Group Work Projects

speaker 0:   0:00
welcome to re teach a place where professors know that student equity gap can be closed. And I willing to put in the work to figure it out. We are dedicated to our teaching, and our students were passionate about improving our classrooms and our communities. We can make a difference. We will make a difference. I am your host, Bruce Hoskins, in my mind and heart are ready to learn. So what's up, everyone? So this episode is gonna be about group work projects, as I promised because I literally ran out of time. What? I was talking about research papers and everything to include this because I didn't realize that I had so much to say about research papers. S 00 So Yeah, but anyway, I really do believe that, you know, splitting this office actually gonna be very beneficial on what now? Because I get to just really focus in on talking about group work projects. And, you know, the first thing to put on the table, like for real is we know that students hate group work projects, though, right? Like things. So the question is, why are we going to do a group work project because we know that students hate them. We know that students hate them, and it's okay for them to hate them as long as there's a purpose behind this. And hopefully the purpose is not to make your grading easier, right? And I'm not gonna lie. I'm gonna put that I'm gonna put myself out there and say It's like, Look, I that's what I was doing At first, I really was doing a group work projects centered on. He's like, literally on making this easy for me. You know, I've got 40 students in the class. If I put five people in a group that's only eight papers to grade of the end, and so therefore, this is easier to do, right? And although he's is something to consider, as we're talking about grading and our work and workloads and stuff like that, I don't want to ever make that into the centre right. I should not ever be the centerpiece of everything that's going on. What we're doing as teachers is we're promoting student learning s. So then our group were project, then have to be centered on student learning, right? It's so that's that should be a no brainer, and yet at the same time, it's something to make sure that we're always constantly purposeful. It regards to how we're designing now only our classroom, but the assessments and whatnot, right? And so that when we're thinking about group projects, here's the equity pieces. Put this out in front this time is that look straight up. Poor students are more likely to work. I don't think that that takes a rocket scientist to figure that out. And so if you do group work projects, you need to be very purposeful in the design of the group work project, so that you don't wind up punishing students who work right well. All students who were going to be in some way, shape or form punished in a process Where, if if the only time did they have to work on a group project is outside of the classroom. Students who have jobs, I shouldn't even just say students who have jobs right. It's students who depend on their jobs or going to get punished with respect. There's plenty of students who have jobs at a community college. However, when it comes to poor students, there's a lot of poor students are dependent on their jobs and what not? And so we need to be way more conscious of that, right? So you could be middle class and have a job. But if you get hit with a big group project, you might be able to just say to your job is like a You know what? I need to take some time off in order for me to finish out my school and whatnot. And while if you're a poor student, you might not have those options to be able to back off hours and things like that and what I continue to bring up right? It's like, Look, that that shouldn't be part of your design in the first place, right? It's like we need to be very conscious that we are teaching community college students. And so therefore, this. This is a thing, right? This is the thing we need to be very conscious about how we design our classes so that we don't punish students that need a job right, which means, you know, translated to poor students, right? Here's another thing to be thinking about is that when you do group work projects that's where stereotypes and things like that and regards to one. The students are interacting with each other. Stereotypes of groups can come into play right is so therefore right. It's like if you have females in the group, there's gonna be some stereotypes to get involved with that, right, especially as it pertains to stem. Let's just be real about that is like, Let's put all of this stuff right up in front, right that if you're talking about stem spaces, there's gonna be a lot of pressure on females it regards to those spaces. If you have a group work, project, people of color all across the board, there's gonna be some pressure on that. And by some I mean a lot of pressure in regards to stereotypes. Um, at what night? And there's gonna, you know, the ideas of group tree and lazy and less intelligent and things like that. All of that is gonna go through these spaces, right? And so we have to design be purposeful in our design in order to try to eliminate as much of that as possible. Alright, so that what we can't what what can we do, right? So let's get down to it. Right. And so to me, the first thing is, when and how do you introduce them to each other, right? You have to be purposeful about this. And what? Not as so then. And in order for the group work to really work is you have to introduce this. You have to integrate this into your class. You