221+Agenda+-+10.30.14

Whadya think?
Post questions, comments, ideas to discuss based on your professional engagement research on Cooperative Learning. (To post - 1) Sign in, 2) Click "edit", 3) Type your entry, 4) Sign your post (three tildes ~), 5) Click "save")

I like to think of cooperative learning as group work on steroids. In my opinion, group work is just students working together to solve a problem, answer questions, etc. Smart students might put all of the work upon themselves, leaving the other group members free to relax and not learn anything. Cooperative learning, on the other hand, is more than that. Cooperative learning requires all group members to participate, which forces everyone to learn. Cooperative learning involves students working together and teaching each other. There are several elements of cooperative learning that teachers need to attend to in preparation. First, the teacher must figure out how large each group will be and how the groups will be selected (this is not that important, but it will save valuable class time). Second, the teacher must decide what each group will be doing. Will they be answering a few short questions? Will they be watching a short video and reflecting upon it together? When it comes to grouping students, I think that students should never be able to pick their partners because most students tend to chose their friends as their partners, which rarely works out well. I think that the teacher can have each student write their name on a piece of paper and then place it in a hat. Every five names that are drawn are a group. The teacher can also give each student a number. The number that the student receives represents the group that they are in. There are a ton of viable options. There are many activities that are suited to cooperative learning. Groups can answer several short questions together, watch a short video and reflect upon it, solve a problem, have a discussion or a debate, and more. Cooperative learning comes in many forms. There are many pros to cooperative learning. As a teacher, cooperative learning is fairly easy because it does not require much work from the teacher; the teacher is merely the supervisor. Cooperative learning is also fun because it is unique; students are not normally allowed to lead the lesson and teach each other. Just as there are many pros to cooperative learning, there are also many cons. Students that get randomly paired with someone that they really do not like or someone that they really do like could be problematic. It is also difficult for a teacher to keep track of several groups at once. A student could also completely control his/her group. user:channa5

I don't really understand the difference between cooperative learning and "group work?" Or is cooperative learning just a specific type of group work? I understand that each individual student has responsibilities, and each student will be assess individually as well as in a group. So, is this the slight difference between group work and cooperative learning? Also, I really enjoyed the 7th Grade Math video, especially because I just wrote my journal about my view on classroom stations. However, I think I am confused about cooperative learning, because even though I love the use of stations I don't see how this video follows the rules and description of cooperative learning. I thought the 12th Grade English video was super interesting. Again, it dealt with stations, but I loved how each stations had a different kind of activity. One of the stations was writing about silence, then they used their bodies in another, discussed in a small group, and wrote a summarizing paragraph about the theme of silence throughout the book. This plays to the different learning styles for individual students, so if one station is difficult and doesn't connect with the student, another one ought to. The 4th video about constructive group work represented more of what I thought of when I was reading about cooperative learning. Every group has their own topic to discuss and within the group the students have specific roles, like the leader, researcher, artist, etc. They then present their work at the end and they're judged and graded based on their peers. I think that is cooperative learning is executed in a fashion similar to these videos, then it would be engaging. I know for a fact that group work pushes me, therefore I end up learning more. user:JennJoralemon

The first two lines of Chris and Jenn's feedback were exactly what I was going to say as well, so I agree with them! Through the research I did, cooperative learning just seems to be really well prepared and focus-based group work. When I say focus-based I mean that it requires an end goal that the students are working towards and they understand the emphasis of the value of what they are learning. Still, I am confused what the difference between group work and cooperative learning is because I feel that group work should have these same values. One thing that did stick out though, was that group work is graded holistically while cooperative learning is graded as the group as a whole and each individual of the group. I really like this because sometimes not everyone in a group works equally on the assignment and it is unfair for a student doing nothing to receive an 'A' on an assignment that he did not do. As for cooperative learning in general, I have not yet decided whether I like this teaching strategy or not. I like the many different forms it can be, especially the jigsaw method, and I really like the instant assessment that you can get from students on whether they did the work prior or not. I also read something that said that cooperative learning is taking the information that students already have and transforms it to relate to their lives and builds off that information to learn new things and connect them to experience. I feel like this is what teaching should be in general, not just in a cooperative learning environment. Overall, I like the different forms of cooperative learning and the idea of grading students as a whole and then individually, but I think the rest of the concepts of cooperative learning isn't anything too special, considering most of the things essential to structuring effective cooperative learning should be incorporated in the classroom at all times I feel like. user:cnye5

