Reading Reflection 3 - Groupwork ch. 1-3

Chapter 1-
This section covered the basics of using groupwork as a strategy for the classroom. It considered using roles within the groups to establish the "group community" and group responsibilities. Groupwork will get done if everyone in the group is responsible for a certain task. Reading this section reminded me of working in our groups at school. I thought about what I do as a teacher and assigning roles was something that I for got to do. I will definitely assign roles now when I create groups in my classroom. Something that I am wondering about now, after reading, is if groups can work if the students always remain the same in each group. What if for each semester the groups stay the same ... will that work?

Chapter 2-
This section covered the reason why we should use groups in our classrooms. One of the main reasons, and a reason we are reminded of in our university classes, is the power of interaction. The section discussed the importance of using group discussion and group interaction as a gateway to learning. I know from experience that this is very true. I like to consider myself a social butterfly, and now I have come to really enjoy the time I have working in groups. Not only do student get the work done, in most cases, but they also learn something about interacting with each other. something that I now wonder is what happens if no one likes each other in the group? What if they all just "can't get along?"

Chapter 3-
This section discussed the possible problems of using groupwork in the wrong way. The section opened up with the hypothetical classroom setting with groups, and I would love to stress the word "hypothetical." This section called for a teacher to learn the signs of social hierarchies and using that to create equal and fair involvement for all of the students. I wanted to stress the "hypothetical" part because this classroom seemed to have it all. I know some would argue this is true, and who am I to disagree, I'm not even a real teacher yet. But I do live in the world of reality and not fantasy as do many of the authors who love to talk. Anyways, the one thing I would like to know now is what groupwork is flawless?