Created by Mike Gershonwww.mikegershon.com

mikegershon@hotmail.com@Mike_Gershon

Either look through manually or play as a slideshow and use the hyperlinks.

The Effective Group Work

Toolkit

50 strategies, activities and techniques for use across the curriculum

and the Key Stages

www.mikegershon.com

Success Criteria Group Work Roles Group Sizes Group Spaces Scaffolding

Modelling Breaking it Down Options and Choices Status Updates Clear Products

Group Work Review Peer-Assessment Self-Assessment Self-Selecting Assigning Work

Random Groups Circulating Task Sequence Differentiation Rules

Expectations Social Loafing Activities P4C Open-Ended Tasks

Active Learning Speaking and Listening Paired Work Competition Success

Sharing Outcomes Staggered Reveal Secret Missions Instructions Fun

Exemplar Work Checklists Consequences Pace Timings

Templates Observers Conflict Resolution Planning Time Vary Outcomes

Kagan Learning Motivation Character and Traits Creating Groups Groups and Ability

The Effective Group Work Toolkit

Back to the Start

In order for group work to be successful, students need to know what is expected of them.

This ensures they have the best chance possible of working effectively.

Success criteria offer a simple way to do this.

They can be in the form of bullet points:

- Ensure everyone in the group has a clear role.- Be positive and purposeful in what you do.- Listen carefully to the ideas of others.

Or in the form of questions:

- Does everybody know what their role is?- How are you dealing with disagreements?- What are you working towards and why?

Success Criteria

www.mikegershon.com

Assigning group work roles gives students a clear sense of what is expected of them.

This helps them to understand what they need to do in order to be a successful member of their group.

Take a look at pages 5 and 6 of the following document for a collection of ready-to-use group work roles:

http://www.belb.org.uk/downloads/i_epd_promoting_and_managing_group_work.pdf

Group Work Roles

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Group sizes have an effect on the likely success of group work.

The larger groups get, the higher the chance that some pupils will disengage, avoid working or feel they do not have a role.

3 or 4 is usually the ideal group size.

5 can work, providing the task has been constructed so as to ensure all pupils are engaged.

Larger groups sometimes work but are often better split into smaller groups (e.g. a group of 6 becomes two groups of 3).

Group Sizes

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Group work is more effective if students are motivated by the activity in question and feel there is a clear purpose behind what they are doing.

Ensure this happens by:

- Identifying the purpose of the activity and sharing this with your students.

- Using activities which have clear goals. (This helps pupils to become goal-oriented, increasing motivation.)

- Develop intrinsic motivation by cultivating a positive, enjoyable atmosphere in your class when group work is going on.

- Give clear guidance on what is expected from groups and in what time-frame.

- Scaffold the learning so that all can access the work, thus avoiding any drops on motivation.

Motivation and Purpose

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Scaffolding helps pupils to access the work you have set them. It can also help students access what is necessary for successful group work.

Five examples of how you can scaffold activities:

- Provide success criteria which correlate to the various things you want pupils to do.

- Provide group work role cards which outline what students need to do to be successful.

- Give examples of what successful work and successful interactions will look and feel like.

- Offer advice and help to individual students or groups who struggle to access the work or who find it hard to work successfully in a group.

- Provide a set of ready-made options from which groups can select what they will do.

Scaffolding

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Modelling provides pupils with an example they can copy. This helps them to be successful.

Five examples of modelling:

- Model the kind of interactions you want to see between group members.

- Model how group members can deal positively with conflict or disagreement.

- Model the different roles you want students to take on as part of their groups.

- Model what the end product group’s are working towards might look like.

- Model how you would like group members to respond to difficulties and challenges.

Modelling

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Breaking a group work task down into smaller steps means students can then work through those steps one-by-one.

This is simpler then them having to do the analysis of the task themselves.

