Increasing Small Group

Participation in a Middle
School Math Classroom
through group Roles

Danie
lle
Silvag
gio
Why Focus on Group Work?

★ Research:
Equitable student participation & Increasing academic
performance through collaboration

★ Assessment of Needs:
Heavy focus on group work and mathematical discourse within
common core.
Classroom Context:

● 35 7th grade math students. 51% male,

49% female
● Heavy focus on small group work on a
main task followed by class discussions
● Use of Vertical Non Permanent Surfaces
● Visibly Random Grouping

3
Assessment of Needs:
⅔ of my class did not have positive feelings towards
math
Assessment of Needs:
Disconnect between the discussions happening in
class and how they were able to perform on
standardized exams
Assessment of Needs:
Takeaways:
★ Confidence and ability to successfully cooperate
in academic small groups can affect academic
achievement
★ Create an environment that promotes equitable
participation
Research Question
★ How can I increase student participation in a middle
school classroom through the use of small group
roles?

○ How can I teach middle school students to

equitably participate in small groups?
○ What impacts does small group participation
have on student academic performance?
LITERATURE REVIEW
★ Social Constructivism
○ Learning through social interactions (Vygotsky, 1978)
○ Responsibility for whole group’s successes and failures
(Dewey , 1916)
★ Collaborative Learning
○ Appropriate learning environments (Horn, 2012;
Remillard 2015)
○ CL groups and increased participation (Farivar,
Mastergeorge, & Webb, 2001)
★ Group Work
○ Complex Instruction (Boaler, 2006)
○ Group Roles (Boaler, 2006; Bernath, 2017)
○ Group Worthy Tasks and ZPD (Boaler, 2006; Vygotsky,
1978)
Roles:

9
Cycle 1: ACTION PLAN
Group Norms: Group Roles:
★ Team building activities ★ Assessed student
in the first 2 weeks of knowledge of small
school group work.
★ Created group norms as ★ Introduced the idea
a class
of small group roles
★ Reflection
within random
groups of three.
Track student use of
group rolls and
participation.

10
Cycle 1: ASSESSMENT PLAN

Self-Reflections

ns
St ork

io
W
ud

at
en

rv
se
t

Ob

11
Cycle 1: IMPLEMENTATION

★ Assignment and use of roles

○ Observation Chart
★ Unit Test and Homework Quizzes
○ Increase in Unit Test Scores, No Change
in Homework Quizzes
★ More Reflection Time
○ Daily Self-Assessment
Observations
★ Group roles helped encourage participation and
collaboration as students became more
comfortable using them.

13
Academic Performance
★ Group Roles did not entirely influence academic
performance.

14
Academic Performance
★ Group Roles did not entirely influence academic
performance.

15
Self-Reflections
★ Allowing students the time to reflect on their roles before
and after using them was extremely helpful

16
Cycle 2: ACTION & ASSESSMENT PLAN
★ Lack of Accountability
○ ADDED Group Assessments
es rk
izz wo
Ho oup

!
Qu me
Gr
Cycle 2: IMPLEMENTATION

★ Continue Observations and Group Roles

○ 92% of the class was able to answer the follow
up question correctly
★ Self-Assessments
○ Continued reflection time
★ Group Quizzes and Group Grading
○ 1 graded/group
Follow Up Question:
★ Student’s wanted to be responsible for each
other’s success

19
GROUP ASSESSMENT
★ Grading one quiz does not entirely influence
academic performance

20
CONCLUSION

★ Group Roles and Learning

○ Teaching students to work in groups does not
always imply they are learning math.
★ Mixing group work with individual
accountability is essential
○ Ultimately, students must also be able to perform
individually
★ Students became more sophisticated in
their math explanations
○ More opportunities to communicate led to more
opportunities to practice explaining their thinking.
LIMITATIONS

★ Balancing multiple responsibilities

★ My own personal bias

★ Working with middle schoolers

22
REFLECTION

23
References
Bernath, J. (2017). Proceedings from CPM’17: Wisconsin Mathematics Council 49th Annual

Conference. WI.

Boaler, J. (2006a). Opening our ideas: How a detracked mathematics approach promoted respect,

responsibility, and high achievement. Theory Into Practice, 45(1), 1-10.

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education.

New York, NY: Macmillan.

Farivar, S., Mastergeorge, A., & Webb, N. (2001). Productive helping in cooperative groups.

Retrieved November 25, 2017 from https://cresst.org/wp-content/uploads/TR555.pdf.

Horn, I. (2012). Strength in numbers: Collaborative learning in secondary mathematics. Reston,

VA: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc.

Remillard, H. (2015). The effects of cooperative learning on middle school math students.

Heritage University, WA.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 24

Thank you!
Any Questions?

25
SlidesCarnival icons are editable shapes.

This means that you can:

● Resize them without losing quality.
● Change fill color and opacity.
● Change line color, width and style.

Isn’t that nice? :)

Examples:

26