Cooperative+Learning

Read and Reflect
How do you currently apply this strategy with(out) technology?

Cooperative learning groups are a weakness in my teaching practice. Part of this is due to the type of students I teach and the other part is that I don’t do it often enough to become comfortable with the practice myself. A lot of structure and modeling needs to be in place in order for cooperative learning groups to work successfully. In addition, the teacher has to give up some control of the class to let the students learn from each other. This is hard to do and sometimes it doesn’t look like learning. And then after arguing with students about why they can’t work with their friends, it’s just not worth it. However, I know this isn’t true. Students need to learn skills on how to work with others and be responsible for their contributions and hold other accountable for their commitments. There are very few jobs where someone works in isolation.

Apply and Reflect
Provide evidence of the tool you learned

Google Docs have many cooperative learning opportunities when using it for a research paper. I would start by grouping students into research topics. They would be able to choose the topic. Each group would use Google Doc to generate a list of references about that topic. They would include links or pdfs of the materials they found while searching. Then, they would choose the references they would like to use for their topic. Once they have chosen their references, each student would be responsible for reading each reference and contributing their findings in a shared document. Not only would students find their own material, but then they would have other ideas they may have missed. Students would do some type of brainstorming that would be shared with the group. Group members would offer suggestions to each other to delete or add information that would help support main ideas. After students have written their first draft of the essay, they would share the essay with another person in the group to edit and critique. I think this would work well because the group is somewhat knowledgeable about the topic.