Building Interpersonal and Small -Group Skills are a critical component to successful productive group work. Learning to work well with others requires modeling, lots of practice, reflection, and refinement of skills. Lessons need to be designed that include routines and group tasks that specifically focus on expanding students' interpersonal skills.
There is a brief description of theory of mind. This suggests that empathy and the ability to take on different perspectives can emerge from exposure to the feelings of others and from experiences that foster differing points of view. There is a good chart on page 70 which states important skills and an operational definition of each skill.
Teachers need to model and provide opportunity with routine. Students need to be taught the skills for thinking and communicating with clarity. A good tool for this is graphic organizers. A caution...graphic organizers should not be handed out like a worksheet to be completed by students. This chapter suggests teacher modeling of a variety of graphic organizers and then allowing student choice for organizing information for sharing. Five types of organizers commonly used are described on page 73. Active listening is another group work skill that students need to be taught. There is a good description on page 75, but a great example explaining how a teacher implemented active listening in his class using daily feedback from students on his own implementation ofactive listening. The checklist he uses with students is included on page 76. The list sets the expectations for listening and provides scaffolding for good listening behaviors during group work. A third skill that is discussed is responding to peers. Teaching students to give constructive feedback that is meaningful and not too polite or too blunt. Again there is a good chart on page 78 that explains several techniques. Finally, considering different perspectives and creating opportunities for students to disagree with one another on a topic of substance. Successful group work is designed to expose students to multiple viewpoints, and it canbuild students' capacity to understand the perspective of others and craft a position for themselves.
The chapter ends with three different scenarios implementing these skills. In the high school scenario a discussion web is mentioned. I have seen a web used by teachers, but never thought of sharing with students what the web looks like after a discussion...great idea! It would be interesting to do this in a data meeting, staff meeting, etc.
I am happy to read the ideas about modeling questioning and social skills by the teacher. I think this could easily be done during the I DO part of the lesson. I also was happy to hear the authors mention graphic organizers as a tool not a strategy. I think we go to them often (especially in data teams) as a method of/strategy for teaching a concept when they are truly a tool to practice a strategy! Kids should be introduced to them and taught how to use them so they can go to them when they need to.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to point out again what the authors and Marianne mention - modeling, PRACTICE, reflection, and refinement. We must remember that kids do not just come to us knowing how to act. Even though they learned such skills years before, last year, or just yesterday, we cannot assume that they just know how to act or will act the way we expect. I think this is something that teachers (in general) struggle with the most. We want students to have the brain capacity that we do and it is hard to think that they truly do not. Additionally, teachers want to teach their curriculum - not practice social skills. However, as this chapters and others have mentioned, when they are allowed to work with others on anything, they may take more time to do so, but they will do it better and retain the information used and learned. This is going to be hard for our staff to grasp. As I mentioned last post, some staff members are already having trouble going against their pacing guides even though we (backed by building administration) have introduced the idea and recommended it. We need to decide as a team how important we think this ("what we teach") is.
I enjoyed the quote at the very beginning that says, "Students from kindergarten to high school are still in the process of forming an awareness of others and developing the social skills necessary for productive interaction" (68-69). I have said this before, but I will say it again: teachers cannot assume students can walk into a classroom knowing how to work productively in groups. We have to continually model for them throughout the year! I have been so frustrated in the past when my lessons don't go as planned. Rachel will ask, "Did you model it for them?" Every time it is a disaster, it was because I did not model it for them. And we cannot assume that because they work in groups in one classroom, that they will work in groups in other classrooms. It takes time, routines, a safe learning environment, and a heck of a lot of modeling for students to take risks and work together. "Making assumptions about what skills students already know or should have learned along the way is unfair and can result in a number of unexpected and negative consequences" (71).
ReplyDeleteI saw the chart on page 70 as a possible starting point for norms that might be developed in classrooms for how to behave in PGs. There were a lot of charts in this chapter that we could use. One connection I made was to the graphic organizers on page 72 and data teams. Before winter break, 7th and 8th grade were focusing on the topic sentence VIP. Although it did help our students, we have moved away from requiring students to use it, and instead have encouraged them to keep using it IF they need it. We were obviously moving in the right direction by doing that.
Towards the end of the chapter, the authors had a section on considering different perspectives. "...have them practice considering situations and issues from different perspectives and then create opportunities for them to disagree with one another on a topic of substance." It goes on to explain how Doug and Nancy have used this acitivity in their classrooms. Becky and I tried something like this today. We used the expert and home groups by having students analyze the characters in our new novels. After reading this chapter, I realized that we could bump it up on Bloom's by creating a scenario where they would have to defend their character in a certain situation instead of simply describing their characters to each other. I enjoy this book because it gives me ideas just like this one to go back and try out in the classroom.
