Deck 8: Critical Teaching Skills for Planning Partner and Small-Group Work

Question 1

Although there is anecdotal evidence that English language learners (ELLs) can benefit from small-group practice, there is little empirical evidence to support the use of peer-assisted instruction.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The use of partner or group work is an effective replacement for teacher instruction.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Which statement about sharing tasks in groups is true?

A) You can assume that students will know how to perform the typical roles needed in group work.
B) Groups work more efficiently if roles are assigned by the teacher rather than the group.
C) One benefit of assigning roles is that achievement levels rise when students feel part of a group effort.
D) All of these are correct.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The three steps in a mini-lesson for teaching a partner/group routine are:

A) show, explain, and test.
B) explain, show, and rehearse.
C) rehearse, show, and test.
D) assess, explain, and rehearse.

Question 5

Which of the following outcomes is NOT a benefit of working in small groups or with a partner?

A) increased engaged time
B) opportunities for ELLs to practice their language skills
C) motivational effect of working in groups
D) faster work completion

Question 7

Cooperative learning strategies are only effective when students already have the necessary social skills.

Question 8

Letting students discover how to share a group task results in better academic and social outcomes than giving them explicit directions about how to share a task.

Question 9

Setting up opportunities for students to work in small groups provides an effective instructional setting for them to learn how to get along.

Question 10

There are potential problems with using student pairs or groups in instruction.Which of the following is NOT a potential problem?

A) Students may not know how to work together.
B) One student may end up doing all of the work.
C) This type of work often results in lower test scores.
D) Working in pairs or groups can result in reduced learning time.

Question 11

Teachers need strong behavior management skills in order to use partner/group work effectively.

Question 12

Students will learn more when they work in groups than when they work alone.

Question 13

You've put your students in small groups and told them to work together and help each other with the tasks you've assigned.But they each end up working alone.What strategies could you try for solving this problem?

Question 14

When Mr.Blake attempted to use cooperative learning techniques at the beginning of the school year, he found that several students had little experience of working successfully in groups.How should he approach the diverse levels of cooperation skills among his students?

Question 15

Planning for peers to work together generally takes place at the beginning of the year and before specific activities during the school year.

Question 16

Activities where group work is involved take more planning time than those where students will work alone.

Question 17

Give three examples of how students with different levels of academic ability can benefit from working together.

Question 18

Teachers should avoid using group work that requires students to get up and move their desks or tables into clusters.

Question 19

If all students are practicing the same academic skill, then teachers should pair them heterogeneously by achievement level.

Question 20

When using active participation strategies such as "tell your neighbor" or "Think-Pair-Share," teachers should partner students according to whom they sit by.

Question 21

Give examples of three techniques that can be used to manage transitions to and from group or partner work.

Question 22

Which one of the following is NOT a consideration when deciding who will work together?

A) Consider pairing students who usually distract each other so they can practice staying on task.
B) Consider the tasks and purpose when deciding whether to group homogeneously or heterogeneously.
C) Consider promoting social integration in forming pairs and groups.
D) Consider the level of students' technology skills.

Question 23

Which of the following is NOT an important factor to consider when determining the size of groups to use?

A) More cooperative social skills are needed in larger groups.
B) The type of task will influence the group size.
C) The task may logically divide itself.
D) The group sizes should be equal.

Question 24

One of the following is NOT one of the important planning decisions to consider when planning small group or partner work.Which one is it?

A) Determine the size of the groups.
B) Determine prerequisite skills needed.
C) Determine how working together will be graded.
D) Determine who will work together.

Question 25

Ms.Santos has several students who enjoy debating, and their enthusiastic participation often makes it difficult for quieter individuals to express their opinions in group discussions.In what ways can Ms.Santos encourage participation from all students?

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT a consideration when planning the context for partner and small-group work?

A) Plan how to get attention.
B) Plan the content to be taught.
C) Plan for logistics.
D) Plan how to communicate behavior expectations.

Question 27

Mrs.Beesley is eager to use group work and has divided her class into table groups of four students.She wants her students to practice the vocabulary words on this week's list by writing sentences for each word.She is struggling to figure out how to make this a group task and what each group member would do.How should she solve this problem?

A) Before the groups start work, tell them they'll need to work together on the sentences.
B) Use individual work instead of group work.
C) Assign roles to group members: leader, helper, encourager, and timer.
D) Accommodate diversity by varying the size of the groups.

Question 28

At the end of a unit, you plan to have students complete a group multimedia project to present the results of their research.How will the structure of this project affect your planning?

Question 29

Describe three examples of ways students can work together during lessons and activities.

Question 30

What recommendation(s) does the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) make about paired practice for English language learners (ELLs)?

A) Students with limited English proficiency can benefit from being grouped with more proficient speakers.
B) Students with limited English proficiency can benefit from being grouped with speakers of their native language.
C) ELLs can benefit from working with a partner on academic tasks for 90 minutes a week.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 31

Disagreeing politely, encouraging participation, and accepting partners politely are all examples of:

A) prerequisite skills for partner work, but not larger group work.
B) role assignments for group work.
C) prerequisite skills for group work, but not partner work.
D) cooperative behaviors needed for group roles.

Question 32

Your students have a difficult time sharing materials with classmates and this makes group work difficult.Which would be a good way to solve this problem?

A) Teach students how to share.
B) Provide enough materials that students don't need to share.
C) Tell students exactly how to share materials for a particular task.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 33

One of the following options is recommended for teaching a student who does not have the prerequisite cooperative social skills to be successful at a specific group task.Which is it?

A) Have that student work alone while the other students work in pairs.
B) Increase the group size so the one student's behavior will be less likely to impact the rest of the group.
C) Preteach the necessary social skills to that student.
D) Decrease the difficulty of the learning task.

Question 34

Last month Ms.Naulakha put her students in groups of 6 to create multimedia presentations about an assigned topic.Some groups worked together successfully and some did not.Which of the following would be a good way to solve this problem the next time?

A) Vary the group size rather than putting everyone in groups of 6.
B) Let students decide on group membership.
C) Create homogeneous groups based on academic achievement levels.
D) All of these are correct.