Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Dr. Angela Dalhoe on Sustained Group Work

Group activities, much like groups of butternut squash puree, are much less likely to cause indigestion when they are prepared with close attention to consistency. Dr. Angela Dalhoe, Department of Special Education, advocates for consistent, pre-organized group activities in her classes:


In many of my classes, we do group activities every week. The groups are established at the beginning of the semester (the students even come up with their own group names – credit goes to Dr. Todd Stephens for the idea) and remain in place for the entire course. I give each group their own folder, which acts as our primary method for relaying assignments: each week I place a new prompt in the group folders for them to complete by the end of class and return back to me in the same folder. For larger classes I think this is essential: it gives the students (and I) a takeaway from the content, helps me with keeping attendance, and allows me to easily identify students and groups who are excelling with the material and who are struggling a bit more with it.

Interviewed by: Jon Pumper

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