GSI Teaching & Resource Center Workshops on Teaching Series

Using Group Work Effectively

January 30, 2012 Research has shown that group work involving active engagement fosters deep student learning across academic fields. In this workshop, experienced GSIs will provide examples and tips to help GSIs design, implement, and evaluate collaborative learning activities for their students in a variety of class situations. We will discuss features of successful group work and will enact techniques for fostering it.

Facilitators
Christopher Atwood, Italian Studies Alison Klurfeld, Goldman School of Public Policy Jonathan Kotker, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Outline
Elements of effective (and ineffective) group work activities Models of activities to implement Designing effective group activities Q&A/Discussion Workshop Evaluations

GSI Teaching & Resource Center http://gsi.berkeley.edu

A Handout for Your Students

Why are we using group work in section?

Groups often come up with more and better solutions than the individual. (Barbara Gross Davis, Tools for Teaching, 197.) Group learning is efficient. You select the best strategies and get to the correct answers sooner. Your peers are excellent resources and will help you where you are stuck (and vice-versa). Researchers report that, regardless of subject matter, students working in small groups tend to learn more and demonstrate better retention than students taught in other instructional formats. (Davis, 190.) You will be exposed to multiple perspectives and learning strategies (Davis, 190). The ability to communicate (and perhaps persuade) is a true test of knowledge and understanding. Problem-solving, persuasive argumentation, and teamwork are necessary skills and valued by employers (Davis, 190), and the only way to learn to do it well it is to practice! You will meet people, helping you to form outside study groups.

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Excerpt from GSI TRC Teaching Guide

Teaching Discussion Sections: Group Work

Group work is one pedagogical strategy that promotes participation and interaction. It fosters a deeper and more active learning process, and it also provides instructors with valuable demonstrations of the degree to which students understand particular topics or concepts. In addition to exposing students to different approaches and ways of thinking, working with other students in groups can promote a sense of belonging that combats the anonymity and isolation that many students experience at a large campus. Some students may initially be reluctant to participate in group work, so sharing the reasons for group work with your students can help to convince the reluctant ones. It might help them to know that research has shown that groups frequently devise more and better solutions than the most advanced individual (Barkley et al., 2004; Cooper et al., 2003). Working together in groups also gives students the opportunity to learn from and teach each other. Classroom research has shown that students often learn better from each other than they do from a teacher (Barkley et al. 2005, 1620). From a practical standpoint, group work also fosters interpersonal skills highly valued by employers. For instructors, group work can save some preparation time. Although preparing for effective group work does take some planning, it is less time-consuming than preparing a lecture. It is not difficult to incorporate group activities into your lesson plan, but there are some general rules of thumb about structuring group work so that it has useful outcomes for students. Below are some basic guidelines to consider when designing a group activity, along with several kinds of group work learning techniques. Guidelines for Designing Group Work Learning Objectives How to Form Groups Group Size and Duration The Structure of Group Work Fostering Group Interaction Tips for Formulating Productive Group-Work Assignments Group Work Learning Techniques Think-Pair-Share Structured Controversy Paired Annotations Roundtable Three-Step Interview Think-Aloud Paired Problem Solving Think-Pair-Square Peer Editing Reciprocal Peer Questioning

References for Group Work Techniques

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Guidelines for Designing Group Work

Learning Objectives
There are many learning objectives that can be achieved by having students collaborate either in pairs or in small groups. (Bloom's Taxonomy is a useful resource for formulating your learning objectives.) In groups, students can summarize main points review problems for exams compare and contrast knowledge, ideas, or theories solve problems evaluate class progress or levels of skill and understanding

Think about what your goals for the activity are: what do you want your students to get out of this activity?

