Katie Chandler April 1, 2012 Journal #5 Topic/Subject: Parent Concerns About Group Projects Inquiry Question: How can

I effectively implement group work to help students engagement and increase students responsibility for their own learning? Earlier in this semester, I designed and implemented a groupbased project on the Civil Rights Movement in 1960s America. Each of the students was given a topic to research and present with one partner from the class, which was also assigned to them. At the same time as I was planning the basis for and organization of this long research project, the school was also conducting parent conferences in the afternoons and evenings after school. During the time for parent conferences, a few of the parents of students in the New American Studies class, which was about to start the project, came in to the school to speak with me about their childs performance in the class. It was during those conferences that I began to realize and understand the concerns that parents had about their students working on both small activities and longer projects with partners or small groups. At some point during the parent conferences, I spoke with the parents of Sarah, a quiet sophomore in the New American Studies class. While speaking with her parents, I told them that Sarah is typically quiet in class, but when she does participate, she adds insightful comments. In class, she typically does the work that they work on there, but she often does not turn in the smaller assignments. As a result, she is often in the middle of the class based on grades. After talking to her parents about how she was individually in class, I explained what would be coming up next for the students in the class, the large research project in particular. Although I enthusiastically explained the project and her parents seemed interested in the topic and idea, they quickly began to discuss their concerns with projects such as this one. Sarahs parents said that they understood the purpose of the project, they also said that they were concerned, because Sarah had worked on similar projects in the past and had been brought down by the work of the student or student that she had been told to work with. Although I had not fully expected their reaction in that setting, I completely understood that this was a common concern for everyone- teachers, students, and parents. Although the conversation with Sarahs parents made me consider more options in my implementation of this project that could ease their

concerns, they were not the only parents to express their concern with a large project based on group work. The next day, the father of one of the students, Henry, voiced similar concerns when we began to discuss the projects. Henrys father said that his son seemed to enjoy the class and had done well on the previous research project that my CM, Mr. Levy, had assigned. However, we both acknowledged that the problem was often ensuring that Henry followed through and completed his assignments after beginning them. As the topic of the research project came up, Henrys father began by talking about how important he thought it was for the kids to learn how to do real research, especially on something that most of them would find interesting. However, he was also concerned about the student that Henry would be assigned to work with. Although the parents clearly do not know all of the other students in the class, they still had general concerns that the partner assigned to work with their child would basically drag them down and hurt their chances of getting a good grade or succeeding. Hearing these complaints from the parents of my students made me reflect on and possibly reevaluate parts of the research project. I understand that students are often paired with other students who do not work at the same level as them or have different ideas of what their final results should be. After looking back on those complaints and my own understanding of the problem of using and then evaluating group work, I knew that I need to add some more assurances about how the students would be evaluated and how I should inform both the students and their parents about the collaborative work that would be implemented in class. In the end, the reactions of my students to the project in class and the concerns of the parents eventually led to my decision to add more resources and documents that would show both what was expected of each student individually and of each group of students throughout the project. However, I am also adamant that I would not completely give in to either the parent concerns or the student complaints. I will not completely change a teaching practice and activity that I think is worthwhile for the students. While there do need to be strict guidelines on how the work is divided and the manner in which the students are evaluated, it is also extremely important for students to be able to work together with people who are not necessarily their closest friends and to learn how to construct their understanding of a topic with their peers.