Cooperative Learning: A Photo Essay

See Rubric.
Teach Cooperative Group Rubric.

Use students to help model expectations of cooperative group rubric.

Say:
Do you see how everyone is engaged?
Do you see how they are all contributing?
This is what I want you all to do.

Every time.

Then practice.
And practice.
And practice.

All fall.
Into winter.

Feel a little disappointed.
Eat chocolate.
Take warm baths.
Take your vitamins.
Try not to get sick.

Steel your will and keep trying.

Until sometime in February when a certain group. . . .




   





 Starts doing this.












It helps to have a brand new experiential unit called "Code Blue" that makes learning feel enough  like playing so that it can act as a "reward." for hard work.

It helps to find take-apart body models, forgotten in the library, that came from the middle school long ago. Yes, that helps.


It also helps to have a cooperating teacher who mostly says things like, "Great idea! And then we could do. . . ." or "I've always wanted to. . . what do you think?"

And then gives you high fives in front of the students so you feel tremendously competent and the students learn what positive collaboration looks and sounds like.

All this helps a great deal. There are still days when the rules of engagement are broken and a few of us have to miss out on the fun.

But here's to the celebration of small successes that may plant seeds. . .

For future successes.