Julianna Lux Blog Post 3

Video Choice #1: Group Contracts for Collaborative Work

1. In any kind of collaboration setting, students will face a variety of problems, but those problems are compounded when the collaboration occurs over an extended period of time.  Based on personal experience with my classes, I've observed issues of numerous absences by a member resulting in missing chunks of the assignment or the other students having to pick up the slack; broken-down communication lines due to students who are more introverted or more extroverted than the rest of the group; and misunderstood expectations because the students dove right into creating the product instead of stepping back to create a plan.
2. Group contracts provide the students with an opportunity to contribute to the expectations and plan for the group. The members of the group must pause and create a plan, both in how the project is to be accomplished and what the consequences are if the steps aren't completed as planned.  Students come to class with a clear understanding of roles and expectations from the students, not the teacher, creating a sense of ownership and personal accountability.
3. Group contracts must have checks and balances in place or it becomes just another piece of paper cluttering a student's notebook.  Every student must be held accountable in a consistent fashion. The teacher needs to make regular, anonymous pulse-checks (especially at first, in my opinion) to ensure everyone believes the contracts are being upheld 100% of the time.
4. Students know that contracts are a part of the real world, but as young people, they've possibly never seen one, created one, or been held accountable by one.  Creating a group contract for collaborative work provides students with a less intimidating first experience before signing a contract for a job outside of school.  Creating a group contract ensures the work completed by each student is equitable.  Students learn the benefit of multiple brains working equally as hard as opposed to one brain pulling all the weight, especially if they feel the sting of being fired because they violated the contract too many times.

Video Choice #2: Structured Groups: Making Group-Work Work

1. Assessing how students perform their group roles is valuable because they will grow after learning their strengths and weaknesses in a particular role.
2. Mr. Jupp provides feedback and guidance by modeling the behaviors for them, showing them how things should be done, and then explaining what the students will learn from the process.
3. Students gain ownership of learning through peer assessment because it forces them to begin looking for evidence of their classmates understanding of certain skills and concepts instead of just listening passively to a presentation.  In order to properly assess someone's work, a student must understand the concepts.
4. According to the Profile of a South Carolina Graduate, graduates should demonstrate the ability to work as a team. A team of four cannot have four leaders, or who is going to come up with the ideas, do the research, or artistically design the project?  Taking on various roles in group projects provides students with the opportunity to problem solve, be innovative, develop a work ethic they would not necessarily experience without the structured roles or group opportunities.