Cooperative learning can take on many roles in a classroom setting as well as the workforce, so as teachers it is our job to prepare students for the workforce. The 21st century is all about technology--in the classroom popular sites like epals, webquests, and portfolio's have been a part of the classroom. The classrooms are starting to introduce wiki's, blogs, skyping, podcasting, google calendar, and kaboodle just to name a few. Personally I have started to use all of these resources and I love the way the classroom is changing and so do my students.
In my classroom, I have tables instead of desks making it extremely easy to work in cooperative groups all the time. The latest assignment I did is as follows:
ATTENTION
URGENT NOTICE TO
STUDENTS OF FMMS
1. During the last official school board meeting, Mrs. Meredith was informed by Dr. Darnell that Fred Moodry Middle School will be re-located to an Island!
2. Due to low test scores on standardized tests, the school board recommended that FMMS be put on an Island for one year in hopes to bring test scores up.
BAD NEWS
3. School will be held 10hours a day, six days a week, NO cell phones, NO videogames, and NO T.V. (except the news).
4. If bullying occurs between students, they will be required to stay an extra year. If you break and of the school rules---you will attend school on Sunday’s as well!
GOOD NEWS
5. The school board is allowing Mrs. Meredith to decide between Islands listed below: This is where you come in! Mrs. Meredith did not pay attention during Geography class when she was in school; instead she was dreaming about her math class, and the cute boy she tutored in Math! So……she needs our help!!!!!!
6. She is asking students to put together presentations on the list of Islands below.
· Presentation needs to follow, the 5 Themes of Geography!
· Please use some form of technology for your presentations.
· The Islands are listed below.
1. Greenland
2. New Guinea
3. Borneo
4. New Zealand
5. Sumatra
6. Madagascar
7. Malta
8. Crete
9. Cyprus
10. Seychelles
11. Sri Lanka
· Using the context of the 5 Themes of Geography, defend your choice of Island by demonstrating through concrete examples how your Island will help improve test scores.
· Your project will be graded on the following rubric
· A model of your Island needs to be presented
This was a lot of fun, and just one of the many assignments we did in Geography class. Social learning theorists view student learning as a collaboration through interactions while constructing things, accompanied by content-based conversation (Laureate Education, Inc.) I feel it is extremely important for students to have many opportunities to be social in the classroom, solving problems, debating etc., I have an Aunt who owns a very large engineering company--she has told me many times that when her company hires, they are looking for people who can communicate with others and not just the people who have the best grades.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). social learning theories. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. DVD (custom ed.).
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I love your idea for providing students with the opportunity to work with others and pretend they are on an island to apply their geographical knowledge. They get to practice their communication skills, which are necessary for the working world, as you mention. Again, great lesson for cooperative learning!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ashlee,
ReplyDeleteMy students had a lot of fun with this project.