Group Work? Different Colour Pens!
Group work is often avoided by teachers; critics would argue that it provides opportunities for quieter students to opt out, it can potentially embed misconceptions and is sometimes seen as a more laidback, exploratory activity to those ‘in-silence-is-the-only-way-to-learn' style teachers.
Whilst my teaching style (and it’s important you have your own) is mostly teacher-led and explicit (disguised amongst a plethora of engaging and fun ways to learn), I cannot champion peer-influence enough.
Nine years ago, I conducted my PGCE research task about how feedback is the most effective when teacher-guided but delivered through a peer - and it has stuck with me ever since. There is so much research out there to back this notion.
I tell my students frequently that working with their peers is one of the most effective ways to learn and make progress (when done efficiently) and it sets them up for working in the real world: group work invites a different constructive voice; team-building; self-development; removes fear and guarantees engagement.
All this said, peer and group activities must be teacher-led with relatively strict guidelines and criteria, for learning to be the most effective and will need to be part of a routine to be successful.
In my classroom, I ‘sell’ group work as a privilege to be able to do and if they fail to do it to my standard then it will not be done again (or at least until they can prove they deserve that trust). I often come up with ideas that may be common sense to most but never take for granted that some teachers will see what I’m doing and think “That’s so simple, why have I never thought of that?” - so when I tweeted about my student groups using their own colour pen on a poster, it became a lot more popular than I had ever imagined and I realised I needed to share more things like this because what is common sense to one teacher, can improve learning, behaviour and outcomes for another.
The naive NQT/ECT in me loved the idea of group work and students collaborating on a huge a2 poster - using academic vocabulary, debating the effect of writer’s methods and critiquing the authorial intention... this is what teaching English at secondary is all about! In reality, the loudest student would be talking the most, the quietest would be opting out, the artist would be drawing doodles and everyone else would be either listening or thinking about what they’re having for their tea.
So the ‘100% engaged’ poster group task goes like this: a group of students (maximum of 4 but an idyllic group is 2-3) are each given a different colour pen. Put simply, their input is evident in their ink colour. Depending on what your desired outcome is, you can play around with it. Different colour pens could represent different foci: one student could be finding quotations; one could be linking to contextual ideas and the third could be zooming into methods and inferences. When you circle the classroom, you can have meaningful conversations, check understanding, close gaps, stretch and challenge, spot common misconceptions then stop the whole class and correct. Students take accountability of their input and are having meaningful conversations, sharing ideas and building metacognitive skills for the wider world: no student can opt out or get left behind.
Do you do group work often in your classroom?
Rosie x
