Strategy: Small Groups

In Chapter 7, Tovani discusses the benefits of group work.  This chapter really stood out to me because managing group work has been a really big issue for me, and I was really surprised that Tovani admits that managing group work was difficult for her as well, while also explaining various strategies one can use to make group work easier to manage. Tovani states that after doing some research, she realized that the class “needed some norms”(P 91)   and that she needed to “show them what I wanted to see in groups” (p 92).

Although I feel that having norms is really important, I am a little skeptical about having students create their own norms. In my experience, this can work either extremely well or extremely bad, depending on the maturity of the group and the classroom environment in general. In addition, the activity sounds like it takes a while, and so I would probably create the norms myself.

I really loved the fishbowl idea, and she uses this activity in a very creative way since the students aren’t the ones who are doing the modeling. I also loved that she made sure to do things that she had observed students do. Many students aren’t aware that they are being rude, and so seeing this behavior portrayed by someone will help them realize how one should and shouldn’t act during group work.Although I assigned specific roles within each group, I never modeled it for my students which is why they were probably so lost.  

Something that I also found particularly helpful in managing small group work was to always make sure that each student turns in something with his/her name on it by the end of the period. This way, even though they were all working together, they still had to do some thinking on their own and contribute to the group.

 Works Cited

Tovani, Cris. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?: Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2004. Print.