The Importance of Group Work in the Classroom
I absolutely love how much emphasis is made in this chapter about the importance of group work in the classroom. I totally agree that group work can have both benefits and hinderances when delivering the lesson. This chapter touches on the hinderances briefly but concludes with the fact that with group work, if facilitated properly, students have the opportunity to be more active in classroom discussion rather than passive.
It is very critical that as teachers we model what appropriate language looks like in a group setting. By teaching our students about the motto “respect, connect, build, and support,” students will have less of a fear of being shut down and feel like their ideas are not being personally attacked are diminished to being a dumb idea. This is where scaffolding comes into play. By modeling these behaviours when we bring the class together in the beginning of a lecture or discussion, student will be able to build their vocabulary and syntax to speak creatively and critically to each other and to us.
Though I find it quite annoying, one of the most effective group discussion/activities I have found is the jigsaw concept which can be facilitated in many different ways. By allowing students to break off into their own groups and finding things about their topic they can share and by splitting off and joining with another group who has a similar topic, the facilitation is solely on the students themselves.