Kids Group Homework Project... My Daughter's Doing It All... Opinions Please

Speak up now & tell the other child to get off the phone right now & help so that she can get credit for helping...:)

Stay out of it.. They need to speak up for themselves and I promise once the teacher sees the projects and reads any of the report.. it will all come out.. who exactly did what.. and who did nothing..

I also know exactly how you feel.. I also did not like group projects because I always felt like our daughter also did all of the actual decision making and actual work.

Guess what? She is in college now and says it still sometimes happens..

She says she thinks some people cannot make decisions and others are not secure enough to put themselves out there..

When she used to complain, I reminded her SHE had to speak up or it was going to continue.. She would sometimes speak up and other times, she said they agreed on how they would divide it up and it just looked like she was doing all of the work..

Just take a breath and let them handle it.. It is hard not to hover and want to tell their teacher, but they will take care of it..

It will work itself out. Let it go. You don't say how old your daughter or these other girls are. But the teacher will be able to ferret out who did what. She will ask pointed questions. "Who wrote the script, who had the camera, who edited etc. and the girls will get graded accordingly. My daughter is in nursing school right now. she had to do a group presentation with 2 other girls. one of whom sat and pretty much did nothing. when grades came out it was very clearly shown who did what. the teacher will handle this. and if they all get the same grades then your daughter needs to speak up to the teacher and ask for a different set of partners for next time. However it sounds like she was in control and was ok with that.

Sounds like good practice for her future career! I hate, hate group projects for this exact reason. When I was in school, I was the one that got stuck with most of the work. Sadly, this happens all the time in the real world. The reality of it is though that it is usually pretty obvious to the teacher (or boss) who really has done the work. The workers do better with grades and with raises. If you know the teacher well, I might send her a quick email head's-up. If you don't have a good rapport with the teacher, then I would probaby let it go. Encourage the other girl to get off the phone and help. Then hope for the best....

I hate group projects. It's really about group dynamics. There ia always someone who doesn't pull their weight. (even in adult life) I wouldn't talk to the teacher, it is likely to backfire. The other girl might say your daughter is bossy and wouldn't listen to her ideas. Then what? Doesn't matter if it's not true.
My oldest son had a group project senior year. The boys came to our house to finish up. There was also an individual paper that had to be done. One of the boy's laptop wasn't working. He asked my son if he could use his laptop to complete the assignment. My son said yes. The boy copied my son's paper almost word for word. Luckily the boy admitted what he did. The teacher tried to hold my son responsible for "letting the other boy use his paper". My son had no knowledge this boy did this until he was called into the teacher. We insisted on meeting with the teacher. We told her my son was a victim and you don't punish victims.
My advice is to talk to your daughter about group dynamics. This kind of thing usually happens and she has to decide how she wants to handle it. Talk through different options. Did I say I hate group projects? (I have four kids - 11, 14, 17, & 19. There will be more group projects in our future)

venting here is good. talking with your daughter and letting her know she's wonderful is good. talking to the teacher and the other kids? not so good.
this is the nature of group projects. i was shockingly unaware of this phenomenon until my kids started college (homeschool group projects tend to morph in different patterns) and at first i was livid. of course i didn't march into the college classrooms, but i was really frosted until it happened over and over....the next kid started college and encountered the same thing over and over...and i realized it's just the nature of the beast.
and it says much for you that YOUR kid is the one making things happen. better to have that kid than the bums. even if she does more than her share here, she'll also reap extra benefits throughout her life because she doesn't sit on her hiney and wait for others.
make her some cookies. you have some too.
:) khairete
S.

I despised group projects in school. Either someone hogged it all, or no one helped. Not a lot changes in the work world or college. It's a rare group of classmates or coworkers that all actually work together towards a common goal. Children esp have a hard time "sharing" (although many childish adults are the same way), and to boot children don't usually have the expertise that lends toward each person being responsible for a single area. So the person who is either more gifted or more outspoken ends up with the majority of the work. In my experience the few who are actually good at working together sift and siphon through those who aren't in order to find each other.

I don't know that there is anything that the teacher can do about group projects. They obviously KNOW these patterns happen, so if they don't build in failsafes in the beginning, it's up to the kids to apportion the work.

Unfortunately, this happens a lot. My kids always ended up doing the bulk of the work. However, my kids also turned in all their other assigments and the teacher could tell who did what.
Now, that being said, you have to be mindful not to let your child take over and do too many things. For instance, Sue isn't worried about it because someone else is taking care of it.
I could have killed my son last year when he had a huge project to do and I was FURIOUS when I found out who he'd chosen as his partner. He has been good friends with this kid since kindergarten and I like the boy, but he does not do anything he doesn't feel like doing, even his parents admit that, and his grades suck. I just told my son, "You are not doing this entire project by yourself. I want an outline as to how you are dividing up the responsibility, I want it signed by you and your friend, I want it turned in and signed by your teacher. That way, if only half of it is done, at least you will get some credit for the part you do. And if you get an F because it's only half way done, then maybe you will pick a different partner next time."
Sounds mean, but I'd already gone through it with this other kid and my son staying up late and going to the library for research and having to get art supplies and everything else while the other kid got a good grade for doing none of it.
In my opinion, group projects should be about teamwork. The kids have to get a little better about figuring that out. They all should have a part to play in it and share things as equally as possible.
Easier said than done.

