Cooperative Learning

             On Tuesday, class was focused on cooperative learning. It was definitely a very fun class that I enjoyed being in. It was weird being at RIC but I think that this lesson was perfect for a day that we didn’t go out to the field because it was really informative and we had to move around the classroom a lot. That is something we can’t always do at CF. Cooperative learning includes group goals and in this lesson, I really liked the two activities that we did in class to learn about cooperative learning, Fan-N-Pick and “Let’s Make Squares”. 

            “Let’s Make Squares” was really interesting. It was a lot of fun and somewhat stressful because we were competing with the other groups in the class. At times it was really frustrating to want to move other people’s strips of paper but not being able to move it, because it was against the rules. If the group member didn’t know where to move it but I did I found myself getting anxious while trying to talk them through it. I now know that I would have to slow down in order to effectively talk the person through it. It was a great teambuilding activity because as we succeeded and reached the goal we all got really excited. Also, as the activity went on everyone began participating more and more. Having jobs for each person in the group was also a way to make sure participation was equal. In my Sped 433 class, we have also learned this aspect with cooperative learning. Assigned roles/jobs provides students to be more accountable in the group. One of my favorite roles is definitely the question commander. I like this job because having one student ask the questions or get the teacher’s attention in each group controls the class more than if each student is yelling at the teacher.

            I also really liked the Fan-N-Pick activity. I thought I could incorporate it into a science class by having the questions be review questions for a quiz/test that the students could work in groups to answer. I also think giving an opportunity for all the students to have discussion for a short period of time after the student answering the question is finished speaking. Also, since students are sometimes nervous about answering questions I think it is effective to have a student be a praiser. This can be a confidence booster for the students. This and the other activities included in the packet on cooperative learning that we have received in class will be very helpful in any class.