Collaborating the Big Idea

What is cooperative learning?

            Cooperative learning is a strategy that is used to have students work collectively together.  There are various elements that are included into cooperative learning, such as positive independence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, interpersonal skills,  and group processing.  According to Teacher Vision, “Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different ability levels, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible, not only for learning what is taught, but also for helping his or her teammates learn—thus creating an atmosphere of achievement” (p.1). Through cooperative learning, students are learning how to work together as a team and by them sharing their thoughts, they are learning how to take turns and building upon their social skills. The goal for cooperative learning is for the teacher to motivate the students and have them work together to complete the task.

Planning

            When Lindsay and I were planning our cooperative lesson, we wanted the fourth grade students to be engaged and working together as a team. However we wanted them to know what it was like to fulfill a role and how important it is to stay on top of the role they were given. After seeing how engaged the students were with the iPads and the web-based Voki project, we thought the students would love to create their own newspapers on a cause that lead to the American Revolution. We decide that the students could pick what event they wanted to do and from what perspective they are going to write it from. The students were going to be divided into groups of five and each group will have five different roles. It was important that the students worked individually on their role they were assigned and then collaborate together as a group. Lindsay and I thought it was important to take notes on the students performance during this time and if they stay on task or not. When the students finished their newspapers, they watched a GoAnimate Presentation Tip video that could help them learn how to present when they talk in front of the class. It was important that for this lesson the students did not fool around, laugh and ask each other in front of the classroom when they are presenting. Lindsay and I thought that they should share with the class what event they chose, why they chose it, and how they may be persuading a reader to join their side. Having the students share their newspapers opens up ideas for the class and allows them to see what their peers did and how they went about it. Lindsay and I also believed that they should evaluate themselves and their group members. It is important for students to see what they could improve upon next time and what worked out the best for their teamwork.

Implementation

            Lindsay and I will present four pictures that will activate the student’s prior knowledge about the content of the American Revolution. The students will be asked to hold thumbs up if they agree with their peers statement or  thumbs down if they do not agree with the statement and then they will explain why. The students will be asked what it means to be a team player and the expected responses Lindsay and I are looking for are team players work together, listen to each other’s ideas, and contribute to the work. The students will then watch the GoAnimate video that is on Presentation Tips, which will help the students when they present their project later on. This was important for the students to see because when the fourth graders presented their Voki’s on Wednesday, they did not have the proper skills. After the students watch this video, I will ask them what the four tips are and then say, “Excellent, today, you are going to need to take what you know about the causes of the American Revolution and teamwork skills to create a newspaper that could have been circulated at the time of the Revolution.”  

            The students will then be placed into pre-assigned groups, which will be five groups of five and one group of six. Each group will create a newspaper that could have been circulated during the time of the causes leading to the American Revolution. During his time, both the British and the colonists were trying to persuade people to join their side, therefore the fourth graders had to write their newspaper to persuade someone to join their side for a specific event. During this time, Lindsay and I will use the PowerPoint presentation to show the students an example of how a newspaper is designed and that all newspapers have different layouts.  This was a good visual example for the students before they started to create their newspapers. Lindsay will show the students a model of our newspaper we created and explain the roles we took when creating it. Lindsay then explained to the fourth graders the rubric that they will be follow for their newspaper project. The students will then be introduced to the five group roles of the newspaper article, such as the editor (leader), reporter (writer), fact-checker (researcher), photographer (drawer), and designer. Lindsay and I will explain to the students that we will be circulating throughout the room to ensure that everyone is doing their individual role and that they are following the cooperative expectations. At the end of the lesson, the students had to fill out an evaluation sheet for themselves and their group members.  Now the students will have the opportunity to go into their assigned groups and choose who will take on each role for the newspaper. The group of six students will have two reporters and each reporter should work individually and then they could work together.

