Cooperative Learning

As a foreign language teacher, I use cooperative learning a lot just to give the students practice with partners in using what they have learned.  According to Dr. Marzano, the groups I use most often are informal groups and they last maybe 15-30 minutes per class.  I have found these groups to be most effective in dealing with new grammatical structures because one partner can usually help the other partner to understand.  I generally use ability grouping, but I group high learners with low learners as often as possible, especially if I am using groups of two.  When I move to a project and I am grouping the students, I use random grouping and them look at the groups and make sure that they are heterogeneous so that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed on the project.  One thing I do not believe in is giving a group grade for a project.  My students are generally surprised that they can receive different grades and be in the same group, according to their individual effort.  I have the students keep a log of what they have contributed each day that they are doing the project, and I also observe their efforts within the group.  I have always considered it grossly unfair that when students are doing a group project, one student feels compelled to "carry" the others in his/her group for the sake of getting a good grade.  I think that group grades reward laziness.  I did not see this issue addressed in Dr. Marzano's book, but I do feel that it is an important issue and the reason that some students approach group tasks with trepidation because they are the ones motivated to excel and don't want to be responsible for earning a grade for a group.