P.I.G.S

This semester I was introduced to P.I.G.S. I was able to learn what these abbreviations stood for and what their meanings were all about.  Lets start off with P. Positive Interdependence. Then we learned what I stood for. Individual Accountability, followed by G. Group Processing and S. Social Skills.  Each of these words have a very important definition and meaning. I believe that it is important to use P.I.G.S in your classroom setting each and everyday. Beginning with PIGS we see Positive Interdependence. Some of you may wonder what that is, well positive interdependence has to do with giving a role with an individual that may be working in your group. It is important to make sure that the individual takes charge and follows this role in order to finish and exceed whatever assignment or project that you may be working on so that everyone involved in this group has the opportunity to do well on it and move on.  Individual Accountability is next, this is where each individual needs to show that they understand the material and what is being asked of them. Everyone in a working group has a job that they must follow in order to succeed in group work. Next, we learned about the importance of group processing. Group processing is where the individuals of the group need to work with one another to make decisions about their work and to see where they could add or improve to the work they have already done. It is important that the group works as a whole in order to succeed and get everything done on time and correctly. To me Social Skills is the most important part of PIGS. It is very important that individuals are able to work with one another and communicate with one another to finish projects, create lessons and so much more. If you lack social skills you are going to face a very hard time in the world of teaching. You need to be able to work with one another and be expressive about what you may feel. If there i something you think you need to change or make better you need to speak up to your group members in order to do so. If you have no social skills and you have trouble communicating with others this may place you in a perdiciment.  In class we all broke up PIGS and worked on the section that was assigned to us so we could become experts on that certain section and teach our classmates about it as well. I think that it is a great method and it should be used more often and spoken about, because before this class I have never heard of PIGS before.