1. Engaging Students Through Cooperative Learning: Ideas for Success
Laura Schulz
Talent Development High Schools

2. Three Musketeers: A TEAM Building Activity
Find three things that everyone on the team likes
Find three things that everyone on the team dislikes
Find one thing that is unique to each of the team members
Decide on a team name that has something to do with your collective likes and dislikes
Write your TEAM name on your “Table Tent”

3. What makes a TEAM different than a group?

4. What is a Team? Teams differ from groups because they include the following basic elements of cooperative learning:
Goals are shared
Information is circulated
Roles are assigned
Materials are managed
Teammates depend on each other to complete tasks successfully
Students gain respect for each other’s contributions to the team

5. Goal Setting: Why are we here today?
Think about what your expectations are for the professional development session today
Pair with another team member to discuss expectations
Share as a team your expectations
Set 3 goals your team wishes to accomplish during our session today
Write those 3 goals on the back of your team’s table tent

6. Why Cooperative Learning?

7. We Learn: 10% of what we read 20% of what we hear 30% of what we see
50% of what we both see and hear
70% of what is discussed with others
80% of what we experience personally
95% of what we teach someone else
William Glasser

8. Expectations in the Workplace: How have things Changed?
Organizational Effectiveness Reading
Problem Solving Teamwork
Interpersonal Skills Writing
Computation Listening
Creative Thinking Leadership
Oral Communication
Career Development/Motivation

9. According to Fortune 500 Companies: The Top Skills sought by employers
1970
READING
COMPUTATION
WRITING
2000
INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
PROBLEM SOLVING
TEAMWORK

10. Thinking about the subject or subjects you teach
(Knowing the skills that are in demand in the workplace today)
What jobs or careers are you
preparing your students to hold?
(Use chart paper to share some examples)

11. BREAK TIME

12. A History of Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning is not a new idea.
The Talmud clearly states that in order to learn you must have a learning partner.
In the first century, Quintillion argued that students could benefit from teaching one another.
The Roman philosopher, Seneca advocated cooperative learning through such statements as, "Qui Docet Discet" (when you teach, you learn twice).
Johann Amos Comenius ( ) believed that students would benefit both by teaching and being taught by other students.

13. A History of Cooperative Learning
In the late 1700s Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell made extensive use of cooperative learning groups in England, and the idea was brought to America when a Lancastrian school was opened in New York City in 1806.
Within the Common School Movement in the United States in the early 1800s there was a strong emphasis on cooperative learning.
In the last three decades of the 19th Century, Colonel Francis Parker brought to his advocacy of cooperative learning enthusiasm, idealism, practicality, and an intense devotion to freedom, democracy, and individuality in the public schools. Parker's advocacy of cooperation among students dominated American education through the turn of the century.

14. A History of Cooperative Learning
John Dewey promoted the use of cooperative learning groups as part of his famous project method in instruction.
In the late 1930's, however, interpersonal competition began to be emphasized in schools
In the late 1960s, individualistic learning began to be used extensively.
In the 1980s, schools once again began to use cooperative learning.

15. What is Cooperative Learning?
Cooperative Learning refers to a set of instructional methods in which students work in small, mixed-ability learning teams.
The students in each team are responsible not only for learning the material being taught, but also for helping their teammates learn.

16. Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1993).
Within cooperative learning groups students discuss the material to be learned with each other, help and assist each other to understand it, and encourage each other to work hard.

17. Cooperative learning groups may be used to teach specific content (formal cooperative learning groups), to ensure active cognitive processing of information during a lecture or demonstration (informal cooperative learning groups), and to provide long-term support and assistance for academic progress (cooperative base groups) (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1993).
Any assignment in any curriculum for any age student can be done cooperatively.

18. Benefits of Cooperative Learning
Increased Achievement
Increase in Positive Relationships
Greater Intrinsic Motivation
Higher Self-Esteem
More “On-Task” Behavior
Better Attitudes Toward Teachers and School

19. Additional Benefits of Cooperative Learning…
Students take responsibility for their own learning
Students translate “teacher talk” into “student speak” for their peers
Students engage in “cognitive collaboration.” They must organize their thoughts to explain ideas to classmates
Students have FUN learning
Students social nature is used to their advantage

20. Bonuses for High Achievers
Higher levels of achievement
Even greater retention of information due to “cognitive rehearsal”
Development of key skills:
Social
Leadership
Communication
Decision Making
Problem Solving
Conflict Resolution

21. Basic Elements of Cooperative Learning
Positive Interdependence 
Face-to- Face Interaction
Individual Accountability
Interpersonal And Small Group Skills
Group Processing
 Taken from: Circles of Learning: Cooperation in the Classroom (Revised Edition) D.W. Johnson, R.T. Johnson and Edythe Johnson Holubec. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986

