Module 3

Module 3.1 - Forming Groups for Group Work. How do you form groups of students for group work and why do you take this approach? Based on your experience what strategies of forming groups work and which do not work? Why? 

I totally agree with Katja's introduction: "Collaboration is a competence to be learnt".

I have been working for several years now on group work and I know I still have a lot to improve...

I normally form groups according to the work to be done and skills and competences of my students, trying to have different learning skills in each group. I have got big classes (28-30 students), so my groups are normally of 4, but I have to say that I'd prefer groups of 3, because of better interactions.

Sometimes, however, depending on the activity to be done, I leave my students free to choose their group mates: it is a kind of reward and a challenge: they have to show that they can do their best in every situation...

Module 3.2 - Challenges of Collaborative Work. How do you keep your students focused and on track during collaborative projects? How do you ensure all students contribute to the task?

I usually work in group with students and one of the task we have accomplished recently has been the documentation of a Comenius mobility.

We went to Spain bringing with us four tablets (from our school), each of them assigned to a group of students. 

They had to take pictures, notes and catch everything they considered relevant for the project)

Then, they shared everything through the Drive account we all have in common (I mean, our school has got a Google Apps for Edu domain, so each of us has got a Google account and can share everything through Drive and other apps).

When we came back to school, each group decided what to keep and what to do with all the material collected.

At the end they created a shared e-magazine with all the participants (Polish, Spanish and Italian students and teachers) and put it on our eTwinning Twinspace for the project.

Module 3.3 - Success factors of school-to-school collaboration projects. We know many of you on the course are already etwinners, so take this opportunity to share your successful school-to-school collaboration projects here

I am an eTwinning Ambassador and I find school to school projects via eTwinning absolutely fantastic!

My students have the opportunity not only to get to know other students from other countries in Europe but also to collaborate in a real way to reach a common goal.

I have been running more than 20 eTw projects so far and for each of them the motivation of my pupils has increased a lot.

As I have already said, we used tablets to run some activities in an eTw projects called "Las voces del agua" (voices of water) where three groups from Poland, Spain and Italy investigated about the multiple "voices" of water (rivers, lagoons, sea, salt mines etc.).

They took pictures, notes, collected evidences and documents and shared everything through Twinspace and other free apps to create some common products.

All our works are also shown in our site. Here you can have a look at our blog

Module 3.4 - Assessment & Collaboration. After participating in the webinar or reading the case study report (link above), what other strategies have you used to assess group work? What are the main challenges for you when it comes to assessing group work?

I have had the chance to work with some experts of formative assessment, and I have to say that I am very interested in this topic.

That is why I have been experimenting self assessment, formative assessment and peer assessment for some years now.

The most important thing I have learnt both from my students and trainers is that I have to negotiate and share assessment criteria with pupils. 

Moreover, we regularly run formative assessment both about process and products, which is something really useful.

Using tablets is very effective: we can record videos both about working process and presentations. Then some students fill in a rubric that we have built together and at the end we discuss together on the results of the assessment by watching the video. It takes us a lot of time, but I am convinced that it is a good way to make my students aware of the importance of assessing one eachother to improve their competences.

Here you can see a rubric to assess group discussions/debates.

Module 3.5 - 

My two favourite tools ever:

GOOGLE APPS FOR EDU and, of course ...

ETWINNING!!

Nevertheless, I am always interested in learning more and more, that is why I have tried to collect some of the apps that I have tried in these last years, just to remember them (I am getting older and my memory suffers a lot...)

My blog: