Our parent-teacher conference experience didn't go quite as smoothly as it has in previous years. As always, it was wonderful to meet the parents of our students, and reassuring to know that so many of them have wonderful support systems at home. The difference this year was the panic from the parents of the Straight-A students. We'd heard going into this year that the students who struggle the most with PBL are students who have excelled in the traditional classroom. Why would they want to change things up when they're great at tests, quizzes, and bookwork? These students are extremely grade conscious because they are already thinking college, scholarships, and future which is fantastic! At the same time, these students feel that they are taking on most of the burden in their groups' project.
The parents of these students conveyed this concerns to us and expressed concern that the group work would ruin their childrens' GPAs. We tried to reassure all parents, that the majority of grades our students receive are INDIVIDUAL grades, so group projects shouldn't tank their averages. Also, we informed the parents about the process of calling a group meeting and potentially firing a group member if he isn't pulling his weight. We hope that in the next PBL we do a better job of preventing one or two group members carrying most of the load for the whole group. I don't think it happened in most groups this time
Christina,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! I think its so important to not only share our positive moments this year but also pur struggles. The group work was a question that we had posed to as well. Luckily, we had parents who were not combative when we explained everything to them. Im sure when grades come out someone will confront us with issue of group work and grades! Again, thanks for sharing!