Groupwork and Groupwork Structures

Groupworthy Tasks

Many educators believe that group work and collaborative learning are effective in academically and linguistically heterogeneous classrooms, and the evidence for the academic and social benefits of these instructional strategies is substantial (Sharan, 1990; Slavin, 1983). Too few educators, however, understand the crucial design elements needed for successful group tasks. Some students who easily complete tasks designed for individuals may refuse to devote time and energy to building group cohesiveness or group consensus; others may openly resist making their grades dependent on the efforts (or lack thereof) of other members of their group. The teacher, therefore, must deliberately and carefully craft learning tasks that are “group-worthy.”

• They are open-ended and require complex problem solving.

• They provide students with multiple entry points to the task and multiple opportunities to show intellectual competence.

• They deal with discipline-based, intellectually important content.

• They require positive interdependence as well as individual accountability.

• They include clear criteria for the evaluation of the group's product.

(https://ascd.org/el/articles/group-worthy-tasks) 

Task Cards:

Task cards are physical pieces of paper that have directions and criteria for what students are supposed to create while working in a group. This allows the teacher to hand ownership of the task over to the students. Task cards should have  the basic criteria for success on the task you want students to complete, the resources they should use to complete the task, and a set of general directions to follow. Here are some example task cards

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3