Cooperative Learning Strategies
Module Six

This module will offer some guidelines for using larger groups with larger/longer term projects. You may also find these useful in making the strategies in earlier modules run more smoothly.

Before you proceed with this lesson, please take time to reflect on your experience with last module's activity and email Jerry Peters at gpeters@twcny.rr.com with a brief description of the activity you did with your students, how it went, and any questions you need answered. You might want to attach an electronic copy of the activity to the email.

When students are expected to work together collaboratively in groups of three to five students on a project lasting more than one session, more structure is required for them to be productive. The manner in which groups are formed, the rules established for working in groups, and the social skills taught and expected of the students are very important factors in creating a good collaborative learning environment.

Selecting Group Members

If your class is quite homogeneous in ability, selecting members for each group randomly should work well. You could write each student's name on a 3" by 5" card and simply shuffle and deal the cards into piles as you would if you were playing a card game. The number of piles would equal the number of groups you desire. Simply read the names for each group and assign each group a location for working.

If your class is heterogeneous in ability and/or social skills, you may want to select the members of each group with thought given to having a mixture of abilities in each group as well as avoiding any current conflicts between some members of the class. Sometimes you will encounter a student in your class with whom none of the other students seem to want to work. This problem can often be solved by having the students complete a "sociogram". On a small sheet of paper, have each student write his/her own name at the top. Instruct the students: "Under your name, write the names of at least three students in the class with whom you feel you can work well." When they have had sufficient time, give the following instruction: "At the bottom of the sheet, write the names of any students you feel you cannot work with at this time. Fold your paper to keep your choices secret, and I will pick up your paper at your desk."

Often the unpopular student will identify someone who will work as a partner, and, sometimes another student will name him/her as a possible partner. When you form the groups, try hard to match each student with at least one of the students on his/her list of possible partners. Try to avoid any of the "conflicts" listed on the bottom of their sociograms. You should find that this method eliminates many of the social conflicts that sometimes occur when using groups.

Rules for Working in Groups

If you plan to have your students work in groups of three or more students on projects that require them to collaborate for an extended time, you should establish a set of rules (behaviors) for working in groups. Also, you need to teach these behaviors to the students before engaging them in a project. You can develop student ownership of the rules by involving them in the development of the rules.

The following is a set of rules that worked well for us:


1. You will discuss only the task assigned.

2. You will talk in "two foot voices".

3. You will avoid "put-downs".

4. You are responsible for your own learning and behavior.

5. You must be willing to ask members of your group for help.

6. You must be willing to help every group member who needs help.

These rules should be permanently displayed on a large poster for everyone's reference. One or two days before the first group assignment, display the poster and teach the behaviors to the students. Include time for the students to develop an understanding of the behaviors and practice them. A more detailed explanation of each rule follows.

Rule #1 instructs the students to talk about only the task assigned by the teacher. Recognize, however, that it is natural and healthy for students to occasionally get off-task. It happens to all of us in similar circumstances. You need to circulate about the room, gently coaching those who are off-task back on task and quietly praising those who are on-task. When you approach a group that is off-task, you can say to them, "This group can do better on Rule #1 (point to the chart). Can you tell me what you have accomplished on our task so far?" Their response will often be enough to refocus them on the task. If they have not gotten started or are stuck, you may have to ask them some probing questions or direct them to a starting point.

Rule #2 encourages them to speak at a volume so that all in the group can hear, but not so loud that other groups are disturbed. You should model an acceptable volume and provide time for all students to practice this behavior. If you are used to a classroom where only one person is speaking at a time, you may experience some anxiety until you can adjust to the "chaos" and learn to sort out the on-task noise from the off-task noise. Even in a classroom where the students are quietly listening and responding to a dynamic teacher, it is very likely that several students' minds are off-task even though they may be making eye contact with the teacher. Can you think of some times (workshops, faculty meetings, church, …) when you had that happen to you? When students are working collaboratively, it is much more obvious who is off-task. One of your primary duties with group work is to gently get those students back on-task.

Recent research has determined that all stimuli coming from the five senses pass through a small part of the brain called the amygdala where they are screened for emotional content. If any emotional content is detected, the information is routed through pathways that affect how the information is processed and stored. In particular, if a learner is emotionally upset in any way, his/her ability to learn (schoolwork) is decreased until such time the learner recovers emotionally. Most teachers have experienced the student who has come to class already upset by something that happened just before he/she arrived. The best thing to do for that student is to calmly find a way and a proper place for him/her calm down. Only then will that student be able to join the others in learning your content objectives for the class.

Preventing students from becoming upset is the reason for Rule #3. Even seemingly harmless statements made by students or the teacher while kidding around can emotionally affect one or more students in a class. Usually, students who are offended in this situation give very few clues for you to detect, but their ability to learn will be adversely affected until their emotions subside. For this reason, teachers should work to eliminate all put-downs from their classroom, and, of course, the teacher must be the best model of this behavior. Students need to learn to question or disagree with a group member's idea rather than attacking the group member. Coach your students how to ask other group members to explain or support their ideas with evidence and how to offer a differing opinion in an acceptable way. Expect them to make mistakes doing this and be prepared to intervene to help them learn how to do it correctly. The more your students use groups with good coaching from you, the faster they will learn to use good group behaviors. It takes time, more time with some classes than others, so don't give up.

