Rothskelly

I don’t remember a lot of group work when I was in high school. Most of this is because our classes were so short, and now when I teach, we have a block schedule of 100 minutes, and so there is much more time to incorporate group work. In English classes, I use literature circle roles, and I think that in itself is also very difficult. Each student has a role to fulfill, and that is all they focus on instead of discussing the text or sharing ideas. I have found too, that in a classroom, the kids who are on the same level tend to stick together, while the off task students will want to form their own group and complete no work at all. When you divide those off task students up, the situation is a lot like what “Beth” describes where one student is working and the rest fooling around. The only other group work I do is when we do writer’s workshop, and that in itself takes a lot of coordinating, setting up the classroom, and keeping kids accountable. Before even thinking about group work and writing in groups, what I want to know is how to get students motivated in writing. When I assign an essay, I have maybe 6 kids turn it in on time out of a classroom of 26. We break down the prompt together, we read a model essay, and then we have writing time. How else can I get students to write?