Session 8: Cooperative learning
Through my discussions with Chris and Abduljabaar, I think I discovered why cooperative learning can be used to transform the nature of the classroom. As I stated at the very end of my reply post, cooperative learning structures are designed to be equitable.
As Verplaetse (2008) says, students need opportunities for production practice in order for language development to occur. They should not be "protected" from making mistakes because they need structured time to interact with other learners. Without structure, a student who is reluctant to speak up could be overlooked and left alone with no interaction from the teacher or others for days. He or she may develop a habit of opting out of social interaction, thereby missing opportunities for social language practice and development. Cooperative learning can be implemented by the teacher to provide such structure.
As Verplaetse (2008) says, students need opportunities for production practice in order for language development to occur. They should not be "protected" from making mistakes because they need structured time to interact with other learners. Without structure, a student who is reluctant to speak up could be overlooked and left alone with no interaction from the teacher or others for days. He or she may develop a habit of opting out of social interaction, thereby missing opportunities for social language practice and development. Cooperative learning can be implemented by the teacher to provide such structure.
Amanda's reflection on March 9, 2014:
1. As a student and/or teacher, what experiences have you had with cooperative learning? In your experience, what are the benefits and drawbacks of cooperative learning?
In school I do not remember much cooperative learning. We might be asked to "work in a group," but most of the classroom activities could be completed on your own if you chose. When I became a teacher, my first teaching position was in 6th grade. My principal sent me through training sessions to learn Kagan cooperative learning early on in the school year. The activities that I implemented in my classroom overall encouraged more interaction and participation from all the class members. I practiced with several short, non-academic content "teambuilding" experiences for some of the more complex activities to get students used to socializing in a non-threatening way. They might greet the other students in the classroom with a random fact about themselves before re-assembling in pairs for work time.
I think the key to getting benefits from cooperative learning is to vary how you use groups: put thought into your "intentional" or daily groupings, but also allow some random or interest-based groups from time to time. The students will appreciate being allowed to communicate, most importantly with peers outside of their group of friends, focusing on speaking and listening and learning from each other, and working to collaborate.
The McGroarty and Calderon (2005) article brings up the fact that not all cooperative learning situations will benefit all learners, and that we should be aware of speakers of other languages participation in the learning activity. Verplaetse (2008) mentions too how the ELLs are often excluded from interaction opportunities, though they need language input and output to practice listening and speaking skills. One thing to keep in mind as the teacher is to explain why students are working together and what your expectations are. You must sometimes structure statements for the teams to use to train them how to speak to each other in positive and respectful ways to accomplish academic tasks.
2. Among all of the activities presented in the three readings on interaction and cooperative learning, what activities would you like to utilize to promote language learning in your current or future teaching context (or in your SIOP lessons for this course)? List at least two activities and explain why.
I have not extensively used the "jigsaw" method (Verplaetse 171, Diaz-Rico p. 368)) although I have done some similar concepts by having students do individual research and then teaching it to the class. I can see the application of having specialist groups to give English learners a chance to speak knowledgeably to their peers about important academic content. I have observed a teacher this year using her 8th grade students to teach a 7th grade class a modified version of one of their science labs. Each 8th grade student took on one station of the lab and led the 7th grade classes through the activities. I thought this would be easily applied to any content area or learning task with just a few days' preparation and coaching of a student. What a great way to boost confidence of students regardless of their perceived academic level.
One activity I had not heard of before was "Send-A-Problem" from Table 14.4 in Diaz-Rico (2008) on p. 371. Students could create 'problems' and therefore understand how to solve them and then challenge another group to solve one. In a Language Arts class (my subject area) I could use this to drill skills in grammar or vocabulary, or we could pose more open-ended, higher-order questions to each other to have teams respond to whatever literature we are reading. This sounds like it would be motivating for students who felt comfortable answering questions, but I would also like to build confidence in speaking and using vocabulary. To make students more comfortable, the problems could be open-ended to facilitate genuine conversation about the topic. Or when a problem is passed to their team, students could respond using pre-determined vocabulary to practice speaking using academic language.
3. How might you evaluate your students' participation in cooperative learning activities? How might you use the assessment to inform your own instruction and the social environment in which your students learn?
It is important to assess the individual for academic and social improvements, but also, in my opinion, to structure a way to evaluate the group (even the classroom) as a whole. This shifts the awareness to the learning activity itself. In the past I have used student surveys and exit cards to get feedback directly from the students. For bigger group projects such as literature circles, I would have a reflection page for students to fill individually, so that they could alert me to any situations that might have come up in the project. Students were usually honest and forthcoming about the how well the social interaction was achieved, and I monitored groups and circulated while they were on task.
