6 Cooperative learning strategies to introduce in your classroom

What is cooperative learning?

Cooperative learning is more than just assigning group work. Cooperative learning involves intentionally grouping students, assigning roles, and allowing students to direct the learning. Cooperative learning also gives the opportunity for differentiation within the classroom. 

The goal of cooperative learning is for students to be engaged. We all know that engagement is vital to student growth and learning! Cooperative learning experiences take this further as they seek to increase engagement by requiring students to work together and support each other to reach learning outcomes. In a cooperative learning classroom, the teacher is not simply standing in the front of the room lecturing, but students are taking an active role in their learning. 

Cooperative learning can also be beneficial for English language learners. Students are given the opportunity to give and get peer support within a cooperative group. Cooperative learning can be one way to provide scaffolds that can help language learners to comprehend language. It also gives them the opportunity to use academic vocabulary in context and with their peers. Through cooperative learning strategies students are able to use and learn academic language, but they are also able to work on social skills. 

One important aspect of cooperative learning is intentional grouping. Sometimes it is appropriate to let students choose their groups, however, grouping students intentionally can have positive impacts on the effectiveness of the groups. Within a group there should be students of varying skill levels. 

If possible, keep groups to four students. The more students in a group, the less engagement. In a larger group, students have a tendency to not equally contribute because they can leave work up to others. Students do not need to remain in the same group for every activity or for a whole school year – grouping should be flexible and based on student needs. 

Setting student roles within a collaborative group is important to make sure that all students participate. Often in a group situation, some students do not put in the same effort as other students. Roles ensure that each student participates and one student is not left doing all of the work. Particularly if student absence is a concern in your classroom. 

Roles can be assigned based on student needs or activity needs. Roles such as recorder, presenter, time keeper, and questioner help students to learn how to function within a group. They also learn the importance of supporting the goals of the group. Roles help students that may struggle with focusing to have a specific task to complete.

1) Jigsaw

This is an activity that I have used frequently in my classroom. Students at all levels, from advanced level high school English to primary students with very limited English, have benefited from using this activity. 

Materials:

• Material to be learned broken up into smaller sections. For example, a longer reading passage can be broken into more manageable sections. The materials can be a fiction or nonfiction text. For younger students that cannot read or have limited reading ability, the materials can contain pictures that aid in comprehension. 
• Pencils, pens, or highlighters
• Group roles

Directions:

1. Students are placed into cooperative groups and given group roles. 
2. Groups are given the divided materials. Each member of the group is given a different section with an assigned number.  
3. Students read their section of the materials once.  
4. Students then leave their home group and form expert groups with other students assigned the same section of materials. 
5. In this expert group, students read the materials again and determine the important information from the text. Students should be given time to highlight, underline, and take notes on what is important in the text. Students can also write a short summary of their section. 
6. Students then return to their home groups and share the information they learned with the students in that group. 
7. As a whole class, students discuss the information learned. The class can create an anchor chart or group notes to summarise the information learned. 

One way to change this activity is to have the home groups put the text into order. Students can discuss and debate the order of the text. This works well with an English text to teach plot sequence. It also could be used with a history text to create a timeline of events. In a maths classroom it could be used to sequence the steps for solving a problem in the correct order.

2) Convince me

Bloom’s taxonomy is a system used to identify levels of knowledge and thinking skills. Justifying responses is at the evaluation level of Bloom’s structure and is considered a higher order thinking skill. Simply put – students who can justify their responses are thinking at a deeper level. 

Giving students the opportunity to justify their thinking can improve their information retention. This activity works well with problem-solving tasks in science or math. It could also be used with English to justify a literary response. 

Materials:

• Problems to be solved

Directions:

1. Teacher presents the problem.
2. Students work independently to find possible solutions to the problem.
3. Students are placed in cooperative learning groups; they then debate and come to a consensus of the best solution, or combine their solutions to create a new one. 
4. Cooperative groups meet with other cooperative groups to repeat step 3. 
5. The combined cooperative groups present their best solution to the whole group.

3) Taskmaster

Ensuring that every student participates during a group project can be difficult for a teacher. In a large classroom with several groups, a teacher can only monitor so many aspects of the group assignment. This activity gives the teacher a way that they can evaluate individual student participation and group collaboration. 

Giving students a to-do list can also help to keep the group on task. Sometimes students in a group can get off task while working together. A checklist of steps can help them to focus and complete each task. 

