By Martin Joyce, posted December 5,
2016 —
Cooperative learning is a learning and teaching style that contrasts
greatly with traditional direct instruction. In direct instruction, the teacher
completes a math example for the class, then works with the class, and finally
the students try it on their own. With cooperative learning, the students start
the problem and work it out together. The teacher then provides closure, after students
have presented their ideas and shown how they have connected the ideas and added
academic vocabulary. According to my review of the research, fewer students can
access the content using direct instruction and usually forget it quickly.
Cooperative learning provides opportunities for productive struggle, in which students
learn from their mistakes through explanations from their peers and teacher.
The classroom environment must be such that students feel safe to make mistakes.
Group work takes commitment. For many teachers (myself included), it is
difficult at the beginning. You need to fight the urge to take back control. When
students are in control of their learning, they have time to try out ideas,
listen to one another, and gain confidence among their peers and the whole
class. It can and will be frustrating at times. Remember, we aren’t all
naturally great at group work. I had to teach my accelerated class the word “tact”
after hearing what was said among classmates. It takes practice. I hope that the
following suggestions of establishing study team norms and using study team
support strategies will help your students improve and that you will see
positive results.
Each year, I introduce study team norms and reinforce them with participation
quizzes. The following are some of the rules: No talking outside your team;
keep the conversations on math; ask questions, do not give answers; wait for
everyone to finish; don’t work ahead; keep your desk clear of clutter; justify
your answer; and ask your team before the teacher. A colleague of mine,
Aristotle Ou, developed these study team norms with each class. This idea was suggested to him by the Week of
Inspirational Math on youcubed.org,
which asked students to finish two statements: “When working in groups, I like
when. . . .” and “When working in groups, I don’t like when. . . .” Student
answers contain such gems as “I don’t like when people are off topic, give up,
say the answer before you tried it,” and so on.
One of the most important and effective study team strategies suggested by CPM
(College Preparatory Math) is the participation quiz. Place a grid on the board
and/or your clipboard of the groups’ seating arrangements. Before the students start
the lesson, highlight one of the study team norms. Then, you update the board as the lesson progresses,
with positive and negative quotes
that are evidence of sharing ideas, critiquing ideas, and checking if teammates
understand it. Students enjoy getting the instant feedback and are not
distracted by it.
Another strategy that I’ve used is called red light green light. Students worked on three tasks in which they
had to decide if a situation was proportional or not and justify their answer with
a table, a graph, and an explanation. Then a representative from their group
goes up to the board and checks the answer. If the student is wrong, that’s a
red light to stop and discuss the mistake with the group and fix it. Then the
student has a green light. If the student representative got it right the first
time, then it is a green light. This sounds like a simple strategy, but
students are motivated when they don’t need the teacher to confirm whether they
are right or not. It also empowers students to be responsible for their own
learning.
Rally Coach or Pairs Check is a partner and group strategy that I also like. Students
work on a problem with a classmate. The catch is, one person talks and explains
the problem while the other writes and says nothing. If the writer disagrees, they
switch roles. Then the pairs check with the pair across the table from them to
see if they got the same answer. This strategy increases accountability for
students who hide in a group of 4.
The final strategy I’d like to share is called Hot Potato. A group of 4 students uses 1 piece of paper,
and each student uses a different colored pencil. They then do one step of a
problem, pass the paper to the next person who completes a step, and so on. I
(and the students) can look at the paper and instantly see if everyone is
contributing.
How have you gotten students to work efficiently in groups?
Martin Joyce, [email protected],
is a middle school math teacher at Taylor Middle School in Millbrae,
California. He blogs at http://joyceh1.blogspot.com and
Tweets from @martinsean. He has
taught every level of middle school from sixth-grade math support to
eighth-grade accelerated algebra 1. His passion is developing each student’s
math identity with cooperative learning, Desmos lessons, and peer feedback. He
regularly reads books and blogs to refine his craft.