How to Form Groups

Small groups or learning teams can be formed in four ways: randomly, teacher-selected, by seat proximity, or student-selected. Random and teacher-selected group assignments avoid cliques and ensure that students interact with different classmates throughout the semester. Once you know your students fairly well, teacher selection can be useful for grouping students. Consider selecting groups or pairs with varying strengths and skill levels, since research has shown that groups of problem solvers with diverse skills consistently outperform groups of problem solvers who are highly skilled (Page, 2007, cited in Davis, 2009, p. 194). Another index to consider if the instructor is creating the groups is students attitudes toward group work. Take a one-question survey, or add this question to the initial survey you use at the beginning of the semester: Which of the following best describes your experience of group work? A. B. C. D. I I I I like group work because my group helps me learn. question the value of group work because I've ended up doing all the work. have little or no experience working in groups. have different experience of group work than the choices above. (Please explain.)

Those who check B can be put into a group of their own. They might find this to be the first time they are really challenged and satisfied by group work (adapted from Byrnes and Byrnes, 2009).

Group Size and Duration

Group size can vary, as can the length of time that students work together. Pairing is great for thirty-second or one-minute problem solving. Groups that work together for ten to 45 minutes might be four to five people. (If there are more people, some members will stop participating). Groups can be formal or informal. Informal groups may be ad-hoc dyads (where each student turns to a neighbor) or ten-minute "buzz groups (in which three to four students discuss their reactions to a reading assignment). Formal group assignments can serve semester-long group projects. GSI Teaching & Resource Center http://gsi.berkeley.edu 4

It is useful to assign roles within each group (examples: recorder, reporter to the class, timekeeper, monitor, or facilitator). If students are not used to working in groups, establishing some discussion guidelines with the class about respectful interaction before the first activity can foster positive and constructive communication. It is useful to arrange the students in groups before giving them instructions for the group activity, since the physical movement in group formation tends to be distracting.

The Structure of Group Work

Successful group work activities require a highly structured task. Make this task clear to students by writing specific instructions on the board or on a worksheet. Include in your instructions: The learning objective. Why are the students doing this? What will they gain from it? How does it tie into the rest of the course? The specific task: Decide, List, Prioritize, Solve, Choose. (Discuss is too vague.) Structure the task to promote interdependence for creating a group product. Create an activity for which it is truly advantageous for students to work together. The expected product: for example, reporting back to the class; handing in a sheet of paper; distributing a list of questions to the class. The time allotment. Set a time limit. Err on the side of too little rather than too much. You can decide to give more time if necessary. The method of reporting out, that is, of sharing group results with the class. Closure, which is critical to the learning process. Students need to feel that the group-work activity added to their knowledge, skills, abilities, etc. Reporting out is useful for accomplishing closure. A mini-lecture from you that weaves in the comments, products, and ideas of the students in their small groups is also an effective way to close a group-work activity.

If your group work consists of a set of short problems for students to work through, as often happens in science and mathematics courses, there are many ways to structure the activity. Here are a few ideas, with some advantages and disadvantages: You can give the whole class a single problem, break into groups to solve it, and then come back as a class and discuss the problem, either by having groups report out or by leading the discussion yourself. Then repeat. Advantages: You know everyone is exposed to the correct way of thinking about things, so there is good closure for each problem. Disadvantages: Potentially too much idle time for faster groups. This method can be very slow, so less material can be covered. You can give each group a different problem, and have the groups report back to the class to walk through the solutions. Advantages: Students get some practice teaching as well as good exposure to problems and solutions. Disadvantages: Students dont get to practice as much problem solving. You can give each group a different problem, have them solve it, and then have these groups split up and re-form in such a way that each new group has someone experienced with each of the problems. Then they can explain the solutions to each other. Advantages: Students get a lot of practice explaining, as well as good exposure to problems. Disadvantage: Students dont get to practice on many different problems. 5

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You can give the whole class a set of problems and discuss the set of problems with each group. Advantages: Students work through more problems without significant idle time. You can address difficulties specific to each group. Disadvantages: You may end up repeating yourself a lot. You also may be spread too thin, especially if several groups are stuck at the same time. If this happens, call the class back together when you find that all the groups are having difficulties at the same place.

