Group Work

Group patterns to teach writing

Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making skills, but it needs careful thinking and planification for it to be effective and fully instructional.

There are many different ways to establish group work, I will mention Two specific group kinds and some other made ups involving Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences.

Heterogeneous grouping:

This kind of group involves students of a very wide range of instructional levels, interests, motivations or abilities. By working together they have the opportunity of exploring their own abilities and understanding the ones of their peers when helping each other through the process of reaching their goals.

Homogeneous grouping

Contrary to the previous groping, this strategy involves setting to work together students with the very same or similar instructional levels, interests or abilities. Within this group different materials can be set for specific topics or abilities, giving the opportunity of grow their own abilities and go beyond the simpler goals.

Garner’s Group Configuration
All this information might seem too complicated or too much to handle around for a group, but this group strategies and more could be set in the same lesson with just a little bit of thought.

Let's pretend we are planning a animals distribution activity, where the students have to know several different animals of different species and how to situate them in their specific habitats.

1. Whole class discussion (Heterogeneous)

With this we include at least intrapersonal, interpersonal, verbal and visual intelligences when the activity works its way to produce at least a small participation form each student. This could happen in oral or written form, and it would produce the global information for the project. It facilitates learning because it allows for everyone to express their previous knowledge plus the understanding they have for the initial information.

2. Small group presentation, where each group has a different habitat to work with. (Homogeneous)

It could be Musical, Verbal, Visual, Kinesthetic or actually any or the intelligences, as in this time we set up the students in small groups with alike intelligences and let them investigate and learn more about a specific group or animal of their choice.

It facilitates learning because as their interest and ability is alike they can work and explore more of their election.

3.  Partner up, set them together. (Heterogeneous)

This time Kinesthetic and Visual intelligences mostly express themselves as for the final product they will set the animals and habitats accordingly with the help of a partner.

By working in groups students are able to get along with others, see another's point of view, and managing one's own emotions help students stay on task and maintain positive peer relationships to achieve group goals. It also turns out that children who have these capabilities are better at paying attention, taking in information, and remembering what they read and hear.