Cooperative Learning

A first grade literacy standard is “RL.1.1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text, RL.1.2. Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson, and RL.1.3. Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.” (CCSS) Students can work in a whole group setting to retell a story. The students dictate what happened in the story and retell it in their own words and views. The teacher writes down each sentence/ thought put forth by the student with their name attached to it. Then as a class they reread the story they created. When the students see their words in writing it creates meaning and they feel that their thoughts are important, they had a crucial part in recreating the story. To get students writing, you could have them work in small groups to create mind maps of the story (that was read) that includes the major characters, the settings, and major events. Individually students could write in a reflective journal their thoughts about the literature they read. A first grade writing standard is, “W.1.2. Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.” (CCSS) You could group students according to their interests. Each group would then work together to supply facts about the specific topic of interest. They could then work together to create a graphic organizer detailing the facts. From there they would turn the graphic organizer into written work. By having students work in groups you create engagement in the activity and learning is enhanced.

Grouping students can take many forms, heterogeneous (mixed ability) and homogeneous (similar ability). The formation of each group depends on the purpose and activity that the group is involved in. When creating heterogeneous groups I will examine the student’s abilities and personalities. Creating a mixture of students within the group, mixing high performing students, low performing groups, outgoing personalities, and introverted personalities together. This way the students can build off each other’s strengths and learn to work together with a variety of dispositions. I would carefully select the group that I would place a student with a special need in. I would look for a group that has the most flexible and emphatic students in. Ones that I feel would be able to work well with that student and vise versa. I would use heterogeneous grouping for project-based assignments, or long-term assignments. I would use homogeneous grouping for short-term activities or quick pair conferencing.  I like to have the students desks arranged in the classroom in groups of 4-5. This gives easy access to quick group work or conferencing when asking for contributions to a whole class discussion. Each pod has the desks numbered and that tells the students what their role is in the group. The group roles have been pre-determined and rotate within each group activity by number. This way all the students have the opportunity to experience each role.  Grouping students by gender, birthday, number, shoulder partners, or interests is an effective way to form groups quickly.

Using cooperative groups is extremely valuable in differentiation because it does just that. Differentiates. It allows for students with multiple intelligence and learning styles to express themselves and use their skills to enhance the group dynamic and product. Some examples of whole group configurations and activities that allow for Gardner’ multiple intelligences are playing Jeopardy games based on the content, singing song or reciting chants as a whole class allows for the musical learner, and for the kinesthetic learners participating in the human knot game is a great whole group activity. For small group or peer pairs PBL or problem based learning activities are extremely effective. Students must work together to solve a problem. Peer editing, science experiments, and creative projects are great small group or pair activities. To meet the needs of the learners that work well individually reflective journal writing is a great way for them to express themselves on an individual basis. Students can also work individually to write a poem, or compose music. Computer based applications that support math and reading skills are a good design for individual grouping.

Each grouping pattern reinforces grade level standards by actively engaging the students in the content area. By having each student contribute thoughts and sentences to the whole group narrative they are actively involved in the discussion. By adding their name to their sentence and thoughts it make them feel important and gives their words meaning. By rereading the story as a class, students are hearing their words, which creates more meaning and understanding to the story read, thus meeting the standard.  By having the small groups or pairs work together to create a mind map about the details, characters, setting, and/or the central message of a story they are working toward meeting standard “RL.1.1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text, RL.1.2. Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson, and RL.1.3. Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.” (CCSS) Writing in a reflective journal reinforces the content standard by allowing students time to reflect and process what they have read or story they have listened to. Journal writing and reflection allows students to make sense of their thoughts on feeling. By writing down their thoughts it gives them practice towards meeting the writing standards.

Each of the different grouping patterns facilitates meeting the content standard for learners by allowing them the opportunity to express themselves freely within the cooperative group. They are able to utilize their particular strength and learning style in completing the group work. Working with other students who may have strengths in their weakness areas allows them to learn new ways to strengthen their weaknesses. They can share their ideas with each other and learn from each other, working towards the common goal of meeting the standard set out for them.

Cooperative learning allows for differentiation by giving students support and guidance to each other. Students are able to put information in terms that the other students are able to understand. They are exposed to different points of views, perspectives, and ways the information is explained.  Students are able to help each other and learn from each other. Group work increases student performance because it allow for students to interact and be social with each other. They are learning essential skills needed for real life. When working in cooperative groups students are more actively involve and engaged in their learning, they pay closer attention to content knowledge, and they hold each other accountable within the group. Students are able to learn from other students and the teacher can be the facilitator of the learning. When students discover knowledge for themselves, versus being told by a lecture, it is cemented into long-term memory. When working in small cooperative groups it increases student performance because it reduces the intimidation factor. Some students are more comfortable putting forth their ideas and speaking up in a small group setting because it is much less intimidating than speaking out in front of the whole class. Being able to express their ideas works towards a better understanding of the content area.

References

First Grade Reading Literature Standards - Common Core Standards | Common Core Activities, Worksheets, and Workbooks. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2016, from http://www.corecommonstandards.com/first-grade-standards/english-language-arts-standards/first-grade-reading-literature-standards/