A guide to forming and managing effective task forces.

The benefits of collaborative learning are well documented—and yet, almost every teacher knows how group work can go wrong: restless students, unequal workloads, lack of accountability, and too little learning for all the effort involved. In this book, educators Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and Sandi Everlove show you how to make all group work productive group work: with all students engaged in the academic content and with each other, building valuable social skills, consolidating and extending their knowledge, and increasing their readiness for independent learning. The key to getting the most out of group work is to match research-based principles of group work with practical action. Classroom examples across grade levels and disciplines illustrate how to * Create interdependence and positive interaction * Model and guide group work * Design challenging and engaging group tasks * Ensure group and individual accountability * Assess and monitor students' developing understanding (and show them how to do the same) * Foster essential interpersonal skills, such as thinking with clarity, listening, giving useful feedback, and considering different points of view. The authors also address the most frequently asked questions about group work, including the best ways to form groups, accommodate mixed readiness levels, and introduce collaborative learning routines into the classroom. Throughout, they build a case that productive group work is both an essential part of a gradual release of responsibility instructional model and a necessary part of good teaching practice.

Any intentional group is based on a coherent group plan. This book will identify the elements that are basic to any plan and will apply these elements within an ongoing example. Among the elements to be included are: Identifying the Population, Need and Environmental Assessment, Goals, Rationale for Using Group, Type of Group, Conceptual Framework Used, attention to Group Developmental stage and to Group Dynamics, Group Size, Group Composition, Session-by-Session plans, Evaluation Methodology.

This text presents an evidence-based approach to the theory and practice of group work. Renowned counselor, psychologist, and group work fellow Dr. Robert K. Conyne advances this unique and evolving service in a three-part, comprehensive overview of the skills necessary for trainees of counseling and other helping professionals to succeed in group settings. Section I covers the breadth and foundations of group work; best practice and ethical considerations; dynamics and processes in group work; and how groups tend to develop over time. Section II explores group work leadership styles, methods, techniques, and strategies, as well as both traditional and innovative group work theories. Section III examines the role of reflection in group practice, as well as selecting effective intervention strategies in various settings. Group Work Leadership: An Introduction for Helpers is part of the Counseling and Professional Identity series, which targets the development of specific competencies as identified by CACREP (Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs).

School counselors are often the only employees in school settings with any formal education in group work, and yet their training is typically a general course on how to run groups. Group Work in Schools provides an alternative training model; one that presents exactly what counselors need to know in order to successfully implement task-driven, psychoeducational, and counseling/psychotherapy groups in any educational setting. Additions to this newly updated second edition include: discussion topics, activities, case examples, integrated CACREP standards and learning outcomes, as well as an overall update to reflect the most recent research and knowledge.

This integrative book brings forty years of research and scholarship in counseling, psychology, and education together in a singular analysis. In Making Meaning, Hayes illustrates how the construction of meaning can have a profound effect on how we come to know ourselves and others. Hayes depicts meaning-making as an ongoing, dialectical, and recursive process of change and reinvention. This process plays a central role in individual development and loss and helps promote multiculturalism, collaboration, and group and team development. This book is recommended for mental health professionals and educators looking to promote democratic learning communities.