Cooperative Learning Strategies

I've heard it said that cooperative learning strategies are hard to implement in the general education classroom. I believe that not only can it be done, but that it’s impossible to teach without these!

Here   is a link on the research that supports these in the classroom. The research Marzano has done has greatly impacted my teaching philosophy. As he notes, it is important when utilizing these strategies to be systematic in their use. It is important to embed individual and group accountability, as well as ensuring the interaction and interdependence within students is positive.

 I think teachers may shy away from these strategies because we can feel out of our comfort zone at times. Most of the teachers today were traditional students of yesterday. We sat in rows facing the teacher, and didn't have many opportunities to share our learnings with our peers. Even as teachers, the professional development we attend rarely implement the strategies they so adamantly teach!

In no particular order, here are my top 6 favorite cooperative learning strategies:

1.      Inner circle, outer circle:

In this strategy, half the class stands in an outer circle facing in. The other half stands in an inner circle facing one person on the outer circle. They share a reflection/ask each other a question and then one of the circles rotates clockwise so that they have a new partner to talk to. I’ve implemented this strategy in a kindergarten classroom. We would do it routinely and students would ask questions to each other pertaining to our calendar time. To make things easier for kinder students, I had them stand in 2 lines instead of 2 circles. One line would generate a question pertaining to the calendar objectives, and the other line had to answer their partner.

2.      Color cards:

In this strategy, the teacher has color cards pre-made. I cut up squares of construction paper of different colors, and had them in a baggie close to the front of the room so I could use them frequently. There were 4 red cards, 4 green card, etc. I would hand them out at random to students, and they would go to a spot in the room according to what color they got. They would be in groups of 4 and could collaborate. If the collaboration involved discussing a topic or sharing an answer, I had numbers on each color card. There was red card #1, red card #2, red card #3, etc. Likewise, the green cards were numbered 1-4, and so on. The member that had red card #1 would be the first to speak in that group and everyone had to listen to that person. It avoided the arguing over who was sharing first J

3.      People to people:

In this strategy, everyone is walking around the room until the teacher says “People to people.” Students find the person nearest them and turn to face them. The teacher says elbow to elbow, or chooses another body part. Then, the partners stand elbow to elbow, or back to back. The pairs are asked to face each other and share the answer to a question.

4.      Sound Machine:

The machine is made up of students. Each student performs a different action that stands for a word. When the machine is turned on, all students perform their action while saying the word. For example, if you’re studying the digraph /th/, the machine could be made up of different words that begin with th. Each student would be assigned a word and make a motion showing the meaning of the word. This is a good strategy to preview vocabulary before a story. You could make a sound machine of the vocabulary that you will see in the story.

5.      Stage picture:

After you’ve read a story, students work in groups to make a statue of what might have happened after the story has ended. This is a great strategy for teaching inference. When one group stands as their statue, the class can predict what is happening in the statue before the students have a chance to tell them what they’re doing.

6.      60 second summary:

In this strategy, students have 60 seconds to plan a play about what happened in a story, and they have 60 seconds to perform it in front of their peers. It isn’t limited to stories, but can be used to act out cycles (in science class), etc.