can't just throw this. You can't just tag this thing on at the end. On what not You have to really be committed to the group work, design, and have that group work integrated throughout your class in order to really make it work. And the reason why I know this is because I made that mistake and and since then, I've actually eliminated Ah group were project from my class because ultimately I didn't value group work. The group work project enough toe, actually continue to to use it and to literally and to integrate it into my class. I just I just didn't value it enough and remember what I was telling you. All right, It's in another space that when you break students into groups, you're creating smaller communities, right? And for me and my teaching. I didn't want to create the smaller communities. I wanted the whole classroom to be a community. And so therefore, group work projects really generally don't work with my overall style. All right. They worked far better in, like, research methods of my stats class, but in my intro class definitely backed away from this. And so what do I mean by introduced in having this integrated into your classes? You have to introduce you the students to each other, I think ideally within the 1st 2 weeks. Oh, but definitely no less than a month into your semester, right? You have to do this. And and then, you know, be purposeful about the icebreaker that you use in the space make it light, make it fun. Make it to where they actually get to know something about each other as they're doing all of this stuff. I think that's you know, that's that's definitely ah must right when it comes to actually doing this group works. It's like it's not enough. Really, really. Honestly, it's not enough for them to just have this common goal. You have to help them break the ice for me. I actually did this. I had them come up with a group name and then they had to do a group cheer. I really valued that. The cheer part of it. They never really got into it. There was a couple of groups that really got into it, as so it had very sophisticated cheers, I might say, Um however, overall, it's like it kind of fell flat from for for them. But you know, things to think about, you know, don't just have them introduced themselves, give them a prompt to use as they're introducing themselves on. And like I said, always help them get to know each other better, because that's gonna be the thing that's gonna help them bridge those gaps and t make a closer bond with each other, right, because that is definitely part of the small group group. Work philosophy is they need to bond with each other, right? And so when you do this, then right here is a good thing. Here is a good thing when you introduce all of this stuff early on. The good thing is that they get to know each other right and that they very well may be able to create lasting friendships out of the space. I really value that, you know, as an outcome. It's not the outcome, but I definitely value that as an outcome that these students, they start really talking with each other. Some of them, you know, for me, my community, college friends are actually friends that I still interact with to this day. So that's why it's really you know, I just think about it very differently. Oh, I think about that with friendships in mind, I really do. But like I said, I know it's not to go, but is definitely part of why you would do small groups. Um, and like I said, they get to know each other early. Here's the bad thing about things that students drop when you introduced this early students drop s o. Then you need to be very conscious, right? You need to be very conscious of how you manage all of that on. But now, because, you know, I fell flat on that one when I first started doing this because, you know, a group started off with eight people in the group, and then the semester ends and there's only six people. You know there's only two people in the group because six people dropped and I'm like, Wow, that was miserable, right? As so, um so like I said, just be very purposeful in keeping up and keeping track of who's dropping, who's not and things like that. And so how do you form your group? So here's another thought, right? How do you form the groups? Are Are you gonna do it randomly? Are you going to do it random yet Not so random for me in my stats class. What I did is it was after the first test after the first exam, when I was doing this, what I did was yes. Technically, it was random. But what I did was I took everyone's great on the first test and then I just ordered the the exam from top to bottom in regards to who was the highest score and who was the lowest score. And what I did is I put them into groups where there was always at least one high scorer in a group, right? And s o you know, I would make eight groups and you know, there'd be a CZ, and so it's like I made sure that each of the eight groups had one student that had an A in it. And then I would just right and then and then continue on from there. Every group has, you know, ah, group, every group has a student has a B or an A C and D and an F and stuff like that. So there wasn't a whole bunch of student that had these and F's in my class, And yet at the same time, I wanted to make sure that they were paradise would really strong people in order to help them help each other right past the class and everything and to do well and to learn, right, as so for me, I'm not gonna let students pick their their group by themselves. And, um, you know, And like I said before, this is where a lot of stereotypes get dropped in on things like