Cooperative+Learning

Cooperative Learning = = =Read and Reflect=

My goal when using cooperative learning in the classroom is to increase student confidence. Working in groups allows students to share their knowledge with each other. I believe that when students discuss their ideas, they build their general knowledge base and then they feel like they know more and are more willing to share.

Currently, the cooperative learning activities that I use in my classroom are having students share their ideas with neighbors and having students work together in the science lab.

When I think of a time when I used cooperative learning and was pleased with the results, the students understood my expectations and they each had their own specific roles. The activity was also engaging.

When I think of a time when I used cooperative learning and was not please with the results, I did not spend enough time explaining the procedures and defining my expectations. There were also a collection of students who viewed working together as free time when they could move around and talk with their friends and allowed other students to do their work.

Some questions that I have about cooperative learning in my classroom are

Would it best to implement one standard program for cooperative learning throughout my subject areas? How can I tell that my students are ready to participate in cooperative learning activities independent of my intervention? Will there ever be a time when I can say here is your task get to work? What is the best way to “encourage” students who take advantage of cooperative learning and to get with the program instead of taking advantage of other students?

After reading the chapter, I learned that I am generally using informal groupings in the classroom and base groups during science class. However, I am not implementing very many of the five elements of cooperative learning. There is not enough face-to-face promotive interactions or individual and group accountability. I wish the chapter had more details about how to begin to implement these strategies. I will have to look to other resources for guidance.

=Apply and Reflect=

I found using Google Docs to be quite simple. We each input our information at our own leisure and then we had a document with a wealth of information. I liked that the three of us could work on the document when we had time.

Using Google Docs reminds me of a classroom wiki. It seems impractical for me to require a classroom of 4th graders to all have google e-mail addresses and then connect them all to one account. A wiki would be more practical. I always thought it would be interesting to build a classroom wiki where students could place knowledge that they learned in class. Plus, I know that sometimes students look for and find additional information about topics on their own. It would be interesting if they posted that information on the classroom wiki so that I could see who is doing extra research and what they are learning beyond the classroom.