When trying to figure out the difference between group work and cooperative learning, I was suddenly reminded of my 10th grade chemistry class. In this class we often worked in pairs or groups. In pairs, there was always the one person who was good at chemistry, and the one that was bad. I was the bad one at chemistry. But, I liked this model because I had NO idea what was going on ever- it was easier for me to ask my peers what was going on then stop the entire class. An example of this was when we had to design an experiment apparatus and when I showed up to class, I had zilch. Thankfully, my partner had it all planned out. While I was always confused in Chem, I was a good students, always came prepared, and tried to help my partner as best I could. On the other hand, my friend in a different class was good at Chem but was ALWAYS paired up with the laziest and most un-helpful person in the class. This reminded me of the article on Edutopia where the smart girl was frustrated by being expected to lead every time in group work. The moral of this story? I firmly believe that teachers need to conscious of who they pair people with. Being paired with a student who knew the material saved my butt so many times, but the repeated and lazy partner my friend got, was a terrible experience for her. But that was group work. For cooperative learning that same year in chem, my class formed their own soap company. There were 4 sections, marketing, engineering, business, and fabrication. Everyone was split up into those sections based on what they wanted to do. Marketing advertised our soap, engineering made the packaging, business built the company, and fabrication made the soap. This way, everyone got to participate in the project, without having to make soap- a complicated chem project. This was an example of cooperative learning because we had a common goal, not a grade, to work for. Get this soap out. This project was the perfect example of a cooperative learning because the groups were well balanced, we had a common goal, there were specific expectations (we kept a blog documenting our progress), it was student led (we also elected a company CEO), promoted higher levels of thinking (how do you make a mold from scratch?), and there was accountability from each section. All of these project characteristics are pro's of cooperative learning that we read about for today. To summarize my thoughts on cooperative learning, based on my chem class examples, group work and collaborative learning only works best when the grouping is well thought out. If students DO choose their groups, teachers need to monitor that. When putting together projects for the whole class, collaborative learning projects should have a section for everyone, structures to follow, and student accountability and leadership. user:staciac

This PET was actually the most surprising one we've done, in my opinion. I think in all the previous ones, I had a general idea of what the links would focus on, and it all just seemed to cement my learning and fill in the picture I had already had in my head. This PET surprised me by how focused on "different ways to chose groups" it was. To be honest, i never though how you chose to put students in to groups would matter that much, let alone merit so many articles. Basically, the idea of "its complicated" applies here. One of the things i found most prominent was the importance of order if you decide to let students choose their own groups. It makes sense, but I never would have thought that letting students chose their own groups in the beginning and then expecting them to cooperate when you want to chose their groups later would be such an unrealistic expectation. I can't believe that multiple articles in the PET warned teachers of the possible behaviors of students when they were forced into groups after having the freedom to chose their own - like the social reprecussions such as thinking they are better than other students and having "set" social hierarchies in the classroom. I was also really interested in the video that talked about "the power of introverts" and the idea that a group setting might not be the best way to get the highest quality ideas out of a group. I think as a teacher, that would be my biggest concern about using CL - that students might not produce as high a quality of work in a group setting than what they could produce separately, either from someone dominating, or people feeling lazy and not wanting to contribute. As someone who ended up having to always take control in groups, I always hated group work. I always felt the need to take over because no one else would step up, or I was the one in the "differentiated group" who was there to help the other lower students, and I felt like I never got anywhere because I would just spend the whole time explaining things to other students. Even though there is a lot of research that supports CL, I think i'm still wary of it. There just seem to be too many potential problems. I think I need more real life experience of good quality CL to have more faith in the process. user:HTye

When I first heard of Cooperative Learning I thought about Bilingual Ed. I thought of this because my sister is trying to get into this form of education and she is has explained a bit of it to me. What they usually do is pair a student that is a native Spanish speaker and a native English Speaker together to work together while they have half of their day in English and the other half in Spanish. These students work in these pairs and help each other understand the material. This helps the students learn both of the languages as well as the regular curriculum. In Cooperative Learning I see students working in pairs to get their work done and learning from each other I remember some of the group work I did when I was in high school and how some of it resembled what I saw when looking at the videos and the reading that was assigned for this PT. I remember that the teacher allowed us to work together to answer questions that the teacher posed and would go around to talk about it as a group. I agree with the video "The Power of Introverts" in that a smaller group can allow for bigger ideas, I believe this because I saw it done with many people including myselfBeing in groups allowed me to better work and share my ideas than be in the middle of an entire class and share my ideas because in a bigger group I would get shy and not want to share as much as I usually would in a smaller group setting it allowed me to argue my points easier. user:Galex07

