From: Ron (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: May 04, 2001 at 07:15:14
Subject: Re: The effect of consistent evaluation on student morale

Hi Jon:

My experience at encouraging students to work together has been positive. BUT
- some students say that they want (like) to work alone. This is a real
problem. These are generally students who have real social issues and need a
lot of encouragement in working in a group. The placement of these students is
vital. Don't place a student who is a socially immature with a group of mature
students (makes the problem worse), don't place a student who understands with
a group that doesn't understand, be careful where you place the ADD kid. I
find that groups of three much better than groups of four (less socializing).

I use math as a tool to "educate" my students and being able to work in a
group is an important part of education. This also lessens the load on the
teacher who doesn't have to explain everything and can spend most of his/her
time on motivating and encouraging. I tend to use homogenous grouping and 
spend a lot of time with the less motivated kids.

I found that I can spot a "lazy" (a.k.a. less motivated) student more easily
if they are in a group situation. If you ask different members of the group to
present their findings, the student who relies on others soon become apparent
and you can take steps to correct this situation.

I hate continuous testing as this takes a lot of time. Administrators like it,
parents like it but I want to educate my students, not provide progress 
reports.

These are just my personal observations but based on many years of experience.

Cheers.
Ron

 -Ron, for the T2T service

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