Mary Kennedy-Easley -- Blog #3

video 1

1.  There are several problems that I have personally encountered while observing students work in groups during past projects that I have assigned. The most common is coat-tail riding, when some students let others do the majority if not all of the work and expect to receive the same grade. Other problems include absent students missing important parts of the experience, negative communication/ arguments among group members, lack of necessary organization, etc.

2.  Contracts are important, but must be written properly.  A good contract needs to include clear expectations and the role of each group member.  It needs to clearly define the criteria that each member must meet to fully contribute to the successful group completion of the project.  It must also include a system to hold the group members accountable and must be strictly adhered to to be truly effective.

3.  A system that addresses problems and clear consequences for group members who do not complete their responsibilities or negatively affect the whole group need to be in place to balance the workload and to make sure all students are fully engaged in the work.

video 2.

1.  It gives students a chance to explore and discover through solving problems to reach a common goal by using their strengths to take on roles that work best for the success of the group as a whole.  Assessing student's based on their roles in the group can naturally lead students to discover their strengths and use them to build social skills and confidence.

2.  Mr. Jupp walks around and conferences one-on-one with students as they independently work on their individual role-assigned group project work.  He asks what they are doing and why to assess whether or not they are on the right track and guides them when needed.  He then allows the students to peer assess the end products in a workshop type model, which gives the students a bigger sense of ownership of their work, helps them to learn the effectiveness of using constructive criticism and the importance of revision.

3.  Peer assessment gives students ownership of their learning process by handing the microphone over to them for a bit.  Mr. Jupp said it, "kids don't learn best by listening to a teacher talk in front of a class, they learn best by communicating with one another and bouncing ideas off of one another"  ...loosely quoted...

video 3

1.  The popsicles help because it hold the students accountable for owning their own answers because it eliminates the problem that occurs when choral answers turn into a few loud, quick learners to lead the other students to sometimes simply copy the first answer they hear instead of thinking about the question answering it, and fully understanding the mental process it took to find it.

2.  I noticed that the students seemed more motivated to be successful and to work respectfully together.  The team and points structure naturally lends itself to competitveness that can motivate students to push themselves further in the classroom.  I also noticed that it helped students work through their mistakes and work together to solve problems and find answers.

3.  Mrs. Jackson moved from a traditional, choral, whole-group, yes/no/one-answer model to more inquiry based questions that led students to think about how they were solving the problems.  This helped the students who were simply finding answers or guessing to think about and understand how they found the answers so that they can apply the same processes and concepts to solve future ones.


Considering the "profile", PBL collaborative group work is an excellent tool to teach students the social skill they will need to use in the workplace.  It teaches students that they must be responsible for completing their required role responsibilities, abide by deadlines and use time management skills, builds confidence, allows students to explore their potential strengths and weaknesses,  and know that improvement is always an option and that learning through mistakes is not just OK but can be extremely valuable.