My book, Republic of Noise: The Loss of Solitude in Schools and
Culture, will be released by Rowman & Littlefield in November
and is already available for pre-ordering. In the book, I
discuss group work, the folly of the “big idea,” pitfalls of
“mass personalization,” and more, with references to literature,
philosophy, and mathematics. It is unclear what the future of
group work holds, but I hope that it will be given its proper
place–that it will be used when it actually serves the lesson
and not when it doesn’t. The Common Core State Standards seem
ambivalent over the matter. The English language arts standards
state, for instance, that third-grade students will “engage
effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one,
in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3
topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their
own clearly.” The emphasis here could be either on clarity of
expression or on the range of collaborative discussions. Group
work has its place, but it