that. And so it's it's It's a bit harder to manage when you don't have a system around it, right? And so, even if you just did it randomly off of names or something like that, you just read right off of the you know, the roster or something like that, that's that's that to me would be overall better than letting them pick, because when you once the once the student sees the people um, like I said, all those reeds, all what we've been socialized to comes into play. And so is the way Maur harder to to manage in that space. Okay. And so, um so here's another thought. So do you use class time to do group work? Now, here's the bigger You know that that that is something that needs to be done. I'm going to tell you that straight up it's like I generally try not to tell you what to do. This is something you have to do. If you're gonna do group work projects, though, and that is you need to create class time. You need to create class time. You need a use class time in order for the students to work on their group project. If you don't, then again, going back to top right, you're going to be punishing students who need their job, right, because if they have a job and they need it, that you're gonna be punishing those students because when it comes to you know the group, you know, meeting up at the local coffee shop or something like that. The student that is relying on their job is gonna be less likely to be able to go to that space and to be able to contribute. Now, I know some of y'all alive. Well, they can contribute in other ways. They could email each other stuff like that. But the whole reason why you should be having a group work project is for them to interact with each other, right? And so if there s so they're not able to interact with each other, then this is a problem. And like I said, this is an equity problem. I would even argue. And so use class time if it's important to you that you use class time in order to be able to deal with it. And so then the actual presentations themselves make sure you walk through the process. Even if these students have done ah 100 presentations before, that doesn't mean that they know what you want and what not. Right. Um and that's that's really important, right? Make sure you walk them through the process, and I think even more importantly, showed them concrete examples of what an F looks like. What a c looks like. What a b in it. A look like a lot of times we only show down like what a looks like. But it's like for me. I really want to empower students to learn. I really want to empower students to be able to go, and part of learning is to learn how to critique things, right? And so, if I showed them what I considered an F for project, I expect them to be able to figure out to be able to critique this thing as see why it's an F. Okay, And when I do this, I I don't construct an f example. You know, fortunately or unfortunately, I try to use student examples in order Thio to do this now, understandably, this is gonna be very difficult in the beginning because you're not gonna have any student examples. But trust me when I tell you this worth the process, it's worth the time. You want to see what you want to do then is be conscious about saving student examples so that you have something to present to them. This s so anyway. And so one year when you're seeing the f don't just let the students just jump on all the bad stuff. I would argue that one of the better things to do is to start off with, like, well, what's good about this presentation, even though it could be absolutely horrible. I mean, really talk and and you know that we have seen absolutely horrible freaking presentations and poster presentations and stuff before, but always try to to start with something positive, because to me, that's the critiquing part of it, right? So I don't just jump on everything that's bad. Try to see what's good in a space and then right and then and only then after they said a few good things about it, then you allow them to critique. I mean, I've literally have posted presentations that had misspelled words on it and things like that. I don't mean like small miss build words. I mean misspelled words in the captions of it in the titles part of it. It's like it's been bad before, but like I said things, you know that you want to encourage students to learn how to critique something because this is a lifelong skill, by the way, right? Because if you teach them how to critique, right, not only will they critique this poster or this presentation, but they're also gonna be ableto better critique themselves, right? And so that's that's the end goal with that one. When you're grading this, make sure you grade the work and not the bells and whistles. Okay. Um, please don't misunderstand. I really appreciate when students put in a lot of thoughts and, you know, it's stuff like that into their project. That's not what I'm talking about. Bells and whistles to me is, you know, if you know something about power point presentations, right? Is like, you know, howto, you know, make the picture spin or something like that. Well, that's a bell and whistle, because it didn't necessarily making the picture spin that necessarily create more work. It just made it look better, right? And so there is something to be said about that right? However, when I say grade the work well, there's things that you can do it regards to presenting something that is literally more work, right? Eso like if the students they created a theme around what it is that they were doing in their presentation. Well, that's work. And so that's something that can be