Materials:

• Group project to-do list with checkboxes for each task
• Markers
• Group project

Directions:

1. Assign a group project and student roles.
2. Give each group a to-do list for completion of the project.
3. Each student in the group needs a different coloured marker.
4. As students complete each task, they should mark it off with their colour. 
5. At the end of the project the checklist should be complete and each student’s marker should be represented.

4) Fishbowl

In a fishbowl those outside of the bowl observe what is happening within. Like a literal fishbowl, this activity works in the same fashion. The Fishbowl strategy helps students to model their knowledge and gives an opportunity for structured conversation and listening in a safe setting. It is an excellent way to model a process. Students work within collaborative groups to model and they also learn how to observe and take notes. 

Materials:

• Inner circle (fishbowl) activity or discussion topic
• Outer circle group note taking device

Directions: 

1. Set up an inner circle space for students to demonstrate an activity or to discuss a topic. Give them directions to follow. 
2. Give the outer circle a listening and recording task – structured notes, questions to answer, etc. 
3. The inner circle students demonstrate the activity and the outer circle takes notes. 
4. Debrief with the class afterwards. 

During the activity the teacher monitors and provides correction or guidance if needed. 

Modifications to this activity can be for the students to exchange parts after the first inner circle. Students can also do this with two smaller groups as the teacher monitors the activity.

5) Collaborative KWL

A KWL chart is a three column chart with a section for what students already know, what they want to know, and what they have learned. The “know” column is filled out before learning occurs. Students then fill out the what we “want to know” column. Finally, after learning has occurred, the what we “learned” column is completed. 

Frequently this activity is done individually, however, it can be modified to be done in groups. This activity helps students to create collective background knowledge because multiple students share what they know in the first column. In the middle and third columns, students are able to build upon each other’s knowledge and learning.  

Materials: 

• Chart paper or butcher paper for each group
• Markers
• Cooperative groups
• Student learning materials (notes, reading passage/article, graphic organisers, etc) on a specific topic

Directions: 

1. Give each group a piece of chart paper and markers. 
2. Give students group roles: reader, scribe/recorder, time keeper, etc. 
3. Draw three columns on the chart and label: “What we Know”, “What we Want/Need to Know” and “What we Learned”.
4. Students collectively brainstorm information for the first column. This is information about the topic that they already know. 
5. In the second column, students brainstorm questions that they want to learn the answer to from their learning. 
6. Students engage in learning about the topic through reading, watching, or listening. 
7. After learning, the students complete the “What we Learned” section of the chart. 

One way to modify this activity would be for each group to learn something different about the topic and then share with other groups, similar to the jigsaw activity above. Another way would be for the groups to do a gallery walk of the KWL charts. Other groups can add information to charts and then add to their own KWL chart when they complete the walk.

6) Talking chips

This is another strategy that I have used in my classroom. It ensures that each member of a collaborative group contributes to discussions. I have also used it as a whole class, but it is just as effective in a group setting. 

Talking chips helps the students that are hesitant to participate and keeps the students that tend to take over discussions from doing so. Both types of students exist in the classroom and this activity can help the teacher to include both appropriately. 

Students who struggle or who are language learners may have anxiety associated with participating in classroom discussions. One way to scaffold talking chips for students that may be hesitant to participate, is by frontloading their response. Pull students aside before the discussion and help them identify appropriate responses and contributions. Identify what they know and help them to articulate this knowledge. 

Materials:

• Bingo/poker chips, small sticky notes, small squares of paper, or other small manipulatives
• Discussion questions
• Student groups

Directions:

1. Each student needs three chips. These are their talking chips. 
2. During discussion or group projects, each student contributes three talking points, questions, suggestions, or information.  
3. As the student contributes, they place one of their talking chips in the middle of the group space. 
4. Once a student has used all of their talking chips, they must let other students contribute. 
5. Students must use all of their chips. 

Cooperative learning strategies encourage students to be engaged with their classmates and the learning materials. Students are able to gain social skills and gain academic knowledge. Cooperative strategies also help the teacher to create a student centered learning environment.

Sources:

1. Herrell, A. and Jordan, M. (2012) 50 Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners. 4th edn. Boston: Pearson. https://kurniaannisa05.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/50-strategies-for-teaching-english-language-learners-adrienne-l.-herrell-_-michael-l.-jordan.pdf

2. McGinnis, R., Mettler, C., and Schiro, P. (2014) Advancement Via Individual Determination AVID Elective Essentials for Middle School. San Diego: AVID Press. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/158456793.pdf