Case 13
The Chance I Had Been Waiting For
from Groupwork in Diverse Classrooms: A Casebook for Educators.
I believe cooperative groups are most effective when the students engage in rich complex activities, learning by doing. I also believe they learn more when the teacher's role is to facilitate learning instead of just imparting information. Yet when my students do groupwork, I always struggle with the same dilemmas: if and when to intervene, and how to ensure that low-status students actively participate and high-status students do not dominate.
Thirty percent of the students at our school are Hispanic, many bused from other neighborhoods to attend our bilingual program. Most of our native Spanish- speaking families are originally from small communities in Mexico; the parents are migrant workers and the families move with the growing season. Few of these families speak English, and most have very low reading and writing skills, even in their native language.
I taught in Mexico for three years before moving to the United States and becoming a bilingual teacher. Be- cause I went through some adjustments myself, I have been able to relate to the struggles of my Spanish- speaking students as they search for their place in this new culture. From the beginning I planned a lot of cooperative activities that would allow students to interact regardless of their language ability. This way everyone could learn from each other.
Whenever we do groupwork, I choose activities complex enough to require many different abilities. To complete a task, a group needs students skilled in reading and writing, but also those with other abilities, such as balancing, building, drawing, estimating, hypothesizing, and measuring. Every member of the group can use at least one of his abilities and can contribute to completion of the task. Each student plays a specific role in the group: facilitator, checker, reporter, or safety monitor. Task instructions are always pro- vided on activity cards in both English and Spanish, and in each group one student serves as translator.
I use specific strategies to encourage students to use their many abilities and to recognize them for doing so. For example, I observe them as they work in groups and give very specific and public feedback. I also show how what they've done is critical to the task at hand and how they contributed to their group.
The groupwork has by and large been very successful. At the beginning of the school year, there are always some academically weak students who are clearly considered outsiders by their classmates. By the end of the year, however, most have developed a sense of belonging. They have become active participants in their work groups and begun to demonstrate more self-esteem.
But one year, one particular low-status student in my third grade bilingual class showed no signs of being integrated into his group. He just had too many prob- lems to overcome.
Miguel was a shy and withdrawn child who spoke no English and stuttered when he spoke Spanish. His Spanish reading and writing skills were very low, and although math was his strength, nobody seemed to notice. Recently arrived from a small community in Mexico, Miguel lived with relatives-more than 10 adults and three children in a two-bedroom apartment. He came to school hungry and tired, and wearing dirty clothes. Shunned by his classmates, who said he had the 'cooties," Miguel was left out of group activities. Even when he had a specific role, other members of the group would take over and tell him what to do. Miguel was obviously a low-status student.
When I observed Miguel's group I saw that the other members simply wouldn't give him a chance. Coopera- tive leaming was not helping him at all. Miguel grew more isolated by the day. Students increasingly teased him, and he was getting into fights and becoming a behavior problem. I realized the only way to change students' views about Miguel was to show them that he had certain abilities to contribute to his group. My challenge was to identify his strengths and show his peers that he was competent.
One day in May, we were working in cooperative groups building different structures with straws, pins, clay, and wires. I was observing Miguel's group and saw him quietly pick up some straws and pins and start building a structure following the diagram on one of the activity cards. The other members of the group were trying to figure out how to begin their structure, and as usual, were not paying much attention to Miguel. I observed that Miguel had used double straws to make the base more sturdy. He knew exactly what to do because he had looked at the diagram on the card. In other words, Miguel knew that the task was to build as sturdy a structure as possible, and he understood the principle of making the base stronger by using double straws.
I knew that this was the chance I was waiting for; it was clear that Miguel had the ability to build things by following diagrams. I decided to intervene, speaking both Spanish and English, since not everyone in the group spoke Spanish. I told the group that Miguel understood the task very well and would be an impor- tant resource because he had a great ability to construct something by looking at the diagram. I also said that Miguel might grow up to be an architect since building sturdy structures by following diagrams is one of the things architects need to do. I also told the group they had to rely on their translator so Miguel could explain what he was doing.
I continued observing the group from a distance, and sure enough, a few minutes later the translator was asking Miguel for help. Miguel explained to the mem- bers of his group what he had done and why. It was obvious he had abilities that could help him succeed in cooperative learning groups, and his group finally realized it. But I wanted everyone in the classroom to know that Miguel was very good at building structures.
So when his group reported on their work, I said I had noticed that they had some problems understanding the task, and I asked their reporter what had helped them complete the task successfully.
He told the class that Miguel had understood what to do and had explained it to the group. I then reinforced the reporter's explanation, adding that Miguel had shown competence in building things by looking at a diagram and that his contribution had helped his group solve the problem successfully. By assigning compe- tence to Miguel in front of his group and the whole class, I made sure everyone knew that Miguel had a lot to contribute to his peers. This was a wonderful ex- ample for everyone of how important it is to explore the multiple abilities of all group members in completing the task. After this, things changed for Miguel. His group members not only recognized him as an active member but began using him as a resource to help them balance their structures.
Miguel's status changed after my intervention, but I am convinced that had I recognized his competence earlier in the year and given him specific feedback, his school year would have been much improved. The experience raised a number of questions for me. Why hadn't I taken the time to observe Miguel's performance earlier in the year so he could have been viewed as a resource both in groupwork and in other areas? Had I somehow been convinced he had no abilities? What would have happened if I hadn't been observing during those few seconds when Miguel was building his structure and no one was aware of what he was doing? Would Miguel have continued to be ignored totally by his peers? How long would it have taken for someone to realize that Miguel is a capable boy? What happens to students like Miguel who have abilities no one knows about? Will they ever be successful? Sometimes I feel I don't see what's right in front of me and tend to have low expec- tations for low-status students, forgetting that the less we expect, the less students give.
Miguel is not at my school anymore, but I have heard he is doing well. He still has problems, but he has more friends and is getting better grades. I want to think that some of his success was because of my intervention.