Here is an example:

Task: Create a poster presentation on Buddhism

Sub-tasks:

1) Divide up the work2) Design the poster3) Write the speech4) Create the poster5) Practise and edit the speech

Breaking it Down

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Activities in which you provide students with options or choices are good for group work.

They allow pupils to make decisions based on what they are interested in and to take account of the relative strengths of people in the group.

Options Example:

‘Democracy is the best form of government’

Create a response to this statement using any three of the following: drama, essay, speech, song, poem, poster, storyboard or case study.

Choices Example:

Investigate the influence friction has on acceleration.

Choose one of the following areas to focus on:

- Different ground surfaces- Different wheel material- The effect of lubricants

Options and Choices

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Here is a really simple way to ensure you keep track of where your groups are at:

During group work activities, request status updates at regular intervals.

This will involve one member of each group coming to the front to tell you where their group are up to.

If any groups appear to be behind you can go and support them. Similarly, if groups are in front you can set them further challenges.

Status Updates

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

The product is what you want groups to have created by the end of the activity.

Products include:

- Posters- Presentations- Drama pieces- Reports- Essays

And so on.

By having a clear product in mind, explaining this to students and, if possible, providing exemplar work, it will be more likely your groups end up being successful.

Clear Products

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

If you have a group filled with pupils who can regulate their own learning then that group is more likely to be successful.

You can help groups to regulate their thinking and interactions through reviews.

During group work activities, stop the class at appropriate intervals and ask groups to take a minute or two to review their work.

Repeating this process over time will do two things:

First, it will cause the students in your class to reflect, leading to improvements.

Second, it will help pupils to internalise the process, leading to greater self-regulation in the long-term.

Group Work Review

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Ask groups to peer-assess each other’s work.

This will lead to two benefits:

- Pupils will develop a clearer sense of what constitutes good group work.

- Students will develop a sense of the different end results group work can lead to (as they will have seen other people’s work, as well as their own).

Peer-Assessment

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Two options are open to you for self-assessment:

1) Ask groups to self-assess the work they produce and the way in which they produce it.

2) Ask students to self-assess the contributions they make to the group work in which they are involved.

In both cases, pupils will develop a better understanding of what constitutes good work.

In addition, they will be better placed to think critically about their own efforts in the future.

Self-Assessment

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

One way to create groups is to allow students to choose who they want to work with.

This has pros and cons:

Pros

- Pupils may be more motivated as they are working with their friends.

- Students may feel more comfortable working with people they know.

Cons

- Students may be more inclined to lose focus if working with friends.

- Some pupils may not be asked to join a group, meaning the teacher then has to place them.

- Pupils may not make their decisions based on who they will learn best with.

Self-Selecting

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Another way in which to create groups is through teacher selection.

Many would argue this is the best approach to take.

There are many benefits:

- You can develop a wider sense of cooperation in the class as a whole.

- You can create groups which are likely to help students learn better.

- You can use information you have about your students’ needs to inform the make-up of the groups.

- You can avoid groupings that are likely to lead to behavioural issues.

- You can plan in advance which groups will give the most support to.

Teacher Selection: General

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

One approach the teacher can take when creating groups is to focus on ability.

This leads to a number of positive results:

1) You can create mixed-ability groups where more-able learners support less-able learners.

2) You can create similar-ability groups, allowing pupils to work with peers who go at a similar pace too them.

3) You can plan in advance which groups you will support more, which groups you will push further and which groups you will help to consolidate.

Teacher Selection: Ability

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Another approach the teacher can take in order to create groups involves focussing on character and personality traits.

Looking at group creation in this way means the teacher is emphasising the social and emotional side of group work.

The intention is that, by focussing on the traits and characters of pupils, groups can be constructed which are more likely to be successful.

Here are some questions to ask yourself if you adopt this method:

- Who won’t work well together?- How might different combinations modify the

behaviour of the individuals involved?- What might happen if I put X and X together?

Teacher Selection: Traits and Character

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Another method for constructing groups involves taking a random approach.

One of the benefits of this method is that it can throw up combinations which might otherwise have been unlikely – with sometimes interesting results.