Rule #4 places the responsibilities for learning and proper behavior squarely on the shoulders of each student. Students work collaboratively to complete the learning activities of a project. However, each student should be assessed individually on the content objectives. Some researchers recommend group grades for both content objectives and group behavior. You are advised to not use group grading unless you receive additional training that deals in depth with group grading. It is quite complicated to give group grades correctly and consistently. Cooperative learning has gotten many "black eyes" from challenges from students and parents over group grades. The advantages to learning occur while the students are engaged in collaboration, so focus your efforts on making the group activities go well.

Rules #5 and #6 are very important. Constantly encourage students to ask for help or clarification when needed, and quietly praise them for having the courage to ask. Let them know that they have more "learning power" as a group than they do when they are working alone. This power is attained when they use the group rules correctly and everyone gets into the discussion and contributes to the work on the task. Everyone benefits when group members ask questions and other members provide answers. Students who provide information gain a deeper understanding of that knowledge.

Cooperative Skills for Group Work

A short list that summarizes most of the behaviors inherent in the Group Rules above is presented below:

Roles That Can Enhance Group Learning

Sometimes the establishment of leadership roles within groups can enhance the collaboration and learning that occurs. You may encounter different names used to describe similar roles. Some suggested roles are described below.

The Group Leader makes sure the group stays on task and follows the Group Rules. Some of the sounds you might hear from the Group Leader are:

1. "Has everyone finished problem #3? Anyone have questions on it?"

2. "Let's see of we can finish before time runs out."

3. "We are socializing too much. We better get back to our task."

4. "We are getting too loud. Let's quiet down."

The Gatekeeper makes sure that each person participates in the assigned task. During discussions, the Gatekeeper makes sure that each group member has a turn. Sometimes the roles of the Gatekeeper and the Group Leader can be combined into one role. Some statements you might hear are:

1. "That is interesting, John. Do you agree, Sue?"

2. "Kirk, what do you think?"

3. "Whoa. Everyone has something to say about this topic. Let's go around in a circle with only one person speaking at a time (set a 30-second limit per turn if needed), and everyone waits until it is his/her time in the rotation to speak. No comments or questions allowed until your turn comes up. We can go around the circle as many times as needed until everyone has had a chance to say everything he/she wanted to say."

The Encourager urges others to share ideas, give opinions, help others, and stick to the task if the group gets stuck. You might hear:

1. "Let's try that again. I think we can get it."

2. "John, can you do #5? Pete and I are stuck."

The Checker makes sure that everyone understands the work of the task. You might hear the Checker say:

1. "What did everyone get for problem #2?"

2. "Sue, are there any other problems that you do not understand?"

3. "Let's see if we are all getting the same answers for this group of questions."

The Recorder is used when only one set of answers and work is to be collected from each group or when the group's output is to be recorded on newsprint or some other way of displaying it for the whole class. The recorder is responsible for making sure that the group's response is agreed upon by all members of the group. You might hear the Recorder ask:

1. "Let's check our list of answers to be sure I have them recorded right. For #1, do we all agree that 'George Washington was our first President.' should be our answer?"

2. "Does everyone agree with what I wrote on the newsprint for this part of our work?"

The Reporter is used when the group has to give a short report of its findings or opinion to the whole class. The Reporter is responsible for making sure everyone in the group agrees with the contents of his/her report.

If longer reports are required, everyone in the group should report on a significant part of the group's work. Time should be given for the members to split up the work for the report and help each other prepare his/her part. Generally, it is all right for group members to quietly help another group member who gets stuck during his/her part of the report.

Mixing Cooperation and Competition

Creating a little friendly competition among groups can add some fun and excitement to group tasks. If you can find a good way to score the work done by each group and/or their behavior as a group, then you could create some rewards for the groups who produce the best product, next best, and so on. Giving the same reward to every group who meets or exceeds criteria you set for acceptable or excellent work can create some internal energy to each group to pull together as a team. Be careful to monitor the groups to see that all group members participate in the group task.

Activity

Do either one of the two options to complete your obligations for this module.

Option #1: Create or locate a large project to do with your class that fits with your existing learning objectives for that class. Decide on a set of rules for group behavior (or develop a set with your class) that you feel will work for your class. Post the rules and teach the rules to the class, allowing time for practice. Engage the students in the project. Monitor their progress on your learning objectives and the group behaviors, coaching when needed as described in the reading above. Adjust your instruction and the group rules if necessary over the duration of the project. At the end, reflect on how the whole project went and note any changes you would make if you were to do the project again with another class.

OR

Option #2: Decide on a set of rules for group behavior (or develop a set with your class) that you feel will work for your class. Post the rules and teach the rules to the class, allowing time for practice. Design at least three collaborative activities for your students that utilize strategies that you learned during previous modules of this course. Have the students utilize the group rules while engaged in these activities. Monitor their progress on your learning objectives and the group behaviors, coaching when needed as described in the reading above. Adjust your instruction and the group rules if necessary. Reflect on how the rules worked and note any changes you would make before using them again.

Additional Resources

You can find additional information on the use of Cooperative Learning in the book Making Cooperative Learning Work by Paul J. Vermette of Niagara University. The book is published by Merrill, and its ISBN number is 0-13-206392-1. We would also suggest you check out the pages on this web site for the Parents Advisory Committee's pages. There are some good guidelines for parental involvement in school projects.