VENT Having to do a group assignment

[Alicnwondrln]

stinks!!!!!!!
i have 3 other partners in this project. One of them is great but the other STINK!!!!!!!!
They never check in and are not helping at all
i swear to god i wanna kill them
they have done no work and are not contributing at all I want to send them a nasty email but i cant

ok i feel better now
thanks

 

[christineann]

I think group projects are horrible.....I remember getting stuck doing the work in high school, and now my daughter is in the same situation this year. She had to get permission from her physics teacher to do the labs on her own because her partners would come to class unprepared (they would rather have her do it all herself and take her grade), and her grade would reflect it. Now it's more work, but it's all hers, and her grades reflect it.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

I think group projects are horrible.....I remember getting stuck doing the work in high school, and now my daughter is in the same situation this year. She had to get permission from her physics teacher to do the labs on her own because her partners would come to class unprepared (they would rather have her do it all herself and take her grade), and her grade would reflect it. Now it's more work, but it's all hers, and her grades reflect it.

exactly the grade for the project goes to everyone
so while the other girl and i do all the work the others will get a good grade for nothing
the other girl talked to the teacher so we shall see

 

[Joanna71985]

Me too! I HATE group projects!!! It's so hard getting everyone together to meet. And in some of the projects a couple of people do ALL the work! I wish all projects were individual work.

 

[agnes!]

I think group projects are stupid. One or two people always end up doing all the work, while someone in the group gets to coast along to a good grade without hardly contributing at all. I'm not sure what doing a group assignments really teaches students anyway...well, I guess it teaches good students to HATE group assignments and it teaches the bad students to LIKE group assignments because then they get to CHEAT their way to a good grade and goof off, all at the same time.

Maybe you and this other girl could have a sit-down with the teacher *together*? It's a shame that you can't cut the cheaters out of the loop and present the project as a duo. What these lazy bums are doing is no different from a student who steals answers for tests.
Cheating is CHEATING, no matter how the group partners might choose to describe their actions.

agnes!

 

[goofyforlife]

In college I was stuck in an all male group and our project was due right during Final Four Week..... Well needless to say none of the group members would show up in studio until after the games were over (often late at night.) I needed my sleep so I told them to tell me what I needed to do but I wouldn't go along with their work schedule. ( I was 7 months pregnant at the time..which didn't help either.)

 

[Texan Mouseketeer]

You know, they're always telling us teachers in staff development training and even when I was in college to do group projects. I am so resistant to that because of exactly what you're having trouble with! The only way I assign them is everyone completes their own assignment, you just have people to work with to help you out and you each get your own grade on your own work. We also do it all in class so I can walk around and monitor who is just sitting there for answers and I make them work alone. Otherwise I stay far far away from those. Sorry you're going through all that!
When I was in school, I was always the one who did all the work and everyone else got graded on what I did. UGH!

 

[rigs32]

I think the argument that they're preparing you for the real world is just dumb, too. I may have to work with others on the job, but my raise and performance evals are based on my output alone. If a work person had me do everything, you bet your butt I'd be telling the boss, yet some teachers say "too bad" if you have a non-functional group.

Why is it my job to make other students do their work?

I got to middle school around the time that "teams" were big. Each group had one smarter kid, one slower kid, and two regular kids, yet everyone got the same grade. Hello? You're just setting up the honor roll kids to do everything so their GPA didn't suffer and the other kids to not learn what they need to in order to improve.

I think group work is fine - if the grades are still individual or, better yet, they're not graded at all.

 

[Free4Life11]

OMG! I am doing a group project now too and it's HORRIBLE! We were supposed to write a paper but this one girl took over and did it -- needless to say, she wrote a CRAP paper. It's awful and I refuse to have my name on it. It is due on Tuesday and I have to spend all day tommorow re-writing it. It's pure garbage.

I am so so SO against group projects its not even funny.

 

[WatchinCaptKangaroo]

Group projects stink! We have a group project due this week. The research was done as a group and we have individual papers. I lucked out and my partner is really great. But this other group, well I'm just glad we didn't get stuck with their third member. He never comes to class and the only time he participates in the project is to oppose what they have done.

A new thing for group projects is to base part of the grade upon member evaluations. I'm not sure how I feel about those yet.