Here are three ways in which to create groups at random:

- Decide on the number of groups. Assign those numbers at random to pupils in the class. Students with the same number team up.

- Hand a slip of paper to each student. Ask them to write their name on it. Collect these into a hat and then draw names out at random, creating groups as you go.

- Ask pupils to line up according to height, birthday, shoe size or something else. Divide the line into groups.

Random Groups

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

During group work activities it is a good idea to regularly circulate through the room.

With some tasks (for example, ones with a short time limit) you might even choose to circulate for the entire activity.

Circulating will allow you to do the following:

- Support groups who are having difficulties.

- Redirect groups who have gone off task.

- Stretch and challenge the thinking of groups who are finding the task straightforward.

- Assess the understanding of the various groups.

- Keep an eye on the quality of work being produced, intervening if necessary.

Circulating

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

An alternative way to think about group work is to provide pupils with a sequence of tasks they need to work through, rather than one single task or one task which has been broken down.

In essence, this involves asking groups to complete a serious of smaller, interconnected tasks.

The benefit here is that pace is inherent in the activity; groups will be moving quickly from one task to the next.

In addition, the fact that students can see exactly where they are going and in what order is likely to engender a sense of purpose and motivation.

Task Sequence

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Here are five ways to differentiate group work:

1) Set three different tasks of varying degrees of difficulty. Invite groups to select which one they will tackle or assign the tasks according to your own views.

2) Mix up students so that different ability levels work together in different groups, supporting and challenging each other.

3) Set extension tasks for groups to complete after the main piece of work.

4) Circulate and intervene with different groups in order to pose challenging questions or extension tasks.

5) Provide guidance on what students need to do for each aspect of the task, making this available as an optional extra.

Differentiation

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Group work rules can be an effective way to regulate behaviour and promote positive interactions.

You can develop a set of rules yourself or you can create them in conjunction with your class.

In the latter case, the likelihood is that students will identify more closely with the rules, given as how they will have had a role in creating them.

You can display rules on posters or on laminated cards you give out to groups at the beginning of each activity. You might like to think about supplementing the writing with appropriate images.

Rules

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

The expectations you convey to students play a big part in whether or not group work is successful.

You can convey your expectations through:

- Body language- What you say- How you interact with individual students

and with groups- The tasks you set up for groups to do- The writing on your slides and resources- How you give praise and what you choose

to praise- Whether or not you enforce your rules and

expectations

Expectations

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Social loafing has been identified by psychologists as “the phenomenon of people deliberately exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone.”

You can avoid social loafing during group work by:

- Keeping group sizes smaller, therefore making it harder for individuals to loaf.

- Circulating regularly to check all pupils are working.

- Ensuring the tasks you set have enough scope within them for every member of each group to have a specific role or sub-task to take on.

Social Loafing

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Great group work is often underpinned by great activities.

For a selection of ready-to-use activities, suitable for use across the curriculum and the Key Stages, have a look at my resource The Ultimate Lesson Activity Generator.

There you will find 120 activities, many of which are appropriate for use with groups.

Activities

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Kagan Cooperative Learning is a specific pedagogical approach to group work which has proved very popular.

You can find out more here:

http://www.kaganonline.com/index.php

http://www.t2tuk.co.uk/StudentTeacher.aspx

http://www.kagan-uk.co.uk/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0s_qxJDuas

Kagan Cooperative Learning

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

P4C

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Philosophy for Children (P4C) is another specific pedagogical approach to group work which has proved popular and which research has suggested leads to significant learning gains for participants.

You can find out more here:

http://p4c.com/

http://www.sapere.org.uk/

http://www.philosophyforchildren.co.uk/

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/P4C-Philosophy-for-Children-Beginner-Information-Pack-6012085/

Active Learning

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

SpeakingListeningReadingWriting

InteractingProblem-solving

ThinkingFailing

Trying againReflectingAnalysing

JudgingCreating

QuestioningRemembering

AssessingInvestigating

Active learning is a key part of effective group work.

