|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Ask for help > hi friends i need your opinion???
hi friends i need your opinion???
|
FRANK_XAVIER
|
hi friends i need your opinion???
|
|
im going to start the english classes at junior high school . i�ll have 30 students into 5 groups. What�s your opinion in WORKING IN TEAMS (as harry potter�s houses hahahah) i mean in each group make 5 teams of 6 students to work ALL THE YEAR in order to encourage (force haha) them to work because im not going to grade the team if there is a student who doesn�t finish the work but if the team do their best they will have a reward... i don�t know what to do..... most of them are good students and i work using songs games movies etc but there are in each group 4 or 5 students don�t work and i don�t have time to work only with them.
what�s your opinion???? any idea???? thanks in advance |
13 Aug 2010
|
|
|
|
|
|
mugo
|
|
be kind enough to them you are their shephered a little bit of patience will do...all the best in your mission!
from mugo...an African English teacher in an African country |
13 Aug 2010
|
|
|
elderberrywine
|
To me it sounds unfair if you don �t grade the entire team in case one student doesn �t finish his work. A student in the group who pulled his weight would be punished for something that another student did (or rather: didn �t do!).That would send my motivation below zero.
If in a group of 30 there are only 4 or 5 students who don �t want to work I think there is no reason to establish hard rules that might make the other students feel bitter.
It �s an illusion to think that you can reach every single student with your teaching and that you can make every single student work hard. I would try other methods (peer teaching for example) and I would definitely NOT decide on one method for the entire term or school year. Mixing groups from time to time and changing methods frequently make classes more interesting.
|
13 Aug 2010
|
|
|
viccxx
|
|
I have tried it in the past and it worrked but it created a lot of tension between the kids. There were a few kids who in a way "blackmailed" their team members to do their work for them so that the group wouldnt lose points. After a while arguments started and those kids were shunned by their team members. I had to switch to both individual and team grading after that because the kids that were working found it very unfair to lose points because there were slackers in their group. It worked like a charm after that. |
13 Aug 2010
|
|
|
|
|
elderberrywine
|
|
I thought there were only four houses in Harry Potter ..
|
13 Aug 2010
|
|
|
edrodmedina
|
|
Frank... What I �ve seen work is that you don �t keep the same teams all year. Establish a given amount of time that each team will be together then rotate the students. Have different assignments (jobs) for the members of the team (eg. team leader, note taker, supply manager, etc.) and these jobs can also be rotated on a weekly basis so that most students get a chance to lead and to give input. If you reconstitute the teams every month by the end of the year the students will have worked with everyone in the class. |
13 Aug 2010
|
|
|
Miss Paulaey
|
I totally agree with edrodmedina.
BTW I also know that there are 4 houses in Harry Potter. And I also know that teachers need to be creative, so why can �t we invent/ create / add another "house" to our class? The whole class can vote for a new name for the new house or just invent a new word for it. The idea is to get students involved in this process so they enjoy what they do...
You can also use pair work within the groups and swap roles among the different members of each of them.
|
13 Aug 2010
|
|
|
Besides, if they �re Harry Potter fans, as you seem to be, they could vote for the Hogwarts houses as their own group names. They can also have a kind of "selection ceremony" in order to be part of the different groups... 