Groupwork
Groupwork. Students can be separated into small groups for brief discussions (10-15 minutes), after which they’ll present to the whole class on what they’ve discussed. Students can even be given group tasks which last several weeks.
Benefits of groupwork can include teaching students:
- To be good listeners
- To cooperate on a common task
- To give and receive constructive feedback
- To respect differences of opinion
- To support their conclusions with evidence
Groupwork can also be used to:
- Generate ideas in preparation for a lecture, film, research paper or project
- Summarize main points in a text, reading or lecture
- Brainstorm applications of theoretical subject matter to everyday life
- Compose questions to propose to the class
- Extract main points from lecture material
- Peer-to-peer teaching
- Gauge student understanding of course materials
During groupwork, TA’s should regularly monitor and help steer student discussions as needed.
Be careful!!! Never rely entirely on groupwork or individual work throughout a semester – it’s important to present material in a variety of ways to reach as many students (and learning styles) as possible.
Tools for measuring understanding
Notecards | Assignments, Quizzes, etc. |
More classroom activities
Pairwork or Pair-Share | Debates | Each-one Teach-one | Journaling & Reflection | Quizzes & Games |