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Naomi's Cooperative Learning Lesson Planby Naomi Speare Reviewer: Gail Ingwalson

Reviewed on: 11/26/05 10:03 PM

Peer Lesson Plan

I felt that you conducted a good lesson - review the suggestion below and continue to strive to grow as potential teachers : ) 7/7

Descriptive Data

Teacher(s):Kip Adams and Naomi Speare

Topic: Cooperative learning

Standards

You've included many standards which is a good learning tool as you become acquainted with the way that standards govern our teaching.

INTASC.1.M P: The teacher can create interdisciplinary learning experiences that allow students to integrate knowledge, skills, and methods of inquiry from several subject areas.

INTASC.2.D D: The teacher appreciates individual variation within each area of development, shows respect for the diverse talents of all learners, and is committed to help them develop self-confidence and competence.

INTASC.2.F P: The teacher assesses individual and group performance in order to design instruction that meets learners' current needs in each domain (cognitive, social, emotional, moral, and physical) and that leads to the next level of development.

INTASC.4.B K: The teacher understands principles and techniques, along with advantages and limitations, associated with various instructional strategies (e.g. cooperative learning, direct instruction, discovery learning, whole group discussion, independent study, interdisciplinary instruction).

INTASC.5.B K: The teacher understands how social groups function and influence people, and how people influence groups.

INTASC.5.C K: The teacher knows how to help people work productively and cooperatively with each other in complex social settings.

INTASC.5.D K: The teacher understands the principles of effective classroom management and can use a range of strategies to promote positive relationships, cooperation, and purposeful learning in the classroom.

INTASC.5.H D: The teacher values the role of students in promoting each other's learning and recognizes the importance of peer relationships in establishing a climate of learning.

INTASC.5.L P: The teacher engages students in individual and cooperative learning activities that help them develop the motivation to achieve, by, for

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example, relating lessons to students' personal interests, allowing students to have choices in their learning, and leading students to ask questions and pursue problems that are meaningful to them.

INTASC.7.H P: The teacher plans for learning opportunities that recognize and address variation in learning styles and performance modes.

INTASC.7.I P: The teacher creates lessons and activities that operate at multiple levels to meet the developmental and individual needs of diverse learners and help each progress.

INTASC.8.A K: The teacher understands the characteristics, uses, advantages, and limitations of different types of assessments (e.g. criterion-referenced and norm-referenced instruments, traditional standardized and performance-based tests, observation systems, and assessments of student work) for evaluating how students learn, what they know and are able to do, and what kinds of experiences will support their further growth and development.

INTASC.9.C D: The teacher values critical thinking and self-directed learning as habits of mind.

INTASC.10.B K: The teacher understands how factors in the students' environment outside of school (e.g. family circumstances, community environments, health and economic conditions) may influence students' life and learning.

Gail's Websites

Educational Websites

UnitedstreamingNo resources added.

Resources

You did seek additional resources in addition to our text - good. Other renowned authors on cooperative learning are Kagan and Johnson & Johnson for further reference

Felder, Richard M. and Rebecca Brent. "Effective Strategies for Cooperative Learning." North Carolina State University: 2001.http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/cooperative_learning.html#publications-coop

This is a very helpful cooperative learning web page.

Felder, Richard M. and Rebecca Brent. "Cooperative Learning in Technical Courses: Procedures, Pitfalls, and Payoffs." October 1994.http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/papers/coopreport.html

Another very good web page made by the same person.

Kellough, Richard R. and Noreen G. Teaching Young Adolescents. Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ: 2003. 4th ed.

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ObjectivesThese objectives are measurable - good! Some may also lead to some critical thinking which is a goal that good teachers constantly strive to achieve.

1. Students should be able to define cooperative learning.

2. Students should be able to explain pros and cons of cooperative learning.

3. Students should understand why cooperative learning is important and can explain why teachers should keep using it.

4. Students should be able to think of obstacles that go with cooperative learning and should be able to think of ideas to overcome these obstacles.

5. Students should know how to apply cooperative learning in their classrooms.

AssessmentYou did seek out a general exit slip although I'm not sure that it directly assesses the objective you have set forth. I do like the questions on the exit slip though because they push the students to think about what they have learned!

Naomi and I made little sheets that the students will have to answer when we are done or while we are giving our presentation.

ProceduresThis is not very detailed although I do believe that this will occur over time. The actual activities and lesson you presented were well thought out and organized. I do worry about using powerpoint as most often students simply read the slides which doesn't promote class discussion. You did do some interjection but it was mainly information dissemination.

• Start off asking the question "What is cooperative learning?" and have students doactivity.

• Discuss the students answers from the activity and have everyone share. Everyone'sinput is important!

• Start the powerpoint: go over the definition of cooperative learning, false statements,elements of cooperative learning, why use cooperative learning, drawbacks, why we

should keep using cooperative learning, and things to think about when applyingcooperative learning into your classroom.

• Finish up the powerpoint and hand out assessments.

Material /Equipment

We will need a thing of sticky post-its and some large sheets of paper for our activity we

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have planned. We also need a computer and projector for the powerpoint presentation we are giving.

ReflectionGood reflection on not only what went well but regarding what you would have done differently. You provide good suggestions for improvement which will help to make you a stronger teacher.

I thought the lesson flowed really smoothly. The opening activity went well, and although the class thought they were clueless about cooperative learning, they actually had a pretty good base knowledge about it, and our presentation was able to offer them more information. I liked using the powerpoint slides, once we figured out how to use the technology. That is one thing I learned; come early and be prepared. It would have helped if we had more time before class to set-up the computer and figure it out, but we did okay. In a classroom, though, we would have had chaos with ten minutes downtime in the beginning of the period. I thought the information we had was good, with pros and cons, plus how it helps student learning and why teachers should use cooperative learning. One thing we could do better would be to teach more about the differences between group work and cooperative work, because that was a question a lot of people had on their exit slips.Overall, I thought the lesson went well. I would have liked to do another activity with it, to keep everyone awake and involved, and I also would have liked to have another form of assessment to review and see what they learned. A group quiz could have been done at the end, because that could be done cooperatively and it would cover the information they learned. There are tons of things we could have done with this topic, and a few things that could be improved for next time, but for the most part, I think our presentation went well!

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