Information Age Education

Cooperative Learning: Engaging All Students

February 10th, 2007

I’ve been investigating strategies to improve the quality of the cooperative learning group interactions in my math classroom. I figure that if I really want students to support each other, I need to teach communication skills and clearly state my expectations of the group.

This week I decided to have the groups focus on engaging all students in the activity. Here is what I did:

Clearly Stated the Focus
Before they started working in groups, I let the students know that I wanted all students to participate and contribute to the group discussion. I also mentioned that at the end of the period, they would have to give me evidence of what was said or done that supported this focus.

Brainstormed Ideas
Prior to starting the activity, we spent about a minute or two as a class coming up with ideas about how to engage group members. For example,

• We haven’t heard from you, Michael. What do you think?
• Micaela, can you tell us what you got?

Self-Assessment

After completing the task, each group had an assessment sheet that they filled in together. Lots of websites, such as YouTube and Squidoo, have viewers rate things on a 5 star system. I decided to use a similar model. I had a few questions on the 1/4 sheet of paper. They filled in the number of stars that best represented their group’s behavior for the day.

• Getting started
• Staying focused
• Including everyone
• Overall performance

They also had to provide evidence of how they got everyone engaged by writing things that were said or done.

Wrap Up
As a class, I had a few groups report out about how well they managed to include others and if they needed any support.

Overall, I heard a lot more people actively soliciting answers and input from group members. There is definitely more work that needs to be done though. I may adapt the survey, but I like the general idea and structure of the assessment. Each week I’d like to have a different focus for the groups until the students naturally integrate these ideas into their interactions.

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Entry Filed under: Education, Consciousness, Cooperative Learning, Best Practices