Thoughts on Group Projects

My goal at the beginning of the year was to blog weekly. While I have been blogging more regularly, I haven't met my goal.  I have, however, made great progress on the introduction of my dissertation concept paper, so that is great :)

Last week we began the research unit, and I like to begin with a brief introduction to the Rwandan Genocide.  It's an engaging topic, and there are a lot of high-interest and rigorous texts, films, and other resources that can be used to inform students about this important event in the world's history. I continue to be surprised that students have not been taught about the Rwandan Genocide but am certainly pleased to have the opportunity to teach it myself.

One of my favorite resources to use is this:

The Genocide Teaching Project
http://www.wcl.american.edu/humright/center/rwanda/lesson.cfm
The Project provides resources to teach about the legal concept of genocide in high schools, including a discussion of the Genocide Convention (1948), a brief overview of genocides that have taken place throughout history, and the types of behavior and actions, which may lead to genocide. Our two lesson plans include a 90-minute lesson on the genocide in Rwanda and a 45-minute lesson on the current violence in Darfur, Sudan.

The jigsaw provides an excellent opportunity to differentiate materials for students, allow them to work in groups, and to engage in critical thinking.  We've been working in groups for the past few days, and while they've done well, I take full responsibility for some of the "fails".  Here are some things I would/could do different:

1. Create groups based on ability rather than personality (heterogeneous ability grouping)
2. Assign tasks to be completed by each member in the group (accountability)
3. Get the paper and other materials BEFORE we started working (organization)
4. Teach my students how to save images and insert them on a word document.
5. Be more specific in my rubric for the poster: title should relate back to what they read! Otherwise you end up with The Rwandan Genocide for every poster.
6. Make each student write a summary (I think I did that last year, but I forgot this year.)
7. Teach the Norms of Collaboration so that students engage with each other better
8. Assign each person a task for the presentation (should have known they wouldn't do it on their own)
9.  Provide guiding questions for each group like my awesome colleague Kim Lander did