Case Study 2

Ms Westerbert had avoided using group work in her classroom for years, until she took a workshop on how to maximize group time. As a result of the workshop, she realized that, in the past, she had never made group behavioral expectations clear to the students. Now, whenever she uses group work, she spends time at the beginning and end of each work session going over the rules and then processing with students how well the rules worked for the groups. For example, one rule, “Two before me,” is intended to remind students to ask each other for help before coming to the teacher. On the first day of a new group project, Ms. Westerbert reminds students of this rule and explains the importance of helping each other. At the end of their work time each day, she asks the students to describe in their individual learning logs any example of how they (1) received help from their group members and (2) might have helped each other better. Every day, before they begin working, the students read to their group members the learning log entry from the previous work session. This starts their work with a review of what is going well and what behaviors need to be improved.