            The fourth graders will be given twenty-five minutes to create their newspapers. On the SmartBoard, there will be a timer for the students to keep track of how much time they have left. As the students are working, Lindsay and I will monitor  while taking notes on how each student will meet their academic and social goals. I will facilitate positive interdependence by having each group complete one newspaper assignment together. To facilitate individual accountability, all the group members will have specific roles within the group. I will encourage them to  take responsibility for each individual role and than help another group member if they are done with their job. By having the students complete the peer and self-evaluation forms, this will allow them to require students to be accountable. I will ensure to facilitate face-to-face interaction and social skills, students will sit together and will be encouraged to discuss multiple ideas with each other. To facilitate group processing, I will have the students discuss how they worked together as a team and how they can improve for next time. The fourth graders will prepare for this part of the presentation together through reflective discussion. Each student will also be filling out a group processing form evaluating their own work and their peers’ contributions to the newspaper.

            Each group will practice for a couple minutes of what each group member will say during their group presentation. It is very important for the students to remember the presentation tips that were announced in the beginning of the lesson. To wrap up the lesson, each group will share their newspaper to the class. Once every group presents their newspaper, the groups will come back together and discuss ideas on what they could improve on next time and why it is important to do so. For independent practice, each student will be given a constructed-response worksheet. The student will need to consider an event from another group and write a paragraph justifying why that event was appropriate for the group to persuade people to join their side. The students will be a rubric on the back of this worksheet that the students can refer to if needed.

Reflection

            For the introduction, the students were given political cartoons and they were asked various questions about them. At this point, the students are used to looking at pictures of the American Revolution and telling Lindsay and I what event it is and what happened. However in this lesson, we wanted more than just that; I pushed the students to describe more and tell me how both sides felt. The political cartoons were different than just pictures from events, even though it was the same concept. As students stated their ideas, the rest of the students had to put thumbs up if they agreed with what their classmate was saying or thumbs down it they did not agree. This allowed me to see where everyone was with the political cartoon. If a student had their thumb down, I would ask them why they do not agree and sometimes they were correct, or they were just confused. This allowed the students to actively participate and this also helped them pay attention. The political cartoons effectively promoted the students’ thinking about the content they have learned and it motivated them to raise their hand to be called on to answer the questions. I noticed that in this lesson introduction, the students that did not participate regularly started to raise their hands and seemed to feel more confident with their comments regarding the political cartoon. When the students watched the GoAnimate presentation tips video, they found it very funny, however they were paying attention. Once the video was over, the students were asked to repeat the rules for presenting and they knew all of them. From the previous lesson the students were laughing, slouching and not speaking loud and clear when they were presenting their Voki’s. The GoAnimate video led to great results later in the lesson and I believe that it motivated students to practice and use these tips when they were presenting today. When the students had to present their newspapers, the students all improved on their presentation skills.  I can see that reminding the students how to present, did improve their presentations today. The students were motivating each other within the group and broke down who was going to talk and what they were going to talk about for their group presentation.   

            By reviewing the rubric it helped the fourth graders understand what we are looking for in their newspapers and how they should go about doing it. By explaining to them the task step by step, it decreased the amount of questions asked during the assignment and also allowed the students to think what they should be doing for their specific role. The students were allowed to pick their roles; my partner and I thought it would be beneficial for the students to pick their roles, since everyone has different skills and talents. Telling the fourth graders what we expect them to get on the rubric, allowed the to display their higher level thinking and many students were thinking more creatively. When the students began to start their newspaper, many of them were trying to think of creative facts, captions, and titles. The students were very excited they were getting paper that had tea dye on it with burnt edges from fire. The fourth graders were all engaged at all times during this activity and kept referring back to the rubric that was given to them in their group folder. Each group member got the opportunity to select the roles they wanted in this assignment. Lindsay and I thought it would be best for this project that each student got to pick the role they wanted within their group. Instead of group members arguing because they wanted to switch with someone else, by having the students pick what they wanted, they couldn’t complain as much. Since the students picked their assigned roles, they were more likely to succeed and complete their personal role. In the groups that I observed, every student was working on his or her particular role and sometimes they would make suggestions to another group member about their role. Each student increased their individual accountability for their personal role and completing this assignment as a group. When the fourth graders were creating their newspapers, they had twenty-five minutes to finish and then each group had to present their newspaper to the class. By providing a rubric for the newspaper, the students were able to check and make sure that they included everything. The rubric was a guideline for each group to make sure they have enough detail, title, pictures, etc. for their newspaper. There was a timer on the SmartBoard in front of the classroom, which allowed the students to keep track of how they are managing their time during his assignment. I believe the timer helped most groups stay self-regulated and motivated to finish their role in the group. However there was one group that kept getting side tracked and I needed to remind them to keep their eyes on the timer because they need to finish their newspaper and then present it to the class. The students were encouraged to take responsibility for their own role and make sure their group members are staying on task.

