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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.)
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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3 comments:
Am I allowed to say that I have mixed feelings about this chapter? Cooperative learning has long been promoted as an important teaching tool - - and I understand all the reasons why. Also, colleges and businesses say that teaching students how to work with others is an important skill to have. However, I have had limited success with it.
First, I will admit that I’ve possibly made a huge mistake that could be a reason why my cooperative learning groups were not successful: my groups were too big! However, I have a class of 40 sophomores. Logistically speaking, that means I will have at least 10 groups of students to monitor. I already feel overwhelmed by the thought! I imagine that at the end of the day, I would be more exhausted than my students because of the enormous amount of management that must have to happen to make this successful.
I was happy to read that Marzano does not recommend placing students based on ability. I’ve always been a fan of putting students together who are different. I believe it broadens their scope, not limits it.
The other frustrating part of this chapter is the comment that cooperative groups are “misused when the tasks are given . . . are not well structured” (88). I feel like this is an important component that was barely expanded. I would have liked to read more details about positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, etc. Also, I’ve tried the highly popular Literature Circles in my English classes. I have lukewarm feelings about that process. They were all assigned different roles; everything was well structured and organized. However, I felt that my students were just going through the motions. No one was taking any risks or thinking about the literature in a complex way. I tried Literature Circles for several years before giving up on it.
On a more positive note, I have had much success with the informal groups. One of the best things I changed was moving my desks from rows to tables. My students definitely feel free to ask their classmates the little questions during class: “I lost my spot on the page! Where are we?” “I only found 10 apostrophes on this grammar practice and there are supposed to be 12. What did I miss?” Sometimes students can explain things better to each other than I can. They speak each others language! Also, I’ve found it helps with class behavior. I always place at least two students who are always following the directions at each table. They’re good models for the students who sometimes miss directions.
I had mixed feelings about this chapter. I absolutely see the benefit of cooperative learning but disagree some with limiting homogeneous groups. Although our classrooms are set up as heterogeneous classes, we do have two hours of our day where we ability group our students. For 90 minutes a day, our students are grouped for reading based on ability. Since there are two classrooms, we rank students based on three assessments from high to low. We then split the group into two- a “Grade Level & Above” reading class and a “Grade Level & Below” reading class. Although we do not advertise this to students, this is how they are ranked (and I know some students have figured out the differences between the reading classes). So much of our reading instruction is based on the needs of each student or ability level, that there is limited time for cooperative learning groups. Then, for 30 minutes a day we do a walk-to- ELD (English Language Develop) period. Students are assessed based on their English levels and are taught in groups of similar ability level. This is in place of pull out ESL. In both cases, these two periods, in my opinion, are effective models. Our students are learning and are making gains.
As I read the chapter I realized I use two of the grouping methods pretty religiously. I use informal groups (pair share, turn and talk, across the street partners) and base groups. My classroom is set up with five tables. At the beginning of the year I assigned (randomly) five students to four of the tables and six to the other. These groups are table groups with shape names. These students work together on some things, but most of the time they just sit near their table group members. They bounce ideas off one another, talk, share supplies, etc. Only during very specific lessons are they actually working on a project as a cohesive unit. I would like to set up more formal cooperative learning groups because I definitely see the benefits in them.
Absolutely! You can def. disagree or voice mixed feelings. ☺ You are right to consider the management piece of cooperative groups- with such large class sizes it’s a reality that you are facing.
A thought I had about the lit circles was this… Maybe you should show them clips of lit circles that are engaging and interesting. You could pick some top students that you know would be able to have interesting conversations and maintain their roles and film them. Then, with the students’ permission of course, share it with the class. Discuss what works as a lit circle. You could either look if there are any on youtube or schooltube and see if there are poor examples of lit circles and contrast the clip to the first one. Or, maybe some kids would love to “act” out a poorly running lit circle.
I’m not saying that you need to return to lit circles at all, but if you feel you would like to try it some time perhaps this would help.
I know with a 4/5 class at my last elem. school, we filmed students have discussions about a book they were all reading. Then the teacher discussed with all students why it was a good example and what she expected to see all the students doing when they broke into groups.
Another idea is to role-play with some other adults in the front of the room. You could ask some other teachers or administrators to come in and help you demonstrate how a good discussion or group activity looks and sounds.
Video clips of students are a great way to clearly articulate to students your expectations. I have also used clips of some students from another school giving oral reports or projects using Voice Thread or PhotoStory. This way when we were criticizing the project we weren't hurting anyones feelings at our school.
The time spent on sharing these examples is worth it as it helps clarify the requirements for the activity or final project for the students. They can also see WHY we tell them to speak slower or louder when presenting because it makes it hard for the audience to hear or understand the content.
Another thought I had regarding implement cooperative groups in your classroom was if you could divide the class into two or three groups? One group could be doing independent seatwork while the other group is broken into cooperative groups. This way you have half or possibly a third the number of students that you need to monitor in the groups. Maybe the third group could be researching at the computer lab or in the library with the librarian.
I haven’t done it at the high school level but I’ve taught math to 4th, 5th and 6th graders and due to the number of teacher had to teach two different math classes at the same time. So, while it’s not ideal, there may be a way to create a structure in your classroom to make such large numbers more manageable.
Hi Amy,
I have to say I personally agree with you about the grouping. I think there are times and places where it’s important to ability group. I’m sure there will be people out there who is totally against this, but I don’t feel it’s right for the higher ability students to be waiting all the time or expected to always be a role model. Now, with that said, I do try to integrate my groups as much as possible. But as a teacher we do need to be aware of class dynamics and potential behavior issues.
Oh, I’m sure you do this but just thought I’d mention it. My son’s teacher last year in Kindergarten would change the names of her groups according to the content she was teaching. Pennies, nickels, dimes, Quarters, dollars or soil, light, water, warmth…can’t remember what the other thing necessary for plant growth was but I think you get the idea. Every little way we can teach across the curriculum helps with how little time we have.
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