Designing Group Assignments

How can I design group assignments closely aligned to my students’ learning objectives? 

When designing collaborative assignments, it is important to consider what knowledge, skills, and abilities students are required to learn. While group tasks enable students to communicate, there must always be a specific goal involved, such as learning a specific skill. For example, the goal may be learning face-to-face communication or an online debate or discussion. Teachers need to ensure that projects are sufficiently complex that students are compelled to draw on one another’s knowledge and skills. They are encouraged to create shared goals that can only be met through collaboration, and limit resources to compel them to share critical information and materials.

 Case-based Learning

Group assignments must be closely aligned to the learning objectives of the subject. When designing collaborative assignments, it is important to consider what knowledge, skills, and abilities students are required to learn. While group tasks enable students to communicate, there must always be a specific goal involved, such as learning a specific skill. For example, the goal may be learning face-to-face communication or an online debate or discussion. Teachers need to ensure that projects are sufficiently complex that students are compelled to draw on one another’s knowledge and skills.

Jigsaw Activity

The basis of the activity is for each person to become an expert in a subject and then to teach that information to their peers. This might take a lot of time to understand and work out, but it is great if you need to convey a lot of information in a small amount of time.

1. Group students together and give each group a different resource sheet regarding an aspect of the subject. Number them adequately. For example, if you have three resource sheets, create three groups in the class.
2. Have the students read the information and take notes (if you have a specific worksheet/graphic organizer to help them organize the information, you’ll have more success with this activity). They should become the “expert” on this topic.
3. Number the students again. The tricky part is numbering adequately. For example, if you have 20 students and four resource sheets, the students will have to count off into groups of five (four groups with five people each).
4. In the new groups, the “experts” will have to teach their peers about the information (again, it is best for all participants to have a worksheet where they can take guided notes).
5. In the end, evaluate what the students have understood about the subject.

Out of Class Learning

It is generally assumed that most important and memorable academic learning goes on inside the classroom, while outside activities provide a useful but modest supplement. Evidence shows that the opposite is true. In many schools today, teachers increasingly are encouraging students to work together on homework assignments.

The school can arrange for other ways of community learning too. For example, visits to senior citizen homes where youngsters and senior citizens read to each other; a homework center operated by teenagers and seniors from a local church; and a tutoring program operated by parents and high school students, can be made part of the learning process. All these efforts stimulate community learning and integrate students into the community better.

How do you encourage your students to work cohesively in a group?