For or Against Group Projects Evaluation Essay Example

Most people have had an experience with that lazy group in a project. Where the teacher announces their group and they know that they will have to do the entire project alone. Then stay up late and do all the work, and everybody gets the same grade! Or that one uncooperative person who must do their idea, but doesn’t even help on it. I have had numerous experiences exactly like that. I usually stayed up doing all the work because if I didn’t do it, nobody would. It made me so mad when they got the same grade as me, or even higher for not doing anything! I am against assigning group projects because of controlling group members, lazy groups, and being put with people who don’t get along.  

The first reason why I’m against assigned group projects is because of lazy people. That one group that does nothing to help, they just make excuses or just sit there chatting. One example is for my Spanish project. I had to work with somebody who did nothing to help, she constantly made excuses and always talked in class. The night of the project being due, she came over to my house and did literally nothing. She constantly told me it looked okay so that she wouldn’t have to help on it. When she went home I looked at the project and it was a mess.

I had to sit up until 2 a.m. and redo the whole thing, just so I didn’t have to sacrifice my grade for a lazy group member. I am against group projects to stay away from people like that. Another example was for an English project. One of my group members barely did anything. Most of the time it was the other person on me that did her work. We had to let her present some of the things she didn’t even do; the credit was given where it wasn’t deserved. When we got our grades back, she had gotten a higher grade than me which made me really mad. She only worked on her reason and did nothing else. The other group member and I had done all the slides and citations, including our own reasons. But she still got a higher grade. I am against group projects so I can avoid lazy group members. 

Another reason why I’m against group projects is because of controlling people. That one person who doesn’t do anything, but they tell others what to do and how to do it. Or they have a bad idea and do it anyway without getting other’s opinions. Last year in my English class, I had an experience with that person. We were doing a t-shirt about the book we read. I bought the t-shirt and the fabric markers, and she bought the fabric paint. When we were working on our shirt, she decided, by herself, that she was going to use black paint for most of the shirt. Which ended up ruining the entire shirt, but she still wanted to use a shirt that was smeared with black paint! I went out and bought another shirt, and even ironed on letters on the back, so she wouldn’t write.

That night she came over, and we finished the shirt. She messed up the spelling multiple times because she insisted on writing. She had to pick what was going to be on the shirt, what colors, and the part of the book to explain. I want to avoid these kind of people because they are so hard to work with. Similarly, in social studies class last year, one of the group members said we must have stars on the flag. After arguing, I finally gave in and said we could do stars. He didn’t even help on cutting the tiny 50 stars. Another girl and I sat there and cut out 50 stars. I find it really annoying when these kind of things happen, which is why I’m against group projects. ­

The last reason is being put in a group where nobody gets along. One example is in 5th grade. We had to do a project with a group that the teacher picked. At the time, there were certain people I just couldn’t stand. The feeling was mutual, I didn’t like them and they didn’t like me either. But my assigned group just had to be one of those people, and a bunch of quiet kids. It was really uncomfortable because I didn’t want to talk to her. Our presentation was very awkward, and we didn’t get a very good grade. I think it would be better to avoid bad grades and awkward moments, by not having assigned group projects like that.

Another example was last year in math. I had a lot of friends in math, but I just had to be put in a group of people that I didn’t get along with. Nobody talked for most of the project. If I had a question, it was really awkward asking them, since we weren’t friends, nor did we like each other. Yet again, my group didn’t do very well since none of us really spoke to each other or knew what to do. I think this is a very important reason of why I’m against assigned group projects because if people are put with others who they don’t get along with, they won’t communicate well, which leads to a bad grade.

For these reasons, I am against assigned group projects because these things happen too often. I think it is important to have a group that works well together so one everybody can cooperate and get the work done correctly. There should also be a balance so that one person doesn’t control the whole group, and so people don’t behave lazy and do none of the work. I am against assigned group projects because of controlling group members, lazy groups, and groups where people don’t get along.