Cooperative+Learning

Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy where 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. The students work through the assignment until everyone in the group successfully understands the concepts.

Each student should:


 * gain from each other's efforts. (Your success benefits me and my success benefits you.)
 * recognize that all group members share a common fate. (We all sink or swim together here.)
 * know that one's performance is mutually caused by oneself and one's team members. (We can not do it without you.)
 * feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement. (We all congratulate you on your accomplishment!)

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The group task is structured so that each member of the group is expected to perform an assigned task. Because of the embedded structure of the unique tasks assigned to each member of the group, cooperative learning is much more effective than ordinary group work usually done in classroom situations. Appropriate training and structure is introduced into the process. These approaches are especially effective for English language learners because the students have more opportunities for verbal interactions in small groups. They are encouraged by the members of the group and can participate at their ability level. English Language Learners working in cooperative groups must be given assignments according to their levels of English proficiency, which requires the teacher to be aware of their stages of language acquisition. Cooperative learning activities must be preceded by some team building strenghts. In addition, teachers must make their expactations clear if cooperative learning activities are to be successful. (book for the class, pg 316-317) There's an entire chapter on "cooperative learning", chapter 22.


 * Ten Tips for Effective Cooperative Learning**

This is a great cooperative learning activity that helps students give you feedback about the lessons they learned. Roles can be switched within a group from time-to-time. 1. Present your students with an issue that is pertinent to a lesson. Have the students rank this issue by how they feel about it with 1 being in strong agreement and 10 being in strong disagreement. 2. Place a rank-order line on your whiteboard and record the students' responses on the line. 3. Now form your groups by pulling out one person from each end of the ranking order, and then two people from the center of the line. || http://www.worksheetlibrary.com/teachingtips/cooperativelearningtips.html
 * **Tip #1**
 * Playing teacher.** Divide students into even groups of five or less. Give each student in a group a unique concept to learn. Then bring the group back together and let students teach each other what they have learned. Make sure that the entire group is learning about the same subject, just a different aspect of the subject. Test each group when the teaching session is completed within each group.
 * Tip #2**
 * The Interview.** Divide students into groups with an even number of students in each group. Each member of a group chooses a partner. Have individuals interview their partner by asking them clarifying questions. Now let the partners switch roles. Lastly, let members of the entire group share their responses as a team.
 * Tip #3**
 * Catch a brainstorm.** Divide students into teams of 4 to 6, and appoint one student on each team to be the "secretary." Give each team a different question that can have many answers. Now give each team a chance to brainstorm answers to the question, with the "secretary" writing down the team's responses. Have the students work in a circle, each taking turns to give a response, instead of having all of the students shout out answers to the "secretary" at once.
 * Tip #4**
 * Number Frenzy.** Divide students in groups of four. Label each student in a group as number 1, 2, 3, or 4. Ask the groups a common question. The group then works together to come up with the correct answer. Now you call out a number (between 1 and 4), and the person in a group that is assigned that number is to give you the answer to the question.
 * Tip #5**
 * Group Grading.** After taking a test, divide your students into groups with an even number of people in each group. Let students trade their test papers, so they will be grading each other. Now give each group a few minutes to discuss the answers that group members got wrong, so that those members can see why their answer was wrong and what the correct answer should have been. Wrap up the groups and answer any dangling questions not addressed in the individual groups.
 * Tip #6**
 * The great debate.** Cooperative learning can be used in any situation where you want children to debate over a concept being taught. For instance, when learning about the elections process, you can divide students into groups and have them hold a debate over what they would change about the elections process, what is working and not working with the current process, etc.
 * Tip #7**
 * Listing activity.** Divide students into groups of five or less. Ask each group to list words and/or phrases that describe what they are being taught, i.e., farm animals that are most useful. Be sure that every response is written down that each individual gives. Have each group discuss their list and then come up with the words and/or phrases the entire group agrees on. Later each group can get up before the class and discuss why they chose the responses they did.
 * Tip #8**
 * The One Minute Game.** Divide the class into teams of five or less. Have each group contemplate answers to these questions, giving them one minute to answer them:
 * What was the main thing you learned today?
 * Tell me two questions that you have remaining about this lesson.
 * What else would you like to know about this topic?
 * Tip #9**
 * Assigning group roles.** Consider assigning each member of a group a role, so each member feels they are contributing to the group in a positive way. Roles could consist of:
 * Leader - The individual that makes sure everyone in the group has mastered the concepts being learned through the exercises.
 * Secretary - The person who records responses for the entire group.
 * Reporter - The person that speaks for the group when standing in front of the class.
 * Monitor - The person who keeps time for the group with timed assignments.
 * Manager - The person who fills in for any member of the group who is absent, and assists the leader of the group.
 * Tip #10**
 * Ranking order.** Determine whom you will put into groups by using the following exercise.

Games are another great way to encourage cooperative learning so that children can have fun together and build bonds. Some examples of games that I have seen over these last few years at APU:
 * One game is called two truths and a lie where children come up with two true things about themselves and one lie and they share it with their group, the class or one other person and they all have to try to guess which one is the lie. They can learn more about each other and have fun.
 * You could give them a paper with a list of questions. For example: find someone who is not from California, or find someone who was born in the month of December. Then they will find people in their class and write their name down if the question is true about them. They can learn about people in their class and find similarities and differences between them.
 * They can stand in a circle and grab each others hands and then untwist without doing their hands.
 * They can all sit in a line and organize each other by birthdays without talking.
 * Put a post-it on each child's head with the name of an animal or Disney character on it. They then have to ask questions to their classmates in order to figure out who their character or animal is.

media type="custom" key="5373959" This video gives helpful tips on cooperative learning and its benefits for ELL students as well. It demonstrates how cooperative learning is used in the classroom.

Why Use Cooperative Learning?
Students' learning goals may be structured to promote cooperative, competitive, or individualistic efforts. In contrast to cooperative situations, competitive situations are ones in which students work against each other to achieve a goal that only one or a few can attain. In competition there is a negative interdependence among goal achievements; students perceive that they can obtain their goals if and only if the other students in the class fail to obtain their goals (Deutsch, 1962; Johnson & Johnson, 1989). Norm-referenced evaluation of achievement occurs. The result is that students either work hard to do better than their classmates, or they take it easy because they do not believe they have a chance to win. In individualistic learning situations students work alone to accomplish goals unrelated to those of classmates and are evaluated on a criterion-referenced basis. Students' goal achievements are independent; students perceive that the achievement of their learning goals is unrelated to what other students do (Deutsch, 1962, Johnson & Johnson, 1989). The result is to focus on self-interest and personal success and ignore as irrelevant the successes and failures of others. There is a long history of research on cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts. Since the first research study in 1898, nearly 600 experimental studies and over 100 correlational studies have been conducted (see Johnson & Johnson, 1989 for a complete review of these studies). The multiple outcomes studied can be classified into three major categories: achievement/productivity, positive relationships, and psychological health. The research clearly indicates that cooperation, compared with competitive and individualistic efforts, typically results in (a) higher achievement and greater productivity, (b) more caring, supportive, and committed relationships, and (c) greater psychological health, social competence, and self-esteem. The positive effects that cooperation has on so many important outcomes makes cooperative learning one of the most valuable tools educators have. http://www.co-operation.org/pages/cl.html