            The observation checklist helped me see the social skills within each group. This checklist allowed me to be organized when I monitored the student’s progress toward meeting their goal for social interaction. This checklist also made it easy for me to keep track of all the students completing their work and if they are staying on task or not. It was important for this assignment that the students worked together as a team and communicated with each other. Many groups were exchanging ideas for the layout of the newspaper and their thoughts on what the newspaper should be about. This observation checklist allowed me to keep track of all the students’ work in progress for the newspaper assignment. Having an observation checklist also is useful because I could go back and see how a student did or remind myself what happened during the group work when grading the newspaper assignment.

           The students filled out the group processing forms honesty because the comments they made, allowed me to know exactly what went on in the group when I was not observing their group work. One group had a major problem with the group leader because that group leader was taking over, therefore the students wrote that they learned that they need to communicate more with the group leader and explain what teamwork is. Students realized that being off task did not help them because they were losing time towards their newspaper assignment. The fourth graders also mentioned that they should use there inside voices when working in groups. When a students is done with their particular role, they should assist other students with their roles since the students are working in teams. Overall, the students had great feedback with the social interactions. Students realized that they may need to communicate more or behave and stay on task at all times. This group work taught students to work together and many students learned what they should try to work on next time to be a better team player, along with being a better group all together. The group processing forms helped both the students and I to reflect on what should be improved with group work and what they learned.

The independent practice was assigned at the end of class, however if students were not finished, it was assigned for homework. This allowed the students to reflect on both the newspaper and teamwork today. Many students received full credit for the reflection of their teamwork because they also made great suggestions for next time. However when it came to the newspaper, many students did not answer the question fully. These self-evaluation questions allowed the students to focus on their social interaction and their job for the newspaper. It is important for students to reflect on work they did that day and to also learn something from what they completed in class. Today, many students observed new ideas for how they could improve their teamwork for next time. The independent practice showed me on what I could reinforce or change for group work next time or what to continue to do for groups to succeed. These three questions wrapped up the lessons for the causes of the American Revolution, along with reinforcing what happened in the event they choose for their newspaper.

Thank you for reading,

Works Cited

What Is Cooperative Learning, and What Does It Do? (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2015, from https://www.teachervision.com/cooperative-learning/teaching-methods/48448.html

A Little Investigation

What is inquiry instruction?

            Inquiry  learning is based on constructivism, therefore using this strategy will allow a teacher to activate prior knowledge and build upon it. Inquiry is constructed with the five E’s, which is beneficial for both  the teacher and students.  According to Enhancing Education (2002), “The five E's allows students and teachers to experience common activities, to use and build on prior knowledge and experience, to construct meaning, and to continually assess their understanding of a concept” (p.1). The five E’s are engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. Using the five E’s helps the teacher get the students on track and engaged in what they will be learning. This learning model helps students stay focused and makes them discover what they are learning, rather than listen to it. This method engages students and they will then become interested and realize that learning is fun. Using inquiry in multiple subjects, also allows students to realize that they can use the same strategy in multiple subjects. The five E’s keeps teachers on track as well as students because they know what order they have to teach the E’s in.  

Planning

           When Lindsay and I were planning for our inquiry lesson plan, we wanted to keep the students engaged in the activities they were going to do. Since my major is Information Technology at Mount Saint Mary College, I like to integrate technology into the classroom as much as possible. Lindsay and I thought for this lesson that the students could use iPads individually and in groups. After talking to the cooperating teacher about our lesson plan, she told us that the fourth grade students never used iPads before; therefore we would have to do explicit instruction on how to use an iPad. After our direct instruction lesson, we wanted the students to explore either the British side or colonist side of a cause leading to the American Revolution. The students were going to be put into eight small groups and will be assigned an event with either the British or colonists’ perspective. Lindsay and I found resources that could help the students understand how their side felt, therefore they could display it in their web-based project. We thought the students would like to create a speaking avatar, which can be made through a Voki. Voki is a great way to incorporate the use of technology in this lesson. We believe that the fourth grade students will be excited to create their own speaking character, based on the research they do for the event. Lindsay and I decided that it is important to access what the students remember from the last lesson; therefore we created a Socrative pre-assessment for the students. After talking to the fourth grade teacher and hearing how the students never used an iPad, Lindsay and I thought that for our introduction to the lesson e can teach how to use an iPad and access their knowledge from the previous lesson. Although this seems challenging with thirty-one students, Lindsay and I were ready and motivated to teach.