I found this PET to be the most interesting so far! The first two documents surprised me because they literally broke down every step of Cooperative Learning and how it should be implemented in a classroom. I found them to be intimidating because there is a lot to think about when planning any lesson, but cooperative learning seems to take even more energy than other lessons. But, through the example videos it is clear that the planning and thoughtfulness of cooperative learning pay dividends in the positive results that can occur with students and their learning. I was particularly excited by the math video because I think cooperative learning is a great way to make math more interesting, to get the kids working together, and to make them responsible for their own learning. So often in math classrooms the teacher is relied on as the only source of knowledge and the only one with the answers, when in actuality, groups working together to persevere through tough math concepts can provide a more meaningful learning experience for students. The great thing about cooperative learning is that students are assessed on their group work which improves their social skills and their own individual work which promotes their learning progress. The video about the negative effects of group work I found to be reasonable, but I think well structured cooperative learning could provide opportunities for individual work within the lesson for kids who do better in a solo setting. And ultimately in life we all have to learn to be productive when working with people, so even if it is a challenge for some, it will build teamwork skills that can be used in future experiences. I love the possibilities that cooperative learning unlocks and my head is already turning with ideas for how I could implement this kind of lesson in my future math classroom! user:Mgreen141

This was a more difficult PET for me, because I thought I understood group work and I had to challenge my thinking a lot. One of the most helpful resources was the article about managing cooperative learning, because it literally broke down every aspect of group work and made it really clear and reasonable. Of course, the flip side of that is that there's so much information it's hard to prioritize what's most important! Still, I think it's really valuable to have Cooperative Learning mapped out for me, so that I can see the differences between just "group work" or "small groups" and the intentional, invested cooperative learning groups. I like what Chanel said about Cooperative Learning being focused-based, where the students are really focused on their end goal and invested in what they're learning about. One of the more surprising things about this PET was the amount of resources and ways to facilitate Cooperative Learning groups. It was pretty amazing to see how many different ways of grouping and and projects and resources there are out there. I think the most important thing teachers need to pay attention to is the way students interact with each other. Like Stacia said, it can be really easy for students to slack off and allow the more invested students to just do the work. There are definitely ways the articles talked about to get students to snap out of that funk - one of the things I think of right off the top of my head is to assign roles to the students so each student is engaged in some way - and, ultimately, it is the student's own decision whether or not to participate, but there are different strategies for teachers to use on those "difficult" students that can hopefully alleviate some of that pressure. user:Mackenzie_D

9:25 - 9:40 - Welcome and Review (Jenn) NO SCHOOL AT GARRY ON NOV 11
 * Notetaker:Audrey
 * Reviewer: Alex
 * Schedule a 15-minute appointment with me sometime next week
 * Office hours, M - 1-3; W - 8:30 - 10:30
 * Objectives: **
 * **I can describe the pros/cons of cooperative learning.**
 * **I can identify key considerations for successfully setting up a CL lesson.**

9:40 - 10:10 - CL Discussion (critical elements: group goals, individual accountability, equal opportunities for success (everyone can contribute and progress))
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXlXGF2Qvr8
 * PCC Chart (Pros, Cons, Considerations)
 * [[file:PCC CL.docx]]
 * [|Our list] -

10:10 - 11:55 - Some common models of cooperative learning http://web.calstatela.edu/faculty/jshindl/cm/Chapter12CooperativeLearning-final.htm

(break 10:50 - 11:00)
 * team project (20 minutes)
 * designing a CL observation rubric
 * stations (rotating centers with or without a teacher center) (20 minutes)
 * https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/hook-stations
 * in partners, brainstorm four hook stations for your class at Garry
 * teacher center - discuss
 * graffiti model
 * [|Question A]
 * [|Question B]
 * [|Question C]


 * EdTPA Information**


 * Housekeeping: **
 * CL Activity Guide (due next Thursday)
 * [[file:CooperativeLearningActivityGuide.docx]]
 * Teaching Demos


 * 1) Alex
 * 2) Jenn
 * 3) Mary