Fostering Group Interaction

During group work, as tempting as it may be, do not disengage from your class and sit at the front of the room! Circulate and listen to your students. Are they on task, or are they talking about their weekend plans? Are students understanding the concepts and the assignment, or are they all stuck and confused? Do they have questions for you? Pull up a chair and join each group for a while. On implementing group work for the first time in their section, some GSIs find that the students fall awkwardly silent when the GSI walks by or listens to their discussion. This is only temporary, and it should stop once your students are familiar with you and the groupwork format. Because unfamiliarity drives this reaction, it is good to implement group work very early in the semester and to use it often in your section. When a student in a group asks you a question, the natural reflex is to answer it. Thats your job, isnt it? Well, not exactly its lower on the list than empowering students to find answers to the questions they ask. Frequently a student asking a question hasnt discussed it with the group yet and is not aware that members of the group either know the answer or have enough information to figure it out together. So, especially early on when your class is forming group-work habits, it is important not to answer questions at least not at first. Instead, ask the other group members how they would approach the question. If no one in the group has an idea, you can either give the group a start on how to answer it, consult with a different group on the question, or answer the question yourself. (The latter is best considered a last resort.) Following this pattern will foster group interactions, and soon students will only ask you questions after they have discussed them with their group.

Tips for Formulating Productive Group-Work Assignments

One common mistake that leads to failure in group work is that the assignment is too vague. For example, if you tell your students to discuss a particular concept, students may make a few vague or general comments and then turn to discussing what they did over the weekend. Instead, make sure you have concrete and descriptive assignments. For example, instead of Discuss projectile motion, try Solve for the final velocity of the projectile. Instead of Discuss the use of technology in the classroom, say List the pros and cons of using clickers in the classroom. Ask questions that have more than one answer. (This may not work for all disciplines.) Make the material to be analyzed by the group short (via handout, overhead, chalkboard, etc.) maybe just a short paragraph or a few sentences. Vary the format of the tasks. For example, on one day students might generate the questions they want to analyze; on another students may give arguments or provide evidence for or against a position or theory, etc.

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Group Work Learning Techniques

Think-Pair-Share
The instructor poses a question. Students are given time (30 seconds or one minute) to think of a response. Each student then pairs with another and both discuss their responses to the question. The instructor invites pairs to share their responses with the class as a whole.

Structured Controversy
Divide the class into groups of four. The instructor identifies a controversial topic in the field covered in the course and gathers material that gives information and background to support different views of the controversy. Students work with one partner, forming two pairs within the group of four. Each pair takes a different side of the issue. Pairs work outside of class or in class to prepare to advocate and defend their position. The groups of four meet, and each pair takes a turn stating and arguing its position while the other pair listens and takes notes without interrupting. Each pair must have a chance both to listen and take notes and to argue their position. Then all four talk together as a group to learn all sides of the issue. Next, each pair must reverse its position and argue the opposite position from the one it argued before. Lastly the group of four as a whole discusses and synthesizes all the positions to come up with a group report. There may be a class presentation in which each group presents its findings.

Paired Annotations
Instructor or students identify a number of significant articles on a topic. Each student individually outside of class writes a reflective commentary on one article. In class, students are randomly paired with another student who has written a commentary on the same article. The two partners read each others commentaries, comparing key points to their own commentary. Then the two students team-write a commentary based on a synthesis of both their papers.

Roundtable
Students in small groups sit in a circle and respond in turn to a question or problem by stating their ideas aloud as they write them on paper. The conversation can go around the circle, each student in turn, more than once if desired. After the roundtable, students discuss and summarize the ideas generated and report back to the class.

Three-Step Interview
This can be used an icebreaker or as a tool to generate ideas and discussion. Ask each student to find one partner they dont know well. Make sure everyone has a partner. You can use triads if there is an uneven number of students in the class. Students interview their partner for a limited amount of time using interview questions given by the instructor. Often questions are opinion- or experience-generated: How do you use writing in your daily life? Should premed students study holistic medicine? After a set time, students switch roles so that both get a chance to be interviewed. Then, join each pair with another pair to form a group of four. Each partner in a pair introduces the partner to the other pair and summarizes the partners responses. Other variations on this activity are possible.

