Allison Dyer

3/23/20
Designing Groupwork Chapter 9: The Teacher’s Role: Letting Go and Teaming Up

Chapter by Five

1. Summarize and Respond

This chapter focuses on the shifted role of the teacher when classes partake in
groupwork. As teachers delegate authority, students take over the majority of
responsibility for holding themselves and their groups responsible for learning and
product completion, answering questions, and ensuring that norms are followed. In
order to effectively delegate authority, teachers should have a clear management
system. The authors recommended creating such a system by establishing cooperative
norms, clearly communicating student group placement and group meeting location,
specifying roles, providing clear instructions for the task and criteria for the product,
and communicating learning goals. Students need to be properly trained in order to
know how to meet expectations. They are still accountable to the teacher through
their groupwork dynamics and any finished products. However, most of the
interactions throughout the activity occur between students. Teachers should be
careful not to hover and intervene only when necessary, providing most feedback at
the end of the activity.

Once students have the tools to work effectively in groups, teachers have the
opportunity to focus on observing student groups and taking notes. In such a
structure, teachers can focus on their attention on the ways that groups are operating
and the ideas they are posing. Additionally, teachers may collaborate with others to
carry out different roles, one of which could be evaluating the groupwork process. In
more traditional direct-instruction lessons, teachers do not have a great deal of time to
observe or reflect upon learning processes within the classroom. Therefore, the
structure of groupwork provides built-in time for this critical process. Teachers
should also collaborate in the planning process in order to create more effective tasks.

2. Quotes and Responses

a. “All these management techniques operate to control student behavior in a

constructive and productive manner without having to tell them what to do
directly” (p. 132).

I think that this is a reassuring message for most new teachers, who are often
concerned about classroom management. Teachers of course wish to create
productive working environments that are conducive to learning. However,
rewards systems seem like they would be part of building compliant citizens
rather than critical thinkers. I wonder about how a groupwork-heavy classroom
operates during non-groupwork activities. Are the same or similar norms
 employed? How is motivation engaged?

b. “There is a delicate balance between avoiding hovering and wisely intervening in

a group” (p. 135).

Based on previous mentions of groupwork in prior readings, I had not realized

that avoiding hovering was such a big component of groupwork. I had imagined
that teachers frequently circled classrooms, dropping in to ask higher order
thinking questions and push student understanding. After reading this chapter,
however, I understand that it is important to truly let the learning stem between
students and not the teacher. I appreciate that the chapter provided examples for
when it is appropriate to intervene, such as addressing status problems and
redirecting groups that have become overly frustrated. However, I do expect there
will be a learning curve for understanding when one should or should not step in.

3. Questions

a. The authors seem to be implying that groups are not randomly organized. If we
are working with randomly organized groups, should group roles also be
randomly assigned? How do we ensure that all group roles are accessible to all
students (for instance, how do we ensure that ELL students feel comfortable when
acting in reporter roles)?

b. How could we incorporate groupwork into our lesson planning for “Moving
Straight Ahead?” Would a concept attainment activity be appropriate for our unit
on linear relationships (see example setup below)? Would it be reasonable to have
students identify patterns and make conjectures related to problem statements,
tables, graph, and equations all as part of one activity? If so, how can this be
scaffolded? Or would this only really work if looking at one component? Where
would such an activity fall into a unit?

YES NO
Example 1: Example 1:

Problem statement for Problem statement for

linear expression nonlinear expression
Corresponding table Corresponding table
Corresponding graph Corresponding graph
Corresponding equation Corresponding equation
Example 2: Example 2:

Problem statement for Problem statement for

linear expression nonlinear expression
Corresponding table Corresponding table
Corresponding graph Corresponding graph
Corresponding equation Corresponding equation
 c. How often should students be partaking in groupwork? Will the frequency of
groupwork implementation have to increase with years of experience, or is it
feasible to implement groupwork more frequently as a new teacher?

d. How do we ensure that we are sufficiently providing IEP supports while students
are participating in groupwork?

4. Connections

One of the quotes that specifically reminded me of my practicum experience was, “If
you are available to solve all the problems, students will not rely on themselves or on
their group” (p. 134). During my visit to my practicum classroom, I excitedly
observed students working on a group activity. When I noticed a common mistake
regarding units, I initiated conversations with students and their groups about why
their units were expressed that way. My cooperating teacher had to reign me in and
tell me that this activity was meant to be an assessment, and that she was “allowing
the students to fail” when it came to this component. She wanted students to see that
many of them were not meeting this learning goal independently. Though this activity
would not be considered groupworthy and my cooperating teacher’s attitude toward
student success was not reflective of groupwork design, this interaction was the first
experience to make me conscious of a more hands-off approach. Had the activity
been designed as a more groupworthy task, students would have been able to come to
the same conclusion without my intervention. This would have been a much better
learning opportunity for the students. Furthermore, this experience illustrates the need
for teachers to explain expectations for other helpers in the room. The authors
emphasized the importance of setting expectations for other groupwork collaborators
during joint teaching.

5. Classroom Application

Groupwork has been an appealing concept to me since I first learned of the term at
the beginning of the semester. After reading this chapter, I feel even more excited to
implement groupwork in future projects. I often wonder how I will make time to
observe the whole classroom and engage in critical reflection. It seems easy to find
oneself spending the majority of class periods assisting only a handful of students.
Groupwork provides an excellent opportunity to get to know all students and
recognize assets within all students. When doing our “Mathematical Assets”
assignment, I had difficulty identifying assets of all students. Partly this was due to
the fact that many students kept asking me for assistance. I tried instead to explain to
students what I was doing and ask if I could observe them working through their
question with a neighbor. Groupwork, if properly implemented, would make it much
easier to focus my efforts on observation. The evaluation and reflection is such a key
component as well. Watching students work can reveal so much about their thinking
processes. Observing students from a bystander point of view and intervening only
when necessary will help me get a much clearer picture of what does and does not
work for my students. Therefore, I am excited that groupwork can help open so many
doors for me to be more intentional with teaching practices.