OER4Schools/Review of group work

Title: Introduction to OER4Schools
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The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource

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  Introduction to OER4Schools

  2.3 - More on questioning

Table of contents.

Introduction to OER4Schools >>>

Facilitator's version, Participants' version

Review of homework and classwork

• In the last session, you planned Talking Points about a topic. Did you try teaching through the talking points during this week? If yes, how did your pupils respond to the talking points? Share your experience about as many points given below:

• Which activity did you use for team building?
• How did you get everybody to participate?
• Were students able to explain their reasoning and understanding to peers?
• Were there ‘free riders’ or individuals dominating the discussion? How did you address this?

• Will you plan Talking Points activity again for your pupils? What changes will you make to the points for this activity, so that they are more effective for group discussion? Some of the things that you can think about, are: number of correct/incorrect/unsure statements, wording of statements, length of statements, concrete and abstract statements.

• Did you recruit any older students as Classroom Assistants this week? For which teaching activity were they recruited? Did you use any criteria for choosing them? What is your assessment of their usefulness for achieving lesson objectives? What is the impact on the learning of the classroom assistants by carrying out this role? Discuss any issues that you faced in recruiting or by recruiting classroom assistants. Remember: it is very important that classroom assistants are recruited with full cooperation of the students, their parents, teachers and the school administration. It needs to be a voluntary activity.

• Did you download or try to download images that could be used with the Talking Points? Share any technology issues that you faced while downloading. Also describe the steps if you were able to resolve them. Otherwise, discuss unresolved issues with your peers for ideas on how they can be resolved.

• While downloading images for Talking Points, did you face any conceptual issues such as availability of images related to the teaching concept or choosing images that were relevant? Did using images improve the effectiveness of Talking Points? Give examples to support your response.

Objectives of this session

• To consolidate learning about group work

• To plan an effective group work activity using ICT

Activity One: Consolidating aspects of group work

Educator note

This is the last session focussing specifically on group work. In it we review the key aspects of the previous sessions.

For this activity, you will need the questionnaire on group work (). Print one copy for each participant.

Give the participants at least 20 minutes to fill in the questionnaire, especially section D. More time can also be given if needed by the participants.

It is important that participants think about the meaning of each aspect as discussed during the previous sessions (not their own interpreted meaning) and its implementation in their classrooms. They can refer to the previous sessions (online or on paper) for this.

You can ask the participants to write their responses in their first language if it will help in expressing their thoughts.

Encourage participants to answer carefully the last question in the questionnaire. They should think about their agenda regarding teaching through group work. This will be required for Activity Four during the session.

In Unit 3 you have discussed and reflected on a variety of topics related to group work. Here is a list for recap:

• Exploratory Talk
• Same tasks group work
• Different tasks group work
• Group composition and formation
• Ground rules for group work
• Group size and seating arrangement
• Carousel of activities for group work
• Seating arrangement during group work with computers
• Sharing ICT resources within groups
• Sharing ICT resources across groups
• Using non-ICT resources during group work
• Talking Points activity for promoting group interaction
• Recruiting classroom assistants for helping in group work

Individual work (11 min). Answer the questionnaire on group work. Be honest about your responses for section A and C. Be reflective about your responses for section D. Carefully and realistically plan your agenda for carrying out group work in your classroom.

Whole group activity (11 min). Take turns to recap meaning of the different aspects of group work and share your responses from section D. This means that one participant explains the meaning of one aspect of group work briefly. Other participants share their responses as listed in section D of the questionnaire for this aspect. Then another participant explains the meaning of another aspect followed by sharing of responses.

Activity Two: Revisiting issues of group work

In Unit 3 you have also discussed and reflected on issues about teaching through group work. Some persistent issues are:

• Teacher’s role for effective group work
• Ensuring participation of every member
• Deciding appropriate grouping strategy
• Learning of every member of the group being a group responsibility
• Bully effect and free rider effect (issue of copying)
• Seating arrangement during group work with ICTs such as computers

Educator note

You will need a flipchart (preferably one sheet for each issue) or concept mapping software to record strategies suggested by the participants.

Whole group Brainstorm (11 min). It is inevitable that you would have discussed some of the issues about group work during Activity One. Now, extend the previous discussion and brainstorm strategies that you can use for resolving the issues mentioned above. Suggest realistic and practical strategies that the facilitator can record on the flipchart or concept mapping software (see Unit 2, Session 4 for concept mapping).

