Eight Implementation Plans

There are eight ways I would like to implement cooperative learning into my classroom teaching. They include the following:

1. peer tutoring subject/writing/dialogue

2. Class behavior committee

3. “tell us a few things about yourself” posting

4. learning stations (read articles or interpret paintings or artworks)

5. group visualizing a reading material

6. Multi-culture project

7. group competition to learn words

8. group writing a verb word song/acting it out
1. Peer tutoring
Pair up all the students in one class. Each student has to tutor the others on one subject or one skill. It can be any subject or skill, including physical education or social skills, or any other skill that benefits the students. “Homework pair” can be a form of peer tutoring (pair two students who help each other with their homework). Match two students based on their mutual needs and personalities. The students should discuss the terms of their partnership and draw up a written contract, to be approved by the teacher. The contract has to be reviewed on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and be revised for improvement, if needed. Pairs can be changed if they do not work well.
Research shows that peer tutoring significantly improves student participants’ grades. It is because the students who are to tutor others have to study the subject thoroughly beforehand. This also gives students confidence and builds their self-esteem, and empowers them to believe that they can learn. It also builds students’ social skills and their friendships.

2. Weekly Class Behavior Committee Hearing
Students set up their own committee to organize and host the process of setting up the behavior rules. Under the committee, there should be a number of teams. Each team groups different students together based on their preferences and characters so they can help each other with their behavior issues during the entire academic year. The committee will monitor how each team follows the rules, keep a record of their performance, and review it with the entire class every Friday afternoon, then give an award to the team that had the best review, and propose improvement suggestions for teams that did not comply with the rules well during that week. The committee will also hold meetings to solve conflicts that occur among students.
A learning pledge by the students motivates the students because it gives them power to control their learning process. It builds a trusting relationship between the students and the faculty; it teaches the students to resolve conflicts in a responsible manner; it motivates students to have high expectations of their behaviors and to take care of behavior problems on their own.


3. Tell us a few things about yourself posting
Paste four large-size sheets of paper on four classroom walls, titled separately with “My family,” “My personality,” “My likes,” and “My dislikes.” Students will take turns writing relevant information about themselves on the papers. Then, the class will be broken into different groups, which will read the postings and make notes. Each group will discuss the notes they have made and guess which traits belong to which student. A representative from each group will present their results to the class. Whichever group guesses the identity of the most people wins the game.
Research shows that internal motivations will energize students to action. A material-based reward system does not really encourage students to learn in the long run because it provides only extrinsic involvement. Activities have to offer intrinsic interest to the participants. Activities that directly relate to students’ personal lives and their interests motivate students intrinsically.

4. Learning stations (read articles or interpret paintings or artworks)
The teacher posts articles or excerpts from articles on different sides of the classroom. Groups will take turns going to each posting to read the articles, and then take notes and discuss within the group. All groups will work out a summary or analysis of the article according to the reading requests, and present them to the class. The postings on the wall can also be artworks, such as paintings. In that case, the students will appreciate the artworks and present their ideas about them.
A teacher should always take Multiple Intelligence theory into account and try to stimulate all eight intelligence types to serve all students. This activity stimulates students’ spatial and physical intelligence.

5. Group visualizing a reading material
In a reading class, one member will read an article, the group members will draw pictures illustrating the story. Then, the group will discuss the story based on what they have heard and how they perceive it, and modify the pictures they have drawn. At the end, all groups will present their drawings to the class and talk about their understanding of the article.
It is important for a teacher to make learning material visual because most people are visual.


6. Multi-culture project
Group students from the same culture and ethnicity together in the class; each group will prepare for a cultural introduction presentation, in which every member of the team will introduce some aspects of their culture. This project can last for a few weeks. During the preparation and research, students learn new vocabulary, forms of communication, social skills, new knowledge about other countries, and cultural understanding.
Group investigation expands cooperative learning (48). Students have the freedom to choose a topic they like, and group together based on their common interests, and to plan and carry out the research on their own.

7. Group competition to learn words (fly swatter)
After learning some new words, the teacher distributes the new word list to the class. The class is divided into two groups. Each group will discuss and memorize the new words, and then there will be a competition between the two groups. All new words will be written on the board. Every time, two people (one from each group) will compete with each other. When the teacher gives a cue about one word, whoever hits the word on the board with the fly swatter first wins. The group with the higher scores wins at the end.
A mutual goal and joint rewards for a team are a must for the team’s positive interdependence in collaborative learning.


8. Group writing a verb word song/acting it out
The goal of the activity is to learn verbs by acting them out. A new verb list will be distributed to all groups. Each group will play “Simon Says” to memorize the verbs, then, the group will write a song using a well-known tune (for example “I’m a Little Teapot,” and create body movements based on the meanings of these verbs. Finally, each group performs their song with body movements for the class. It includes contributions from all the students in the group and is a result of the collective wisdom and effort of the entire team.
This activity has both individual accountability and positive interdependence, which are basic and important elements in cooperative learning.