Form heterogeneous groups that contain both males and females and members of different cultures. This allows for strengths of each gender and culture to be shared. People of different perspectives can see possibilities and opportunities to solve problems in new ways that homogeneous groups may miss. By having a diverse group, skills, abilities and styles can blend into a highly productive work team.
Have a manageable number of different roles to be fulfilled in all groups. One person can be the Reader, one the Clarifier, another the Predictor and the final person the Summarizer. Each person can perform his role in dealing with reading or text and contribute to the final product, such as a report. Depending on the task at hand, roles can change to fit subject matter. When giving instructions, clearly define each role and have each role's definitions or job description at the table of each group.
The members of each group can fill out an assessment of their own and the other group members' level of participation and contribution to the task. They can indicate areas of needed improvement or difficulty they had in fulfilling the task. The instructor can base the final evaluation on the product delivered as well as the self-evaluation and peer-evaluation given by the group. Evaluation points on a scale of 1 to 5 work well in helping a person express her performance and the performance of her peers.