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Thinking-Aloud Paired Problem Solving

Students in pairs take turns thinking through the solution to a problem posed by the teacher. The student who is not the problem solver takes notes, and then the two students switch roles so that each student gets a chance to be both solver and note taker. Then they can go into larger teams or back to the class as a whole and report back about the solutions and the process.

Think-Pair-Square
Same as think-pair-share except that instead of reporting back to the entire class students report back to a team or class group of four to six.

Peer Editing
Ask students to hand in a first draft of a writing assignment. Photocopy each paper and identify it with a number instead of the students name. Give each student in the class an anonymous paper to edit. It is helpful to give the students verbal and written guidelines for editing criteria. After the students edit a paper, each student receives the anonymous feedback from his or her unknown peer editor. It is often useful to have a class discussion about how this process worked for everyone.

Reciprocal Peer Questioning

The instructor assigns outside class reading on a topic. The instructor asks students to generate a list of two or three thought-provoking questions of their own on the reading. Students bring the questions they have generated to class. Students do not need to be able to answer the questions they generate. Students then break into teams of three to four. Each student poses her questions to the team and the team discusses the reading using the student-generated questions as a guide. The questions of each student are discussed within the team. The team may then report back to the class on some key questions and the answers they came up with. At the GSI Teaching & Resource Center we have other material to help you plan and design group work activities. Come and visit us, or send an email with your comments or questions to gsi@berkeley.edu.

References for Group Work Techniques

This section draws on the following works: Barkley, E., et al. (2005). Collaborative Learning Techniques. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Byrnes, Joseph F. and Mary Ann Byrnes (2009). Dealing with Students Who Hate Working in Groups. Effective Group Work Strategies for the College Classroom. Madison: Magna Publications, 67. Available through facultyfocus.com. Cross, K. Patricia (2000). Collaborative Learning 101. The Cross Papers 4. League for Innovation in the Community College. Davis, Barbara Gross (2009). Tools for Teaching, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Johnson, D., R. Johnson, and K. Smith (1991). Cooperative Learning: Increasing College Faculty Instructional Productivity. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 4. Meyers, C. and T. Jones (1993). Promoting Active Learning: Strategies for the College Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Millis, B. and P. Cottell (1998). Cooperative Learning for Higher Education Faculty. Oryx Press.

For more resources for activities, see the online Teaching Guide: http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/presem/firstday.html#group http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/sections/active.html http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/sections/groupwork.html.

Addenda: Here are two activities people brought up in the workshop that are not listed in the Teaching Guide for GSIs:

Jigsaw Classroom
Groups of students work on parts of a larger whole, then as a class they piece together the parts they worked on. For example, if they are working with a long journal article, the GSI assigns one section of the article to each small group of students, and each group analyzes its piece (the GSI will give specific instructions on what to do and what product to come up with or how to report at the end.) After the groups process their parts, the GSI facilitates a discussion in which students explain the parts they worked on in order, so that the class gets a deeper look at the entire article.

Aunt Sally
Students work in pairs. Given a difficult concept they have just mastered, one student pretends to be Aunt Sally, who does not know the concept, while the other explains the concept to her in clear, jargon-free language. Then they reverse roles so that both students get a turn explaining.

