Tips for making small group collaboration work

So you’ve decided that you want to increase student engagement in class. Having students work in small groups is certainly a way to get students involved, but unless you build in some structure, the students can waste time or get off task quickly. Here are a few guidelines to follow when you plan cooperative learning activities in your class:

1) Give the groups very specific tasks to accomplish. Rather than say, “Discuss in your group,” provide more structured guidelines: “As a group come up with three alternatives . . . ” or “List four reasons why . . .” or “Figure out two different ways to solve . . . .” Make sure your directions are very clear and easy to follow.
2) Set very limited time frames for the activities. Giving a small group five minutes to solve a problem will leave little room for socializing. Consider less time—you can always stretch it if the groups are still working. If you need your groups to work for an extended period of time, perhaps break the time up into smaller portions with “deadlines” for each smaller time segment.
Often when there are discipline problems related to small group work, the culprit is one of the above issues—or both.

3) Keep the groups small if you can. In a group of six or seven, it’s easy for a student to hide in the crowd. There is no crowd in a group of three. If you have to have larger groups, then consider assigning (or having the group assign) different roles or tasks to each group member.
4) If you haven’t used small group activities before, model explicitly what you expect to happen. Even be as specific as to how the group will share with each other, what each member’s expectations will be, how the individual members should record their work, how the group’s consensus will be shared out with the class, etc. If you find that some groups get off task, look at what happened to cause that and stop and model to the class what behavior you expect. Modeling is a positive approach to trouble-shooting problems.
5) Don’t have students remain in the same groups for extended periods of time. Mix it up regularly so groups don’t develop “bad habits.”
6) Small group work can be as simple as “turn and talk to your neighbor.” Just remember to be very specific with the task and limit the time.