higher performers. Make sure everyone will have a chance to talk. Do not grade the group together, but individually on their contributions and growth. 

Use group discussions for examining a text and discovering reflections. Poorly planned discussions are meaningless. Planned discussions are excellent tools for teaching. Discussions must always follow lessons on the idea, so they have something to discuss and talk about. Lack of previous knowledge is one of the reasons discussions fail. When looking at a lesson, keep the discussion in mind and have the students take notes for the discussions. There must be a clear topic for the discussion to go well. A variety of opinions is important for the conversation. Carefully monitor the discussions and make sure they are moving on the right track. Asking if a quiet student would like to share something is helpful. Make sure to end it well so the students know what the goal was. Have the student go read the next chapter to see how this helps to add to the discussion. Impressions in electronic mediums are very important. Overall, this chapter has aided in my understanding of group activities. I have not had many positive experiences with group activities in the past, though I have not been the educator in those circumstances. I believe one of the reasons the group activities I have been apart of have failed is that they were low effort and not very intentionally planned. In order to fix this for the future, I plan on using these strategies and tips while being intentional with my lesson planning.