Cooperative Beginnings!

Cooperative Beginnings!

Using Cooperative Learning structures truly is essential for student learning, when implemented correctly.  The power behind watching students learn, think, and grow from their peers is indescribably rewarding.  I often get asked when people visit my classroom “How do you get your students to this higher level of thinking/discussing?” It’s not easy and it DEFINITELY doesn’t happen overnight.  But today I’d like to share with you some tips, ideas, and structures that will help you get your kiddos there too! 

Why do we need cooperative learning? 

“Students taught with cooperative learning have a more enjoyable learning experience and are more motivated to continue learning beyond school, especially from and with others.” -Dr. Kagan

“Scores of empirical research studies demonstrate cooperative learning enhances the quality of reasoning, the developmental level of thinking, meta-cognition, quality of problem solving, creativity, and social perspective taking.”

I have personally seen my students already making leaps in collaborative conversations in just the 7 weeks we’ve been in school.  Their conversations are starting to become more organic, many of them are starting to not need to use the Accountable Talk Cards anymore.  Collaborative conversations is one of those “go slow to go fast” ideas.  We spend a lot of time on the baby steps the first few weeks of school from Teambuilding, to small partner share structures, leading into team structures, and then successfully having academic collaborative conversations.  I have already seen an improvement in many of my students' confidence levels.  They feel comfortable talking and sharing in their groups, as well as asking for help when they need it.  I am also starting to see my students naturally working collaboratively on their own even when I haven’t instructed them to do so.   I hear them giving their peers positive specific praise even when not directed to! It’s super cute! We still have a ways to go to get to that higher level of collaborative thinking but these kids are off to a great start! If this is something you’ve been thinking about doing more of in your classroom, I HIGHLY encourage you to start today!

“Teachers using cooperative learning find teaching less stressful and and find renewed desire and energy to teach.  Many report they were facing burnout until they discovered cooperative learning and now look forward to, and take joy in, teaching.”

This is the process I go through when starting off the year, to start building successful collaborative conversations:

1.  Teambuilding: Teaching students to work in harmony with one another to complete a task.  This is a very important step!(see my last blog)

2.  Accountable Talk: I give the students and also display “Accountable Talk” frames, and MODEL, MODEL, MODEL, how to use them in conversations, as well as positive praise!

3.  Kagan Partner Structures: In addition to Teambuilding, it’s important to introduce partner structures right away.  I start with Rally Robin, Rally- Coach, and A/B partners to get students used to working with a partner on academic tasks.  Once this is being done successfully, I move into structured Collaborative Conversations with groups.

4. Kagan Group Structures: Once students have learned how to work collaboratively with a partner, giving positive feedback, working together cooperatively, etc, then I move into team structures.  I start with Kagan structures such as: Talking Chips, Round Robin, All-Write-Round-Robin, Numbered Heads Together, and RallyTable, just to name a few.  Implementing structures like these frequently and consistently really reinforces students working together to accomplish a common goal.

5.  Start Small with Conversations: In the beginning, I will simply display the weekly Essential Questions from Wonders and have students use their notes and cite text evidence to answer/discuss that question within their table groups.  Once they get the hang of this process and how a conversation works, I will move onto more complex tasks, such as Philosophical Chairs and Socratic Seminar (these both involve higher level thinking and discussion skills). 

6. High Level Conversations: I will start to have students analyze and synthesize across multiple texts in order to develop their own original stance, thoughts, or opinions using text evidence to support their ideas.  They learn to build on the ideas of their peers.   These types of discussions generally lead to culminating writing activities such as a RACES constructed response or essay following the discussion.  These types of discussions really prepare students to be successful with their writing, citing text evident, and just communication and social skills in general.

Collaboratively Learning,

Megan Brown

megan.brown@omsd.net