– blog entry four (week 17) –
As a student who has been involved in multiple group assignments, if someone were to ask me wether i liked group assignments before i had participated in our Aspire English Term 4 group project, my answer would have simply been no. However, now that i have worked on this project, i can say that i am definetly more open to the idea.
The Task
In more detail, our group task this term was to answer our focus question:
“Why do we turn to poetry at key moments in our lives?”
In the form of an oral presentation that also incorporates a central focus or idea as well as our own original poems. For example, my group of five (Ashley, Amy, Alesia, Lucca and Myself) ultimately decided to focus on the social issue of mental illnesses, and discuss how and why people with mental illnesses turn to poetry during this key moment in their life. We have to deliver our presentation live in front of a considerably large audience, and include video as well as a PowerPoint presentation to correspond with our discussion.
As a group i definitely feel as though we have worked together well. We managed to decide on our focus and plan what we wanted to achieve with our presentation as well as write, edit and memorise our poems within the first two weeks (which i think is pretty impressive). However, like most groups, we had our flaws. But i believe we were able to work through these flaws and produce a decent finished product, even though i do believe that we could have achieved better.
As well as these, there were many other factors that positively and negatively affected our group. For example, being productive early positively influenced our group and made us determined to get our presentation completed thereby which i think we achieved). However, there were negative affects as well. For example, our presenting position of fourth and last greatly diminished our confidence and self-esteem, making us unable to be productive for the beginning of that lesson as we were too busy worrying about what the outcome of our performance will be.
My Predictions
I feel as though we are as prepared as we can be for our twenty-minute, memorised presentation as possible. However, with the deadline of Thursday 22nd November slowly coming closer i can sense the nerves building within the group as well as myself. Of course i have my worries, including but not limited to, the technology not working and forgetting my lines. But with the support of our group and the rest of our class i believe that we will achieve something at our best and make the most of what we have.
The Final Verdict – Yes or No?
So i guess there is only one answer. Yes or no to group assignments? Although they can be beneficial at times, in my personal opinion i would definitely have to say no. For me, i find it easier to complete assignments when you are not constantly having to schedule times to complete it with others as well as being able to incorporate all of your ideas. I am not strongly against it, it just wouldn’t be my first choice.
For a professional perspective, visit the following website and have a read. You won’t regret it 🙂
https://student.unsw.edu.au/groupwork
xo Letissia
Aspire English Poetry Blog 