Putting students in small groups to complete a task is an important teaching method. It provides students with a variety of activities and can accommodate in different ways. Working in small groups gives students a reason to focus on their strengths. Small group work gives students opportunities to practice essential skills. However, getting students to work effectively in small groups takes effort, practice, and preparation. Preparing your students to work in small groups is essential to the success of this teaching technique in your classroom.
Teach, Model, Assist
To make small group work a success in your classroom, you need to teach your students how to work in small groups. This process is like a procedure. Not naturally students. Students, especially young students to whom this concept may be new, are more familiar with playing/talking in small groups than solving a problem or completing a task. By giving them very specific goals and building those goals together as a class before breaking into small groups, you’ll give your students a better chance of success. In addition, assess the students’ work as well as the actual behavior in small groups. Is there a way to work? What could or should be changed to make the work of the group run smoother? By working out the kinks, you increase the chance that small group work is a good teaching method in your school.
Type of action
The type of activity you ask of your students working in small groups is critical to its success. You need to design an activity that is challenging enough to maintain the student’s interest, but not so challenging that it requires too much help from you or sets the student up for failure. Since students can work in small groups, you will be able to ask them for more complex tasks.
Time table
Setting aside time for completing specific tasks is essential for working in small groups. This is especially true of those services that exceed one or the other type of period. Without a deadline for assignments, students may lose track of their own process or complete items. Break the overall task into smaller digestible activities that focus groups will help.
Order of work
The main complaint about working in small groups is that there is someone who does not do their part of the work. As a teacher you can solve this. Make sure that each person is responsible for a specific part of the overall assignment. Provide the group with self-assessment tools. These tools and rubrics should be a mandatory part of the small group assignment. Rubrics are composed both for the individual and for the whole group. At the end of each rubric, the student commits to writing the group and individual goals. Self-reflection is a necessary part of group success.
