Teaching Today A Practical Guide Fourth Edition - part 5

The teacher’s toolkit Managing group activities Bear in mind Chapters 7, 8 and 9 on classroom management. If you use groups a great deal, you may like to rearrange the furniture, but check with others who use the room, or finish the class by putting it back as you found it. If you do decide to move furniture, give very clear instructions before allowing any movement. It helps to have a scribe, and perhaps a spokesperson and chairperson for each group. Ask for ‘someone who hasn’t done it before’, so that everyone gets a turn. Make sure the task is clearly explained, and draw the attention of the class to the all-important task summary, which should be permanently available to the group. Ideally, the task(s) should include some individual activity, such as making notes of the group’s decisions. If the task is not demanding, can you include a stretching activity for the more able? Don’t allow any activity until you say so, and give a time limit: ‘Right, off you go; you have five minutes.’ To begin with, leave them to get on with it, but remain obviously in attendance. Unless the activity is only going to last a minute or two, it then becomes important to visit the groups. (If the activity lasts more than three minutes, this is vital.) 1 Check that genuine progress has been made: – What has the scribe written down? – Have they interpreted the task correctly? – Have they missed some important points? 2 Ask if there are any queries. Don’t talk to the entire class during group work unless it is unavoidable. If it is, then stop all activity; make sure you have everyone’s attention; and make your point clearly and concisely. Groups dislike being interrupted. Body language 244 Group work and student talk As you visit, make sure you don’t get stuck with one group, however interesting their work might be. Body language is important. Get your head down to their level, and smile to signal cooperation rather than judging. Some teachers ask each group to leave a spare chair for them, but position themselves so they can see the other groups. Check the group is on task by asking to see what the scribes have written down. Every now and then, ask if they need more time. Getting feedback When the activity is over, ask each group to report back one of its findings to the class. Go round from group to group until you have harvested all the ideas. The groups will usually be interested in each other’s work. Alternatively, ask each group to summarise their findings on an OHP transparency or on flip-chart paper for display to the class. Thank the groups for their responses as soon as their ideas are expressed, and add your own arguments in support of their ideas if you wish, but do not overdo this. It’s their time, not yours. Ideally, use assertive questioning (see Chapter 24). Remember that it is vital to summarise what the class should have learned from the activity. Inexperienced teachers often ask groups to carry out tasks for which they are not prepared; they fail to define the task clearly in writing; and neglect to visit groups or to clarify learning. EXERCISE Pointers for success in group work or individual student practice Summarise advice for each ‘box’ in the flow diagram below to ensure effec-tive student practice. Task is set Task is clear and in writing. Specific roles may be set for students. Students work on task Working in groups or individually Student feedback Teacher gets feedback from students on their findings. Review Key points are emphasised. Notes are taken or kept. Check and correct Teacher checks attention to task and work in progress. 245 The teacher’s toolkit Checklist for the use of group work o Do you define the task very clearly, and leave a summary of the task on the board? o Do you visit each group as it is working, to check on progress and to help where necessary? o After the activity, do you nominate individuals to summarise their group’s ideas to the class? o Do you acknowledge the ideas of each group – for example, by thanking them and/or by putting them on the board? o Do you hold a plenary to summarise what students should have learned from the activity? o Do you use group work as often as you could? References and further reading Brown, G. and Atkins, M. (1988) Effective Teaching in Higher Education, London: Routledge. Jaques, K. (1991) Learning in Groups, London: Kogan Page. Mainly HE-focused. Marzano, R. J. with Marzano, S. and Pickering, D. J. (2003) Classroom Management that Works, Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Petty, G. (2006) Evidence Based Teaching, Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. Taylor, D. W. et al. (1958) ‘Does group participation when using brainstorming facilitate or inhibit creative thinking?’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 3: 23–47. 246 19 Games and active learning methods During my schooldays, learning was regarded as a serious and difficult process; if laughter ever burst from a classroom, passing teachers would peer in with anger and suspicion. Yet games can produce intense involvement, and a quality of concentration no other teaching method can match. What is more, the increase in interest and motivation produced by a short session of game-playing can produce positive feelings towards the subject (and the teacher) which last for weeks. The basic assumption of this chapter is that learning and enjoyment are not mutually exclusive. The ‘Further reading’ section at the end of the chapter directs you to subject-specific games, of which there are many. But I will start by consid-ering ‘games for all seasons’: that is, generic games which may be adapted to almost any topic or subject area. Most of these games can be played by students as individuals or in groups. There were other examples of games and active learning techniques in the previous chapter, on group work. If cards need to be made, remember that any photocopier will copy on to thin white or coloured card in the usual way. Then you can guillotine these copies to cut your game cards to shape. If you hole-punch cards, you can keep sets together with the ‘treasury tags’ used to keep examination scripts together. Keep sets of cards on ‘treasury tags’. Games for all seasons Decisions, decisions Students usually work in pairs or small groups for this game, though they can work alone. The game will make more sense when you have seen a few examples, but in 247 The teacher’s toolkit general, each group is given a set of cards which have on them: words, sentences, short descriptions of vocational scenarios, diagrams, photographs, mathematical expressions – almost anything in fact. Grouping cards The task is then to match, group or rank these cards in some way, or to treat the cards as labels and place them on a diagram, map, mind-map, computer program, worked example, photograph, painting, etc. Egypt Sudan Zaire Ethiopia Kenya Iran Etc.! South Africa You are quite right, Iran is not in Africa! But well-chosen ‘spurious’ cards act as ‘distracters’ to really test learning, make good learning points, and they make for more fun. Use them in all ‘decisions, decisions’ games. Matching games: some examples Science students are given a set of cards describing energy transformations, and another set describing processes. They have to match each ‘process card’ with the appropriate ‘energy change card’. So they end up with many pairs, such as: A rock falling off a cliff Gravitational potential energy Being converted into Kinetic energy 248 ... - tailieumienphi.vn