Group Work and Social Skills

Design a cooperative learning activity for students in your curriculum area.

Students are to prepare one scene from of Medea by Aristophanes to present to the class at the end of the fortnight. This activity is to be done in groups of 3-4. Whole group participation is expected.

What social skills are required for students to participate in this activity?

Social Skills needed:

L-Listen to other ideas and opinions

R-Respect everyone’s ideas and opinions

C-Contribute to the group and to learning

How will you address the necessary skill development for your students?

If each student listens to the other ideas, respects those ideas and inputs their own, anything in group work is possible. It is important to make it apparent in your class that everyone’s ideas and opinions are valid and that no ones opinion is better than another’s. In English there is rarely one right answer and this can be used to teach students about the many differing values and opinions of people in the classroom, and it the world. Students should learn to listen, through teacher based learning, as well as whole class interactions and students will all be required to contribute daily to the class, increasing their skills in these areas.

To me, LRC represents all I want students to do in their groups. If they all respect each other, listen to each other and contribute to the learning, then every group should be able to easily work on a play, or any other piece of group work, in a cooperative fashion.

Can you outline a set of 'social skills tips' for your students that explicitly explains and coaches the required interpersonal skills in cooperative learning?

Listen – Be quiet when other students in your group are talking, listen to what they have to say.

Respect- Value all ideas that are put forth, everyone is just as valuable.

Contribute – Put forth your own ideas and opinions on the group work.

These explain what each of the three skills are, but it is in practice that students will be ‘coached’ into learning these stills. It is not something I believe can be taught outright, such as math and spelling, but something that must be practiced to be learnt.