Placing students in small groups to complete a task is an important method of teaching. It provides students with a variety of activities and is able to accommodate different modalities. Working in small groups provides motivation for the students and allows a student to focus on his or her strengths. Small group work gives the students opportunities to practice essential skills. However, getting the students to work effectively in small groups takes time, practice and preparation. Preparing your students to work in small groups is essential for the success of this teaching technique in your classroom.
Teach, Model, and Assess
In order for small group work to be a success in your classroom, you must teach your students on how to work in small groups. This process is just like teaching a procedure. It does not come naturally for students. Students, particularly young students to whom this concept may be new, are more familiar with playing/talking in small groups rather than working to solve a problem or complete a task. By giving them very specific goals and modeling those goals together as a class before breaking into small groups, you will give your students better chance of success. Furthermore, you should assess both the work of the students and the actual procedure of working in small groups. Is the method working? What could or should be changed in order for the small group work to run more smoothly? By working out any kinks, you are increasing the chance that small group work is a successful teaching method in your classroom.
Type of activity
The type of activity that you require of your students working in small groups is critical to its success. You must devise an activity that is challenging enough to maintain the student’s interest, but not too challenging that it requires too much assistance from you or sets the students up for failure. Once the students get use to working in small groups, you will be able to require more complex tasks from them.
Time frame
Setting a time frame for specific tasks to be completed is essential to working in small groups. This is especially true for those tasks that may exceed one or two class periods. Without a time limit for tasks, students may get lost in proper procedure or order to complete things. Break the overall task into smaller digestible activities that will help focus the group.
Organization of Work
The chief complaint about working in small groups is that there is someone that is not doing their share of the work. As a teacher you can solve this problem. Organize the work so that each person is responsible for a specific piece of the overall assignment. Provide each group with self assessment tools. These tools and rubrics should be a mandatory part of the small group assignment. The rubrics should be geared towards both individuals and the whole group. At the end of each rubric, the student should be responsible for writing group and individual goals. The self reflection is a necessary component for group success.