22. Positive Interdependence
Students must feel they need each other in order to complete the group’s task
Mutual Goals
Joint Rewards
Shared Materials and Information
Assigned Roles

23. Face-to-Face Interaction
Discussing
Summarizing
Explaining
Elaborating
Receiving Feedback

24. Individual Accountability
Teams succeed when:
Every member has learned the material
Every member has helped complete tasks
Frequently teachers assess individual learning

25. Interpersonal and Small Group Skills
Communication
Leadership
Decision-making
Conflict Management
Active Listening
Challenging Ideas Not People
Compromising

26. Group Processing
Giving students the time and the procedures to analyze how well their teams are functioning with:
Learning tasks
Social skills
Self-assessment

27. Sample Types of Activities
Direct Instructional Activities
present information to students or demonstrate skills
Activities for Student Practice
after direct instruction
Cooperative Learning Instructional Activities
brainstorming, note-taking pairs, cooperative writing and editing pairs
Whole Lesson Formats
involves teacher-directed and student directed strategies without other lesson components
Movement Oriented Activities
corners
jigsaw

28. Cooperative Note-taking Pairs
Objective:
To enable students to take something from one another’s notes to improve their own
Directions In Brief:
1. Assign or allow students to select partners.
2. Teach
3. Stop every 10 minutes for sharing of notes.

29. Cooperative Note-taking Pairs Check - in
Directions in Brief
While teaching, stop periodically for a check-in.
Instruct students to skim their partners’ notes looking for:
information they missed
information partners have incorrectly noted
3. Students retrieve their own notes and make any needed changes.

30. 4 CORNERS Objectives: Directions: To move students in a purposeful way
To gather data in a quick, visual way that is engaging
Directions:
Identify the kind of data you want to gather.
Post four multiple choice responses, one in each corner.
Students select their responses.
Members of groups discuss their choices.
Spokespersons summarize/present group members’ thoughts.

31. SCARED

32. Fearless

33. Cautiously Optimistic

34. Other

35. CORNERS
Go to the corner… 2 1 4 3

36. THINK – WRITE – PAIR - COMPARE
Objectives:
to give rehearsal time, engage more students, and promote thoughtful responses
Directions:
Present a problem, idea or question to be discussed
Pair students randomly
Allow time for individuals to think in silence
Allot time for students to write responses (independently)
Give time for partners to compare their responses
Give the whole class time to discuss responses

37. THINK – WRITE – PAIR - COMPARE
Think of one way you could apply
4 CORNERS
in your subject area(s).

38. What are the Pros and Cons of using 4 Corners?

39. Formations Objectives: to make abstract concepts more concrete while incorporating movement
Directions in Brief:
Identify an abstract concept
Translate it to a living model
Compose steps in the process of constructing the model
Engage students in construction of the model
Engage students in processing the concept

40. Formations 1. Meet with others in your subject area 2
Formations 1. Meet with others in your subject area 2. Decide upon one abstract concept and a formation that makes it concrete Be prepared to present your formation to your colleagues in other subject areas.
Note: Every member of your group does not have to be a part of your formation

41. Designing an 18 Week Plan
Identify essential skills and information to be taught using a variety of resources
Hawaii Standards
Curricula Frameworks from a variety of sources
In house resources such as teacher lessons, textbooks, etc

42. Restructuring does not mean throwing out everything from “before block scheduling”. Incorporate the best of the “tried and true” methods, build adapt and reincorporate them in the new time frame.

43. List the most important concepts/skills you want students to understand before the end of the course
List effective activities now used to address each goal
Indicate which concepts you wish to address in more depth
Think of ways to contextualize each goal with reality based activities
Consider various strategies you might add to address each goal

44. Design Weekly Lesson Plans
Provide a detailed outline of activities for each unit including possible materials, resources, strategies

45. Design Daily Lesson Plans
Include at least three activities which allow for:
The incorporation of movement
The inclusion of time for whole class, individual and group work
Changes in media

46. Traditional Lesson Design
Warm up/ Problem Solving
Homework Review 10
New Material
Practice Activity
Closure
Writing

47. Lesson Plan With Cooperative Groups
Warm-Up
Direct Instruction
Work in Small Groups
Small Group Presentations
Large Group Interaction 15
Closure/Writing/Assignments 10

48. Allocation of Test Related Time
Test Review
Test

49. What is a ROTATING REVIEW?
Topic
Something I learned today. . .
Students walk around the room to each piece of chart paper and write something about what they learned that day.
Sheets are posted and used as a review.

50. ROUND TABLE Objective:
to get students to recall, summarize or brainstorm
Directions:
State the problem, topic or issue
Distribute one sheet of paper to each group
Give a time limit and ask students to begin to write

51. Round Table
Each person at your table should write one thing he/she has learned about cooperative learning.