The Ability to Stay Up Late & Other Unexpected Super Powers
An approach to help students build effective teams for group work
My undergraduate course only meets face-to-face once a week for 75 minutes. We do a decent job of packing in the learning during that time but I’ve not yet done a great job of helping students to foster relationships and connections with one another.
I’ve noticed that this results in surprising alignments and choices when students are forming groups for their final group projects. There also tends to be a lot of fumbling over roles and responsibilities within the groups.
“I have no problem pulling all-nighters” — A student sharing the super power they bring to group work.
This semester, I tried something different: before initiating an affinity diagramming protocol to help students identify preferred topics for the group work, I had them share with their peers 3 super powers that they bring to group work.
Informal super powers are still powerful
Some of the super powers were predictable, like organizational skills and leadership. With some nudging from their teacher, they were able to expand the horizons to include less formal, yet still valuable powers:
- “I’m not a leader at all but if you assign me something you can count on me to do it.”
- “I can stay up late. If something needs to get done on short notice, I have no problem pulling all-nighters.”
- “I am really good at catching spelling and grammar mistakes and can type faster than anyone I know.”
- “I’m really calm and if there’s any group drama, I won’t make it worse.”
- “I do not quit. It bothers me when I can’t get something to work and I will stick with it until it’s done.”
- “I can keep an open mind and hear competing ideas and then help everyone see the connections between all of the ideas.”
Later in the class, after students had put themselves into groups, it was fascinating to see that they had paid attention to their peers’ sharing and actually operationalized that information.
Naming super powers seemed to impact group dynamics
In a group that had two self-identified leaders, they right away named that dynamic and discussed how to productively navigate potential friction. The same group had someone who’d described themselves as a worker bee and one of the leaders immediately delegated a process task to that student.
Another group included a student with bold ideas, tremendous writing skills and intense aversion to public speaking. She aligned herself with a specific group member who shared her creative energy but unlike her, boasted of confidence when it comes to approaching strangers and making presentations.
One of my favorite observations was of a student who’d touted their ability to process different points of view and synthesize connections between seemingly competing ideas. They attached themselves to a group with two non-native English speakers.
My own assumptions were challenged
With a another group, I’ll admit to thinking they were mostly drawn together by default: after not seeing their interests represented in any other group project proposals, I suspected they were a group for people who didn’t want to be in any of the other groups.
They proved me wrong.
When they gave their final presentation it was clear that they had leaned on each others’ super powers. One group member was a student who rarely spoke in class, had been absent two of the three final sessions, and was noticeably invisible throughout the artifacts the group presented. I’ll admit to assuming that he’d been a slacker who’d relied on the others to carry his dead weight. And yet he was the group member to whom the others deferred to expertly and impressively answer my probing questions, and connect their project to course learning objectives.
“I do not quit. It bothers me when I can’t get something to work and I will stick with it until it’s done.” — Sharing this magnetic super power made an unlikely ring leader out of a student who wouldn’t have self-selected into the role.
Overall, the group had gone above and beyond my expectations (for the assignment and, if I’m being honest, their group). They had also clearly had fun and some were now friends outside of class. I really do think that the Justice League approach to aligning project affiliation based on super powers played a part in the academic success as well as the camaraderie and human connections that emerged.
Not all heroes wear capes
And those personal connections might be the best outcome of this approach. Leaving campus after our final presentations, I hollered my well wishes for the future to two students walking ahead of me. Throughout the semester, they had expressed very different world views. I’d never noticed them interact prior to joining the same group for the final project and had been surprised to see them opt into working together. They turned to me in unison. One had her arm around the other and they were both laughing. “This was our last final for both of us and we’re tired. We’re going to buy [things we can buy bc we’re 18+) and drink [stuff we can drink bc we’re 21+].”
It made for an awkward and problematic teaching win. But like the comic book good guys who owe their victories to imperfect alliances with superheroes like Wolverine and The Punisher, it was still a win and this teacher will take it.
It was beautiful to watch how sharing student super powers played out and it is a strategy that I’ll begin to incorporate into my protocols whenever there is group collaboration involved. What tips do YOU have for helping students more effectively set themselves up for successful group work?
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