I recently introduced a list of roles for our group to discuss. The four roles we deemed most important for our group to be successful were; a documentarian, a task master, a data keeper and a reader. We begin each day discussing how we can be cooperative in our roles, however, I can already see that some roles are more desirable than others. The question I pose is,
Will the weekly delegation of roles help our group work as a cohesive unit or does it limit the chance for a synergetic group effort?
This sounds great! I have been experimenting with this myself, and I think that for some lesson plans the roles seem to work, and for others it's not so necessary. For example, last week we were getting into writing a letter to the principal so that we could hear back from her soon. We had a discussion going on about our choice of dialogue and issues we wanted to specifically address (to be exact, whether or not we could have a donations dropbox set up on school grounds for people to donate food to send to Midwest Animal Rescue Services), and so we had someone videotaping our session (videographer), someone prompting questions and encouraging others to speak up (encourager), someone playing devils advocate on certain ideas (challenger) and someone writing everything down (recorder). Everyone wants to be the videographer with my iPad, but I remind them that they will all get chances to use the iPad to videotape several times during our time so they calm down.
ReplyDeleteThis week will not demand so much of a need for roles, since we'll be just working on posters (I originally intended on being gone because of work and the PA time shift). It all varies from week to week, and I guess that is something you'll have to play with. It does sound like fun!
I do a rotation schedule and remind the kids of what their roles all before we start, then before dismissal we see the roles for the next week, and we repeat that pattern. I hardly ever receive complaints from the kids, other than "Aww, that's right, I'm not the videographer this week... oh well."
Ooh, good question! I personally don't use assigned roles in my group. I prefer for things to happen organically. However, that is not to say that the students wouldn't respond if I did give it a try!
ReplyDeleteThat being said, why does it have to be all or nothing? What if, after each student has had a turn in each role, the students chose more permanent roles for themselves? It could be done by vote, pulling names out of a hat? Or, if 2 students want the same position, rock-paper-scissors for it! That way the roles can become a fluid part of the group and not something to be decided upon every day. If the students decide they'd like to change their respective positions, so be it. But it will have been their choice, which is empowering, no?
with the different roles. I have to day though that maybe your should consider using some other roles then the ones you have listed. I not sure have an assigned daily weekly reader is as affective as the rest of the other groups. I dont think that reading should be a task because it makes it harder for that individual assigned to it be evaluate themself. I think that maybe you should replace it with another task and then maybe split the task of reading evenly between the group in your weekly session
ReplyDeleteWhat I have been doing lately is making different roles based on the students needs and wants for the session that we are going to have for the day for example when we filmed the video we all came up with roles for that day. Roles don't always do work, it depends what you guys will be doing for the day and sometimes you don't even need roles. It is nice to make new roles I think so that they don't get bored of the old ones but not if they really enjoy their current roles. I think its a week by week thing
ReplyDeleteI believe the delegation of roles in your group is a wonderful idea and it provides a clear role for the students to play in the PA process. My only thought would be, and I'm sure you might have already considered this and to maintain the synergy in the group as you speak of... The roles of responsibility would need to be rotated amongst your group members so they all get a clear sense of what the different roles entail and everyone will get a chance to put forth the equal effort.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the roles enable the synergy to happen? Could it be that the roles help to define how groups function?
ReplyDeleteI would think more about how you "discipline" the roles. Does it happen organically? If a child starts to take up a responsibility of another role, what happens?
You need to also identify how you will collect data. This seems tricky. I wonder if you could map out how discussion happens between kids during a session. It may also be interesting to interview the students individually to see if they feel limited by the roles or empowered.
Important research.