Activity: Cooperative learning strategies

In this activity I did a summary of three cooperative learning strategies that took my attention and I developed three activities using these strategies to use in my classes following my planner:

After reading the cooperative Learning strategies, I consider several of them very interesting and useful, but the three that I have choosen are the ones that I see more accurate to the age of students (primary 3) and topic (live in society) that I am developing in my planner.

The first strategy that took my attention is called 'crosswords'. It is an easy activity in which all the students collaborate equally.Firstly,one of the students write in a paper a word related to the topic we are working on. The next participant has to write another word related to the same topic using one of the letters of the word written, so the word drawn from the other word forms a crossword puzzle. The rest of participants continue the same process. At the end, the class is divided in serveral hetergeneous groups (4-5 students) and they discuss about to process to do the activity through the following questions: What was the process of the game like? Did everyone participate equally? What kind of content has come from the process? In view of the results, what conclusions can draw? After several minutes of discussion and taking notes about it, the whole class disscuss about it together.

The activity that I would do using this type of strategy would be an activity to review basic concepts related to living in society, such as, values, feelings, civic rules, etc. First of all, using one of the walls of the class, I would put a big paper on in. The following step would be to explain the students the activity and do a short brainstorming in which we would review some concepts that we have learned during the previous weeks. When students have clear what to do, the students would have to organize themselves forming a queue to know the order in which they would write the different words. To do that, we would do a short game in which they would have to be in order from the youngest to the oldest of the class, and they would have to be able to organize them in that order without speaking, so they would use gestures. Once the queue is done, the first student will write the word that comes to his/her mind related to the topic. So the following will write the next one through  a letter of the previous word until all of the pupils have participated. Next, the teacher will form the different groups to disscuss about the activity, in which each group will take notes about what they think. At the end, we will reflect about all the answers together.

Consequently, this is an activity in which we make our students not only working together, but also being able to organize on their own, respecting the turn of each of them and reflecting about the whole process together in which they are the active participants during all the activity and the teacher acts as a guide all the time.

Moreover, another strategy is 'Inside/outside circle'. Here, the class is divided in two groups. One of them form a circle facing outward and the other group form another cicle around the the other one. In that way, each student of one of the circle would be face to face another pupil from the other one. Once they are in the correct position an inquiry, topic or statement will be said by the teacher and each couple will have some time to disscuss about it. When the teacher says 1,2,3... steps to the right or left side, so the members of the outside circle will move in that direction and the number of steps that the teacher says, so they will disscuss the same topic with other students or new information that the teacher proposes.

Regarding this strategy, the activity that I would do in my class would be the following: firstly, I would divide students in two groups and guide them how to situate correctly. When they are in the correct place, I would explain them the instructions of the activity and I will outline an inquiry about the topic: What values are necessary to live in society? Imagine that a new student comes to class and he feels out of place, What would you do to make him feel better? What would you do to solve a problem between two of your friends? What things do you have in common with an Indian student of your same age?

After several turns of the same question between different students, we would reflect about it together and, after that, they will continue discussing other question that the teacher proposes. At the end, we will summarize the conclusions all together.

In that activity, the teacher acts not only as a guide, but also as organizator, since it is necessary a greater organization.

The last strategy that I chose is 'Pass a Problem'. The teacher has to write some problems and attaches them to envelopes. The class will be divided in groups of 4-5 students. Each group will receive an envelope and disscuss their solution together that they will write on a papper and include in the envelope. After that, each envelope will be given to the following group that disscuss its problem and write a solution in another paper. At the end, each group will read a question and its different solutions and all together will reflect about the different ways to solve the same problem.

Focusing on the topic of my planner, I would use this strategy using 5 envelopes, each of them with a different problem:

-What would you do if a new student comes to class and he doesn't speak your own language? How would yo help him to feel integrated?

-If you could solve any problem of the world, what would you fix? How would you do it?

-If you know someone that is being discriminated because of being from another culture and country, how could you help him?

-If you know someone that is a bully, what would you do to make him realise that it is something bad? How would you help him to be better?

When all the groups would write their own solution for each problem, a representant of each group would read one of them and we will reflect about it.

It is a good way to make students collaborate together, develop their capacity to have an agreement and respect other points of view. Here, the teacher will act just as observator and guide.

In clonclusion, I consider that these three strategies can be a very motivating way to make students work on an specific topic and develop their collaborative skills.