I don't know, if one person isn't really participating, it will all come out in the wash. The girls who DID work will have something to say about it, either to their teacher or to the friend who played on her phone. The older they get the more they realize who will and won't contribute.

ahh, I remember group projects. We had them in school as well. One kid usually does most of the work... that's always the way it turns out. You KNOW what your daughter put into it. You can complain to the teacher if you want to, but I think it's just the "dynamic" of the group project. What your daughter should learn from this in the future if she has an option to pick her partners that she pick ones that she feels will carry their own weight. Right now, if she aces this, you can feel proud that she was able to pull this project together without much help from anyone else..... that's something to be proud of. The others are learning to be slackers...... and it takes both to make the world go round.

Growing up I hated group projects. I lived in a Queens suburb and we were all living in the same neighborhood and went to the same small Catholic school and were able to go to each other's homes to work on projects. It was so stressful for us and I am sure for our hard working parents.

As a NYC public school teacher of 13 years I have never subjected my students to the "complete on your free time" GROUP project. There are a couple of reasons why I don't do this.

First, here in NYC not everyone lives near each other. It is quite hard to get everyone together as a group after school. Many parents work multiple jobs and most of us take public transportation to get around. Plus, our apartments aren't huge so space is an issue.

Secondly, when you assign a group project that is to be done during after school hours there is ALWAYS a member or members of the group that slack off. We all know this is true.

Thirdly, not everyone has the same resources available to them. Believe it or not, not everyone has a computer in their home still. This sounds shocking, but is totally true. An uneven playing field at home makes so many students anxious and unsure about themselves. Schools provide, or should provide, that even field. Everyone has access to a computer at school. Everyone has an adult that they can turn to for help at school. Everyone has books available to them at school.

Finally, I think it is really important for an adult to be monitoring the students to make sure that they are being supported through the rough proccess of working diplomatically in a group. This is pretty much impossible to do if the assignment is to be completed outside of the classroom. This is not to say that you fabulous parents out there aren't capable of doing this, but let's be real. Everyone is working hard. We are all pooped and frankly it is the teacher's job to be teaching these skills when it comes to academic work. Especially academic work that she/he assigned.

I don't know how old your daughter is or what grade she is in, but I know that my fifth graders needed guidance. I knew a lot of teachers on the grade who just assigned "reports" and "projects" never teaching their students how to even write a report or tackle a new project and the steps needed to be and feel successful. Isn't that what we, as teachers, are there for?

I guess you could bring this up with the teacher. I know that I wouldn't be offended if a parent talked to me about it. I would definitely inquire about how she/he is going to be grading the project as a whole and the students as individuals. When I assign projects the first step is for the members of the group to decide who is doing what individually and what is being done together as a group.

As a parent I know that my first responsibility is to my child. If I know that he/she is pulling their weight and doing their best than I would be satisfied. If another student's laziness or lack or effort was going to effect my child's grade I would bring it up with the teacher to make sure that all is fair.

Peace.

Yep. Tell the other girl to get off the phone and go help. If she won't, I'd call the teacher and let her know what transpired.

How is your daughter with all of this? Is she complaining about it? Stressed? Last year my daughter had a large group presentation/project in her 5th/6th grade class. She did stress out about it a lot, and I encouraged her to talk to her teacher while they were in the process of working on it. Her teacher told her that her group was looking to her for leadership, and so she should embrace that role and go with it. She also assured her that she was well aware of who was actually doing what portion of the work. My daughter didn't like the fact that she was doing the bulk of the work, but she was also the one most concerned about her grade. That's just how these group projects go. I hated them too, but they are a real life learning experience. I would stay out of it. Offer a listening ear and suggestions for her to work things out with her group and/or her teacher herself. They need to learn to work it out themselves.

Maybe you should talk to Sue, and encourage her to go help.

Talk to your daughter and see if she knows if the teacher is giving one project grade to all members of the group or if there will be some individual grading (either factored in or as a separate grade for each) maybe from a peer review. If she doesn't know, ask the teacher that question. Then she if she asks why or indicates that they will all receive the same grade it lets you say something like "so a child who does very little will get the same grade (good or bad) as a child who does 75% of the project?". That will let her know that the group is not equal.

There are two thoughts on this...one is that as a group, you work together and should get a joint grade. The other thought is it just isn't fair to the one doing all the work. I think it should be a little of both. If you are paired with a lazy student, you're going to have to do all the work and deserve a higher grade...but what if the "lazy" student just isn't a take charge kind of kid and the other studen is. They may feel that the other kid wants to do the work and is not comfortable asserting themselves. So, I tend to lean towards IF a group project is required, there should be some sort of peer and self review for either a portion of the grade or as a separate grade.

Annoying though it may be be, although you daughter has done way more than her share of the work, she has done it on her own. If Sue had been assigned to write the script, showed up without it and THEN your daughter wrote it that would be one thing. However, it sounds like your daughter took on the extra work her own self. Does that make sense?

This is less an issue of the girls involved than of the assigning teacher. If they had a better teacher, there would have been more structure and guidance IN CLASS for planning the project. The students would have written the script together with teacher feedback, they would have divided roles, created a filming schedule and perhaps taken time in the computer lab to edit the footage.

If you feel like taking it on, you might go in and help them divvy up the remaining work more fairly. If not, use it as an opportunity to help your daughter reflect on the process after the fact and help her set boundaries for future group projects.

T.