Engage Your

without resorting

to

of the pastgimmicks

21st Century Learners

Feed Their Needto Socialize!

Engage students with rigorous, academic based opportunities to cooperate with peers, share

ideas, and challenge each other.Teach students how to do this in a safe and supportive environment where all ideas are

welcomed.Break down barriers of fear and indifference.

No matter what grade you work with, during this session continue to ask yourself “How can I modify these activities to fit my students?” All the strategies used today can easily be

adapted to fit any ability, age, or grade level.

Welcome to:Effective Grouping and Engagement Strategies

Michael Ann EffronReading CCIT - Starling Middle School

&April Knight

Principal - Avondale Elementary

Group UP!• Group by Primary, Intermediate, Middle, High• Decide how you’d like to group:

® Grade?® Subject?® School?

What Must GroupsKnow, Have in Place and Understand?

Whole Group – Pairs – Small Groups

Students’ succeed or fail—together.  Students help each other team members' success. All are accountable to each other and the group. Interpersonal and small-group skills are in place:

Communication Decision makingConflict resolution Time management

 

Why Cooperative groups?

Organizing students in heterogeneous cooperative learning groups at least once a week has a significant effect on learning.(Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001) There may be no other instructional strategy that simultaneously achieves such diverse outcomes as cooperative grouping including: achievement, time on task, motivation, transfer of learning, and other benefits.(Cohen, 1994a; Johnson, 1970; Johnson & Johnson, 1974, 1978, 1989, 1999a, 2000; Kohn, 1992; Sharan, 1980; Slavin, 1977, 1991) Cooperative learning can be ineffective when support structures are not in place. (Reder & Simon, 1997)

1. Forming Skills: Procedures, Taking turns, Quiet

voices2. Functioning Skills: Communication, Paraphrasing, Asking questions3. Formulating Skills: Working with Information, Learning, Summarizing4. Synthesizing Skills: Judgments, Reasoning, Integrating ideas

Required Skills for Successful Cooperative Learning

Whole Group – Pairs - Small Group

 

Forming skills involves PROCEDURES• quietly come together as a group, • to stay with the group, to • quickly attend to the task, • use quiet voices, and • take turns.  

Functioning skills are what help the group develop and maintain an effective working relationship. • sharing ideas and opinions, • asking each other and the teacher for facts and

reasoning,• giving direction to stay on task,• encouraging participation of other group members, • expressing support and acceptance of other group

members’ ideas and contributions, • offering to explain one’s ideas, and • paraphrasing one’s own and others’ ideas.

Formulating skills are cognitive skills which stimulate and develop the use of higher quality reasoning skills. • the ability to summarize ideas and material aloud, • seeking accuracy of these summaries, • seeking elaboration by relating material to what is already

known, • developing ways of remembering information (mnemonic

devices, for example), • checking other group members’ understanding by asking

for verbalization of their reasoning processes, and • asking others to plan out loud.

Synthesizing involves skills necessary to dispute and reconceptualize material and conclusions. These skills are necessary in thinking more divergently about an issue and arguing constructively about differences. • criticize ideas while expressing respect for the person with the

idea, • differentiate between group members’ ideas and reasoning, • ask for rationalization of ideas, • extend other members’ ideas by adding one’s own information, • integrate differing ideas into a single position, • generate more than one possible answer, and • check the group’s work against the original instructions and

timelines.

Teaching Social SkillsTeaching Math as a Social Activity

Written Reflection: What specific strategies and activities does Chris use to teach appropriate cooperative learning skills?

Please take notes during the video.You will need them for a group activity.

Grouped ResponsesAfter each of you has written your response I’ll ask you to turn to your group. Each of you will, in turn share your answer. Add any information to your answer that another member of your group mentions that you do not have written down. When finished you should have a comprehensive list of teaching strategies from the video.

MY Simple Rulesfor Social Skills

NO Shut Up ApologizeNO Stupid ApologizeNO Commenting by voice or gesture on group choice – PERIOD!

Removed from Activity

1. Explain the skill. a.Explain the purposeb.Explain the importance

2. Model the skill.a.Demonstrate the skill effectively b.Demonstrate the skill ineffectively c.Discuss similarities and differences (create T-charts)d.Describe why one was preferable to the other (write it)

3. Practice and Role-Playa.Students Role-Playb.Feedback should be given by students and teachers

4. Students Reflect on the Feedbacka.Ask Questionsb.If Necessary – Practice More

Cooperative Skills: A Direct Instruction Approach

(Step-By-Step)

Practice Whole GroupInteraction

1. Class PostersObjective: Summarize concepts, events, word meanings.Procedure: This works best with several topics or words. Each student starts with an 8 ½ X 11 piece of paper. Have each write a topic or word on the top of the paper. Give students 10 seconds to begin illustrating the concept with symbols, the beginning of a picture or using words. Then pass the paper to the right. Every 15 seconds have them pass again. You can continue as long as you like. It does not have to get all the way around the room. Having several papers with the same topic allows you to compare the posters at the end. Or, group students with the same posters to discuss similarities and differences. You could have a class discussion about the positives and negatives of each, what to keep – maybe even have some students create one final poster for each concept for the class to display.

Practice Whole GroupInteraction

2. Around the WorldObjective: Summarize or review a lesson or concept.Procedure: The goal is to create a sentence or short paragraph to answer a question or summarize a concept that was just discussed or taught. Each student can say one word to add to the sentence and the teacher or another student records it on the board. The turns work around the room in order. If students have notebooks this could be used as a way to take notes for the unit.

