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This is a group assignment, where you will present your argument as a part of a larger argument in which your fellow groupmates will argue for and against the issue the group has chosen. All students will present their argument in front of the class with their group. Students must be in class to be assigned a group and an issue for the argument. Students will work together with their group to organize claims and reasoning, but all can work separately to write the argument. Topics will be chosen randomly by each group from a list of 24. Each group will have a choice between two different topics.

Presentation:

1. The group will introduce their issue and then members of their group.

2. The group will alternate between sides of the issue to present their arguments (The first presenter should be for the issue; second against the issue; third for the issue; last against the issue).

3. The class will vote on who made the best argument. The winner of the vote will receive 5 bonus points, which is half a letter grade for the whole assignment. (This is meant to reward hard work and clear arguments.)

In addition, the argument will be written as an argument paragraph using the proper format:

6 Sentence Argument Paragraph

1. Claim + Reason

2. Evidence

3. Commentary

4. Evidence

5. Commentary

6. Conclusion sentence

The finished paragraph will be submitted in this assignment and will count as 50% of the grade for this assignment. The other 50% will be the presentation of the argument to the class.

ii need a paragraph disagreeing that online is person than in school education

1 Answer

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What is true for individual assignments holds true for group assignments: it is important to clearly articulate your objectives, explicitly define the task, clarify your expectations, model high-quality work, and communicate performance criteria.

But group work has complexities above and beyond individual work. To ensure a positive outcome, try some of these effective practices (adapted from Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 1991) or come talk to us at the Eberly Center.

Create interdependence

Devote time specifically to teamwork skills

Build in individual accountability

Create interdependence

While some instructors don’t mind if students divvy up tasks and work separately, others expect a higher degree of collaboration. If collaboration is your goal, structure the project so that students are dependent on one another. Here are a few ways to create interdependence:

Strategy

Example

Ensure projects are sufficiently complex that students must draw on one another’s knowledge and skills. In one course on game design, group assignments require students to create playable games that incorporate technical (e.g., programming) and design skills. To complete the assignment successfully, students from different disciplines must draw on one another’s strengths.

Create shared goals that can only be met through collaboration. In one engineering course, teams compete against one another to design a boat (assessed on various dimensions such as stability and speed) by applying engineering principles and working within budgetary and material constraints. The fun and intensity of a public competition encourages the team to work closely together to create the best design possible.

Limit resources to compel students to share critical information and materials. In a short-term project for an architectural design course, the instructor provides student groups with a set of materials (e.g., tape, cardboard, string) and assigns them the task of building a structure that conforms to particular design parameters using only these materials. Because students have limited resources, they cannot divide tasks but must strategize and work together.

Assign roles (.doc) within the group that will help facilitate collaboration. In a semester-long research project for a history course, the instructor assigns students distinct roles within their groups: one student is responsible for initiating and sustaining communication with the rest of the group, another with coordinating schedules and organizing meetings, another with recording ideas generated and decisions made at meetings, and a fourth with keeping the group on task and cracking the whip when deadlines are approaching. The instructor rotates students through these roles, so that they each get practice performing each function.

Devote time specifically to teamwork skills

Don’t assume students already know how to work in groups! While most students have worked on group projects before, they still may not have developed effective teamwork skills. By the same token, the teamwork skills they learned in one context (say on a soccer team or in a theatrical production) may not be directly applicable to another (e.g., a design project involving an external client.)

To work successfully in groups, students need to learn how to work with others to do things they might only know how to do individually, for example to...

assess the nature and difficulty of a task

break the task down into steps or stages

plan a strategy

manage time

Students also need to know how to handle issues that only arise in groups, for example, to:

explain their ideas to others

listen to alternative ideas and perspectives

reach consensus

delegate responsibilities

coordinate efforts

resolve conflicts

integrate the contributions of multiple team members

Here are a few things you can do both to help students develop these skills and to see their value in professional life.

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