Groups: To be or not to be.......

The past few classes, we have ad to work in groups. I have never been a huge fan of group work, personally. It seems like every time I am in a group there is at least one slacker that is there to observe, at the least. I am one of those people that feels that everyone should contribute, but it is hard because I feel if I give that one person a task to complete, and he/she fails, then the whole group suffers. I am maybe a control freak??? I like the idea that everything is done that needs to be done in order to get the grade I need. I know that sounds really bad, but I am not one to do the least amount of work possible to get at least a passing grade. I was always taught to go the extra mile in order to minimize my chances of a low grade. There are some positives I guess when it comes to group work, or so I hear. I think it helps get more ideas out and meet people that you may never talk to. It also helps people that may have a hard time being social be more social.

My experience in the first group (Second Grade Safety) was good. I think that it was a good experience because we were able to pick our own groups. In this group I was with people that I had socialized in class with and we were all kind of on the same page. We all took control and worked really well together. It was hard to do a PowerPoint together because there was only so many things that three people could do. We were able to divvy out responsibilities to make it even, but at the end, I felt like I did not do as much as the other girls in my group. Not because I did not want to, but because there was not a lot to do. So I felt that this may have effected my group grade. Not because of my non-willingness, but because you can only spread out so many things.

In my second group (50 Power Point Activities) was not so good. I was the only one with a book, so I was the ring leader. I did not mind having this responsibility, but I had a hard time getting any kind of input from the group. It was a large group and people were into their own things on their own computers, so I had to take charge. This is why I do not like group work. I had to make all the decisions and do all if the work. I tried to get help/input from other group members, so that I did not have to do all the work. In the end, I did the project and then everyone was very interested in what I did because they found out we had to present it front of the class. This group was a prime example of why I do not like groups.

In my own classroom I may use groups, but if I do, I will assign the different tasks to each student, with this they can come up with their own ways of presenting. For example,they can choose their subject and then in each group there will be different assignments that they can draw from a hat or decide on their own. So one person can be in charge of the pictures, one in charge of writing down ideas, etc. That way everyone is responsible for something and there is no room for slacking and if there is slacking it will reflect on that person and not the group as a whole. This is a way that the students can work together, but have structure.