Assigning Roles in Group Work

By: Rachel Barry

When you walk into my classroom, you will see the desks grouped into pods of four desks.  I promote collaboration amongst my students, when students are not taking a summative assessment because I believe that it is important for students to work together to solve problems as well as verbalize their thought processes.  I love when I hear students teaching one another how to start or work through a math problem.  Not only does it help the student in need, but it also reinforces the content knowledge with the student helper.  

Over the course of the year, I have instilled group expectations with my students both academically and behaviorally.  Students are aware of these expectations, however, as we are nearing the end of the school year, I have found that some students are becoming a bit lackadaisical with these expectations.  So today I am going to try something new -- providing students with specific roles within their group work.

Students will be working in their groups on this document.  I will then give each student a role within their groups: facilitator, recorder, checker, and reporter.  The facilitator will keep the group on task and moderate the discussion through this checklist.  All math work and additional notes will be made by the recorder.  The checker will go through the work and answers of the group to make sure that they are correct, and the reporter will report out their answers during the class discussion at the end of the period.  

Prior to beginning I will communicate to my students that I expect each student to fulfill the duties of the specific position.  I will also tell students that they will be evaluated on their efforts in that role.  Upon completion of the activity, students will complete this Google Form to self-assess their efforts, both group and individual.