After reading this chapter, I definitely want to incorporate more cooperative learning into my lessons in the upcoming school year. As a first grade teacher, I sometimes avoid cooperative learning because it sometimes becomes just at time for students to talk and become off task, but I really want to work on setting expectations for cooperative learning at the beginning of the year so I can use cooperative learning more. The chapter discussed quite a bit how students need to bond and interact with one another and that students who do create social bonds with others are more successful cognitively. I also loved how the chapter said that it makes sense to engage students in cooperative learning and social interactions with groups and partners because they are going to be social anyway. I find myself constantly telling my first graders to stop talking and though they may stop at that time, it is not long before I'm telling them to stop talking again. Instead of constantly telling them to stop talking, I want to take their nature desire to be social and incorporate that into learning. I love using "turn and talk" in my classroom to give students the opportunity to share their learning and there were some great suggestions for going even further with that in this chapter. I look forward to incorporating some of the suggestions from this chapter into my teaching in the upcoming school year.
I agree with Courtney that at the primary level we will have to be very specific with rules and guidelines for cooperative groups. I had a great class last year and was able to incorporate cooperative groups, turn talk, move to find partners, etc. more than the other first grade classes, but I know that each year each set of kids is different. I hope that we can come up with a good model for social activity so that we can incorporate more of it each year. It will also give the kids the movement breaks that they need as they go to their groups or find their partners.
This goes back to earlier chapter with children talking about learning. I had cooperative groups last year and they often did not work due to class dynamics but in other years it was good. I like the Kagan book for organizing groups.
After reading this chapter, I definitely want to incorporate more cooperative learning into my lessons in the upcoming school year. As a first grade teacher, I sometimes avoid cooperative learning because it sometimes becomes just at time for students to talk and become off task, but I really want to work on setting expectations for cooperative learning at the beginning of the year so I can use cooperative learning more. The chapter discussed quite a bit how students need to bond and interact with one another and that students who do create social bonds with others are more successful cognitively. I also loved how the chapter said that it makes sense to engage students in cooperative learning and social interactions with groups and partners because they are going to be social anyway. I find myself constantly telling my first graders to stop talking and though they may stop at that time, it is not long before I'm telling them to stop talking again. Instead of constantly telling them to stop talking, I want to take their nature desire to be social and incorporate that into learning. I love using "turn and talk" in my classroom to give students the opportunity to share their learning and there were some great suggestions for going even further with that in this chapter. I look forward to incorporating some of the suggestions from this chapter into my teaching in the upcoming school year.
ReplyDeleteLast year, your class could not handle cooperative learning. You tried MORE than once!
DeleteI agree with Courtney that at the primary level we will have to be very specific with rules and guidelines for cooperative groups. I had a great class last year and was able to incorporate cooperative groups, turn talk, move to find partners, etc. more than the other first grade classes, but I know that each year each set of kids is different. I hope that we can come up with a good model for social activity so that we can incorporate more of it each year. It will also give the kids the movement breaks that they need as they go to their groups or find their partners.
ReplyDeleteNot sure it ever has to be an all or nothing. Seems it just might need to vary based on the students you have.
ReplyDeleteThis goes back to earlier chapter with children talking about learning. I had cooperative groups last year and they often did not work due to class dynamics but in other years it was good. I like the Kagan book for organizing groups.
ReplyDelete