Collaborative Learning and American Literature By Peter Hawkes

***FRUITS***
"Only two things are necessary for collaborative learning-- a group and a task. Because a good task is difficult to design much of what I say will  be about task development"(140)

" When i say collaborative learning I mean any method of small group work similar to the one advocated by Kenneth Bruffee (1985), where groups of five students work on the same learning task and then report the findings through a group recorder to the class. "(140)

"Few advocates claim that collaborative learning is more effective than the lecture in presenting the 'facts' -- the historical background, terminology and critical principles - that inform a discipline and that every teacher feels obliged to cover."(141)

" Of course, students need guidance in understanding the debate before they attempt to join it. Therefore my next step is to write (or rewrite) lectures, which among other things build towards the issue of the novel's ending."(142)

***WEEDS***
The one problem that I have with this essay is the fact that it would be virtually impossible for students to cover all of the grammatical features that stump them in one semester, without dedicating the class solely to grammar alone.


***BASKET***
This reading reminds me of the Joyce article on metawriting. This is an effective method of making students aware of the problems that they are making. Perhaps I can have students break up into small groups and research the topics that give students the most difficulties such as subject verb agreement, articles, number, verb conjugation etc...