Cooperative learning plays an essential role in the education process. In my opinion, students need to be presented with information in a variety of ways. Students need to learn how to successfully read a non-fiction passage and pick out the main ideas. Students need to be able to listen to a lecture and stay focused. Students also need to be able to watch a short video and see how it connects to what they are studying. Lastly, students need to be taught how to effectively work in a group setting.
From my experience, middle school students are very social. They really love working in cooperative groups. While this can be a good thing, it can also be a struggle. Middle school kids often settle into cliques and are not friendly with all students. This can make it difficult to work cooperatively. Some students at this age are also not motivated by grades and do not work hard to achieve success at this level. It can be very frustrating for an honor roll student to be asked to work with a student who has yet to complete an assignment on time.
To avoid some of these issues, I usually randomly assign my groups. I pull names out of a hat while students are present. My students are not allowed to comment positively or negatively during this process. Also, students are given specific tasks within the group. Students are graded on their piece of the whole. No student is penalized because someone in the group is slacking. Students are provided with detailed instructions, rubrics, links, student examples, etc. This information is also posted on my webpage. I have found that when I am organized, my expectations are clear, and I provide support throughout the collaborative process, my students are able to be successful in a cooperative learning situation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
do you have a smart board in your classroom? or access to the software? I was shown last week a feature on it where you can input your class list and select how many groups you want and it will randomly generate groups for you. You only have to type on the students name once for the year...if you do not like the groups the computer generates... you can quickly hit the generate button over and over until you find a match that will work in your room.
ReplyDeleteJodi,
ReplyDeleteFrom my middle school observations I could see motivation being a difficult challenge to overcome. I also saw what you were talking about with cliques and it seems like that would be another problem that is not as prominent in the elementary or even high school levels. Your strategies for creating groups that have students working with classmates at random seems like a great step for students to gain social skills. I'm sure that there is little to no time during your curriculum, but I think if I were in middle school, I might open a dialogue about the benefits of working with students you might not hang out with outside of school. Having friends and people you connect with is great, but, like you said, students need to be taught how to effectively work in a group setting.
Jason
I do not have a smart board. It sounds like a great tool to use in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI agree that students need to learn to work with students outside of their clique. Surprisingly, when students are required to work together, they usually rise to the occasion and do a great job.
Jodi, I certainly remember that the Middle school level is a lot more clique-y than other levels of education. Have you had issues arise in your past because of this and how did you address some of those issues?
ReplyDelete