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Excerpt from the GSI TRC Teaching Guide

Facilitating Labs: Asking Effective Questions

When you visit students as they work, see their lab and ask well structured questions that will elicit their thought and reflection. Why are good questions important? Questioning is essential for two-way communication between a teacher and student, or between students themselves. Questioning o Helps students build their understanding o Promotes high-level thinking o Draws out what students are thinking Good questions promote student-centered teaching. Asking students thoughtprovoking questions makes them more aware of their learning process. They are given an opportunity to provide feedback about what they dont understand, what they do, and what they need in order to enhance their understanding. When asked a question by a student, rather than answering the question directly, consider countering with a question (or questions) of your own. Every time a student asks a question, there are at least two teaching opportunities. The first is obvious: The student has some gap in his or her understanding (the point of the question), and you can help them sort this out. The second teaching opportunity is more subtle (but arguably more essential): You can help students learn how to figure out how to answer their own questions by guiding them with questions of your own.

Broad versus Focused Questions

Broad questions require Open-ended answers: How are these two concepts connected? Analysis: How would you interpret these results? Prediction: What will happen if you increase the amount of this substance? What do you think the outcome of the next part of the lab will be? Forming opinions: Do you think we tested this hypothesis or theory in the best way? What is another way we could have done it? Ask broad questions when you want to initiate discussion. However, focused questions are better when you are looking for specific answers. Focused questions require Recalling facts: What is the function of this structure? Defining terms: What is an [acid, mollusk, quasar, lever, vertex]? Categorizing: What characteristics do all these elements share? Confirming: Do you remember seeing this before? Ask focused questions to verify students knowledge of specific facts or concepts. A common problem in lab is trying to start a general discussion by asking focused questions. If you want to enhance discussion, be sure to follow up focused questions with broad ones.

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Scenarios for Small Group Work Discussion-Based Section Scenario [by Christopher Atwood, Italian Studies]: Students were assigned a conceptually rich but complicated academic article for homework. The head professor briefly went over the article in lecture. Based on questions in your discussion section, it is clear that half of the students are confused and half of the class has a solid grasp on the articles key concepts. Students will need to understand the articles multi-step argument in order to comprehend the next topic on the syllabus. Given this scenario, how would you structure group-work in order to increase and focus student comprehension? (If you are the sole instructor [i.e. Reading and Comprehension courses] after introducing this article, you realize that half your students understand its content and half are thoroughly confused. How would you structure group work in order to increase student comprehension?)

Problem-Based Section Scenarios [by Alison Klurfeld, Goldman School of Public Policy]: 1. It was a busy week in lecture and three new concepts were introduced. You want your students to get practice doing problems that relate to each concept. You are worried about having enough time for all students to gain exposure to all three concepts. 2. This weeks lecture was spent on a difficult concept that is central to the course. You would like students to try a series of problems related to it that range from fairly easy to more difficult. You are pretty sure that at least half of the class is very confused about this topic.

Lab Scenarios [by Jonathan Kotker, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science]: 1. You are a GSI for a lab-based course. In lab, students test out and play with the concepts they were exposed to in lecture. However, you feel like a lot of the students are merely going through the motions of lab, without actually understanding what the lab is trying to teach. 2. You are a GSI for a lab-based course. In lab, students test out and play with the concepts they were exposed to in lecture. However, you feel that there are a few students in the lab who do not understand what the lab is trying to teach, but are too shy to ask their fellow students how to approach the lab.

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Creating a Group Work Activity: Questions to Address

What background knowledge do the students need to have?

How will you divide students into groups?

How many students per group?

How long will students work in groups?

What roles (if any) will be assigned to the students in the group? (i.e. reporter, note-taker, etc.)

What specific task will students complete in their groups?

How will you assess students focus / comprehension DURING group work?

How will students report their findings to the rest of the class?

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Creating a Group Work Activity

Teaching objective/desired outcome What would you like your students to know or demonstrate by the end of this activity?

Mode(s) of interaction How will students interact? Possible modes of interaction include beginning solo and then move to a group; working in pairs or a small group; the whole class interacting together. Type of activity What type of activity is it? Possible activities include reading, writing, viewing, listening, and discussing in various combinations. Materials needed Possible materials include photocopies, index cards, and audio/visional equipment.

Information needed by students What information sets up the exercise? Will students receive verbal or written instructions?

