Makeover Magic Presentation – Cooperative Groups in Math

Bruce Barker

IT6710 – Creative Designs for Instructional Materials

February 21, 2010

Overview

This presentation, about working in cooperative groups, will be used at the beginning of a term in a first year high school mathematics course. The math curriculum used by the district is built around investigations performed by cooperative groups, usually consisting of 3 or 4 students. In the past, I and the other math teachers relied mostly on the directions and practices for cooperative groups introduced in the first lesson of the book, with generally disappointing results. The book assigned roles to the students – like ‘Reader’, ‘Coordinator’, etc. and instructed them to work together to answer questions in the book. After taking a Kagan Cooperative Learning class last summer, I realized I had to significantly change the way we approached it. Students need much more structured guidance (than just “work together!”) in order to work effectively together, and they also need regular ‘team-building’ and ‘class-building’ activities to engender a positive atmosphere and attitudes about working together.

The purpose of this presentation is to introduce students to how cooperative groups should work by actually doing the sort of structured cooperative activities we’ll be using in the class, though with a mostly non-mathematical focus. It will take place on either the first or second day (if the first was a short class) of classes for the term, after most of the administration items are out of the way. Since it will replace a few scattered exercises at the beginning of the book, there is really no existing digital presentation that this replaces – only the book activities.

Audience

I teach math at an ‘alternative’ high school, so the range of personalities in my audience is usually much more variable than the other, ‘normal’ high schools, and hence include all personality types. There are many introverts – those that have just disappeared in the large classes of the regular high school, and there are many extraverts – those that were ‘verbal’ that they kept teachers from teaching and got bumped to our last-chance school. There are always those students who want all the facts and reasons for everything, and those Intuitors who just take everything in and make their own judgments about the big picture (which is all too often something like: “This is all of no use to me, so I’m going to check out and fail yet again!”). We always have more feelers than thinkers; they go by their gut when deciding whether this teacher cares about them as people and hence whether to buy in or not. There are plenty of Judgers in the class who want to know exactly what the end goal is and why up front, and who don’t like the open-ended investigations of our curriculum. They’ll often say “Just tell me how to do it, I don’t care about WHY it works!” And others want to know about different ways of doing the math, and debate about why they should be able to do it their way.

Learning Objectives

The majority of students come in disliking, or hating, “group work.” This is often due to bad experiences in the past of having to work with students they didn’t like, who wouldn’t do any work, etc., and also because the directions from the teacher for how to collaborate were so nebulous and unstructured. One learning objective for this introductory presentation is that they shift their thinking and feeling about working in groups – to see that they can be productive and even enjoyable if the group activities are structured properly and interspersed with fun team-building activities. The other objective is for them to learn what to do and how to act in a productive, cooperative group – by actually practicing those skills during this presentation.

Problem/Solution

The problems my student audience were partially discussed in the previous section – their negative attitudes about group work and their lack of skills to work effectively with others. One underlying cause for these attitudes and lack of skills is the variety of emotional, behavioral and interpersonal difficulties of many of the students, which are also often what caused them to come (or be sent) to our school in the first place. Another cause of negative attitudes about groups are their previous group experiences – where teachers made groups without spending the time and energy necessary to build good team skills and dynamics, and then gave them a task without the necessary structure as to how to go about the team work; this is a setup for disaster – conflict and dysfunction – for a group of adolescents!

My presentation will not solve these students’ behavioral or interpersonal problems, of course. What it will do is to first build positive connections within the groups through (hopefully) fun team-building activities, which will be repeated on a regular basis throughout the tem. It will then involve them in a few of the structures we will be using in the class to enable them to work together effectively – which will reduce the anxiety and conflicts that occur in the vacuum of not knowing what to do next. Looking at how various animal and human groups cooperate to accomplish things will help them see the importance of cooperative groups. The combination of these things will result in a more positive attitude about groups, at least in the context of this math class and curriculum.

Evidence

The presentation is comprised of cooperative activities and structures from the Kagan Cooperative Learning course, whose content also addresses the benefits of cooperative learning. Refer to Abela Worksheet A.6 – List of Evidence, in Appendix A of this document.

