| Author |
Message |
    
Tina Kelley
Citizen
Username: Addiemoose
Post Number: 51
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 24, 2006 - 2:49 pm: | 
|
I'm sniffing around on a possible newspaper story about parents getting frustrated in their attempts to set up times for students to work on group homework projects, with kids being overscheduled. I've heard a report or two but not enough for a trend. Thanks! |
las
Citizen
Username: Las
Post Number: 1374
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 24, 2006 - 3:15 pm: |
|
This semester I'm researching students using group chat rooms to collaborate homework assignments.
I've been asking everyone I know if their kids use chat rooms or discussion boards for school, to no avail. Since they're not working on line, surely there must be tons of frustrated driving parents around. |
Morrisa da Silva
Citizen
Username: Mod
Post Number: 402
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 24, 2006 - 5:47 pm: |
|
The group projects have always been frustrating. My oldest had his first ones when in 3rd Grade. Parents would call parents and whoever got stuck hosting the meeting would really have their hands full.
My son is now in Middle School and just had a group project. 13-14 year olds are not great planners. They plan on meeting and then one or another kid has soccer or Grandma's house or something. Or they get together and don't have all their materials and waste a lot of time just doing over what they were supposed to do at home.
The worst situation is when kids don't all pull their weight on the project and at the last minute one or two kids get stuck.
It seems like more teachers are heeding the frustration and are doing more group projects completely in class. It's much better for the group planning to happen in class and have kids work on pieces of assignments at home if they have to. |
MHCLyons
Citizen
Username: Hamandeggs
Post Number: 226
Registered: 8-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, March 25, 2006 - 5:58 am: |
|
I agree with Morrisa. I am a teacher and a parent. While group projects will always be with us, they had a moment of great popularity a few years ago. Parents were really inconvenienced. I see more now of what Morrisa mentioned: dividing the project into sections, parts, etc and getting together in class. |
Cynicalgirl
Citizen
Username: Cynicalgirl
Post Number: 2536
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, March 25, 2006 - 7:35 am: |
|
I hate them hate them hate them hate them hate them!
There, I've said it. My kid is in middle school, and has been having group projects here and elsewhere since the third grade. With maybe one exception they seemed more of a social planning project than anything with academic merit. The scheduling issues, the weight-pulling issues. If in class, at least the teacher can keep an eye on the dynamics and the scheduling mess goes away.
I "get" what they're supposed to foster but I really think they should be avoided until high school. It's so artificial and almost never achieves the desired goal (learning to work in groups, drawing from each player's strengths, etc.) *Sometimes* I saw them work in my mba program. |
extuscan
Citizen
Username: Extuscan
Post Number: 636
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, March 25, 2006 - 9:27 am: |
|
I know we are more talking about kids and group projects, so this doesn't apply... but when I went to college I would do ANYTHING to get out of a group project. I moved off campus 45 minutes away and got a full time job just to get an excuse. One project we were supposed to basically examine the work flow at a factory and suggest improvements... and my group had two nurses who decided it would be brilliant to study thier hospital... um... hello, can we get an C before we even start because its not a factory??? I told the teacher that hospital was an abortion provider and there was no way in hell I was going to do a report on that. It worked and I got to write a paper on my own, they got a B- and I got the A. Second scheme if you are stuck in a group is to make sure you don't get picked last for the kickball team... I picked who I was with VERY VERY carefully. I would cultivate friendships right away if I knew a group project was coming down the pike. I wanted people who I could bully into doing what I wanted without arguement, and would do thier assigned job very well. In an IT class we had to make an access database for an apartment rental agency. I instantly grabbed the two quiet asian girls, decided who did what and when, and the end result was so good I was asked to be the TA the next semester. When all else fails, I will let others feign involvement until the very last minute when I basically toss everything the group has done (probably the night before) with what I had been working on for weeks. It doesn't take them but two seconds to realize I did them a huge favor by throwing thier work in the trash can. I'm sure things are different at Ivy leagues, but considering this was a bottom of the top 100 business school list state school, I can only imagine how bad this can get at community colleges, crappier state schools, and of course, MIDDLE SCHOOL.
-John |
cody
Citizen
Username: Cody
Post Number: 973
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, March 25, 2006 - 10:23 pm: |
|
My kids are well past this stage now, one in college, one about to be, but I remember hating group projects.
When my oldest was in 5th grade, the teacher assigned the groups and two of the children in my daughter's group lived in an apartment building. There were no adults home at night in that household, and the children were not allowed to leave to work in the library or at our home, where an adult was present. I would gladly have driven them home, but it was not OK with their parents. I wasn't happy with the four 11 year olds home for hours with no adult supervision in a building with multiple apartments, multiple chances for fires due to cigarettes/cooking and things like that. Then, the two girls decided they just weren't going to do the project right before it was due. My daughter and the one remaining child in the group sat up all night trying to reconstruct what had been done the night before the project was due (the notes were with one of the kids who dropped out of the project). The two remaining kids handed in the project and got a D minus because the work was sloppy and missing some parts. The teacher refused to listen to any explanation, or allow the two kids time to finish the project properly on their own. He also did not allow time in class for groups to work on the project there. My kid got so ticked off she went to another teacher on the team, who went to the first teacher and said class time had to be allowed for group projects.
I don't know if that is still the case or not.
I realize it is supposed to teach the students to work together, but if groups are arbitrarily assigned, it can cause big problems.
Personally, I hated them when my kids did them. I don't recall having to do them when I was in school, but that was when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
|
|
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page