Implementation

Engagement:

            To get the students attention I will say, “All set” and the fourth grade students will reply saying, “You Bet!”  I will hand out an iPad to each student and as I hand the out I will explain some rules that the students must keep in mind when working with the iPads. The students will be completing a Socrative Pre-assessment for two purposes. One reason is later on in the lesson the students will be working with the iPads and they need to familiarize themselves with it. Another reason is to see what they remember from the last lesson and what Lindsay and I may need to go over again. Once all the students are done with completing the Pre-Assessment, Lindsay will review and ask, “What do I mean when I say, there are two sides to every story?” When one student answers, the rest of the class should put their hands on their head if they disagree and thumbs up if they agree. The focus of this lesson will be, “Today, you will be working in groups as historians to determine how this idea might have led up to war!” The students will be introduced to a Historian Voki that will give them directions for what their assignment is today. The Historian Voki will say, “My colleagues and I are having trouble figuring out who is really responsible for the Revolutionary War, both the British and the colonists insisted that the other side was completely responsible. We need your help! Today, we will grant you clearance into our historical records. It will be your job to determine how the British and the colonists viewed the events leading up to the American Revolution and how it led to the war!”

Exploration:

           The students will now think back to any science fair projects they have done. Lindsay and I will present the six steps of the inquiry process using a SmartBoard notebook we put together to engage the students. The six steps are the following: ask a question, hypothesize, collect data, analyze data, draw conclusions, and share results. Based on the question the Historian asked the fourth grade students, they will need to write an “if-then” hypothesis statement. I will model how to write one with real life situations and examples. The three examples are “If a player kicks the soccer ball, then the soccer ball will move. If you stub your toe, then your toe will hurt.  If there is very cold weather, then the Hudson River will freeze.” The students will be given three minutes to write their hypothesis in response to the historian’s question. Lindsay and I will circulate throughout the room to see if any students need help writing their hypothesis statement. Once the students are done writing their hypothesis statements, they will be told what group they are in for this project. The students will be broken into groups of four and one group of three. Each group will receive an investigation folder on one of the topics such as, the Proclamation of 1763, Stamp Act, Boston Massacre, and Boston Tea Party. For each event, one group will have the British perspective and another group will have the colonists’ perspective. Each group will write a script based on the information they were given and how they think someone from that side would feel. In groups, the students will write a script on a person’s point-of-view about the event. Once the students create a script, they will type it into the Voki and create their group character.

Expansion:

            Once every group is finished with that, the two groups that have the same events, will share their Voki’s with each other. Together the two groups will create a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting the two different perspectives on the one event. As the students are working together, Lindsay and I will be walking around to encourage them to compare the two different viewpoints. The students should also be explain why their side felt the way they did to the other group.

Explanation:

            Every event will present their Venn Diagram to the class. Each group will explain their side of the event and then the two groups together will explain what they found they had in common and what was different. The students will be asked how they came up with their conclusion for their event based on the data they collected. Lindsay and I will ask each group how they would use the inquiry process in the future.

Evolution:

            The students will be assessed three different ways, such as diagnostic, formative, and summative. For diagnostic assessment the students will be assessed based on their answers to the pictures of the causes of the American Revolution in the beginning of the lesson. The students will be graded on their Voki project based on a rubric, which they will be aware of before they create their web-based project. Lastly, the students will be given a summative assessment, which is also known as independent practice. For this the students will be asked to pick an event that they did not research in class. The students will be able to pick form the following events the Proclamation of 1763, Boston Tea Party, Stamp Act and the Boston Massacre. The students will have to write the colonist and the British point of view, along with explain how they differ and how this event led to the American Revolution.