 

[Marseeya]

You know, they're always telling us teachers in staff development training and even when I was in college to do group projects. I am so resistant to that because of exactly what you're having trouble with! The only way I assign them is everyone completes their own assignment, you just have people to work with to help you out and you each get your own grade on your own work. We also do it all in class so I can walk around and monitor who is just sitting there for answers and I make them work alone. Otherwise I stay far far away from those. Sorry you're going through all that!
When I was in school, I was always the one who did all the work and everyone else got graded on what I did. UGH!

That's what we're being taught too, only under the wonderful name of "cooperative learning." The problem is, not many teachers get the concept of cooperative learning, so the groups suffer as a result.

Ironically enough, the one teacher this semester who touted the benefits of "true" cooperative learning over group work, assigned us to do a group project with -- guess what? -- no cooperative learning!

OP, I feel your pain. I really do. My group work was finished up last week and I'm so glad it's over.

 

[Daisy Duck 5]

I agree with the rest of you on hating group projects. I have a group project due today with a group of 6 people. We have a presentation today and one girl decides to e-mail us at 10:30 last night to see what we are doing. Hello! Dont you think its a little too late. She is not part of the presentation because we have not heard from her all weekend.
I have another group project due today with three people. We were suppost to meet at the library at 1 yesterday and one girl did not show up. We waited 20 minutes for her and she lives right up the hill so she didnt get stuck in traffic. She didnt show up so we divided up the work between the two of us. When we got home we e-mailed her. Her excuse was her grandmother called. Um cant you tell your grandmother to call back later. So she e-mails me her work. In the amount of time it took me to edit her stuff I could of done a new copy. But again she will get the same mark as me.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Try suggesting this. When I assign group work, part of the grade (1/5 in the last instance) is an evaluation form that is filled out by each group member individually. This eliminates the fear of retaliation or hurt feelings. For example, when my 12 Honors kids did a "Beowulf" newspaper project, the average participation grade for two kids was 9/10, one was 8.5, and the other one was only 7. Comments are also included to explain the numbers given. At the honors level, interestingly enough, you have many students who won't even give THEMSELVES 10/10!
My big problem with these projects is absences. I have one girl with a chronic health issue and she is gone a lot--only 1 day last week, but 3-4 days some weeks. I always have to make her the "extra" person--I'll have 4 groups of 3 and one group of 4, for example--the work can be done with 3, so if she has a "spell", her group can still function.
Robin M.

 

[chrissyk]

UGH, I am sorry to hear that yet another student is being forced to deal with the dreaded "group work" assignment. My undergrad college was focused on "group" work, so this topic really gets to me. I HATED that "group" focus. The groups were almost always assigned by the professors, and I inevitably ended up getting assigned to the frat guys/pot smokers/general slackers in my group. Of course, that meant 3-4 times as much work for me while these losers coasted along and gladly got a good grade at my expense.

When professors said that we had to learn to work in groups because that's how it works in "the real world," I always wondered how they knew that...they'd never been in "the real world" Sorry, but I've never ONCE in my professional life had an experience like the college "group work" experience. In "real life," people who don't show up to meetings/show up stoned/etc. get FIRED.

 

[Marseeya]

When professors said that we had to learn to work in groups because that's how it works in "the real world," I always wondered how they knew that...they'd never been in "the real world" Sorry, but I've never ONCE in my professional life had an experience like the college "group work" experience. In "real life," people who don't show up to meetings/show up stoned/etc. get FIRED.

Exactly!

Where my DH works, everything is "team" based and you know what they say, "You're only as strong as your weakest member." It's true, but businesses have the ability to cut out the weakest link. Or there will be a supervisor around to intervene. You can't be that way with a group of peers.

 

[chrissyk]

Exactly!

Where my DH works, everything is "team" based and you know what they say, "You're only as strong as your weakest member." It's true, but businesses have the ability to cut out the weakest link. Or there will be a supervisor around to intervene. You can't be that way with a group of peers.

Also, people go to work to make money to pay the bills. They have a vested interest in being there, and in trying to make their work-related "group work" a success. The stoners that I always seemed to get assigned to work with in college had NO vested interest in anything but getting wasted on mom and dad's dime They didn't care if they flunked out, and they didn't care if they took the "group" down with them. In the real world, people like this don't last in the realm of paid employment. That's why I found college "group work" to be such a load of you-know-what. I think that college group work is just easier on the professor, honestly. They end up with 1/4 as much work to grade, KWIM?