PBL groups

Collaboration is one of the staples of project-based learning, though it's certainly possible to have a student complete a project alone.  When designing groups, what works best for me and my students might not work best for you and yours.  As a high school teacher, what works best for one period might not work best for another, so I frequently change things around to maximize efficiency in class.  That is key to having students work in groups, be flexible and do what works best.  It took me a few projects to figure out the best way to do this with each class and with each project.  Below are some strategies I've used so far in my classes and how they fared. 

The common group

This is the typical group of 2-4 students.  My first project had groups of 4 but managing more than that in a group is pretty tough, so try to keep it at 4 or less.  

2-3 is ideal

I quickly found that a group of 4 was often times a group of 3 and one hitchhiker.  For my projects, groups of 2-3 seem to be best in getting equal participation.  A group of 3 is good if there are is a lot to research or create, but if there isn't a job for every person, every day that's when you get fairness and classroom management issues.

The classroom project

This project is one where the entire class makes one collective project in the end and is useful for big, final projects with an audience that cannot see 10 presentations in a given time, such as the project my principal gave us where we had to present to him.  He didn't have time to view 3 classes with 10 presentations each so we made one presentation for each class.  

Before we began, I broke the class into groups of 3 and treated it like a normal project, complete with a presentation.  After each group presented, the class picked the best of the best and created a new project to show the principal.  We picked the 5 best presenters, 5 people to make documents to give the principal, and the rest of the class had to make a Prezi with the new information we decided upon.

Everyone in class participated

The result of the classroom project we did for the principal was a list of information that the entire class collaborated on to make, the best Prezi was used, the best presenters spoke, and documents were printed out for the principal.

This was a great way to show that each person had a vital contribution to make for the final presentation, even if he or she was not involved in presenting.  Everyone relied on others in the class and the resulting presentation for the principal came out great.

The loner

Occasionally a student ends up doing a project alone either by choice, because their partner isn't participating for whatever reason, or other factors.  This usually isn't ideal and can cause that person to spend much more time on the project as other students.  I tell the student up front that I am holding him/her to the same standards as everyone else and to be prepared to work harder than the other students in class on this project.  Usually they understand and many look at it as a challenge to get a better grade than a full group.

Get your own grade

When a group member is not participating and nothing the group says can motivate that person, and after I have failed to get the student moving, I apologize to their partner and say to both students, "If he doesn't want to participate, he will simply fail this project.  My suggestion to you is to work on this by yourself and get your own grade.  Don't let your partner's attitude determine your grade."