Figure 13.2 The teacher organizing cooperative learning groups
The teacher points out in which part of the room the groups are to sit. One group of
students sits in a circle on the floor, two put chairs around two desks, and one group
sits at a table in the back of the room.
The teacher distributes handouts with a different part of the story to each group. He
then moves from group to group spending two or three minutes with each one.
The students appear to be busy working in their groups; there is much talking. After
10 minutes, the teacher tells the students to stop and asks for three students to leave
their group and to join another group. After 10 more minutes, they do this again. Then
the students return to their original groups and work on putting the parts of the story
together and teaching each other the new vocabulary. It is then time for the individual
vocabulary test. After the test, the students correct their own work. Students compare
and combine scores. The students put their groups’ scores on each of their papers.
The teacher picks up each group’s paper and quickly figures the room score. There
is much cheering and applauding when he announces that there will be five minutes of
extra recess for everyone. He then tells the groups to look at how they did on the
social skill of encouraging others and to complete two statements, which he has
written on the board while they were taking the vocabulary test:
Our group did best on encouraging others by ________, __________, and
__________ (three specific behaviors).
Goal setting: The social skill we will practice more often tomorrow is
________________.