Cooperative Group Responsibilities

Cooperative Team Jobs Sheet

When working in a cooperative group, all students are responsible for staying on task and contributing equally to the project at hand. To facilitate group work, each student is expected to:

1. Use buddy or table voices when working in groups.

2. Take turns sharing.

3. Listen to each other (eyes on speaker, nod, ask questions, paraphrase).

4. Encourage each other.

5. Help each other.

6. Talk about problems. If, after everyone has given input, the problem is not resolved, then raise your hands and ask the teacher.

7. Be responsible (contribute to your group but don't do all the work yourself). Everyone works!

To facilitate students in being responsible team members the following jobs were created. Students themselves decide who in the group will be:

  1. Captain - This person is in charge of seeing to it that the group is organized, gets started on projects quickly and everyone knows what to do.
  2. Monitor - This person keeps track of time to keep the group working smoothly. This person also sees to it that the group has everything it needs. The monitor is the only person who can pull the captain aside and remind her/him that s/he is not doing her/his job if the captain is off task.
  3. Recorder - This person sees to it that the group has all the information it needs. This person sees to it that notes are taken or that information is copied from a website and saved. This person has the added responsibility to make sure that the team's work is original and not plagiarized.
  4. Reporter - This person is in charge of reporting the group's accomplishments. When the group presents a final product, the reporter is in charge of seeing that it gets done on time and well.

None of the aforementioned jobs excuses any team member from not working at any time. In a group of three, everyone will take turns reporting.

To further help students get through complicated reading, four additional jobs are used.

  1. Discussion Director - This person designs and discusses questions about the reading.
  2. Passage Master - This person notes important passages with the team. If every passage seems important, then this person will share the main idea or topic of each passage with the team. This person will help summarize the reading.
  3. Connector - This person makes connections between the reading and real life (student's real life or anything the connector knows about).
  4. Word Wizard - This person defines or discusses interesting or confusing words.

In a group of three, everyone will take turns being the Word Wizard.