The following checklist can be used as a teacher-completed formative assessment or as a team group reflection:
Group Observation Checklist:
- When starting a new task, group members:
- Agree on agenda or plan
- Begin work promptly
- Get out project materials
- Figure things out without teacher assistance
- Share responsibilities
- When conducting research, group members:
- Consult primary resources
- Take notes
- Have relevant conversations
- Evaluate the significance of new information
- Stay on task
- When discussing project work, group members:
- Ask clarifying questions
- Give each other a chance to speak
- Make decisions efficiently
- Record decisions and plans
- Share essential information
- Stay on task
For all these items, teacher or students can check off whether the following people contributed to the team criteria:
- All members
- Most members
- Some members
- Few members
- Not applicable
The criteria in the Group Observation Checklists are behaviors that can be communicated, scaffolded and assessed as character learning targets. The criteria formatted as a checklist can be used to gather and share formative feedback data on collaboration. Analyzing the checklists over all teams can reveal collaboration gaps that need extra support and scaffolding.
Preparation Steps
- Decide which Group Observation Checklist criteria you want to scaffold, observe and assess
- Create handout or Google form based on selected checklist criteria
- Research and develop scaffolding that relates to selected checklist criteria
Early Implementation Steps
- Communicate character learning targets
- Facilitate modeling/learning activities to scaffold character learning targets
- Use assessment form/handout to gather and share formative feedback on collaboration processes
Advanced Implementation Steps
- Evaluate all team’s checklist data to identify trends that describe teams’ strengths and gaps
- Communicate trends to the class and brainstorm with students how to overcome pervasive gaps in collaboration processes
- PBL articles
- Assessments articles
- Collaboration articles
- Learning targets