WORKING IN GROUPS
GROUND RULES
(The following information pertains to BISC207 and 208 Only the initial
2 paragraphs pertain to the non-honors sections).
WORKING IN GROUPS
GROUND RULES
(The following information pertains to BISC207 and 208 Only the initial
2 paragraphs pertain to the non-honors sections).
An important tool that will help group members ensure that all
students
contribute to the group effort is establishing and enforcing group
ground
rules. You will be encouraged to discuss the behaviors that you will
and
will not tolerate from others in your group; if you are in an honors
section, you may want to decide on
consequences
for violating these ground rules. When you have come to a consensus
for ground rules, your group recorder should list them, then email them
to me and to your group members.
Some examples of commonly used ground rules are:
Come to class on time and every day
Come prepared for the group work of the day
Notify group members of absences
Participate
Be a good listener - respect the ideas of others
The rest of this information
pertains only to honors sections of 207
or 208.
Some examples of appropriate consequences for various violations
are:
A group member will not receive credit for work
in which he/she did not participate due to an unexcused absence (I will
enforce this one - read details below).
If a group member misses a class involving group work
and does not have an excused absence, he/she will supply "breakfast"
goodies
for the next group meeting
In addition to the consequences which you
select,
I will impose a few of my own to ensure that group
grading is fair. They are the following :
1. Anyone who misses group problem work with an
excused
absence will be allowed to do the work on their own, provided
it
is turned in to me before the group's work is returned in class (this
typically
means the individual would have to turn it in before the beginning of
the
next class period - i.e. by 9:05 on Friday for the Honors section). The
individual is responsible for getting the assignment from me in my
office.
Long-term absences will be dealt with on an individual basis.
.
2. Anyone who
misses group work due to an unexcused absence should assume that no
credit will be received. At my discretion, if
extenuating
circumstances caused a student to be absent for reasons other
than those listed as excused (i.e. student had an unexcused
absence), he/she may be
allowed to make up group work,
but with a penalty of 30% deducted from the grade. If the individual's
grade is higher than the group's grade, the lower of the two will be
used
before the deduction is taken.
These situations will be handled on a
case-by-case basis.
The information about ground rules and consequences is taken almost verbatim from the course web page for SCEN103 designed by George Watson, who in turn borrowed the information from Barbara Duch, University of Delaware