Anecdotes

The primary anecdotes I use, to illustrate the benefits of cooperative groups, involve various animal groups that cooperate for the common good. My overarching metaphor subject is the penguin, which I chose for the fact that many of the students have probably seen either March of the Penguins or Happy Feet, and probably remember their huddling together for protection in a storm and the techniques for raising their babies; another reason for choosing them is that they’re pretty cute which will hopefully put the students in a better mood (very important on the first day of math class for a bunch of students with math, school & group phobia!). The stories about the other animal groups – ants, birds, musk oxen, etc. – provide different, unique, and fascinating stories about how the group can accomplish amazing things - which the individual can’t.

Sequencing

One of the most consistent message from the readings, videos and slideshows has been the effectiveness of using stories, anecdotes, metaphors, etc. in your presentation “ to reframe your evidence and involve your audience,” and that “audiences remember stories better than they remember lists of bullet points” (Abela, 2008, p. 65). With that in mind, I used penguins as the central metaphor for my presentation. That, coupled with Medina’s rule #4 – to integrate relevant anecdotes and stories as hooks at regular intervals of about 10 minutes (Medina, 2008, p. 91), helped guide my instructional sequence.

I have taken the S.Co.R.E. (Situation, Complication, Resolution, Example) approach to my story, as described by Abela (2008, pp. 75-76). I will conduct a pre-survey of these attitudes about working in groups (with clickers, so not in this presentation). This will make clear what the situation/topic is, which will then create the complication within the students’ minds (“we hate groups”). The resolution will be a structure with specific actions for each participant. An example is a group activity (like a Think-Write-Round Robin structure to identify cooperative animal groups) to show a non-threatening, structured way of relating as a group. I also tried to make the interaction styles begin to become routine by repeating the think-write-share sequence, with minor variations, and praising each other after each main group activity. This is the beginning of a process to gradually introduce new variations on the basic cooperative structures, and to repeat regularly (daily) throughout the term – in order to incorporate the information and skills into long-term memory. (Medina, p. 147)

To brainstorm the sequence of the presentation and instructional activities, I used sticky notes (on the floor), as proposed by Duarte (2008, pp. 28-29), Gill (2009, slide 8), and in Garr Reynolds Authors@Google Presentation Zen video, in order to see and think about the effects of placing components in different orders.

Graphics

Abela (2008, p. 98) says to never use clipart. This was a big challenge, as I have used a large in the past, but tried my very best to abstain. The few times I used clipart, I believe that it worked. I will attempt to find a photo replacement for the high-five graphic, or do a photo myself. Correspondingly, the best alternative to clipart is real photos, which are relevant to the message so as to not distract (Abela, 2008, p. 6), and that appear to be part of a related, ‘family’ (Duarte, p. 160); I got most of my penguin photos from the same site – coolantarctica.com, and were from the same expedition and photographer.

Another main focus when preparing this presentation was to simplify and reduce the visual noise (Gill, 2009, slides 10-19) and (Reynolds, 2008); the product is much improved from my normal, busy slides, but I could go further, especially for my normal non-standalone slides.

With the research that slide transitions alone are a very bad idea (Abela, 2008, p. 104), I chose not to use any of the standard PowerPoint slide transitions. Abela points out that animation in conjunction with slide transitions may be beneficial, and Duarte is a proponent for creative transitions, such as pushes which link the slides together.

Text

My biggest design change, from my previous slides, was to drastically cutting down the amount of text. Abela’s admonition not to use slides as prompts (Abela, 2008, pp. 6-7) must stay firmly at the

front of my mind. Duarte’s 3-second rule (2008, p. 140) –if the slide can be processed in 3 seconds – is a very good rule of thumb.

I tried to limit the number of font colors, sticking mainly to black on white/light backgrounds, and white on darker backgrounds (and to go with the black and white penguin metaphor). I chose to use the advice of Abela (2008, p. 103) to use colors to highlight specific items, like the key word(s) in a sentence. The text colors I chose to use – red, blue, and a little yellow, seem to best fit Duarte’s ‘Playful’ color scheme (Duarte, 2008, p. 131). I used three background colors – white for most slides, grey-blue for all the animal slides, and a darker brown for the “break in the action” slides.