It does not necessarily mean students moving around (although that can be part of it).

Active really means that pupils are cognitively active – doing specific things with their minds which require conscious thought and effort.

Here is just a small selection of what you might like to ask your pupils to do during group work, so as to ensure they are engaged in active learning.

Speaking and listening forms a central part of group work.

Here are three tools you can use to help structure the speaking and listening your students do:

- Provide a checklist of questions pupils can base their discussions on.

- Appoint a scribe in each group whose job it is to make a note of what is discussed and then to feed back to the rest of the group, advising them on how well they are all speaking and listening.

- Get your pupils to practise effective speaking and listening by having them interview each other about the topic in question.

Speaking and Listening

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Planning and discussion time should never be overlooked when it comes to group work. The two combined allow students a chance to assess what they will do as a group and why.

This leads them to having a higher chance of success.

A good tip is to specify a period of planning and discussion time at the beginning of the activity.

You might even want to provide a set of questions pupils can use to underpin their conversations.

Planning and Discussion Time

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

When it comes to group work, open-ended tasks are much better than closed ones.

This is because they give students the chance to explore, develop ideas and take their work in directions which reflect the thinking and analysis they have done as a group.

Open tasks are any in which the teacher does not specify precisely what pupils need to do, instead leaving leeway within which they can express themselves.

Open-Ended Tasks

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

If you always ask your groups to create a poster, they will soon tire of group work.

By varying the intended outcomes of group work, you will create motivation and interest among your students.

It all comes down to the old adage: Variety is the spice of life.

Vary Group Work Outcomes

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to timings and group work.

With that said, here are three things to keep in mind:

- The nature of group work means you need to be prepared to be flexible with timings.

- Sometimes time limits can help increase the pace and sense of urgency in a class. This is especially true if the time limits are challenging.

- Keeping groups aware of how much time has passed and how much is left is an important way of helping them to regulate their own learning.

Timings

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Don’t forget that paired work is group work as well.

Just with two students in each group instead of three, four or five!

Paired Work

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Competition can add to group work or it can detract.

Some teachers love it and their students respond well, others are not so keen.

Pros

- Generates motivation- Creates goal-orientation

- Gives a clear purpose- Some students thrive on it

Cons

- Can detract from the task itself- May lead to a focus on speed rather than quality

- May not create the atmosphere you want- Some students are put off by it

Competition

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Sharing outcomes makes it easier for students to meet those outcomes.

Here are five methods you can use:

- Display the outcomes on the board at the start of the activity.

- Explain the outcomes and then refer to them during the activity.

- Hand out a piece of paper to each group containing the outcomes.

- Appoint an ‘outcome observer’ in each group. Give them the outcomes and ask them to make sure their group remains on track to meet them.

- Circulate during the activity and remind groups of what the outcomes are.

Sharing Outcomes

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

One of the best ways to increase motivation and engagement involves ensuring everybody in the class can experience success early on in the lesson or activity.

This creates positive feelings, develops self-esteem and helps pupils see they can access the work and do well.

As such, it is advisable to either begin or presage group work tasks with something which will allow all students in your class to experiences success.

The benefits will soon flow.

Success

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

You can maintain pace and excitement during a group work activity by staggering the things you want groups to do, revealing them over time.

For example:

In a task for which you have assigned thirty minutes, you might reveal the first task at 0 minutes, the second at 5 minutes and the third at 15 minutes.

As you can see, this keeps students on their toes and creates a sense of dynamism which may be harder to achieve if all the tasks are revealed at the beginning.

Staggered Reveal

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Print off the instructions for a group work task, place these inside brown envelopes and write ‘Secret Mission’ on the front.

Hand them out to groups and excitement and motivation will most likely follow.

Secret Missions

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

When delivering instructions for group work, either verbally or in writing, clarity is of the utmost importance.

