Eliminate poor listeners and freeloaders in your groups

 So you've got your students sounding like young intellectuals, elaborating and contradicting and clarifying left and right. They look great, with positive nonverbal communication skills that indicate that they are actively listening. But are they actually listening, and what do you do when someone is consistently off-task, rude, or relying on his/her group members to do the work?

       Let's start with problem number one. Your students appear to be listening to each other, but you're not certain that they actually are. 

I have a two-part solution for this. For partner and small-group discussions, I allow students to call on any member of their group to summarize back what was just said. Not only does this ensure that all students are listening, it also means that each idea is articulated twice and often requires that lower-achieving students actively work to understand and paraphrase the ideas of higher achieving students.

      I do something similar with whole-class discussions. Occasionally and randomly, my students know that I may yell, "Listening quiz!" Whoever can repeat or summarize what was just said (or what was said three volunteers ago, or six, or…) receives a small prize. It's a wonderful technique that I start during our beginning of the year ice breakers ("Who can tell me what Xavier stated was his favorite sport?") and gradually move on to more complex opportunities for restatement ("Who can explain why Ellie believes the protagonist to be merely timid, rather than a snob? What evidence did she use to support her ideas?"). You would be amazed, by the end of the year, how many of students can repeat what was stated five answers ago.

     On to problem number two: freeloaders, rudeness, and off-task behavior. 

    The bane of every group project, freeloaders consistently try our dedication to using collaboration as a tool in the classroom. My solution for freeloaders is simple: Don't allow it. In my classroom, students are made aware from day one that they may be dismissed from any group assignment, should their group and the teacher unanimously agree that they are not putting forth the effort required. You can download my free proposal for dismissal here. A student who is dismissed is still required to complete the assignment, but must do the entire thing alone, resulting in more work than they would have had if they had just done the group assignment. This is a pretty big deterrent for habitual freeloaders. The same rules apply for students who are rude or off-task during small group discussions. If dismissed from a discussion, a student must write a response to the same question the rest of the class is discussing.

      The other benefit of this technique is the process that the rest of the group must go through. 

Throughout their lives, my students will have to deal with coworkers or employees who do not complete tasks on time or to the level of quality required. Before dismissing a student from the group, these students must attempt to problem solve in a variety of ways, and oftentimes, they discover that by giving a freeloading student a specific role or merely asking for help in a new way, they can gain the involvement of a formerly uncooperative peer. It is a powerful lesson regarding their ability to be inspirational leaders.

Cheers,