Thyais L. Maxwell English Instructional Facilitator Cooperative Learning Thyais L. Maxwell English Instructional Facilitator

Find Someone Who…… Locate someone who can fulfill each requirement. Meet as many people as you can. 7 minutes for this game

4 Corners & Group Talk Never Frequently Rarely Sporadically In your corner discuss: How you use Cooperative Learning How it works with your students If you do not use it, why?

T-Chart List advantages and disadvantages of using Cooperative Groups. 5 minutes Share 2 minutes

Teacher Checklist Reflect on a cooperative learning session that you’ve done or observed and complete the checklist. 7 minutes

Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement.

Why use Cooperative Learning? Research has shown that cooperative learning techniques: promote student learning and academic achievement increase student retention enhance student satisfaction with their learning experience help students develop skills in oral communication develop students' social skills promote student self-esteem help to promote diversity

Group Goals and Roles Clear instructions, goals, and time lines for group activities are essential to successful cooperative learning. It is also important that each member have a specific function within the group: recorder, reporter, monitor, observer, facilitator, etc. Roles should be changed frequently, so that members have the opportunity to practice new roles, and should be designed to fit the group's particular task.

Five Elements of Cooperative Learning Positive Interdependence   (sink or swim together) Each group member's efforts are required and indispensable for group success Each group member has a unique contribution to make to the joint effort because of his or her resources and/or role and task responsibilities

Face-to-Face Interaction (promote each other's success) Orally explaining how to solve problems Teaching one's knowledge to others Checking for understanding Discussing concepts being learned Connecting present with past learning

Individual & Group Accountability ( no hitchhiking! no social loafing) Giving an individual test to each student. Randomly examine students orally by calling on one student to present his or her group's work to the teacher (in the presence of the group) or to the entire class. Observing each group and recording the frequency with which each member contributes to the group's work. Assigning one student in each group the role of checker. The checker asks other group members to explain the reasoning and rationale underlying group answers. Having students teach what they learned to someone else.

Interpersonal & Small-Group Skills Social skills must be taught: Leadership Decision-making Trust-building Communication Conflict-management skills

Group Processing Group members discuss how well they are achieving their goals and maintaining effective working relationships Describe what member actions are helpful and not helpful Make decisions about what behaviors to continue or change

Class Activities that use Cooperative Learning Jigsaw Think-Pair-Share Three-Step Interview Round Robin Brainstorming Three Minute Interview Numbered Heads Anticipation Guides Paired Reading

Group Process & Activity Find your partners. Pizza Types Fruit Potato Chips Desserts Match the term with the definition and example Choose one and make a non-linguistic representation of it.

Brainstorm 3 strategies to help with overcoming the disadvantages of Cooperative Learning. 3 Strategies to use Cooperative Learning within the Classroom

Where do we go from here?

References: April 2005 New Horizons for Learning http://www.newhorizons.org Dishon, D. and O'Leary, P.W., A Guidebook for Cooperative Learning (Portage, MI: Cooperation Unlimited, 1984) Johnson, D. W. et. al., Circles of Learning (Washington, D.C., ASCD, 1985)

Striving, Believing, Achieving!!!! Thank you for your time! Striving, Believing, Achieving!!!!