End result of activity How will you assess whether objectives were met? Will students complete a worksheet, report back verbally, write a oneminute paper?

Timing for Activity Minutes Activity _______ Introduce exercise: give instructions, hand out materials, take questions _______ Prep work: move into groups, pre-discussion reading/writing/listening _______ Whole-class discussion _______ Post-activity wrap-up: summarize why it was done/what was accomplished, answer any additional questions

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Group Work: Examples from Teaching Effectiveness Award Essays

Stretching the Field of View
by James Su, Vision Science As a graduate student instructor for VS 203B, Dioptrics and Physical Optics, I have the pleasure of working with all of the sixty first-year optometry students, who view this course only as a mathematical prerequisite to passing their first year. In reality, this is a course where they can learn something applicable and useful for their future clinical rotations and real-life practice. As it turns out, they only study to memorize such jargon as Keplerian, exit pupil, vignetting, Ramsden circle, field of view, etc., the equations related to those terms, and sample problem sets. Who can blame them? They don't see the connection between understanding the actual optics at work and their clinical practice. If they are learning to improve the visual experience of patients, the least they should understand is the underlying mechanism of how physical optics works, and that is best done by understanding the simple pieces of optics equipment. Setting out to debunk their present notion of passing the class solely by memorizing equations and sample problems, I started bringing different pieces of optics equipment that would set the topic for the day's discussion section. My favorite remains the Keplerian telescope discussion. At a glance, it is a small telescope with few elements: one plus lens as the eyepiece, a mirror to reflect the image, a prism in the middle to invert the image, and a plus lens as the objective. There are many equations that will describe the image size, the distance, and the magnification of such systems; however, I choose not to invoke the mathematical monstrosity with a lecture. Instead, I simply give a telescope to each group and ask them to take apart the telescope, list the elements, look at various objects through each, put them back together, and answer just one question: What happens to the light rays that enter the system at each element? Right away the students are off to start writing and making sketches. At this point I just need to go around and answer any questions they have. Once I start hearing oohs and ahas, I know the students are starting to understand the physical effects of each of the telescope elements. The math comes naturally once the students understand what physically happens to the light rays that are squeezed, expanded, reflected, and bent. A colorful short clarifying sketch on the whiteboard easily sums up the discussion section, explaining how the projected image relates to the real-world object. Their field of view has just expanded. One very revealing indication of the success of my teaching effort is that nearly all sixty students attend my discussion section every time. They all love the simple demonstrations that I frequently bring to the section. Many students have come up to me after class telling me how much more they understand through such demonstrations. The demonstrations also greatly encourage class participation by allowing students to interact with one another, debating what occurs with each element and fully understanding the combined result. In the end, the students have not only passed the class, they have gained a deeper appreciation for the optics of the eye.
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Creating Collaborative In-Class Activities: Minimizing Diffusion of Responsibility and Disinterest during Group Work
by Sereeta Alexander, Education
Teaching Issue: Encouraging student participation and maintaining a high level of engagement throughout the semester can be a challenge. As a GSI, I have encountered sleep-deprived students, shy and nervous public speakers, students who have not read the assigned reading, and even those who proclaim to be none of the above, yet are stubbornly inactive nonetheless. One apparent solution to this problem is to create in-class group work and to go a step further by monitoring individual participation within the group. Though this pedagogical strategy can prove successful, at times it may also reintroduce and exacerbate the initial problem of lackluster student participation, just at a micro-level. Social loafing and diffusion of responsibility may permeate and ruin group work to the dismay of the teacher and the students who do actively participate. Teaching Strategy: In consideration of these challenges, I have learned to design group activities that either inherently entice (or even incite!) participation or that are structured in a manner clearly requiring each students contribution. An example of the former is a localization of brain function activity that students engage in with 3 to 4 of their Introduction to Psychology classmates. This activity is enticing, in part, because each group of students has a slice of the human brain (replica) to pass around, touch, and make sense of. Culminating with individual groups going to the front of the classroom to draw their brain area and teach everyone about its specific intricacies, this activity consistently elicits smiles and giggles in the midst of high quality student teaching and participation. When the nature of the group work is less enticing, a different strategy is employed that almost certainly eliminates diffusion of responsibility and social loafing. In this approach, students are assigned one individual question that informs a larger group-question, goal, or problem. Groups are formed by having each student randomly select a piece of paper that is both colored (representing their group membership) and numbered (representing the individual question they are responsible for) from an opaque bag. My most successful activity carried out in this manner is one on the scientific method whereby small groups of students (3 to 5) receive their own unique real-world problem that they, as members of a research team, would like to investigate. Research scenarios are created to raise design challenges and provoke concerns of ethics so that students can not only learn about methodological procedures and contribute individually, but also engage in higher-level thinking through problem solving and group negotiation. Assessment: In the week following the scientific methodology exercise, I request anonymous feedback from students to determine how the two group assignments and the overall section format variety are working. Among other things, students have reported that the group activities are fun and allow them to learn from one another while also having their own knowledge validated and recognized. Further, not knowing when a group activity with individual questions would arise, and not wanting to let group-mates down, students have conveyed that they were even more motivated to come to section prepared to contribute. Despite the fact that more than half of my discussion sections in a given term are void of group work, my teaching evaluations across four semesters have a heavy emphasis on the group cohesion they help to foster and the outlet they provide for participation. Thus, as a teacher, I plan to always value and make use of collaborative in-class group activities that facilitate participation and minimize diffusion of responsibility.

