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Edited on Tue May-27-08 12:50 AM by LibDemAlways
My daughter is only a high school freshman, but learned all about the inanity and unfairness of group projects this year.
Geography class group project - something called Geofest. The topic was East Asia. My daughter was "working" with two girls who did nothing. Meanwhile, my daughter researched and put together a 40 slide narrated powerpoint on the culture of the region, made two trips to LA's Chinatown in search of "souvenirs" to share with the class, compiled an extensive bibliography, wrote the names of all students in the class in Chinese characters on parchment, and presented the whole goddamned thing. The other girls showed up in Japanese/Korean dress that day. That was their entire contribution, but they shared in the "A." My daughter was pissed, but when it became evident that the others weren't going to pull their weight, she did what she had to do.
English class group project (final) - Form groups of 3-5. Rewrite an act of Romeo and Juliet and videotape yourselves acting it out. Project to be graded on creativity, props, scenery, and technical aspects (sound, editing, picture quality). More than a bit over the top to begin with. Anyhow, my daughter got stuck with one girl who had no time to devote to the project - busy every night and weekend, and another who was extremely bossy and wanted to just get it done quick and dirty in her living room just reading lines into the camera. When my daughter tried to reason with them that their grades were on the line and she wasn't going to be a party to anything less than a top notch effort, they threw her out of the group. I had to get involved, and ultimately, she was allowed to do an independent project - a 10 minute powerpoint covering details of Shakespeare's life, the Globe Theatre, and the historical background of the play. She's still working on it, and the other two apparently finished their effort in one afternoon. Yet another fiasco.
I'm with you. Group projects are the worst and teachers who assign them have screws loose.
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