Category: Cooperative Learning

Tite: #18 Teaching Students to Get Into Groups and Teaching About Group Responsibilities
Time Needed: 45 Minutes
Room Arrangement: Cooperative Groups 3-5 Students Each
Materials: Group Work Rules Poster
Process/Directions: Ask students if they have worked in a cooperative group. Have a discussion
about what it means to work in a group. Explain that each student will always have a
role/responsibility while in groups. Each time the students work in a group, they will be accepted
to share the work and work together, to be respectful of other opinions, basically go over each
point on the poster and talk about it with the students. Hang the poster in a place where everyone
can see it. Explain the various jobs that students could have such as materials handler, time
manager, encourager, question commander, checker, focus keeper, recorder, quiet captain and
presenter. Assign numbers to each desk in the group or count off each student. Assign a job for
each number, for example, #1 is the materials handler, #2 is the presenter, #3 is the recorder, #4
is the focus keeper. Ask the students to get into groups and give them a simple task to complete.
When they are finished, ask for feedback from the students on how they thought it went. Reteach
a couple times and remind them of rules each time it is cooperative learning time.
Example of when I would use this: Beginning of the year when I begin group work.
Source:
(J.Schupbach, personal communication, February 2014)
Kagan, S. (1994). Cooperative learning. San Juan Capistrano, CA: Kagan Cooperative
Learning.