I chose to use a small number of sans serif fonts, since Duarte’s ‘scientific’ research in her Las Vegas hotel room (Duarte, 2008, p. 143) verified that they are more readable, which is Abela’s only criteria (Abela, 2008, p. 102).

Layout

My slides have almost always been designed around the bullet lists, the opposite of Abela’s (2008, p. 103), and Duarte’s admonitions to use them sparingly if you have to use them at all (Duarte, 2008, p. 150). I challenged myself to use none, and I succeeded!

I employed Duartes principles of proximity (Duarte, 2008, p. 104-105) for related elements in several places, such as graphics which coincide with the text. This is supported by Abela’s guidance that “It is a good idea to put text and visuals close together.” (Abela, 2008, p. 133)

“It’s okay to have clear space – clutter is a failure of design” (Duarte, 2008, p. 106). “I love empty space. That’s refreshing.” (Reynolds, 2008, 36:00 into video). I intended to include more emptiness than I did, but these slides are a tremendous difference from my normal ‘crammed’ ones.

Measurement

The primary method for measuring the effectiveness of this presentation is to give a pre-survey and a post-survey about their attitudes (what they think) and behaviors (what they would do) related to working in groups . The two will be surveys will consist of the same set of multiple choice questions, and will be administered with a clicker system so that the results are immediate and can be shared with the students. The post-survey will also include a couple additional questions related to the effectiveness of the presentation. Another, more subjective measurement, will be my observations of the students as the lesson progresses. For example: Are they interacting more than in the past? Are they all doing their part? Is there a more positive attitude than in the past?

Peer Review Results

The guiding questions that I asked my peer reviewers to answer are included below, along with the comments from my peer reviewers.

1) Do you think the students would be engaged with this? Do you think they would engage in the pair & group activities and the cheers?

I think the students will be engaged. They might complain a little bit, but that’s the nature of high school students. I think they’ll do the activities quietly, but the cheers might be hard to get them to do. A lot depends on the chemistry of the class. Hopefully, it’ll be “cool” to get involved.

Yes, I think your presentation is very engaging. It’s fun, but also has a learning objective so it’s meaningful. As far as the cheers, they may be hesitant at first, but you’ve set up a bunch of activities that should warm them up; and hopefully they will get excited as a group.

2) How are the color choices – for fonts and backgrounds? (I’m partially color blind) Do I have too many different background colors (3, I think) or fonts?

As far as your color choices for the backgrounds….is there a pattern or reason for your choices? It seems random. Maybe assign “fun” color for the “fun” slides and a plainer color for the “Serious” slides. Same thoughts on fonts. I usually like just one. I’d also be careful with yellow font (slides29,30). It might be hard to read on a big screen. I question if you should include any of the material you put in (parantheses) and brackets. Is it really necessary?

I think your fonts and backgrounds will work and don’t necessarily need to be changed, but a couple things I noticed (only after reviewing a few times). As for fonts, I like the use of white, black, red, blue and yellow. There are a couple slides that have purple and green, that for consistency reasons you may want to consider changing to the red, blue or yellow fonts. For example, the green in slide 6 could be replaced with yellow or red. In addition, the purple font in slides 11 and 12 could be replaced with blue. This way you can still add color, but you don’t have too many. I’m not picking on the green and purple, but they seemed to be the two font colors on the least amount of slides.As for background colors, the only one that stands out is slide 17 because it’s the only slide with a black background. I think it’s too much and just needs to be changed to one of your other background colors (white, grey/blue, or charcoal). As for fonts, I think they are fine. I like how you emphasized specific words by changing the font color. I also like the font sizes you selected. The slides are easy to read and have a nice flow.

3) What do you think about the photos & other visuals? Are there enough?

I like your photos. Good, unique choices….person with the longest fingernails goes first…..will boys be cool with this, though? I like the simpler slides. Some of them (6,8,13, 31, 32) seem a bit busy.

