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My son is a slacker at school and sometimes does not return homework or is late with projects etc. (he is good at team projects though). He also had a four year academic internship that required writing reports etc. He was also in charge of an operation in high school that had a lot of dead lines. He was never late and always done everything in perfection. For him not returning homework only changed his grade from A to B and he did not care. But he knew if he did not do his jobs right he would get fired or not asked to come back next year. The stakes are very different. I would have conferences with the teachers telling me that I did not teach him the value of hard work and then I would simultaneous get emails from his “boss” telling me how hard he works and how lucky they were to find him. That sums up my parenting drama the last four years. He was also involved with MUN where he excelled but don’t ask to see his cogopo grade… For him there is a very clear distinction what is school and what’s real life. Now if he went to Dolemite’s high school that might be different but not in his very conventional high school.
My child hates group projects in HS where GPA and grades really matter. She ends up doing the bulk of the work to protect her GPA.
Latest project at end of 3rd MP she was teamed with very popular, very charismatic child in running for Val/Sal of school - who games the systems, cheats, and woos the teachers. D covered 90% of said project, perfect child missed multiple deadlines they had agreed upon (with D picking up his pieces and getting them turned in), and basically did nothing except check in with D that she was getting it all turned in.
On the final part with this boy had to complete on bit of analysis and submit his sources to D one day before due date. It never appeared. He never responded to texts, calls, emails, or snaps. 1 hour before final midnight turn in deadline for entire project, my D went to bed and left project incomplete and not turned in (after multiple attempts to contact child to get a “status” of his remaining parts- no contact returned). At that point she could care less about the project and was so annoyed – she was willing to fail.
Our house phone started ringing at 11:40 pm with perfect child’s MOM yelling that our D never submitted the project and “she” only had 20 minutes to do so - she was insisting that we get her to turn it in or get on her on the phone. Her son was already in bed but his mom was monitoring account and realized that status had not changed to submitted. My husband calmly reported that the kids would have to work it out in the morning and take the late penalty - that D was in bed as she had AP physics and AP calc quarterlies in the morning.
Crazy mom started yelling at H and he offered to have D forward multiple emails and all contact indicating that her child had not completed any of the parts of the project in the morning. We thought she would be shocked that her child had dropped the ball and embarrassed that she had called us at such an hour thinking it was our D. This mother told my husband that “her child was a leader and as such was instructed not to be bothered with busy work or mindless projects.” She went on to say “leaders delegate such work to people who have the skills to get it done and we should feel good that he felt our daughter was a strong enough partner to be entrusted to complete his work”. Husband hung up the phone in a bit of shock – and we were fine in that 82% score that daughter and partner received (40% of mp grade-ugh).
It hurt my D’s grade and she ended with an 89% for the quarter (AP class)-- if she hadn’t done all of the previous parts of the project, they would have surely failed. This boy pleaded to the teacher that it was my D who had not submitted and not completed the project to no avail – he publicly accused my D of sabotaging his GPA and purposefully deleting all of his hard work. D never said a thing as the teacher never asked for her input (although if needed she has plenty of documentation) – D ended up with 100% participation points on the marking period, rumor has it that this boy ended up with much, much lower – his mom is currently appealing his participation grades and asking for the administration to no longer allow “such subjective grades” to count. Group projects are the worst.
Oh this is bringing back more bad group project memories.
The senior year final project (due after AP tests and the prom) where one of the end products was a 15-20 minute video. My daughter had volunteered to be the editor and spent hours using movie maker to put the video together ( a very time consuming task). When she sent the final video to her teammates - one of them sent back a message saying she would now edit it for them - my daughter was in tears. Luckily another group member stopped her saying the video was perfect and they submitted the one my daughter had made.
Then there was the history project where each member wrote one page and my daughter was the one to edit it together for the final paper. One kid’s page was incoherent (I read it every single sentence was horrible containing errors and not covering the topic.) My daughter rewrote that page and put together the final paper. Then that girl got mad at her for not using any of the stuff she had written.
We were the parents who supplied all of the “stuff” for the group projects…poster boards, materials, computer and printer needs, etc. We also provided rides to other team members so they could work on these projects at our house if needed. Our kids always seemed to get paired with someone who wasn’t allowed to have friends over, didn’t get the necessary materials, etc.
I was SOOOOO happy when these projects became school directed and time a looted during the school day.
One summer the school assigned a number of projects to be completed during the summer months. My kids were not here all summer long, and these were a headache and a half to complete. There was no supervision whatsoever during the summer. There was just an expectation that kids would turn these all in the first week of school. Most were individual projects…but so what?
We politely wrote the administration and explained what our kids WERE doing in the summer (both went to high level music programs). We also politely said that our kids would not be completing all of these projects…and none would be group projects. And we expected NO penalty for this. School agreed. Lots of other families did the same.
Same thing happened woth the group projects.parents said…you want to simulate a work/real life group situation…then set it up so that the supervisor (teacher) can actually work with the kids to get these done. And the listened.
@thumper1 I know it was an autocorrect error that made it come out as “time a looted during the school day” but sometimes autocorrect gets it right! And kudos to your community for standing up for the summer issue.
Ha! Yes…should have been “time allotted”.
Oh I like “time a looted” wayyyy better 
I have nothing to add other than I hate group projects. In the best of cases they are fine and everyone does a share of the work, but in the worst of cases there is undue stress/workload placed on the committed student while other glide off their coattails. IMO the negatives far outweigh the positives.