I also found it useful to have an instructional coach or administrator monitor a learning activity and provide feedback about how well my class met objectives for the cooperative learning environment we were trying to achieve. It was a little stressful the first time I invited someone to watch me teach using cooperative learning, but I felt more aware of how the class was responding when I heard the feedback.
Dr. Cho's response:
Hi Amanda,
Thanks for the thoughtful post. I appreciate your insight as a classroom teacher who incorporates cooperative learning into her instruction. I am curious about your experience with class observation/peer feedback. You said it was a little stressful, but helped you become more aware of classroom interaction.
Could you tell us a little bit more about this experience? I know it can be burdensome for the teacher to have someone watch how they teach, but still believe that it is worth the time and effort (at least based on my experience being observed by a peer or supervisor as long as they are supportive :-)). I would like to hear more about your experience and perspective on this topic.
Hyesun
Amanda's reply:
Thanks, Hyesun! Sure I will explain:
I was lucky to get the opportunity to have someone observe my classroom. I was trying to create a strong cooperative learning environment. I still have one of my feedback worksheets from this. Our school district had instructional coaches and other staff who were trained in Kagan Cooperative Learning. I volunteered to have observers come to my classroom every three weeks or so for a quick 5-10 minute activity. The coaches would check a checklist for the structure (cooperative learning activity) I had chosen and see how I applied it to my class content. There are specific steps to the Kagan structures which once again really reinforces the participation from everyone in the room. I found that students who might normally get lost with too many steps adapted well to the structures that I used and re-used in my lesson plans. They learned the steps after doing the structure once or twice and then could participate and focus on the content during their chance to work with others.
The observers also checked my teaching for "think time" given for students to get ready to answer/interact, clear directions being given, and students' participation, and the overall environment being positive and engaging. I remember being nervous about each observation, but the feedback was always very positive and offering me further suggestions. I was confident that the cooperative learning would work for my class because for the most part I had rehearsed the procedures of the structured activity and the students were all prepared to participate.
Chris's post:
I use cooperative learning everyday in my classroom. One of the easiest and most beneficial activity that I use come from Kagan cooperative learning. Instead of calling on one student to answer the question, I tell students to share with the shoulder partners. This way all of the students get an opportunity to share their thinking with another student. This allows all the students to hear themselves answering and being active participants in their own learning. It also helps with student engagement because all students will be required to share their thinking. Some students dominate the discussions though, so it is really important that you make sure both students get an opportunity to share.
I really like using readers theater in my classes. It is a great opportunity for the students to be silly, and share what they are thinking and doing. It gives students an opportunity to share a story with the class in a way that is fun and interesting. I found the jigsaw activity to be very interesting as well. It allows the students to focus on one topic, and it gives the student a purpose for reading. It allows the students to explain a topic, and it also allows the students to learn from their peers.
I think it is important that the teacher walk around the room and listen to each of the pairs as they are sharing. This is a great opportunity for the teacher to ask questions of the students and delve deeper into what their thinking is. Not only that, if the teacher does not hear anyone discussing, it shows the teacher that he or she needs to help clarify or explain more to clear up misconceptions. This also helps build a better environment for the students.
Abduljabbar's reply:
Dear Chris
Hi
Firstly, it is good idea to allow students to share their thinking instead of individual work or thinking. In this way of teaching, the responsibility is distributed between the team and that create a sense of competition between the two members. More importantly the work is sieved or filtered or criticized between the two members and that would result in better product compared to one person product that was not criticized. Secondly, creating a friendly atmosphere to urge students to speak is a great tactic that make students communicate. Thirdly, as you mentioned, teacher should work but in a different way in which s/he is a guide or facilitator.
Amanda's response:
Hello Chris,
I relied a lot on "shoulder partners" when I was teaching as well. At first I always thought that students would talk off-task or not participate equally if they sat next to a shoulder partner for certain activities. It turned out for my class that pairs were the ideal seating arrangement for my students, and so cooperative learning helps a great deal with classroom management if used effectively. You mentioned teacher proximity: walking around and monitoring students in all areas of your classroom, and pairing or grouping student desks can help organize a crowded classroom.
Monitoring all students during their cooperative learning activities sounds impossible, but it really is not if you choose to structure the exact amount of time that each partner must have to interact. It sounds almost robotic to tell someone that they can only speak for 30 seconds in a roundrobin, but sometimes efficiency of your lesson is important to moving the class toward their learning goals. That is what I like so much about cooperative learning is that a lot of the structure is already in place to make the activity equitable and social at the same time.