I think you have a great selection of photos and visual and think you have the right amount. I couldn’t say you have too many or too few. I think they all are appealing and you also placed them accordingly. They look like they all fit appropriately into the presentation. The only one I find a little scary is the really buff lady in slide 20. I noticed I was staring at the picture and not paying attention to the text. I don’t think it needs to be changed; I’m just adding a little extra piece on “feelings”.

4) I know you haven’t seen the real meat of showing how cooperative (animal & human) groups work, but do you think the penguin metaphor worked OK. Does it work to have the metaphor spelled out so late in the presentation, or do you think they’ll get it earlier?

Honestly, I didn’t get it. I thought you chose penguins because you like penguins?

I liked the use of penguins. It makes it fun, while reinforcing your learning objectives. I also like the way you laid out your presentation. I think it helps to mention penguins at the beginning, but then move away to have the students do all the activities. Then when you

bring penguins back up to illustrate cooperative groups, they can think back to the activities they just did and have more of an input of what cooperative groups really mean. They can reflect on what just happened and how they feel about the activities, as opposed to reading “cooperative groups” and adding input of the meaning of the words. I think it’s easy to say you know what it means, but to experience it and talk about their real feelings is very beneficial.

5) What would you suggest to increase the effectiveness of this presentation?

Looks good. Remember less is more.

I think your presentation is GREAT!!! It’s very engaging and I love how interactive it will make the students. It’s a great way to get your point across, and not be lame (smiley face). I feel like your presentation is a little hard to critique because it’s really good and there is not much to point out for changes. Overall, I love it!! I have answered your questions below in blue. Please feel free to ask me follow-up questions if you have any. Thanks.

I asked question 1 because it is crucial to build camaraderie early on, to get them to take a chance and get out of their comfort zone. If it’s too much of a push, one or two students could sabotage the presentation. Question 2 is a big concern of mine due to my color blindness (as I mention in the question). I’m always worried that things that look fine to me look bizarre to a ‘normal’ person. I asked question 3 due to the fact that I’m not used to using nearly so many pictures in a presentation, so wanted some feedback. My draft wasn’t complete, so it hadn’t really talked explicitly about penguin cooperation yet, hence question4. Question 5 was open-ended because the most important questions are usually the ones you don’t think of.

My feedback was very positive overall. I made changes all of the specific feedback I got – mostly from questions 2 and 3. One very good one was about my use of parentheses (for additional information); I took them all out. For the comment about the female body builder, I did change the photo, but for an even more buff one! I like its shock value, and I can use those characters from the presentation (e.g., clown, tough (wo)man) as humorous monikers for those positions.

Bibliography

Abela, A. V. (2008). Advanced Presentations by Design: Creating Communication That Drives Action. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Duarte, N. (2008). slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Gill, K. E. (2009). Craft your story visually. Retrieved February 20, 2010 from: http://www.slideshare.net/kegill/presentation-zen-1248852

Medina, J. (2008). brain rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.

Reynolds, G. E. (2008). Authors @ Google – Presentation Zen. Retrieved February 6, 2010 from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ2vtQCESpk

Appendix A – Abela WorksheetsBelow are the worksheets from Appendix A of the Abela worksheets (from Advanced Presentations by Design)

Worksheet A.1a. Audience Personality Type

Audience Personality Type

12 to 24 ‘alternative’ high school math students

All personality types

Worksheet A.1b. Audience Personality Implications

Instructional Product (presentation or job aid) Implications:

Introverts & Extraverts. This is usually the first day of class with these students, so it’s not practical to provide any materials beforehand, though I will put copies of administrative forms on my website, and possibly this introductory presentation. I will also incorporate a reflection session at the end to discuss the activities

Sensors & Intuitors. I will give an overview of cooperative teams up front, and we will do representative example activities as a class.

Thinkers & Feelers. In the up-front overview, I will address the principles & benefits, and revisit in the reflection session. As a thinker, I will spend time determining what people issues will arise (of which I know many from past experience), and address a few up-front to try and preempt negative behavior during the activities, and others in the post-session. I will also participate in the meet-and-greet activities to help break the ice.

