Assignment #7: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 7 – Cooperative Learning.
Remember: Although your course packet asks you to post to blog for parts A, B, C, and D…we are asking that you only post part C and D. We’re trying to make the blog easier to read and more user- friendly. Thanks!
A. Self Assessment of Current Beliefs and Practices: This component asks you to reflect on how and why you currently use the instructional strategy of Cooperative Learning in your classroom. The intent of this is to activate your prior knowledge of your strategy use so that you can make comparisons as you read the chapter. Below are the questions to help you complete your self-assessment. After completing your self assessment please post a thought or two as a comment (click on comment link below) to this posting labeled Week Seven: Cooperative Learning.
• What is your purpose for using cooperative learning in your classroom?
• What kind of cooperative learning activities do you use with your students?
• Think of a time when you used cooperative learning and was pleased with the results. Why did it work well?
• Think of a time when you used cooperative learning and was not pleased with the results. Why didn’t it work well?
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read chapter 7 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section for Cooperative Learning After completing your chapter reflection, please post it as a comment (click on comment link below) in the posting labeled Week Seven: Cooperative Learning.
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to try out with your students (If you are not currently teaching, you may share how you would use this strategy in your classroom). Please post a brief reflection of how this went to the posting labeled Week Seven: Cooperative Learning. Click on the “comment” link below.
D. Final Strategy Reflection: Use the following sequence of questions/prompts to reflect on what you’ve learned about both the strategies presented in the chapter and what you’ve learned about yourself as both a teacher and a learner. Please post your brief reflection to the posting labeled Week Seven: Cooperative Learning by clicking on the “comment” link below.
How has the information you read in this chapter on Cooperative Learning effected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• How might I change how use cooperative learning in my classroom?
• What is something you now understand better about cooperative learning?
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C. I think cooperative learning is part of education these days. I do not know many educators who do not use this in their classrooms and it is regularly taught in grad programs. However, I did find the different kinds of groups interesting. I use the informal groups on a daily basis (sharing what they learned, brainstorming, ect). I also use the formal groups often for projects. We are in the middle of one with a science experiment that will last four weeks. I assigned them to a group, and once a week they come back together and observe and record what changes they see. However, I have never used a base group, and I really like the idea! I think it would be great to create a sense of community and belonging in the classroom. Again, this would be something I would like to try next year when we can start fresh!
D. After reading this chapter, I understand how education loves this strategy. But it also helped me realize that it is important for kids to have independent work time. Not everyone feels like talking and sharing on every project. Just like most things, balance is an important thing. Also, as teachers we do need to make sure students can complete a task individually.
Cooperative learning shows me as a teacher a lot about a students social skills. Over this school year, I have seen a lot happen in cooperative groups. It is very obvious which students can work with most others, and which students need a little guidance. But, it is good to use the groups to help teach those skills as well!
Chapter 7 – Kristi Richards
C. As Katy mentioned, I think cooperative learning has become a common practice over the last few years. Since I don’t work with an entire classroom, my opportunities for cooperative learning are more limited. Also, many of my reading groups are based on ability, so this lessens the impact of this learning style.
I have recently been implementing more cooperative learning opportunities with my second grade groups. We have been focusing on literal comprehension, and we’re just starting to shift to more inferential comprehension. Many of my students are not native English language speakers. Sometimes, because their social language is strongly in place, it will be surprising how much academic language and vocabulary they are not comprehending. I have been giving the students more opportunities to work with partners, so they can practice sharing their understanding out loud before we talk as a whole group. Also, though the groups are based on ability, the students still vary in their comprehension skills. I try to be sensitive to this if I choose the partners. Some of the students need to listen to a peer share a retell or the author’s purpose or whatever we’re discussing, before they are ready to try it on their own.
D. When I was reflecting on my use of cooperative learning, I realized that I don’t use this style of learning very often with my kindergarten or first grade groups. Even the examples in the chapter refer to older grades. I could make the excuse that they aren’t mature enough, but that isn’t always true. These are the students who love to talk about their learning and share their thinking. After much modeling, I may try something very simple like sharing a connection with a partner. This is a good opportunity for students to practice their listening skills, as well as verbal skills. Since we do a lot of writing, I may also think about ways to support our writing instruction through peer revising/editing. I always find that the students have more ownership over skills such as spaces, periods, and adding details, when they are discovering them, or their absence, in the work of others.
c. Practice
Like others it seems to me that cooperative learning has been around forever. I remember my first workshop on cooperative learning from Johnson and Johnson. Back then it was mostly formal groups with very specific roles. Now I tend to use informal and ad hoc groups the most, but will at times still use a more structured format. I use turn and talk in almost every academic area. I started with read alouds and now use it in Science, Social Studies, and Math. That oral rehearsal is so important and allows them to try out their thoughts in a relatively safe environment. My students recently formed groups based on their interest in doing research and then writing persuasive letters on a specific topic. I was worried because there were only two groups and so they were quite large. It has been amazing to watch them. They have formed smaller groups within the larger ones to get tasks completed and most of them have started using a system for one person talking at a time and for voting on decisions.