@novicemom23kids, wow, how character reveals itself!
I was about to add that I’ve heard horror stories from friends about group projects gone bad–and the parents (usually the mothers) are often deeply involved in managing their children’s time.
I think any group project should be done in class, under the eye of the teacher, with school-provided materials. Each group member should be required to grade other group members on their contribution to the project, and each group member should receive an individual grade.
In middle school, my oldest ended up doing much of the work herself, when assigned group members who wouldn’t or couldn’t pull their own weight. Or supporting others too much. At one point, she was reading an assigned book over the phone to a dyslexic group member. The worst was when group members came from the “popular” group, as they were more interested in social interaction than putting time to good use.
My kids have learned productive group habits from the voluntary group activities known as “extracurriculars.” Such activities usually had a goal–a performance, a fund-raising goal, creating a structure, etc.–which required everyone to pitch in, and included massive humiliation for all group members if they did not acquit themselves well. Most of it was not done with parent input, which helped as well.
I was talking to D18 about this and she said when the teacher assigns the kids to do the group project they ALWAYS make the slacker of the group be responsible for the final turn in, rather than the hardest working one. And they always know who the slacker is.
I thought this was counter-intuitive, and she said that it works for all of them because the pressure on the slacker becomes really intense when all the stuff comes in and it’s sitting on their shoulders-the slackers are used to just doing one part poorly and not caring. I was like, you guys are merciless!
Of my 3 kids, I have two that have no problem with group projects, though they definitely prefer it when they can pick the group themselves. But they get it done and make it work no matter what.
My middle son, currently a freshman, cannot abide group projects. He will make it work when he has choice in the group, but still frets about whether the others do their parts. When the teacher assigns groups, if he is not happy with his partners, he will often ask if he can do the project alone. Most of the time the teacher agrees.
I asked him why he would rather have 2/3/4 times the work, but he said he prefers to have complete control over the final product and not to have to badger people who are slacking. He would rather do all the work himself than deal with the time suck that is making sure the others parts are done too, and he doesn’t want to be the annoying “bad guy” either.
My eldest went to a public magnet HS and the first thing they said was “I bet your student was the one doing all the work on the group projects in middle school”…they actually got to team with others tudents who wanted to do work! awesome!
OK I have two stories to add. D1 just finished her freshman year at one of the top LAC’s. She had a group project for her foreign language class for the midterm grade. One of the two other students in her group was a total stoner. D1 and the other student could never get the stoner to show up for meetings or do any work. Finally they just told him to show up on the day of the presentation and improvise his part. At 2 am on the morning of the presentation, stoner messaged them and said he was too wasted to go to class but that he’d email the professor for an extension. Miraculously, he got the requested extension, showed up at the next class and improvised and everyone got a good grade.
D2 is a freshman in HS who suffers from extreme anxiety and other mental health issues. At our 504 meeting, one of her requests was not to be required to do group projects outside of class, because of her anxiety about working with other students and going to a stranger’s house. The Assistant Principal in charge refused to permit ANY accommodations at all for group projects saying that doing them is a required part of the curriculum. So I guess all group projects will have to be done at our house. ;-(
The only group project I ever saw work was one in middle school where the teacher divided the class into four and had each group produce a themed magazine. She had kids apply for the jobs, (editor, staff writer, art editor etc). Everyone had to write at least on article. The articles were written at home, but all the other work was done in class. If a kid wasn’t pulling their weight the teacher fired them and gave them grammar and vocabulary worksheets instead. I think only one kid in the class ended up being fired. The results were amazingly professional looking.
I can tell a story from the other side. I was getting my MBA at night, and taking a class on computer networks. I knew little – but was put in a group with two people who worked for AT&T. They had a project idea related to a product they worked with and said, “Don’t worry, we can take care of the whole thing”. I kept asking if I could help, but they had it under control. We got an A. 
My kid had group projects starting in the elementary grades. Some were fine, others not so great due to other kids lack of work ethic etc. Some teachers were receptive to a report back of other kids’ lack of work, and other teachers didn’t care. These types of situations mirror “real” life in that some bosses care that everyone on the team does their job, and others only care about the finished product. The group projects continued in college. D became the organizer, assigner of parts, the disciplinarian if needed and a few other roles. Some people had to be browbeaten into doing their work. She does not like to brow beat people, but did it if needed. I do not think such a role comes naturally or with practice to much younger students. That is the problem with these projects. A middle school kid who doesn’t want to make his “friend” mad does not have the same perspective as a college student who knows that slacker dude/dudette is no friend and a manipulative user etc.
The story above about leadership kid, and the honor of being his drone is appalling. I applaud the girl who had the guts to say she would take the late penalty rather than do all the work herself. Then for leadership kid to lie about having done work and accuse the partner of sabotage is really too much. When hear stories like this I usually think that the kid is most likely to be convicted of insider trading or some other crime where lack of ethics can bite you in the rear end.
It kinda pains me to hear some of these stories where the group projects even if delivered in a useful way becomes just another item where it’s too much of a risk to try and learn important lessons in collaboration and group dynamics because a bad grade can’t be chanced. I’m not blaming kids or parents because it’s the system they operate in and it rears itself in many ways as evidence from a plethora of topics on these forums.
So is anyone reporting that this kid cheats? If not, why not?
And this is the way it should be. Why are group projects so popular, anyway? Is it because the teacher has less work to grade?
for me it’s less about the grade and more about not wanting my name to be associated with a crap job of a group project. It’s embarrassing to stand up there and suck!