Instructions 1. Briefly describe the group that will be the focus of your observ

Instructions
1. Briefly describe the group that will be the focus of your observations.     

2. Discuss and evaluate the structural factors you think may have impacted the group and its development. (For example, how do you think such factors as temporal factors, meeting space and furniture, member selection processes, member differentials and compositional balance, seating arrangement, leadership styles, etc. have influenced the group’s development? Did the group’s homogeneity or heterogeneity enrich or constrain the group coming together? How do you think individual members’ experiences of oppression, historical trauma, and/ or privilege factor into the group’s interactions?)
3. Identify and discuss any ethical issues that may or have arisen in the group. Explain how you would handle these issues. Reference the NASW Code of Ethics and the IASWG Standards of Group Practice.
4. Using the guidelines presented in the class handouts, as well as material presented in your textbooks and other assigned readings, present an assessment of the group’s actions, interactions, behaviors, and processes. The following list offers some suggestions to help you formulate your analysis discussion.  Please only choose 3 or 4 of the below suggestions; you do not need to include every item in your paper.
a. Norms and rituals
b. Expressions of feelings/affect.
c. Membership dynamics… (subgroups? insiders? outsiders?)
d. Participation… (High/low participators? Which members talk primarily with whom? Have participation levels shifted as the group continued?)
e. Levels and styles of influence…. (Which members appear to have the most “clout?” Who have been ignored or dismissed? What leadership struggles have emerged? What forms of influence or power were exhibited?)
f. How was conflict handled?
5. Describe how the facilitator attempted to gain rapport and the extent that rapport was achieved. How successful was the facilitator in engaging group members to fully participate in the group’s goals and expected outcomes? Provide a brief discussion and evaluation of specific group leadership skills you observed the various facilitators utilizing.
6. Describe how your conceptualization of trauma helped you to understand interactions between members, as well as the facilitator’s response. What trauma-informed responding did you observe, or, how might the facilitator have responded in a more trauma-informed fashion?
7. Imagine that the group will be meeting again next week, and when it does, you will be the facilitator. With respect to where the group’s current goals and with consideration to issues of oppression and historical trauma, what do you think might be the best intervention on your part to help the group’s development? Why? Describe a set of skills, activity, or creative use of programming that might help the group achieve this desired outcome.