D. Reflection
When I started using cooperative learning I did fall into the trap of using it too often. In my excitement to try this new learning strategy I forgot the importance of allowing children to work independently. I'm much more adept,now, at having groups that are long term based and those that change frequently depending on the activity. I really apprecite the flexibility of cooperative groups and the ease in which all students, including my special education and ELL students can be involved and excited about learning. I've also seen my students learn so much more about working with each other respectfully. I can't imagine not using cooperative groups!
C. Practice -
To echo what the others have been saying, Cooperative Learning has become such an integral style of learning in today's classroom that it seems weird to think of going for an extended period of time without doing it.
I think certain subjects are more suited for this style, and I wish the book had addressed this. I have found that cooperative learning works best in "content areas" such as health, science and social studies when the end product is some kind of performance, whether it is a skit or even just a presentation of findings. Reading seems to be a subject that mostly works for this style. Math seems to be the trickiest, either because it requires a unique set-up (well-thought out questions, clearly defined roles) for students to be successful, or because it relies on students' knowledge and skills more than other areas.
I most recently used cooperative learning in an activity where students were placed in groups of three and asked to learn about one aspect of nutrition from their health books, then perform an interseting radio "public service announcement" to convey the information to an audience. It's obviously more engaging than "read the text, answer the questions at the end of the chapter," but I think the real learning gains come when students have to decide which information is important in order to present it, and having peers to act as a sounding board is far more effective than working alone or as a whole class.
D. Reflection
I was skeptical that cooperative learning benefits the highest-ability students as much as the mid and lower ones, but the data seems to suggest that it does. I don't think I have been guilty of over-using it or making groups too large, but it was refreshing to read that groups of 3-4 and regular but not constant grouping seems to be the way to go.
Now that I'm more aware of the benefits and effectiveness of cooperative learning, I will research some strategies for using it in math, which is the subject I find most difficult to teach.
Sarah Barnett
C. I use cooperative learning on a weekly basis with our Houghton Mifflin anthology. For small group reading, we divide into homogeneous groups in order to use appropriate guided reading levels with students. During whole group reading, however, all of the students need to access the weekly anthology story. After being exposed to the story through teacher read aloud followed by following along with a CD reading, the children get into heterogeneous groups of 2, sometimes 3, to buddy read. They take turns reading the pages, altering the order with repeated readings. I think this helps higher readers to become more fluent, and lower readers are learning from their peers.
In the past I have done some projects that make use of table groups of 5 - 6 children. For example, in November each year the children do Turkey math, which involves each table group creating a large colorful paper turkey. There are 6 jobs, and first the group must decide who will do which job. Everyone has to be happy with the decisions. Then they have to all agree on various components of the assembly. After completion, usually the next day, they must cooperatively graph how many feathers of each color they used. For this particular project, 5 to 6 children has worked well, and it has always been a very good learning experience for children. Usually though, table group cooperative learning has not worked so well. For example, I have had table groups work on writing an ending for a story cooperatively. Often it ends up that 2 or 3 children have done the work while the other 2 or 3 have watched on. Now I understand that my cooperative groups were two large for every child to be actively involved in the process.
D. I have tended to shy away from using cooperative learning frequently (other than weekly buddy reading) because it seemed that often there were students in each group that weren't really involved. Understanding now that my groups were too large, I have renewed enthusiasm about trying out cooperative groupings of 3-4 students each. We have been studying farms in our Bridges math unit (1st grade), and I plan to form expert groups which will each focus on one farm animal, or other aspect of farming, on which to make a report. I like the idea of doing it in the style of literature circles, in that there will be 3 to 4 specific jobs for the children to decide upon, complete, and present to the class. For me, this chapter has really helped me to understand that I can successfully use cooperative group learning on a more regular basis in my 1st grade class just by reducing the group size.
Thanks for your comments – Katy, Kristi, Kellie, Sam, and Sarah! I think that cooperative learning is probably one of Marzano’s strategies that we all used possibly more than others. As Katy said, “it’s just part of education”. Kristi and Kellie also mentioned the important support cooperative learning provides for our ELLs….and as with all teaching strategies, it is up to the professional judgment of the classroom teacher as to when and where to use the strategy to best support student learning. Sam – I think it’s a great idea to see how cooperative groups can best support your math students as well as your highest academic achievers. Just keep in mind (as Sarah reflected) to try to use a smaller number of students in the groups.
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