Information Age Education

New Cooperative Learning Roles for the New Era

January 11th, 2007

Kids of today are used to working collaboratively. It’s a characteristic of the Millennial Generation. Yet how effective is your group work in class? Is it hit or miss? If so, here are some great ideas to get you and your kids back in the spirit of cooperation.

I was struggling with my students’ group work because they are grouped in tables, yet when they do homework some of the traditional roles that help define a group, such as reporter and recorder, didn’t make sense. They weren’t going to report out. They were doing their homework and everyone had to write so there wasn’t a need for a recorder. This week I came up with some new roles that reflect the new era and the new direction in the classroom. They are:

The Task Master
Makes sure that all people know the assignment.
Makes sure that all group members are working on the same problem.

• What did everyone get for #4? – Ok. Now let’s go to #5.
• Can someone explain to the group how to do problem #3?

The Understanding One
Makes sure that everyone is doing what s/he is supposed to be doing.
Makes sure that everyone is talking only with his/her group members.
Makes sure that everyone understands the problem.
When no one in the group understands, this is the person who communicates with the teacher.

• Does everyone know how to do the problem?

The Organizer
Makes sure that the group has the necessary supplies to do the task.
Makes sure that all people take out the materials they need: toolkits, paper, etc.
Makes sure the desk and area around the table are neat at the end of the period and that materials are returned.

• Does everyone have the materials they need? (If not, help the group members get what they need.)
• Can you please check under your desk to make sure there is no trash?

The Compassionate One
Makes sure that everyone feels included in the discussion.
Acknowledges group members for what they did that made the group the work better.

• We haven’t heard from you in a while, Jake. What do you think?
• Thanks, Nick, for explaining how to solve the problem to the group.

Monday I introduced the new roles. They are already grouped in tables of 4 and by each seat is a colored star. I have an overhead transparency that I use that has the four colored stars on it. I explained before I showed them the roles, that we would rotate each week. It was absolutely precious to see the middle school students say, “I’m the Compassionate One” or “I get to be the Understanding One this week.”

A few minutes into the homework, I would check in with the class to see if the entire group was on the same problem. If so, I would either say “Give yourself a pat on the back”, “Give a high 5 to your group members” or “Thank your Task Master for doing such a great job.”

When the homework was on a different sheet then the classwork, I wrote on the board and told the class, that The Organizer would have to bring up all group members’ papers before I would give them the homework handout. This ensured that groups had more reason to help each other.

Overall this week, the groups worked much better together. There was much more inclusion of other people’s ideas and team members worked together to support each other. I also heard a lot of nice comments said to teammates, which made teaching even more pleasurable.

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