Reflection

             I started the lesson off by saying, “All set” and waiting for the students to respond “You bet.” In the beginning I had to do it twice for the students to quiet down and get their full attention. This signal definitely improved to get the 4^th graders attention. They got excited and would scream, “You bet” when a teacher would say “All set.” On Monday, the cooperating teacher was not in school and today she was, which also made a difference in the behavior of her class. Although her presence could have made a difference, I think this signal got the students attention more than just clapping a rhythm. Once the students said, “You bet” the classroom was silent and all eyes were at my partner or me. If we had to do it twice, the students knew that they must be silent the second time and absolutely no talking. There was one time the cooperating teacher had to step in  and tell the students to quiet down, but overall the “All set, you bet” exchange signaled students’ attention.

            When the students received an iPad, they were extremely excited and they were all paying attention to me giving explicit instructions on how to use an iPad. The students used the iPads for their Socrative Pre-Assessment. There were only about 22 iPads that were in use; therefore about 9 students had to wait until one of their classmates were done. The majority of the class received a 5 out of 6 points for the Pre-Assessment. I think using this app engaged the students for our next lesson. They were very excited that they got to use an iPad and when they found out they were going to use it again, all the fourth graders had the biggest smile on their faces. Socrative was effective and allowed Lindsay and I to see what every students responded for each question. This also gave us feedback to see what they still need to work on. This Pre-Assessment motivated students because they wanted to use the iPad and learn more on the American Revolution. This Pre-Assessment allowed students to think back to what they learned on Monday about the causes of the American Revolution, which was a great review for them. By quickly assessing student’s knowledge, this also prepared them to what they were going to learn today. When introducing the Historian Voki, there were some technological difficulties with the sound. Therefore Lindsay played the role and read the script that the Historian Voki was going to say. As she was doing that, I was trying to fix the sound and connect it to the projector.  Once I found the correct cord we played the Historian Voki for the class. The students were laughing and excited. The students were paying more attention when the Voki worked, rather than when Lindsay read the script aloud. The fourth graders loved the effects Voki had and it grabbed their attention for their assignment today. The students were actively participating in the inquiry process. By the students discovering this Historian in the beginning of the lesson, I mentioned to them that today they were going to create their own Voki character; however they had to go over the inquiry process first.

     

The students gave us their full attention and many students were participating throughout the presentation of the steps of the inquiry process and directions for the assignment today. First the students reviewed the six steps of the inquiry process using the SmartBoard. Using the SmartBoard allowed Lindsay and I to have many useful tools, such as a magnify glass that we used for the six steps of the inquiry process. To see the steps, I took the magnifying glass and hovered over the steps. This allowed the students to focus on one step at a time and it also kept their attention because the step would appear out of nowhere.  This tool was also used so the students could predict what they thought would be next in the inquiry process.  Once the overview of the six steps were reviewed, I explained to the students what a “if…then” hypothesis statement is and how to create one.  I provided real life examples of a hypothesis that the students could relate to as a reference. Once we reviewed some examples, the students were given three minutes to write their own in response to the Historian’s question.

            Each group received an investigation folder on a specific topic, such as the Proclamation of 1763, Stamp Act, Boston Massacre, and the Boston Tea Party for their assignment. Each group had one event and one side, either the British or the colonists’ perspective. The groups has to look at the material that was given to them and create a script for what they thought a person would say from the assigned perspective about that event. Once the students completed that, they had to complete a Web Inquiry Project in the form of a Voki, which is when they were given the iPads again. I believe having the directions written in each folder helped the students understand what to do and allowed them to follow the order of steps. I also think it was very helpful for the students to be aware of how much more time they had to complete this, since it was up on the SmartBoard. The timer in the front of the room, kept most groups on track with their own progress. At some points, I had to remind a couple of groups to keep track of the time. By the students keeping track of their progress, they can go the pace they want to go, as long as the end of the timer completes the work. By modeling the steps of the inquiry process, I think it allowed the students to see what was expected from them and how they could go about it. This allowed the fourth graders to ask questions about what they had to do if they did not understand. The students understood each step and kept participating when they were asked a question. Going in order helps students develop new thoughts and it is a guide for them to make sure they are on the right track during this assignment. For example, providing them an example of how to write a hypothesis statement allowed them to have a better understanding of what I was looking for and how to go about it. The examples I gave were very relevant for the fourth graders and this was one example of how modeling helped them. Modeling when teaching is beneficial because the students see how they should think or what to do next and it is a good example for them to see how they will be able to complete their assignment later in the lesson. Walking around to each group during the lesson, made me realize that they are working hard and staying on task. When it got closer to the five minute mark I realized that the students may need more time to complete their Voki’s since it was taking them a while to use the Voki website. I think doing twenty minutes would have allowed the students more time to complete their assignment and I believe they could have written more of a script for the assignment. By providing only fifteen minutes made them do a short script of their assigned point of view for an event. The students in groups were discussing important key points that they believed should be included in their Voki. The students truly enjoyed this assignment and were always engaged in the inquiry process steps. By providing five more minutes of extra time, I believe the students would have been able to write more and also express clearer feelings and points from their given assigned point and event.

