Mixing it up with Cooperative Learning!

Mixing it up with Cooperative Learning!
Cooperative Learning is a LOT more than simply telling your students to share with their partners or table groups.  Where this has its value, the students need to be provided with a multitude of different cooperative learning/grouping structures in order to keep them engaged and deepen their level of thinking and learning. Novelty and variety plays a HUGE part in student engagement and learning.  The Kagan Cooperative Learning strategies (alongside countless others) are a great way to maximize student learning within your classroom!			Students engaging in the “Stand Up Hand Up Pair Up” Kagan strategy (or Mix-Pair-Share) during a Wonders lesson.  Teacher poses a question, gives students think time (often times they will write a short answer), then teacher plays music set on a timer for 30 seconds while students wander around the room.  When the music stops, the students put their hand in the air and high five the closest person to them, thus forming their new TPS partner.  Teacher then has them discuss the question or idea that was originally proposed..  Shuffling students a few more times gives them more exposure to different levels of thinking.  Often times, I even build on the original question, and have the kids rethink before they shuffle to new partners.
This month’s blog is going to focus on student talk through a variety of Kagan/cooperative learning techniques.  As you read on, you will read about and see pictures and videos of my students successfully engaging in these different techniques and the level of learning that’s taking place.  Throughout this blog, I will show you examples of how easy it is to implement these structures into your daily routines with Wonders, Eureka Math, and any other subject for that matter!.  Once you see the power behind the kids’ learning and their level of engagement, you too will be convinced that student talk via cooperative learning structures is essential to help your students succeed!
	Listening to the students insightful comments and conversations during collaborative conversations can be extremely heart-warming.  Once you have built that sense of security amongst your classroom climate, the students will share their thoughts, feelings, and emotions honestly as they make connections to the content being taught.  Its extremely powerful and endearing as a teacher to hear this in their conversations, and also powerful to know that they are learning from each other, connecting with each other, and thinking on a much higher/deeper level. Here my students are participating in the Kagan “Talking Chips” strategy through the use of a collaborative conversation.  The students are given a bag of chips (counters) and each take one (or more).  After I have posed the questions, or ideas for discussion, and given them ample think time (and/or write time depending on the level of question and discussion) they take turns sharing their answers/ideas by placing their chip in the bag when they’d like to share.  This is what I use in the early stages of collaborative conversations to help teach them how to participate.  This strategy ensures that ALL students will have a chance to contribute their thoughts to the conversation.
“Practice does not make perfect.  Only perfect practice makes perfect.” - Vince Lombardi Here are some video clips of my kiddos participating in Collaborative Conversations with Talking Chips.  As the year progresses their conversations will grow and deepen, but they’re off to a great start! Despite what some may fear, implementing cooperative learning structures does NOT require a ton of planning/prepping time on the teacher’s part.  In fact, most structures require minimal amount of teacher prep and the more you use them, you will LOVE them and your ideas of how/when to utilize them will start flowing freely!
	For instance with Wonders, I will look ahead at the lessons for the upcoming day/week and simply sticky- note in the TM where I want to incorporate certain Kagan/cooperative learning structures, and label which structure I want to use.  For example, on Day 1 of Wonders where you teach the “Introduce the Concept” lesson provides a GREAT opportunity to implement the Kagan “Jot Thoughts” strategy.  This is where students write as many different ideas/words/concepts etc on sticky notes until the teacher says time's up.  The table group has all their sticky notes in the center of the table and can then read and sort their ideas, group like ideas, and share out their thoughts.  Here is a picture of my kiddos utilizing this strategy last week!
I constantly cycle through the different Kagan/cooperative learning structures throughout each week, so as to keep the kids engaged with novelty and variety as I mentioned above.  When teaching becomes monotonous and repetitive, the students tend to become less engaged and thus the level of learning is not a high as it should be.  Something to keep in mind! Collaboratively Learning, Megan Brown megan.brown@omsd.net