I ended with this one because it is my favorite. These structures stress positive interpersonal peer relationships, equality, self-esteem, and achievement. Thus, a loss for one student becomes a gain for another. Both partners names are on the paper, so both partners will agree to the answers to be graded. In a Timed Pair Share, each student in turn shares for a predetermined time, perhaps only a minute each.
Whether you are a newbie or a veteran teacher looking to improve cooperative group work in your classroom, this is the book for you. Kagan considers essential to his structural approach to cooperative learning: P positive interdependence; I individual accountability; E equal participation; and S simultaneous interaction. Some teachers in Japan teach courses where students are grouped homogeneously by major. With the structural approach, the content can be chosen by the students themselves, and the students' own ideas and input can become the main lesson material. They are great for literacy centers and Kagan activities.
If you create pre-made cards where you have questions and answers or vocabulary terms and definitions you can have students use this structure to find partners, use their cards to ask each other a question, trade cards and move to the next partner. Students have more opportunities to actively participate in their learning, question and challenge each other, share and discuss their ideas, and internalize their learning. Students at that age are reluctant to do things and this might be the expectation that is needed for them. Moreover, when controlling many groups you never know when a single group goes off-track from the task and till you find out a lot of time has been wasted. Rally Robin is a structure requiring students to alternate speaking in a set order. Hannah Bledsoe has a great poster that shows these two structures together. What do Kagan numbers look like? This new book presents today s most successful cooperative learning methods.
Many of the structures can fulfill a number of aims simultaneously, depending on how the teacher uses them. The rest of the class physically position themselves along the line at the point reflecting their own opinion. The Language Teacher, 18, 10. If you like this poster, find a whole p. Jot Thoughts Cooperative Learning Strategies Timed-Pair-Share Timed-Pair-Share Cooperative Learning Strategies are something many of us educators use intuitively, we just never knew someone named it and put into a book. Starting with academic achievements has been increased among those who have used cooperative learning. Teams review the feedback they received from the other teams.
I hope you find the list useful, and of course it goes without saying, I rely on you using this list as a springboard to accessing and learning much, much more about Kagan Structures in the future. Could use for digraphs, word families, blends, rhyme, alteration etc. Other than using the structures themselves, I believe that giving students choices about projects in other words, adopting a student-centered curriculum , and changing peer groups every class meeting so students work with all the other students in the class throughout the term, are important factors that lead to student satisfaction. You hear how schools have used Kagan Cooperative Learning to boost academics, close the achievement gap, improve student relations, and create a more kind and caring school community. When implemented well, cooperative learning encourages achievement, student discussion, active learning, student confidence, and motivation. Structures teach pupils social skills; interaction with other pupils, turn taking, listening to the views of others and sharing information. In his model, he mainly advocated two basic principles.
Moreover, in working in groups students learn to work with and understand others who differ from themselves. As you look across the other functions, you can see that RoundRobin is also great for practicing procedures, processing or presenting information, and for developing and engaging a range of thinking skills. While there may be a couple of things that I wouldn't us I keep coming back to this book for practice ideals. Sergeant support ² encourages all ideas, suspends judgement e. English teaching professional, 25; 17-18. The focus is to promote group cooperation and provide students practice with stan.
Place the game board in the center of a desk cluster of 4. The Language Teacher, 25 5 31-32. Inside Outside Circle Jot Thoughts Jot Thoughts structure is about brainstorming or coming up with many ideas or answers. Classroom management is a piece of cake when students are engaged, learning and enjoying the process of learning. Kagan writes: We need to include cooperative learning experiences in our classrooms, because. Cooperative learning changes students' and teachers' roles in classrooms.
I draw upon Kagan's structures as well as other pedagogical approaches and techniques, such as student centered learning e. Each group will need a set of base ten blocks, cards, and two w. Where can you get Kagan numbers? Along with this comes all the benefits of facilitating the learning of a class where pupils are all actively and simultaneously engaged in learning. Participating in a multi-day course will show you how to build powerful learning teams in your classroom. In I shared my top secrets for launching your best school year ever! I love all these spaces and try to incorporate them as much as possible in the layout of my own office. The teacher chooses a number, 1 or 2, to speak first.
It covers grouping in pairs and small groups to build a team learning spirit in the classroom. Cooperative learning also introduces the sense of social orientation so that students find other students someone to work with rather than someone to beat. If the teacher does not wish to call on all students to report what has been said, randomly choosing a few students encourages all students to be ready to do so. A situational identity perspective on cultural diversity and teamwork in the classroom. At the end of this, I like to have each group share out their ideas as they put on a main board for all to see.
To learn more about Kagan Structures read by Dr Spencer Kagan, in particular Chapter 6 on Structures and Functions. Using the strategies included in this resource. They both go hand and hand. I personally think it would be super beneficial in middle school! Use of non-linguistic intelligences can also help to compensate for the still developing linguistic skills of language learners in Japan and elsewhere in language courses. I can't wait to try it this coming year! It is also a useful device for checking comprehension in a language class. My evaluations regularly tell me I do.