![Hosting the SCLA Casptone Mentor Dinner outside allowed for more attendees on September 27, 2021 at Silver Creek. This event would’ve usually been held inside. According to Lauren Kohn, a SCLA 12 teacher, “If we have a higher number of people, as long as we can host the event outside, then that seems to be keeping every[one] safe”.](https://schsnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sxMAIGbSYGodZkqmrvTi5YWcJ1ssWA08ApkeMLpp-900x675.jpeg)
In schools around the world, students are assigned projects and tasks to do with others or by themselves. Many of them may be grumbling about having to do work by themself or annoyed with someone in their group. Others could be excited about working with a friend or relieved they can work alone. Each student has their preferences when it comes to a project but learning takes many forms.
Kaia Crouthamel is a freshman at Silver Creek High School who prefers working in a group setting over doing assignments by herself.
“I prefer group work if it’s with a good partner because it’s less stressful and it takes the workload off,” Crouthamel said.
Crouthamel believes that with an efficient and committed partner or group, the amount of work she has to do is lessened. However, if you are teamed up with someone who doesn’t help, it can be much more challenging.
“I like picking my group because I don’t want to be stuck with the kid that doesn’t do any of the work,” Crouthamel said.
Samantha Labrie is also a freshman at Silver Creek High School, but she strongly favors working by herself when it comes to schoolwork.
“I prefer individual work because I feel like I have more control over how well I do on a project,” Labrie said. “When I work with others it’s more difficult to communicate ideas and effectively get work done …in a lot of cases group work isn’t evenly distributed [so] pressure gets put on certain members…while others goof off.”
Students who have to do most of the work in a group tend to feel more stressed out while others get away with not contributing. This is very frustrating especially if you are graded based on what everyone else does.
“When I’m working in a group, I feel like it’s [harder to] get work done since there’s lots of chances to get easily distracted and off topic,” Labrie said.
There is a solution to the problems with each type of work that is being used by teachers schoolwide. One example is Kay Van Danacker who is a mathematics teacher at Silver Creek High School and was not a fan of working in a group for an assessment or project when she was in high school.
“I hate group projects because whenever you’re in school…you have to trust that people are going to do their own parts, and then if you’re graded on what somebody else doesn’t do, [is that fair]?” Van Danacker said.
In Van Danacker’s classes, she tries to find a sweet spot between working alone and working with others by inviting students to collaborate.
“We start off [by putting our] own ideas down, but then we talk as a whole group,” Van Danacker said.
She believes that optional collaboration is a good compromise for students who might want to talk problems out with others and students who want to focus on their own work. However, she keeps each student accountable for their learning.
“I think there’s a huge value to collaboration, but there’s also a huge difference between collaborating and copying, [and I think that] we as teachers have to do more to help students define the difference between collaborating…and copying work that was done by another person or thing,” Van Danacker said.
Teachers and students need to work together to figure out what is best for each person. Students won’t be motivated to work on an assignment if they don’t like their group or they need help from others that they can’t work with.