rewarded on the whatnot. But don't do the bells and whistles because now you're privileging students who normally like middle class students and what not who have been through this thing before or have used that software before. Um and so therefore, they're gaining an advantage off of nothing except prior experience. Right? And I and I don't know. Like I said, you're trying to grade work. So here's an example of grating work in my stats class. Does this student There was this group were project that they focused on how someone sex affects their love for chocolate. I thought the freakin thing was amazing. It was it was absolutely amazing. And then what they did was that they actually integrated like chocolate all the way through. The theme was chocolate. They're topic was chocolate. The background to the Power point was a milk chocolate background color. They introduced all kinds of pictures and stuff about people eating chocolate and everything they even had this little video about. It was just like commercial, like some deodorant commercial where after the kids sprayed himself, he became chocolate. And then, however, how all the women liked loved chocolate. It was a male on. And then because the idea is that females love chocolate or something like that. And so they integrated all this together, and all of that meant they put more. They put work into this space, right? It wasn't just cosmetic. It was a well thought out theme. And that's what I want upgrading right in that space, right? And so then here's something I know that people probably don't think about a whole bunch. That is, if you set a dress code, make it clear, like actually announce a dress code. And for me, I announce that there's no dress code. Hopefully, that actually makes sense. It's like if you if you said a dress code, I would say there better be a reason why you said in the dress code because if you said a dress code, you are automatically privileging middle class standards, middle class ideas about what looks good for presentation and things like that. This is a student space. If there's a reason for you to judge that here here would be a reason to judge that if you were doing some presentation on job interviews or some tonight that, like how to do something, and it was like a job interview basis. Well, of course, that makes a lot of sense. It regards to why you would want to have students dress Ah, certain way in regards to a job interview are whatever, even though that space should be deconstructed also. But that that makes sense, though it's like if it's tied in, but it is not tied in and you don't announce that there's no dress code now, all of a sudden, you just made a lot of people who like myself, who came from a low socioeconomic space. I didn't think about any dress code. I didn't think about any pride. I never been to A did a presentation before, and then when people started presenting, they had they were all dressed up, and I got more nervous than what I needed to get because I was like, Oh, snap, was I supposed to dress up? No one said anything. So now I'm nervous unnecessarily, I would argue, while I'm trying to do my presentation and whatnot so if you have a dress code, have a reason for it. But even if you don't have a dress, code announced that there's no dress code, right? Um, here's something that we also need to do that we need to give students a chance to critique themselves, the group and the process. Right? So this is t help them is to help take the edge off of their hate for group work projects. Right? And this is also that incorporating that critique Because, like I said, critique is important because it's to me. It's It's I mean, it's not just connected. It is critical thinking, all right, s o to critique themselves. What did they do? Tell them to be honest, right? If they didn't do, a whole bunch will tell us. Tell me that you didn't do a whole bunch. But tell me why you weren't able to do a whole bunch right on what not? And so you know, let that be what is going to be Let them critique the group, right? And then also not critique the process. I really think that we need to make sure that we're always open to the critiques of the students and, you know, to make ourselves better, right? It's like, Look, if I'm encouraging a growth mindset for us to have a growth mindset about students, that we should also have a growth mindset about ourselves and so we should constantly be receiving feedback from our students in order. Just try to make things better, right? That's that's ultimately the goal here, right? To become better teachers and, you know, and when they're critiquing, just make sure they're describing their contributions. Describe it, right? Don't just say I did this, but it's like give me an example of what you mean by I led the group. Give me an example of what you mean by I put the power point presentation together. Give me an example. Give concrete examples as to what they're talking about again to help them with that critical thinking process of critiquing right eso then. Lastly. So how do you grade this, right? How do you grade this? What equity in mind? How do you grade this? You know what? I'm gonna tell you straight out. If you only have a group raid, you were gonna Your students will hate you forever for that right? if it's only a group grade, and that's the only option. Students hate that now. If there's a reason for that again, knock yourself out. But if you're just doing that in order to make things easy on yourself, well, I'm gonna question that right right down to its core. But here's a way of individualizing their grades