The Best Thing I Ever Taught: Group Work [S5 E124]

Listen to the full episode below:

How do you feel about group work? Love it or dread it? Either way, stay tuned because today marks the second episode in our four part “The Best Thing I Ever Taught” series, where we’re covering group work.

You can probably tell by the title of this episode that we love group work now…but trust us, that hasn’t always been the case. In the past, we absolutely detested it. Group work was one of those things that led to over planning, too much management, and way too much grading. 

Fast forward to today, and we’re happy to report that student collaboration is one of the main pillars of our teaching practice.

Side note - If you have yet to decide what your teaching pillars are, please join us in Curriculum Rehab where we’ll help you get clear on them!

We’re going to give you specific examples of group work activities that have worked brilliantly in our classes. One of them even involves students creating a podcast episode! We hope that these ideas give you some new ideas as to how you can incorporate group work that is engaging for your students and builds classroom community (without adding more work on your end).

Topics Discussed:

• Our most successful, and favorite, group work lessons

• Skills that need to be practiced and in place before group work can really be effective

• What a team Socratic Seminar looks like with a class of seniors (check out Marie’s reel about this HERE)

• An example of how students can collaborate with a formative assessment

• Things to consider when it comes to grading group work

Resources:

• FlipGrid

• Episode 118, Just Mercy Unit Makeover: Nonfiction Series Part 3

• Marie’s reel on socratic seminar

• Chocolate lava cake in a crockpot [Amanda’s recipe]

• Join Curriculum Rehab

• Connect with us on Instagram @bravenewteaching

• Follow Marie on Instagram: @thecaffeinatedclass

• Follow Amanda on Instagram: @mudandinkteaching

• Let us know what you think! Leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

Check out our Collaboration Series:

• Episode 105, Collaborating with the School Community: Collaboration Series Part 4

• Episode 104, Student Collaboration: Collaboration Series Part 3

• Episode 103, SPED Collaboration (Interview with Erin Castillo): Collaboration Series Part 2

• Episode 101, Collaboration vs. Lone Wolf: Collaboration Series Part 1

Check out our Discussion Series:

• Episode 72, The Case for Classroom Discussion: Discussion Series Part 1

• Episode 73, Troubleshooting a Classroom Discussion: Discussion Series Part 2

• Episode 74, Giving Students Discussion Feedback: Discussion Series Part 3

More about Brave New Teaching:

Join hosts Amanda Cardenas (Mud & Ink Teaching) and Marie Morris (The Caffeinated Classroom) in discussions about being brave, trying new things, and all things teaching! As seasoned classroom teachers, Amanda and Marie bring their experience, insight, energy, and oh, so many opinions and ideas... It's time for all teachers to take their classroom and teaching practice into their own hands!

Tune in on your favorite podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.