Creating jobs for students gives them the accountability they need to be successful in your classroom. Getting students to work collaboratively has always been a struggle. There is always that one student who doesn’t do any thing and another who takes control and does everything. I have found a few ways to combat this struggle, and I’m going to share with you the two that work best for me. At the end of this post, be sure to leave your email to get general Table Job Posters straight to your inbox!
Completing a digital group project with your students? You can make these into a Google Slide for students to see, read about how to do that here!
1: Rubric Jobs
You’re not a 21st century teacher if your school doesn’t give a rubric to follow? Amiright? If your students don’t have a rubric to follow, then I strongly suggest creating one to establish high expectations, but that’s a post for another day 
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At my school, we have a rubric we follow from Exemplars.com that has 5 different categories for tackling word problems (adapted from NCTM) – Problem Solving, Reasoning and Proof, Communication, Connections, and Representation. When I had groups of 5, I assigned each student a rubric role. Each student got a different colored dry erase marker and they would all contribute to the groups final answer.
I used this strategy in the beginning of the year to get students acquainted with the rubric. I like this strategy because I can assign roles based on what students need to work on individually. Students know their rubric goal, so usually they would pick that category to share in their group.
2: General Table Jobs
As I moved into the year, I noticed they understood the rubric in and out. They needed a change. I decided to then assign group roles based on different tasks for answering the problem. The roles are as follows.
- Vocabulary Checker: This person tallies each time someone in their group uses a math vocabulary word. Each group has a laminated vocabulary sheet.
- Rubric Checker: The person who checks off the student moves rubric as the group completes each part.
- Fact Checker: The person who double checks the facts of the word problem and the math facts.
- Strategy Checker: This person makes sure the group is using two strategies to solve the problem.
These are the roles students currently have and I rotate them every week or so. Students are lettered A-D in their group and they know their roles because I have laminated signs hung up to let them know which letter is which role for that day.
I hope you find this helpful and are ready to change up the way your students collaborate! Don’t forget to click the picture below to get Table Job Posters sent to your inbox! Use these as posters for your classroom, or print them small and tape them on the desks! Creating jobs for students doesn’t have to be so time consuming!
Enjoy!
alexandra