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Teaching Basic Musicianship: An Ode to Chaos

Emily Frey, Music
Of all the classes Ive taught at Berkeley, the most challenging ! and by far the most fun ! has been Music 20B, Basic Musicianship II. This class is the music departments equivalent of pre-calculus: its intended not to introduce new concepts, but to shore up existing skills in preparation for more advanced coursework. 20B is not a popular teaching assignment among Music GSIs, in part because the main course objective, helping students to improve their sight-singing, is so abstract, and in part because the course, neither strictly academic nor strictly practical in orientation, calls for a rather ad hoc approach to pedagogy. Proficient sight-singing, after all, involves an incredibly diverse skill set: the ability to a) parse musical notation; b) hear the notated pitches, rhythms, and performance indications in ones minds ear; c) produce those pitches and rhythms accurately with the voice; and d) monitor and (when necessary) correct the output in real time. Because a natural facility in one of these areas does not imply proficiency in the others, its impossible to predict from the outset what a given individual or class will struggle with, or which exercises and teaching methods theyll find most helpful. Add to all this the fact that 20B grants the GSI an unusual (and intimidating) level of independence: not only must she design the course syllabus on her own, but she must also do it without the benefit of her peers insights and experiences, since the department offers only one section of 20B per semester, compared to six of 20A. The lowly sounding course title is thus deceptive; teaching Basic Musicianship II is a baptism by fire. Desperate times, I thought when I received the assignment, called for experimental measures. With its mlange of skills, requirements, and student backgrounds, 20B is chaotic by nature, and it seemed unproductive to try to work against that. Sight-singing is usually taught by having students prepare melodies independently, with class time devoted to critiquing individual performances. This seemed backwards to me: in my experience, musical learning ! like most learning, I think ! has come less from having some expert tell me I went flat on the third note than from struggling with material, attempting to make sense of something that seems utterly unruly and impenetrable. Why not make that struggle, that chaos, the point of the class ! why not make process the goal and product the reward? The obvious pitfall to such a method was that it would be impossible for me to give sustained attention to individual members of a class of 30 but here the wide range of abilities and experience levels in the class could be turned to an advantage, as the students could use their differing skills to assist each other in producing vocally what they saw on the page. I decided to divide the class into quartets, with each student assigned his or her own part to sing. Every Tuesday, Id give each quartet a different choral piece relating to some central musical theme (be it songs in the Dorian mode or sea shanties), and the students would spend half of class on the knoll behind Morrison Hall, sight-singing through their assigned pieces in foursomes. Id float around these little islands of cacophony, offering a helping ear and some practical or conceptual guidance as needed. Then the students would take their pieces home to work on them independently, recombining on Thursday to polish and finally perform their quartets in a mini-concert at the end of class. Each week Id amp up the difficulty of the quartet selections, and each week Id be shocked at how well the Thursday performances turned out. Unusually for a two-credit course, the students seemed actually eagerto practice their assignments outside of class time: not only was working with real music (as opposed to workbook exercises) fun, but nobody wanted to be the slacker responsible for letting his or her quartet down. At the end of the semester, I tried an insane project: I led my class ! most of whom hadnt been able to tell minor from major just six months before ! through a performance of the entire Mozart Requiem, one singer per part. No, ours will never go down as one of the great interpretations of that sublime and demanding piece. But honestly, I cant remember a prouder moment in my entire musical life.