Without, there is a good chance that students will encounter difficulties, produce work which is not in-line with your expectations, or fail to engage in the task as you hoped.

A nice alternative for delivering instructions involves printing them out and giving them to groups.

You might even select an ‘instructions operative’ in each group, whose job it is to communicate the instructions to their peers and then to ensure everyone follows them successfully.

Instructions

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

One of the best aspects of group work is that it can be a lot of fun!

Remember this and you are guaranteed to be halfway towards ensuring what you do is effective.

Of course, group work can’t always be fun. But, if you inject a little fun where possible, it is highly likely your students will be more motivated and engaged as a result.

Fun

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Exemplar work helps groups get a clearer sense of what they are working towards and what it is that you want them to do.

You can collect exemplar work over the course of a year and then use this with your classes in the following year.

Three ways in which you might use it are:

- Show students the exemplar work at the start of the activity.

- Give each group a copy of the exemplar work to look through.

- Give each group a different piece of exemplar work and then ask them to feed back to the whole class on what is good about it.

Exemplar Work

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Checklists help students to regulate their own learning.

You can display them on the board, provide them in a hand-out or create a laminated, reusable set.

They can be in the form of bullet points or a set of questions (in the latter case, groups ask themselves the questions, prompting thoughts about what they have achieved and what they still need to do).

Sometimes it can be helpful for pupils if you model the use of checklists to begin with. They can then use this as a model.

Checklists

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Instead of putting every student into a group, you can pull a few pupils out and assign them the roles of Observer or Helper.

Observers walk around the room during the activity and identify examples of good practice, high effort and excellent work. They then share what they have found with the whole class at the end of the activity.

Helpers walk around the room and assist any students or groups who are in need of help.

Observers and Helpers

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Templates and pro-forma offer a way in which to structure group work.

They are especially helpful for:

- Supporting less-able students- Causing pupils to think about things in

a certain way- Ensuring groups remain on task during

an activity

The nature of a template or pro-forma will vary according to the nature of the activity.

Templates and Pro-Forma

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Pace is an important part of effective group work.

Too much and students will not have sufficient time in which to think critically and creatively about the matter in hand.

Too little and pupils may well lose focus and begin to get demotivated.

Here are three tips for ensuring you maintain good pace during group work activities:

- Keep monitoring the atmosphere and engagement in the room. Make adjustments based on the information you get.

- Plan in advance how long you would like to give to a specific activity.

- Use techniques such as staggered reveal.

Pace

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

How groups sit, how they use furniture and so on all play a role in whether or not group work is effective.

For example, a group who sit in a row instead of facing each other are less likely to discuss ideas.

Ask groups to arrange themselves in a way that is conducive to working as a team.

Intervene where necessary to ensure this happens with all groups.

Group Spaces

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

Sometimes conflict can arise in groups. This is detrimental to learning and leads to problems.

Three techniques to employ are:

- Intervene yourself and mediate in order to resolve the dispute.

- Teach students simple ways of dealing with conflict. Provide examples of questions to ask and ways of acting that can be used as part of a mediation process.

- Share the diagram to the left with pupils. It offers an excellent visualisation of how conflict damages both parties.

Conflict Resolution

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

In some classes we can find students who do not, for whatever reason, participate positively in group work activities.

Make clear what consequences will follow from such behaviour and enforce these where appropriate.

Doing this will ensure you send out the message to your class that group work is important and that your expectations need to be met by everybody.

Consequences

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start

A good way to ensure everyone contributes to a group work task involves assigning work to individual members of each group.

You can do this in a number of ways:

- Break the task down into separate, smaller tasks. Ask groups to decide between themselves who will do what.

- Assign group work roles. Students then do the work which fits their role.

- Break the task down into separate, smaller tasks. Number these. Ask students to number themselves in their groups using the same set of numbers (e.g. 1-4). Reveal the task numbers. Students complete the tasks which tally to their number.

Assigning Work

www.mikegershon.com

Back to the Start