Trade-a-Problem (Kagan, 1994)

Method

1. Students are in groups of four; each group member has a number from 1 to 4. Each writes a “thinking question” on one side of a piece of paper and a response to the question on the other. (Previously, the class has discussed the difference between a text-retrieval question -- one for which the answer can be retrieved directly from the text -- and a thinking question -- one for which the answerer needs to go beyond the information given in the text.)

2. Groupmates review one another’s questions and responses and discuss their quality. If necessary, the group makes changes. The questions (only) are then written on four separate slips of paper.

3. Each group exchanges its four questions with another group. Each group member receives one of the other group’s questions and writes a first draft of a response.

4. Each person reads out the question he or she received and the draft response. The group discusses these responses and tries to reach consensus about a single group response to each question. The resulting responses are written down.

5. The teacher calls a number. The students with that number in the two groups who exchanged slips of paper explain their group’s responses; in turn, the other group shares the responses they had earlier written to their own questions.

6. The group representatives return to their original group. Groups discuss the other group’s responses.

7. Whole class discussion follows.

PIES Analysis: Positive Interdependence, Individual Accountability, Equal Participation, and Simultaneous Interaction

P

Students work together in their teams to prepare their questions and to respond to the questions they receive. The groupmates help on another to prepare questions and responses. The group needs to rely on the one member who was chosen at random to present their responses.

I

All group members need to work alone initially to create a question with a response, and then to write a response to a question from the other group. All work is presented to the group. Also, the group representative is chosen at random to present the group’s responses to another group. Thus, everyone needs to be ready.

EEach student writes a question to send to another team and an initial response to the question he or she receives from the other team, and each group member has an opportunity to speak when reading the questions and responses.

S Twenty-five percent of the class -- that is, one student per group -- is speaking simultaneously when questions and responses are read and shared.

From “Reading Alone Together: Enhancing Extensive Reading via Student-Student Cooperation in Second-Language Instruction” by George Jacobs and Patrick Gallo.

Reading Online, www.readingonline.orgPosted February 2002