Choice book blog: Productive Group Work

Productive Group Work, written by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and Sandi Everlove, begins by defining the parameters necessary for productive group work. The authors identify positive interdependence as a hallmark of this productivity and cite Johnson and Johnson’s four methods to achieving it: group goals, individual resources, rewards, and distinct roles. To this list, the authors add a fifth principle, defining a meaningful task. They believe that “a task for productive group work must offer a challenge or a problem to solve to make all of those principles of cooperative learning come into play” (20). At first this seems obvious because without a meaningful task, it would be impossible to achieve the other criteria on the list. Still, when the authors go on to explain the idea of “productive failure,” which a teacher facilitates by offering sufficiently complex tasks, their point becomes clearer. In my own classroom experiences with group work, I have often witnessed students who do not work to their full potential because of inadequate tasks. It is up to me as the teacher to clarify individual roles in the group, to provide individual and group feedback, and to structure the activity to make it challenging and complex.

One of the biggest problems I have had with group work that I alluded to above is when student groups focus on completing a task or getting the answers instead of the process of learning. This attitude can be mitigated by a complex task, but that complexity does not necessarily change the completion mindset. In chapter 3, the authors argue that to get students to change, teachers must be better models of these behaviors themselves. They cite a study which found that “students mimicked what their teacher had modeled, not what the teacher had intended for them to do” (42). This passage hit home for me because in my own classroom, despite the fact that I stress group norms and collaboration, I see many of the student behaviors witnessed in the study. Examining a text for symbolism or figurative language, students working in the same group are quick to share answers rather than help each other through the process. Instead of telling them how to work productively in a group, I need to model the “language of learning” myself and then monitor whether student groups adopt this model of interaction. The language of learning “poster” can be downloaded as a Word document at the following website: maldenells.wikispaces.com/file/view/Language+of+Learning+Poster.doc

In chapter 5, the authors address another problem that has hindered some of the group work in my classes. To support group learning and productivity, students need to give each other feedback, but they are often too nice and sometimes too blunt. The authors quote Jay Simmons who writes that “responders are made, not born” (76). Students do not know how to give constructive feedback, and like modeling productive group behaviors, teachers must model peer responses rather than tell students how to respond to each other’s work. Teachers can model praise, understanding, questions, and suggestions as well as share their own writing, have the class respond to a piece of model writing, guide partner responses, or hold response conferences. I have used many of these techniques in the classroom, but I may not have always done them with enough purpose or tenacity. One thing this book has helped reinforce is the idea that for student group work to be productive, the teacher must continually reinforce the behaviors that make it productive. The chart from Simmons’ book can be found on page 7 of the following PDF: users.ipfw.edu/wellerw/Responders_training.pdf

The final chapter of the book includes many tips for facilitating successful group work in the classroom. The authors recommend not grouping students by ability, having teachers assign groups based on academic and social factors, assigning four students to a group, adjusting groups based on behavior or performance, and differentiating within groups. They answer common questions about group work and illustrate how to introduce group work in a classroom. Like the entire book, the last chapter offers a good balance between theory and practical examples. Throughout the book, the authors explain the research pertinent to whatever facet of cooperative group work they are discussing and offer examples from the classroom. Although much of the book felt like review, it presented moments of insight and proved to be an engaging read.