Group Task Management

In my short time as a teacher, I've heard pros and cons to using Group Work as a teaching tool. Some people think it's the lazy teacher's way to get through the day, some people believe it's a way to get pupils to take charge of their own learning. If you have self-motivated pupils, then group tasks can be beneficial, but I don't think group work should be avoided just because some pupils need a little more motivation and guidance.

I'm sure I'm not the only teacher who's learned the hard way that dividing pupils into groups to accomplish a task requires more management and thought than you'd think. With no guidance, pupils fight over who will do what, or won't actually accomplish anything because no one has really taken charge or taken initiative. As a teacher, you really have to guide pupils with everything from who will collect resources for their group, to who will physically write down information. To be fair, some pupils just click and get on with it; but there are some who really need your guidance in order to accomplish the task you've set them.

Often when I divide my kids up to work in groups, I assign them roles so everyone is clear on what they need to contribute to their group. I've carried this out in several ways in the past: I've popped wee post-its on certain pupils to indicate who's the Scribe/Author, I've written the titles of each role on slips of paper and handed them out randomly, or I've allowed the children to decide who will be what. What I find to be the best method to carry out assigning roles is having these cards to use and re-use:

I created this set myself, including the illustrations. I've printed, cut out and laminated a few sets of these cards (so you can hand them out to several groups) so I can just keep reusing them. The children quickly learn what group roles are and what their responsibilities are, but I find the cards to be a good reminder. On the back of each card, the role title is written at the top with some reminders of what they should do:

I made up a separate page of the job descriptions and glued them to the back of the picture cards before I laminated them. Easy peasy.

I explained the group roles to the children as their Job Titles. For instance, my job title is "Teacher." The Job Titles, or Roles, that I use are:

1. Manager
2. Illustrator
3. Reader
4. Author
5. Resource Manager
6. Reporter

I don't necessarily use every role for every group task, and not every person in the group gets a role all the time because it may not be necessary for the task. Or sometimes, I have fewer than 6 pupils in a group, but there is a need for all the roles, so some pupils may get TWO job titles! I would slowly introduce these roles to younger pupils, but I've managed to be able to use them for as young as Primary 2 (Grade 1).

Let me know if you find this method of Group Task Management helpful in your classroom!