Educator note

Make sure that you cover the strategies for all of the points mentioned below:

• Teacher’s role - during lesson planning, carrying out and concluding group work
• Ensuring participation of every member - contribution to the task and feeling free to express opinion by agreeing or disagreeing
• Deciding appropriate grouping strategy - in view of the learning objectives
• Learning of every group member being a group responsibility - at the time or carrying out group work and reporting it
• Bully effect and free rider effect - for pupils who are dominating, shy and even lazy
• Seating arrangement during group work with ICTs - all arrangements that increase optimum use of ICT resources

Activity Three: Practising group work with the EtherPad application

Educator note

For this activity you will need a blank EtherPad file.

Form 3 groups of 2-4 participants in advance, each with a computer and all 3 computers sharing the same EtherPad file. Allot a name to each group, such as Group 1, Group 2 or EtherPad 1, EtherPad 2.

While choosing participants in each group, try to include one participant who is fast at typing.

Get into the groups suggested by the facilitator. Each group will have one computer to work with and 3 groups will share a single Etherpad file.

The advantage of working with EtherPad is that different groups can collaborate in real time. So groups can simultaneously work on one topic and see each other’s contributions in different colours.

Whole group (11 min).As a whole group, suggest a topic to your facilitator on which you would like to work in groups as well as collaborate across groups. It is suggested that you select a topic that some of you plan to teach soon in your classes. Some suggestions of topics which can be relevant across grades are:

• Importance of Zambia’s Heros’ day or Unity day
• Prevention of communicable diseases
• Causes of different types of pollution
• Factors affecting vegetation in Zambia
• Good practices of rearing cattle
• Scientific concepts such as Force, Friction or Gravity

Remember to form an open question for the topic that you choose (discussed in Unit 2, Session 2). This will help different groups to think beyond basic facts and use reasoning.

Small group (11 min). In your group think of answers to the open question you have formed above. Discuss the answers using exploratory talk (see PPT in Session 3.1) and type answers that you have agreed on the EtherPad. Remember to save your file using the name of your group, such as G1, G2 and so on. (Example of filename with extension?) Upload your file onto the server.

Educator note

Visit each group and spend some time assisting them. You can help in solving any issues that they might be having with technology or importantly help to think of answers to the open question. Remember not to suggest answers but ask questions that will prompt them to think of answers.

Encourage group members to discuss their answers to the open question using exploratory talk and to try to reach a consensus before typing their answers.

Allow 20 minutes for the activity.

Whole group (11 min). Reflect on the questions below as a group:

• What would be the teacher’s role in planning, carrying out and concluding group work using EtherPad? (Clues: deciding groups, managing technology, interacting with pupils to assist them in learning, facilitating group talk)

• Think about whether any of the scenarios mentioned below happen in your classroom. What would you do if...?

(1) one EtherPad stops working

(2) one pupil is dominating the use of EtherPad in the group

(3) one pupil is not interested in the group task with EtherPad

(4) pupils are concentrating only on typing and are not discussing the answers

(5) pupils do not know how to save the file

(6) time is over but pupils still want to continue on the task

Activity Four: Planning group work

Pair Work (11 min). In your responses to the questionnaire, you have decided an agenda related to group work for next week. Combine this agenda with use of EtherPads that you have just done. With a same grade buddy plan your teaching to take action on the agenda combined with use of EtherPad. Use the activity template for planning.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind while planning the activity for your pupils:

• Choose an open-ended question. For example, ‘Who is the current Hero of Zambia?’ There can be various responses to this question such as, Stoppila Sunzu (footballer), Collins Mbesuma (footballer), Michael Sata (current president), Fredrick Chiluba (president for two consecutive terms) etc. Or ‘What causes pollution in our environment?’

• The question should require detailed discussion. Encourage reasoning and exploratory talk during this discussion. For example, for each of the personalities listed above, pupils can state their choice, agree and disagree with reasons.

• The written output after discussion of the question should be short. Ideally it should not be more than one word or sentence. It is important to minimise typing for time management. For example, students will choose one personality as answer to the above question.

• The question should also stimulate discussion across groups. For example, different groups can discuss their choice of personality or one group can propose a name, another group can give a reason for why they agree or disagree that that person is a hero. Each group should have good reasons for their choice.

= Homework =

• The questionnaire on group work is available electronically. Type the answers that you have written on paper, on this electronic version. As soon as you download the questionnaire, first save it using the filename - [Your Name] Q on GW.doc (fill in your name in the space mentioned [Your Name] but without the brackets [ ], e.g “Susan Q on GW.doc”. Upload it onto the server.

• Carry out the teaching that you have planned using the activity template. Record your reflections on the dictaphone.

• Plan and carry out a lesson using EtherPads in your classroom. [instructions, including Under each teacher’s name, you will see several Etherpad files already set up, ready for students to use.] Save the resulting Etherpad files using a filename that contains your name, the date and a number, eg if you have 4 Etherpads (with 3 groups of pupils sharing each one), you could call them “Susan June 12 etherpad1”, “Susan June 12 etherpad2”.