Judgers and Perceivers. I will present the benefits of cooperative learning up-front, with maybe more details & comparison data to other learning methods in the post (reflection) session.

Worksheet A.2. From-To Think-Do Matrix

From To

Think Disliking or hating working in ‘groups’.

Viewing structured cooperative learning as being more productive and enjoyable than working in ‘groups’.

Do Either refusing to work in a group, or being overbearing with their group.

Performing their roles in their cooperative teams, and being supportive & helpful to other team members.

Worksheet A.3. Audience Problem

Most of my audience does not want, or know how to work with other students. They lack the inter-personal and collaborative skills needed to work effectively in groups, many have some extreme behavioral problems, and most have a negative perception of ‘group work’ from the past where teachers stuck them together and said “work together!”

There have been numerous studies that have shown that, given the proper training, structure and support, students can learn more and better in a cooperative learning group. My goal is to show them how working together can be more both a better learning experience and more fun than working alone.

Worksheet A.4. Spectrum of Solution Contributions

Solve the whole problemSolve part of the problem

Help define the solution space

Help define the problem

Help recogni

ze there’s

a proble

m

This presentation will show students the structure they

will use to work cooperatively; some of their detrimental

personal and social behaviors will not be possible to change.

Worksheet A.5. Solution Evaluation

Evaluation Criteria

Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4

Present cooperative

learning strategies and

benefits; form and practice in teams

(proposed solution)

Do Nothing

(work individually)

(alternative 1)

Assign teams and roles and tell them to work together

(alternative 2)

Present cooperative learning strategies (but no modeling,

practice)

(alternative 3)

Willingness to collaborate

Much more willing – after a positive experience

Want to work alone, or in groups but only to socialize

Some will try, but most won’t

Most won’t try, with no experience with how it works

Ability to relate multiple perspectives

Yes. Will hear more, and have them written down

No. Only their own, or no perspective

Scattered success, depending on group makeup

Most won’t collaborate, since not put in groups or shown how to do it

Positive attitude about teamwork

Most will have Same negative attitudes

Same attitudes – those who like will do, those who don’t, won’t

Possibly a slight improvement

Understand benefits of cooperative learning

Yes, most will No. And won’t care.

Some, but mostly only because it makes it easier to copy others’ work

Mostly know. Will have heard about them, but not experienced them

Worksheet A.6. List of Evidence

Evidence – Information I will need to include in the presentation

1. Introductory presentation on what cooperative learning is, its benefits, and how we will be doing it in this class. (done implicitly – by doing)

2. A class-building activity to meet-and-greet, share experiences, ideas, etc., and how to randomly form initial teams.

3. Instructions for assigning numbers to each member and examples on what their roles might be.4. Team-building activity to model a couple of cooperative structures.

5. Structured class sharing activities.6. Activity to look into cooperative groups in the animal kingdom.7. Activity to share opinions and feelings about the cooperative activities.

Worksheet A.7 Stakeholder Analysis

Who will be impacted by the success or failure of this instructional product?

Students Instructor Parents

What is their role in the success or failure of this instructional product?

If they buy-in to this way of learning, then it can succeed

I must put in the time and effort to design the coop. learning into the instruction

Parental support is the biggest determiner of student success, so their buy-in to this method is crucial

How will they be impacted if the instructional product is a success (i.e., learners achieve learning objectives)?

They will have a much higher probability of passing the course and improving their attitude about math.

I will enjoy teaching more, and will not be in as high demand as before – since students will be helping out each other

They will be pleasantly surprised to see better grades and hear positive comments about math class.

How will they be impacted if the instructional product is a failure (i.e., learners do not achieve learning objectives)?

It’ll reinforce their belief that working in groups is a bad idea, and will be less willing to give it a try

Will get frustrated, and will likely blame it on the students’ unwillingness to give it a fair chance

Will have less confidence in my teaching abilities – if they hear negative comments about the ‘groupwork”