Thanks, Dave. This is a good way to help students organize their projects and time as well as to share the workload and to stay on track. I'll adapt this next semester.
I don't use a template like this, but I do have students complete short group-member evaluation forms when they submit collaborative work. Early in the semester we, as a class, create the list of criteria to develop the rubric. This helps the entire class be involved and engaged in the process, which helps with great accountability to their groups and work later in the semester, and it helps me know what is important to the students when it comes to collaboration. The rubrics also help me to evaluate the each member's part of the project, and the evaluations help create a shared workload and commitment to the group and project. I also include collaborative workshop time during several sessions throughout the semester. Before the end of each workshop, I ask each group member to discuss with their group what they've accomplished and to make a plan for what they will work on next. This helps them see their progress and to keep the research and writing wheels turning. I suggest that they follow this format when they work outside of class together. It seems to work well.
Best,
Kate
Kathryn Remlinger, PhD
Professor of English: Linguistics
243 Lake Huron Hall
Department of English
Grand Valley State University
Allendale, MI 49401 USA
tel: 1-616-331-3122
fax: 1-616-331-3430
________________________________________
From: Teaching Linguistics [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Dave Sayers [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2015 5:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: minuting meetings in project groups
Hi folks,
For a couple of years now in my Sociolinguistics class, I've had project groups keep
formal minutes of all their meetings. This seems to have had a couple of major
benefits. Firstly it helps them keep a transparent record of who has agreed to do
what. Secondly, it gives them a really clear transferable skill for their later
careers. Thankfully there are absolutely loads of guides out there for this sort of
thing. I adapted these: http://www.wikihow.com/Write-an-Agenda-for-a-Meeting,
http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Minutes. In about week 4 I dedicate an hour in their
project groups to running their first meeting, and I help them get used to the
format. It takes all that time, since it's quite a detailed business. The topic for
this meeting is hypothetical, how they might improve the methodology of a homework
task I've set them (this also nicely links in with the nearby methodologies
lecture!). The purpose is to take the pressure off the discussion (so they're not
actually having to agree to do anything), and to get them to focus on the meeting
format. Once that's down, they can go on to use the same format for future meetings.
It seems to have worked well so far, though I haven't included a specific item on it
in the feedback survey. I'll try to do that this year.
Does anyone else do anything like this? I'd certainly recommend it in general, but
I'd also like to hear if others have taken a different approach to managing group work.
Dave
--
Dr. Dave Sayers
Senior Lecturer, Dept Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University | www.shu.ac.uk
Honorary Research Fellow, Cardiff University & WISERD | www.wiserd.ac.uk
[log in to unmask] | http://shu.academia.edu/DaveSayers
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