<p>Well, as the person who brought up group projects (post 84), let me point out that I never said they should be eliminated altogether. I just dream of a lifetime limit. ;)</p>
<p>I, too, see the value in group projects for all the "teamwork" and "real life" reasons already mentioned. But, that lesson is completely lost on a group of 9 year olds trying to build a Conestoga wagon in my garage. HS and college kids get it and cope through it. But the little ones need group assignments in small doses. They should be the exception, not the rule. Let the little kids look forward to group projects, not dread them. (And the parents, too.)</p>
<p>My son's English class in 7th grade had a great group project set-up. They were put into small groups to make magazines. They had to write resumes and apply for positions at the magazine and the teacher assigned them their jobs. While articles were written at home, all the group work was done at school. If a student slacked off the teacher fired them and made them do boring work instead. I think 3 or 4 kids in a class of 25 were fired.</p>
<p>Similar situation to jym626's son (post #96) -- my son, then age 17, was invited to apply for the top-category merit scholarship at one of his safety colleges, came down with the flu & was horribly sick, up against the deadline. I didn't get involved in the process, but my then-12-year-old daughter ghost wrote the essay. Son read over it, made a couple of changes, & turned it in. It was on the theme, "what does a college education mean to you" or something like that; very prosaic, grammatically correct, ho-hum. Son did not get the scholarship. I didn't worry about the "cheat" because that's kind of reaching down, rather than up, for help-- I mean, d. was in 7th grade at the time. (I did see the end product and believe me, no one would have been surprised to learn that it was the work of a 7th grader -- it was passable but not much more).</p>
<p>TheGFG: Yeah, again, you're talking traditional school process. No, in our school, students DO NOT get to pick their groups, because the whole POINT is to mix ability levels. Because all students of all abilities are in the same classes (every student takes the same course load), the point of hetergeneous groups is to share knowledge and help students help each other learn and master the material. Because of one of the school wide values is that every student is responsible to for helping every other student succeed, "no student left behind", everyone knows what's expected of them. If one student doesn't know the material well enough, then they are supposed to work to understand it, while the other students are supposed to work to support them. So, yes, "the buck stops here" for each and every student and teacher. That focus on personal responsibility starts even before the first day of freshman year, with intensive community building orientation the week before. </p>
<p>It's a great place, and really defies the expectations about what's possible for students.</p>