I am just here to offer sympathy - no solutions. I HATE group projects with every fiber of my being. Ds had two this week, both disasters. The biggest issue is that they aren't being taught HOW to do a group project. I get that working in a group, leadership, etc is an important skill. However, at school, they are just told- do this project, good luck, you figure it out. The latest project was writing a group pyramid story (so, 10 kids started with first part, then 2 groups of 5, then 4 groups of 2 and 3, etc). They were supposed to use Google docs, but my kid doesn't even have an email. Half the parents can't figure out Google docs. One kid "edited" by writing in bathroom humor over and over... (yep, this IS a gifted class). Teacher wants them to "work it out themselves." Ds went to bed at 10pm last night and some kids still hadn't made any revisions. He printed out his story flow, but if anyone makes changes after, they'll all be dinged (the earlier parts of the story must stay exactly the same- it's like a create-your-own-ending story). He tried to tell everyone not to change it, he wrote notes, but who knows?
Okay, sorry to hijack with my own vent but I HATE HATE HATE group projects because they always seem to be crazy and I always have the kids who end up doing 90% of the work.
UGH!
