Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Cannot Cooperate Aisha is known as a responsible and smart student. I have known her for the last two years, but this year is the first time she is taking one of my classes. She is in my 10th grade US History class. Recently, I started using small group projects in my class. I simply want my students to learn to cooperate, exchange ideas, and produce the project together. Although Aisha is willing to take part in these small group projects, she does not want to be in groups with male students because of her religious beliefs. When she told me about this, I told her that she was in the United States and that she had to work with whoever she is in a group with. In the first group project, Aisha was in a group with three males and one female students. She simply did not participate in any of the group activities. I wonder if should reconsider my original position on this issue and accommodate Aisha by having her work only with girls. Would I be doing her a disservice? What should I do? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) At first, I would accommodate Aisha and allow her to just work with girls. This will help her feel more comfortable at the school. She clearly has cultural differences indicating that she has a lot of adjustments to handle already. By allowing her to work with just girls, she will be more capable of maintaining her grades and behavior as she adjusts to not only cultural issues, but also high school in general. As time goes by, I would slowly add males to her group. If she adjusts well to having a male in her group, then maybe continue to add. I would watch her grades and behavior as each male is added. I would also never make her the only female in the group. I feel like that would be complete disregard and disrespect to her wishes. So simply put I would suggest accommodation at first and slowly try assimilation.