Mod 15 Video Discussion

The videos help demonstrate why group work and collaboration are effective, but I think the main idea that separates them from other "do group work" fare is that they showcase the importance of group work with intent. Just like I mentioned in a previous post, the use of sentence starters were something I think I could add to think-pair-share activities to help passively guide students along to more focused answers, group work must be purposeful and thought out. If I just threw two kids together and said "what do you think about x, y, x," it still would be unstructured and thus not as beneficial as a learning endeavor. Any unforeseen hurdle can lead to the dreaded "uh...I don't know." I especially like the idea that students should be taught directly how to interact in a group, like what the rules for engagement are and what I expect them to do and not do. I think that would be an excellent thing to practice during the first week of school, having a primer for general group work. Of course, using techniques like Jig-sawing help establish a framework that students would work within directly for the lesson, which helps reinforce general principles, but doesn't require metacognition for etiquette as much, or so I would think. Teaching proper etiquette, that's a great way boil it all down.