Anonymous wrote:My kid who is studious and conscientious really dislikes group projects. He usually ends up doing most of the project. He especially despises when the teacher groups him with 1-2 students who do nothing to very little instead of having the students who are hard working grouped together.

Teachers almost always tell the class they can see who is doing the work and who isn't and they are going to grade accordingly. It never seems to happen. If anyone in my son's group ever complains to the teacher the teacher says some BS about in the real world you have to learn to work together so they have to deal with it. At times my son has lost points because he asked the teacher what to do if someone says they are going to turn in their part but then never does after the group members beg the student to complete the work.

How do I know the slacker kids get the grade as the student who has put in all the hours? I have another child who is the slacker. He is a bright but does the minimal. He often seem to find a group to join with a Type A girl. From the get go he goes up and tells her he is willing to relinquish all control to her and she can do the whole thing and he will stay out of her way. He is good at presenting so he says he will present whatever she writes up for him if there is a presentation.

Slacker son also chooses a student whose parents with advanced degrees do the work for the student so they get the best grade. Those parents really like my slacker kid because he is willing to go along with not doing anything but is smart enough to be able to answer questions if asked and not tell anyone the parents are really doing the work. So he ends up getting A's for doing absolutely nothing.

Anonymous wrote:
How do I know the slacker kids get the grade as the student who has put in all the hours? I have another child who is the slacker. He is a bright but does the minimal. He often seem to find a group to join with a Type A girl. From the get go he goes up and tells her he is willing to relinquish all control to her and she can do the whole thing and he will stay out of her way. He is good at presenting so he says he will present whatever she writes up for him if there is a presentation.

Slacker son also chooses a student whose parents with advanced degrees do the work for the student so they get the best grade. Those parents really like my slacker kid because he is willing to go along with not doing anything but is smart enough to be able to answer questions if asked and not tell anyone the parents are really doing the work. So he ends up getting A's for doing absolutely nothing.

Anonymous wrote:Every kid should have to submit a signed statement about what they contributed to the project, honor code style.

They should be graded according to their contribution.

Anonymous wrote:A kind HS teachers gives kids the option to work in a group or alone. My son always chooses alone. It's the same effort either way, why boost up some other kid and stress.

Anonymous wrote:When we do them, the kids are individually assessed for their participation. They’re working collaboratively so during the process if we can see one kid isn’t doing anything or sharing ideas or building on someone else’s ideas, they lose points on their rubric. Same for the creation and presentation- they’re designed in a way for me to be able to see clearly who contributed what and if you just stand there in a presentation or don’t share or only share low knowledge stuff like the title, I know you didn’t do much. I have never ever assigned one whole grade that applies to the whole group.