Practice Whole GroupInteraction

3. Lesson BINGOObjective: Students focus on the KEY points during a SHORT lecture.Procedure: Prepare a BINGO sheet that has 3x3 boxes. In each box write one key piece of information (or “note”) from your lesson. Leave certain parts missing from each note (similar to guided notes) but not enough that the students won’t recognize the information. Number the key points so you can review them before starting –DO NOT number them in the order that you will be discussing them during the lecture! During the lesson students should fill in the BINGO card. Based on the level of your students you may need to go more slowly and give them hints when important information has been shared and needs to be written down. When the lecture is over have students work together as a class to complete the BINGO card with you.

Whole Group Instruction Utilizing Specific Grouping and Engagement Techniques“The Lottery”

Read over the Summary

Engagement Strategies for Whole Group Direct Instruction:1. Hands-Up (Formative Assessment)2. Exit Tickets (Formative Assessment)3. Character Reading

Small Group Strategies Integrated into Whole Group Direct Instruction:4. Teacher vs. Student5. Post-It “Notes”

In Pairs: Choose two (or more if you have time) of these strategies and list ways each could be applied at your grade level.

Practice Interaction with

Pairs1. Homework checkers: Have students work in their teams to compare homework and discuss differing answers, correct answers, and include why they have changed their answers. The team can then turn in all the papers, with one being the final product.

2. Book report pairs: Have students work in pairs and interview each other on the book or story he or she has read. Each person then reports on what the other has read in oral or written form.

Practice Interaction with

Pairs3. Writing response teams: Students read and review each other’s’ papers, making written comments on what they like, suggestions they have, making grammar and punctuation corrections, and discussing it with the author.

4. Turn to neighbor: For three to five minutes, have students turn to their neighbor and explain an idea of the lesson to each other, state three important points of the lesson, come up with a question about the topic, or whatever else might fit into the lesson.

Practice Interaction with

Pairs5. Playing with UnderstandingObjective: Review information learned.Procedure: After learning new information students write a short play or dialogue to show their understanding of the topic. It could illustrate a time in history, an example of dialogue that may happen after a scene in a story or “behind the scenes”, it could be a conversation between two scientists or students about a scientific theory in practice or event happening.

Practice Interaction with

Pairs6. Picture ItObjective: Review key terms, concepts, or events.Procedure: After learning about several concepts, terms, or reading about events in history or a story, students will have several concepts, terms, or events to choose from. These items to choose from are listed on the board. One person should have their back to the board. You should give the pairs a set amount of time to draw and guess as many items as possible and then switch places. Put NEW items on the board to choose from. The second person now gets a chance to draw. The students can keep their drawings as “notes”.7. Clue ItThe same as above except words are used instead of pictures.

Practice Interaction with

Pairs8. Paired Verbal FluencyObjective: Answer any question or Review any topic.Procedure: Before starting have students decide who is person A and B. Person A begins with 45 seconds (you will time them). He or She will answer or summarize the question/topic for the allotted time without stopping. Person B must pay close attention because next they must speak for 30 seconds on the same topic WITHOUT repeating anything Person A said. Then Person A speaks again for 15 seconds without repeating anything Person B said. When the students are finished have them share out some discoveries.

Cooperative Group Team Formation for Long Term

GroupsSTEM Teams

Quick and EasyStep 1: Write your student’s names on index cards. Separate them into the 4 piles below.

Step 2: Then pick one card from each pile and form teams.

HIGH LOWMEDIUM LOW

MEDIUM HIGH

TEAM 1 TEAM 2

Building TeamSpirit

Giving teams time to get to know each other, laugh, and share personal stories builds a strong foundation of trust which leads to better communication.

• A Little Respect Goes a Long Way• Think Differently• Race to 12• I Never

Encouraging Group Discussion

Comment Cards for Group Discussion

Comment Cards are index cards printed with statement starters for students to use during group work or class discussions/book talks.

Before using Comment Cards in class teachers should model how to use the comments correctly in discussion and have students practice using them in Role-Plays.

Each time students work in groups encourage them to use their cards to generate better conversation.

Some teachers have assigned partners to keep track of how many times the other student asks a question using a statement starter.

Many authors believe that letting two close friends comprise a team will lead to lots of

off-task behavior. However, there is research which shows that friends are often more productive and creative and engage

in higher levels of cognitive functioning because they do not have to spend time getting to know each other and are more willing to challenge each other’s ideas. It

may, therefore, be more beneficial to have friends work together on short-term

projects and to group students together who do not know each other as well for

longer-term projects.

When I SAY GO You will:1.Create groups of three or four.2.Each group will need to grab a piece of

chart paper and a marker from a table.3.On Chart Paper4.Prepare your best statement – ONE

sentence to support your position. 5.Why do you agree or disagree with this

statement?6.Place your answer on the wall and find

your seat again.

You have 3 Minutes

Disagree?Go to the Right

Agree?Go to the Left

OtherInsights

There is more information in your handouts about

GRADING BEHAVIOR

Final Tips Observe teams as they work. Sit down with them while they work and give

feedback about their process. Ask questions about what they are doing, and

prompt them when they are having trouble getting started.

Make your expectations of group behavior very clear.

Integrate cooperative learning into your curriculum. Have students review for tests together, work on assignments together, and check each other’s work for accuracy and completeness. The more discussion and interaction there is between students, the more active participation there will be and the more they will learn.

Links

Full VideoTeaching Math as a Social Activity

Full VideoThe Lottery

More of her story…www.mrseffron.com