that doesn't necessarily add too much more work. It puts the work on them, but it makes your It reinforces this idea of critiquing right not only themselves but the group and the process, right? But if you individualize their grades right, if someone is says, Hey, you know what I want to become in the leader of the group. And then they described out of everything you can give them a plus, plus one to their or like a raise their their grade a level. If you would write, it's like just if this is a B project than then you know the leader of the group. They know if they describe what leadership looks like and this is actual leadership, then you know you could you could say, Hey, it's like you know what? Although the group got to be this person earned it a right, and then you balance that out. If groups don't like, have a leader or something like that and there's not anyone stand out or they all did about the same amount of work, then you know, whatever the group grade is is the overall grade and the honestly students are fine with that. They really are fine with that. The person. The thing that they're not fine with is when students don't contribute to a group and yet they still get the group grade. That's the That's the space. And so then this is why you have that critique space. This is why you you know, you put that in because now the students, they get a chance to critique each other. And if you see a pattern right, if you see a pattern of a lack of contribution from a certain particular student now you can say, Hey, you know what? The group gray was A B, and maybe you lower their country. Maybe you lower their grade down to a C or a D or even below right. I wouldn't do a below grade unless they there was. I wouldn't do it no great. Unless they just didn't contribute at all, Uh, to a group project to stuff like that. Right? And that happens. And unfortunately, you know that that happens. And it is what it is, right? But But that's a way of individualizing their grades that, like I said, that makes the students take their critiquing seriously. May take makes don't think about the process in a serious matter. Um and you know, like I said, it winds up, uh, making this group work. Project Ah, lot Maur palatable, if you would. And so But here's the deal. When you're doing the individualizing grades and stuff like that and you're reading their critiques, well, let's just be real about it. This is where the racism, the sexism, the homophobia, all of the ISMs and stuff like that and the phobias live in this base. Right? And this is why I would make sure that I use classroom time in order to do group work. Because if you don't do that, then you have then you just have to trust what the students are saying and there could be some very legitimate, racist, sexist, homophobic things that happen classes things that happen when they're all just meeting after coffee shop. It's stuff like that. But if it happens in class, you know you can manage it better, right? You can intervene. You could talk. You can. You can address the group on what not s. So those are things that really we need to be thinking about, right? It regards to why we would have used classroom time in order to do group work projects and stuff. And so just make sure that we're thinking about that. When we're talking about the grading process, right? It's like there is very real possibility that these ISMs and phobias can can come into the space. And so that's why we're described. Were having students describe the work, right? Not I like this person or whatever. That's just petty and trifling. Don't don't let the students talk. It's like and as a matter of fact, announced that it's like I don't care about how well you like each other. I don't care if by the end of this process you're holding hands and singing Kumbayah with each other and your lifelong friends. I do not care about that. I want that, but I don't care about that. This is about work. And let's make it as fair as possible as we're talking about this and the students were really open to that, they really you know, they're really open to just go on like, Okay, so this is this is about work is not about personalities and stuff like that, um, and whatnot. And I tell him, it's like, Look, when you when you get a job, you don't have to work with folks that you don't necessarily like in order to get two to a good space. So learn now how to do something like that because there's very real value and what's going on here. And so when it comes to group work projects, this is about all I got. Um, you know, looking at it, the equity lives trying to be as fair as possible. As you're going through this, making sure that everything is on purpose with purpose, making sure that you integrate all of this stuff off, that it's integrated right group where projects are integrated into the whole, versus just some additional thing that you're using to assess students. Integrating this into what you do is vital, right? So that's all I got here, folks. I hope you learned something. Peace. Thank you for listening to this episode of Re teach. If you want to learn more about me or my open source introduction to sociology textbook, please go to Bruce Hoskins dot com In closing, I want to leave us all with the question. If you learn something today that you think would help closure student equity gaps, how long will it take to incorporate this into your classroom? A year, A semester? Next month. Today, no matter the time table, we must commit ourselves to becoming better. Teachers are students deserve it. All of them, not just the ones that are good already.