Students are social. Even if you assign an individual assignment; students find a way to work together. Productivity, the students are working together to find and explain answers. Unproductively, they are copying someone else’s answers. Since I know this fact, I arrange my room to allow for some collaborating. I have lab tables (2 students sit at one table) and I arrange the desks so two tables are face to face, making square groups of four. I also seat the students where I think is most appropriate for learning. Once I get to know the students, I arrange them so that individuals who work well are next to each other and individuals who copy sit next to each other. I allow the students to work together on assignments, reviews, and project. The students, who typically copy, learn quickly there is no one to copy off of if they both normally copy and they begin to do their work.
In the future, I plan on extending the collaboration to more activities. Allowing students to pick their groups in the future would allow them to be more involved in the activity. I have observed when students get to pick, or at least have a say, in their group members are more likely to stay on task and do their best work.
I have always known that group work was important; it allows the students to learn interpersonal skills. Now I know that students crave interactions and need it to learn. This encourages me to include group work as much as possible in my classroom.
If I had computers in my classroom more than once a week, I would love to use them to incorporate blogs, wikis, and web pages more into my lessons. This would make learning more enjoyable and I would be able to all the students more informal learning than lecture.
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