            There was not enough time for the students to complete the Venn Diagram, however if this lesson was broken into a two-day lesson, I think the students would have loved meeting with their opponent side of their assigned event. The tasks that were given to the students in their investor folders were motivating for them because the students seemed to like how they were being detectives and had to figure out their own case. During the Voki web-based project, all the fourth graders were actively participating and engaged in their event. There was some arguing in a group about who can type and use the iPad for the Voki, however I announced to the class that everyone must take a turn using the iPad for creating their Voki character. The students were then all sharing the use of the iPad and adding their own creative ideas to their groups Voki. This assignment motivated the students to investigate there given events and explain their point of view on the side given to them. The students were getting into how their side left and many students were acting it out before writing their scripts to show their group members how they picture the colonists’ or British side.

            The students did not have enough time to complete the Venn Diagrams, however I think if there was more time for this lesson, the fourth graders could have compared and contrasted the different point of views with another group. I think both sides would have found it interesting to see their points and how this was a problem during the event since the colonist and British had two different viewpoints. Instead, the students were asked to present their side of the event they were assigned to the class. This allowed the class to see the two different viewpoints on the same event, which made them think of which side they agree with. All the groups got to come to the front of the classroom and share their ideas and then I would play their Voki’s for the class. As I mentioned before, there was not enough time for the Venn Diagram; however having two groups present the same event with two different viewpoints allowed the class to see each side’s perceptions. I do believe the students would have liked comparing and contrasting the two different viewpoints, however the discussions during each group's presentation gave the class the main idea of both sides to every event that was assigned.

             I believe if they students completed the Venn Diagram, it would have encouraged them to have a higher level of thinking. Having the students listen to the other groups present, helped them have a better understanding on how each side felt of the same event. I believe the students got a deeper understanding of both sides of the events when each group was presenting.  When the groups were presenting, my partner and I would ask them questions regarding their event and side, along with how they decided to create the Voki. Every group had a different vision on how they created their Voki; one group picked a character that looked angry because the colonist were angry, which was very creative. When the students were presenting, they had to express why and how they created their Voki’s the way they did. The fourth graders had to think among each other how they decided to create this, which lead them to reflect on their metacognitive skills. Every student had a different viewpoint, however overall the students based it on the aside and event they had. They had to be creative to think of how they were going to create their Voki and present the material that needed to be covered for their event in the web-based assignment. Every group tried to make their Voki unique, but some groups tried to make it funny, which got the students off task a little. There was one group that just wanted to make the class laugh, which made the conversation and presentation get off task. When my partner and I would ask specific question regarding their event, they would just focus on what they learned.

           Many students received a two out of three for the independent practice in response to the objective.  The students had to write about the event they focused on in class, along with the view points from the Colonist and British. The last question asked the students if there was a difference between the two points and how it leads to the American Revolution. This allowed the students to start to think about how a specific event could have affected the American Revolution. The students understood the two different points of views and made comments how they know which side was angry at the other, which showed me they know the main idea of the event and why it happened. This independent practice allowed them to reflect on their work in class and allowed my partner and I to see if they were paying attention during the presentations, since they had to write about the opposite side of their event. I think this was a great exercise for them to reflect on and allow us to see what may be confusing still. This helped the students meet the objective for today!

 Thank you for reading,

Works Cited

The 5 E's. (2002). Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://enhancinged.wgbh.org/research/eeeee.html