Collaborative Learning

I really enjoyed the collaborative learning lessons in class this week. I have been trying some of the group ideas, sometimes successful, sometimes not so much. It takes a lot of planning to get everything together before doing group work. For example, specific lesson or project instructions, grading rubrics and student "monitoring" or self evaluation records. However, I find that the students do better when they know what to expect (that sounds like a no brainer) but sometimes the problem is I fully know what I expect but don't seem to express those expectations so that the students can understand. Having expectations in writing for the students as well as verbalizing they tend to better understand, or atleast be able to ask clarifying questions. One of the big questions I had before our class was how to grade group work. Again, having everything already planned will help. I like the idea of 50 - 50 because that will allow me to adjust an individual students grade depending on absences, poor effort, etc. I have done something similar a couple of weeks ago and the students with lower grades never commented. They know when they don't participate! As my GSU classmates continue to try collaborative learning please forward ideas that are working for you as well as those that don't. In other words, share the knowledge please.