Advantages of group work

Advantages of group work

Group work is the name that we give to a variety of techniques in which to or more students work together to solve a task in which most of the ttimes they have to discuss and come up with a solution for it, also we can also say that pair work is group work but with less students, also acording to the collective teacher parctice we can say that groups from three maximum four are optimal, but groups of six or more tend to leave some students without participation in the activity, making it a problem in the class because the idea with the group is that everybody has an oportunity to talk and share.

Poll

which is the right ammount of students when doing goup work?

• 4

• 7

• 6

• 3

Poll

what could happen if we have groups of 6 or more students?

• They will be ok

• Someone might not participate

• Just one is going to work

• All the options.

Time to work in groups

​the tacher will separate the students by giving them a number from 1 to 4 then have a conversation about the next thing.

You were in a plane crash and you survived, then you recieved a call from the rescue crew telling you that you will be rescued in a week, but a misterious tribu took everything you had and they give you the oportunity to choose only one of the next objects to survive the whole week. Selec one and tell everybody, why?

a lighter

a pot

a mirror

a machete

Poll

Do you think group work is good to generate interactive language in your class?

• yes, it does

• Depends(tell the teacher why it depends)

• No, it doesn't

Group work generates interactive laguage

As you could notice having the situation and also choosing wich one is the correct tool to pick created a space where the students had the oportunity to participate and give their opinions making goup work a nice thing to include in class if you want your students to practice their speaking abilities.

Poll

Is group work useful to create an affective ambience in the class?

• yes, it does (tell the teacher why it is usefull)

• Depends(tell the teacher why it depends)

• No, it doesn't (tell the teacher why it is not usefull)

Group work offers an embracing affective climate

Using goup work is very important to create a good climate in your class. sometimes we have that student that doesn't participate that much because he/she is afraid of talking in public, but having a smaller group can help them to participate without being afraid of making mistakes and maybe reciebing mocking from their partners.

It creates a better climate in you class not only for your students it also helps you to have a better conection among them and in some cases with you.

ONE WORD STORY

In your groups take a piece of paper (only one for the group) and everyone of you take a pen or a pencil, you will have to create a story but you can only write one word per student. you have 3 minutes to create a funny coherent story.

Poll

Did you feel compromised with your group while doing the story?

• yes, I felt I was important to develop the activity (why)

• No, I didn't feel useful (why)

• I don't know (why)

​Group work promotes learner responsibilityand autonomy

When you work in groups your students tend to give roles and divide the work and that is ok, because by doing that they give some responsibility to each member making and creating an idea that could be "if I don't do it everybody is going to fail because of me" creating not only a feeling of responsibility and autonomy but aldo a felling of empathy with teh group.

Group work is a step toward individualizing instruction

This specific section is very important because it is related with your studenys abilities because as you already know we can fin a lot of variables in our clases (age, proficiency, cognitive style, etc...) that can lead to differences in their skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) in our students, but by using the work group we can have a better leveled class because they are going to share with the ones that are a little more proficient in the different habilities.

Open Ended

Write a little summary about: why is important to have group work in our classes?