Inclusiveness

• According to the article "Using Groups in Classes and Encouraging Group Study" by Barbara Gross Davis, teachers should attempt to make their group work as inclusive as possible. This means using various activities and projects that will appeal to a wide range of students. If you have a well-rounded understanding of your class, you can either group them according to the students that you think will work best together, such as talkative and non-talkative students, or according to gender. When presenting group work, you want to make it known that everyone will be included and that everyone's perspective is valuable.
  
  

Selection

• According to the article "Classroom Organization" on MyRead.org, group work encourages "active participation of students." Group work may be difficult to organize, but can be especially useful for students who are more engaged when learning through hands-on activities or need instructions and lessons reiterated by their peers. When selecting students for group work, you can organize the groups based on shared interests, or group students by birthday month, or some other fun way. You can also have students group themselves by asking them to count off in groups of three, and grouping all the "1,", "2," and "3" students together. This prevents students from grouping up by themselves and having any students left out. You can also organize the group work by having students work in groups for a period of time throughout the quarter or semester, or by forming study groups outside of class.
  
  

Monitoring Groups

• Besides organizing the groups themselves, teachers can get frustrated with keeping groups "on task." Depending on the grade level, you can ask students to do a bit of self-monitoring by only being given parts of the overall assignment and requiring them to present that work to move on to the next task. This ensures that the group as a whole understands the concepts of one section of an assignment before completing the next assignment. Another aspect of monitoring students in groups involves using journals or brief writing assignments to help students keep track of their progress as both a group and individually. Having students turn in a weekly journal about their project/assignments and the dynamics of the group can give you as teacher an idea about any problematic situations before they overwhelm the group.