GSI Teaching & Resource Center http://gsi.berkeley.edu

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An Epic in Miniature: Collaborations on a Thesis

by Lael Gold, Comparative Literature
Despite in-class instruction and a detailed handout on the subject of thesis and essay construction, the first batch of essays from students in my comparative literature course on literary depictions of woman warriors shared some fundamental shortcomings. My two chief concerns, overly simplistic thesis statements and arguments insufficiently grounded in the details of the text, were, to my mind, related. Because this course was an elective seminar rather than a composition class, I aimed at remedying these writing problems in a manner that would simultaneously deepen our engagement with the work presently under consideration, the fantastical Renaissance crusader epic Jerusalem Delivered. After a class devoted to jointly analyzing the language and themes of this work via the detailed interpretation of individual lines of the poem, students were given the homework assignment of selecting and preparing an analysis of the two consecutive lines of the poem they found most mystifying or intriguing. I explained that they should prepare written notes and expect to present these close readings to their classmates during the following class. As indicated by slightly excited comments and questions, this further instruction markedly heightened their investment in this assignment. Before the beginning of the next class, I placed variously colored signs on five desks spread out around the room. Each sign was labeled with an abstract theme prevalent in Jerusalem Delivered, ranging from "war and violence" to "physical beauty" to "motherhood" to "religion and faith" to "romantic love." Again, questions and comments, as they entered the room that day and took their seats, indicated that these signs had captured my students' attention. Before taking roll and going over class business, I asked students to consider under which of the five categories their own chosen lines and interpretations best fit. When announcements and other class preliminaries were over, students were polled by a show of hands to determine how many close readings belonged to each category. Because of the obsessive nature of this poem, which returns again and again to a few main themes, all students had a clear sense which one or two categories most related to the lines they'd prepared. On this basis, students sorted themselves into groups by arranging their desks around the relevant theme. Because of the flexibility that thematic overlap provided, groups were manageably sized, ranging from three to six in number. Paper clipped to the inside of each folded sign was a set of written instructions which we went over together. Firstly, students were to present their close readings to their fellow group members. Then, collaboratively, they were to construct a thesis statement based on what their discussions of these lines had uncovered. This thesis was to address the group's abstract topic and fit into a formula with which they had prior experience: "Although nevertheless because ." Twenty minutes before the end of class, each group read to the class the thesis it had created. This was a moment of continued instruction as well as assessment, for students seemed aware when a thesis still needed work, and were likewise unanimous in their approbation of especially elegant and suggestive offerings. With good humor, we reflected together on the relative merits, in terms of clarity and complexity, of each. I mentioned that taking small segments of the text as their starting point can provide direction for an essay's body as well as its thesis, since these same close readings will serve as supports. The most telling assessment of my instructional strategy came with the arrival of their next set of essays. Happily, these showed near universal, dramatic improvement in the areas of thesis development and detailed textual analysis.

GSI Teaching & Resource Center http://gsi.berkeley.edu

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