We have our groups!
Students chose one to two topics that we have been discussing that they wanted to dig a little deeper on. These topics will be their focus for the next few weeks, understanding the problem deeper, and coming up with creative ways to help!
Group Roles
When it comes to working in groups, we get more accomplished when we are in each in charge of something that helps everyone in the group. We all shouldn't be gathering materials, trying to make decisions, and keeping notes! That wouldn't be efficient or productive. We learned about 4 roles that we can use whenever we are in groups to help us get organized and work together.
Once we knew what the roles were, I had each student apply for the role that they were most interested in. We have been working on opinion writing/persuasive writing, so the more reasons they added, the more convincing it was! It was interesting to hear their perspective and I definitely took it into consideration when assigning the roles for each group :) |
Group Agreements
Before we started our first collaborative project with our new teammates, It was important to set up some agreements for how we are going to work together. Sounds a lot like group norms, right? We know no one is leaving or changing groups, so we have to be able to get a long and work with the people that we have been assigned to be with. Group agreements are a great place to start! We all signed our names next to our job, demonstrating that we are going to work hard to do the agreements we decided on.
Raising awareness about our group problem
We learned that one way you can help a problem is by raising awareness about that problem! Creating a poster is a great way to do that. We talked about what makes an eye-catching, informative poster and then dove in! We took time to sketch out our own individual ideas and then brought those ideas to our group for discussion. We knew we couldn't have 4 titles, so we came up with a list of ways that we can make a decision when we are working in a group. I wish I had a video camera just running... there was lots of yelling, kids wanting it to be there way, and then of course great collaboration :) Lots of learning happening when we work together in teams! | |