Airport book stands and Amazon recommendations are full of business books about the wisdom of the crowd, how to get teams operating successfully, and the importance of leading the “collective” in organizations. The evidence for these claims, however, is not easy to find. The wisdom of the crowd is often the wisdom of the group leader. The essence of
People often ask me what the inspiration was behind the title of my two books on Project-based Learning: Keeping it Real with PBL. At the risk of trying to sound too hip, I believed the message at its core was essential. And I was committed
Balanced literacy not only means meeting students in groups based on assessment results as Nancy Frey pointed out in her blog post, it also means varying the types of groups you routinely use during instruction each week. Teachers group students by whole group, small group or
We have all been there. We have divided students in groups of four to complete a task together. Immediately, one student takes over, a couple of others happily “check out,” and the other is frustrated because “there’s nothing to do.” What went wrong? Read on
A significant challenge we came across as School Voice consultants related to the issue of student teamwork and collaboration. Educators recognize that having students work together on various projects has many benefits. Collaboration is, after all, a so called twenty-first century skill (“so called” because
In 7th grade I received the best group role in my science class. I was bestowed with the title and responsibilities of “The Encourager.” From what I could tell, I was expected to provide supportive comments to each group member and find ways to support
As I work with teachers and administrators around the country, I’m often asked some version of the following question: “If I want to get students involved in content-oriented academic conversations, where do I start?” The answer I invariably give is this: “Start with pairs, not with