I really liked the examples in this chapter. I think they are good reminders for all of us and something that would important to share with the staff. I especially liked the part on graphic organizers. I know that in data teams we have come across this problem many times. Graphic organizers are tools. We should model them. But – it is up to students to decide when to use them. I think we need to remember that all students are different and need the opportunity to organize their thoughts in different ways. I do like to have students prepare something to bring to PGW because it gives them something to share.
ReplyDeleteI also thought the piece on active listening was interesting. I like how the teacher modeled active listening (and feedback!) by letting the students rate a part of the lesson. This method allows students to see good examples (and maybe bad examples) and then verbalize the expectation for PGW! Could we somehow model this for the staff? I think it could be interesting.
I think students need a lot of modeling for how to interact with their peers. This is how those sentence starters can be very useful. They seem a little corny – but they help get students started. I think the “sandwich” idea can help bring structure to this piece.
On a side note- Amanda and I tried the expert and home groups today in our Literature Studies classes. I asked one class for feedback as a closure. Without prompting – many students commented that they liked the home groups because everyone had equal amounts of work to share and do. It seemed fair. They were really positive! I would HIGHLY recommend trying it out!
Again, modeling, practice, reflection, and refinement of skills are key components to having productive group work. In the past, I've had students create what I should see and hear in group work but I have left out the modeling part. Even though I would refer back to the lists, the groups didn't work like I had hoped. Now I know why!
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting how the author described active listening. I've heard the phrase multiple times, but never stopped to think what that entailed. I, too, liked how the teacher let his students score him. It's always good to let students see that we are still learning and better our skills.
This may sound silly, but I'm going to say it anyways. Remember, it's only a stupid question if it's not asked. :) I know how important modeling is, but how do we model productive group work? Do we arrange ourselves with a couple articulate students and work through a problem/task? Do we talk/think aloud during a do now then move to a we do? Do we have students work together and give feedback to groups or individuals? This book does a nice job explaining what needs to be in place, but how do we do that? The example on p. 82-83 discusses how how to model active listening, but what about the other components?
Interesting chapter that I don’t think many teachers take into consideration when forming groups or identifying why groups are not functioning correctly. The importance of social skills and questioning and how if they are not modeled, the group will not have much of an impact on the student learning. A quote that I thought was interesting, “Children are beginning to develop a theory of mind when they start to differentiate themselves from their mother.”
ReplyDeletePage 71 talks about the instructional routines that foster interpersonal and small group skills by stating that teachers must provide ample opportunities, which students learn to work well with others. This requires modeling, lots of practice, reflection and refinement of skills. I feel that lots of ideas that we have read discussed talk about the importance of MODELING. I think that our staff needs to be aware of the importance of the “I DO” and how if done incorrectly, impacts our students negatively.
Good thing we are covering this next week!
As I read this book (and make observations within JB Young) I reflect on all of the things that I could have done better as a teacher. I remember when the District made a huge push within the Treasures curriculum towards DI and using leveled readers to implement group work. It was difficult to do (without sufficient training…this book would have been a HUGE help), but I managed to do it to a certain extent. Group work is not the same thing as productive group work. My classes did group work, but, unfortunately, it wasn’t quite productive group work.
ReplyDeleteIt is essential for teachers to understand that PGW will be flawed when it is first implemented. It will take lots of planning, modeling, practice, reflection, and refinement. It, like most things in education, is a process.
Page 69 highlights the skills of, “thinking and communicating with clarity, active listening, giving peers feedback, and considering different perspectives,” as some of the most important “skills” in order to productively work in a group. As a student, these skills will allow you to experience success in school. As a person, these skills will allow you to experience success throughout life.
The chapter talks a bit about peer feedback and how it should be more of a response to a fellow student’s work or idea rather than a judgement of it or the student. I think that this is applicable for peer-to-peer student feedback; although, with my experiences as a teacher, students very seldom were able to provide one another with meaningful advice. However, this should be how we give teachers feedback. We should clarify what we saw and we should offer suggestions for improvement.
I really like the scenario the book gives of the ‘man breaking into the pharmacy to steal a life saving medicine for his sick wife because he doesn’t have money to buy it.’ And then asking the students to think critically about the situation from points of view of the man stealing, the sick wife, the pharmacy owner, the pharmaceutical company, and the police officer. I think that this (or something similar) would be very high interest to any middle school student.