Think-Pair-Share = Same-Old-Thing

 

Student to Student interaction, or what some term "Cooperative Learning" leads to student achievement in countless ways.  You can search the term Cooperative Learning, and every website about it will list numerous research and other studies done that prove when students work together to learn, they will better understand content.  While we all know student to student interaction is a proven learning method, how do we implement this in our classroom?  And more so, how can we use technology to engage students in collaboration?

 

 

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I titled this particular post "Think-Pair-Share = Same-Old-Thing" because I've sat through countless observations, planning meetings, and professional development trainings where the definition of people interacting is to think about whatever it was you were just told, talk about it with the person next to you, and then wait to get called on to share with the class.  Not to say this method of student interaction is without merit, it just should not be the only "go to" for engaging students (or adults) in cooperative learning.

So, I find myself in the middle of a lesson next year and want students to work together, what are some methods of managing student interaction I have used in the past that have been successful?

• Talking Chips - Best with groups of no more then 4, ensures everyone has equal voice
• Monkey Cards - I have a file somewhere on 1 of the 8 flash drives from when I was in the classroom of "monkey cards".  There are 36 cards, with an equal mix of country names, numbers, and colors that I can pick from to have students form groups.  The best thing about them is students do not know which item I'm going to group them with, so trading means nothing.  When I find the file I will upload it here.
• Numbered Heads Together - Works best when you ask students to write down the number they just counted off with, otherwise total chaos will ensue.  A variation would be to pre-write these on worksheets before you hand them out to students.
• Consensus Circle - In groups of no more then 4.  Good for brainstorming and critical thinking.  Draw a circle and then a larger circle around the smaller circle.  Divide the larger part of the circle into however many group members there are.  Students brainstorm ideas individually in their parts of the circle, and then choose the most important idea together to include in the smaller part of the circle.
• Four Corners - For a whole class.  Also a chance for students to move around.  Can be used at any point in a lesson

These are some ideas for cooperative learning within a daily lesson.  Much of the technology we have learned about through our M.Ed. program we can use for a long unit or sequence of lessons, such as blogging or wikis.  I'm curious through this process to learn how technology can be used in the average classroom on any day to engage students in interaction without someone needing to go to a computer.  My feeling is tablets and smartphones or alike devices are going to be the future of this, but what about schools that do not have this technology?

Considering the Purpose of this Blog

We've learned from Richardson (2010) that weblogs in education can have several purposes.  He outlines these 6 purposes on pages 21-25:

• Class Portal - To communicate information and distribute class materials for an one class
• Online Filing Cabinet - For students to digitally archive their work
• E-Portfolio - For students to highlight certain pieces of work and reflect
• Collaborative Space - A method of communicating and learning between students often with students outside of their own class
• Knowledge Management and Articulation - For groups to communicate internally. For example, content alike teachers or grade level teams
• School Website - To communicate information and distribute materials for an entire school

Thinking about what the purpose of this blog would be, I have decided it would be a combination of several of the above purposes.

I'm not currently in the classroom, so my needs for blogging in education are different from those who have the opportunity to communicate about and reflect on what is happening in a physical classroom on a daily basis.  However, I do not see this as a disadvantage for me.

Outside of all of the excellent ways we are learning to use technology to heighten student achievement in this program, one of my biggest concerns (really fear to be honest) continues to be classroom management - even after 8 years of teaching.

My thoughts then came to using this space as a place to "file" all of those great techniques that have worked in the past, as well as gather new techniques by searching online for and communicating with others through blogging.  For myself, I'm also highlighting certain pieces of my "work" and reflecting on how they worked well.  In the end, this blog would be an online filing cabinet, e-portfolio, collaborative space, and eventually a knowledge management and articulation I could share with others when I return to a school building.  It will also be here for me to access from anywhere when I do step into the classroom again. 

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Corwin: Thousand Oaks, CA.

Oh wait...I do have experience with blogging!

I a recent conversation in the discussion area of our online class, we were asked to share any prior experience we had with blogging.  My initial thought of blogs was they had to be created through a site such as this, blogger.com, or another hosting service that catered specifically to "blogs".

However, after I thought further about Will Richardson's (2010) definition of a blog:

"Blogs, as they are known, are easily created, easily updatable Web sites that allow an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection." (p.10)
 

Having a couple of days since my initial post in our class conversation, I've realized I do in fact have experience with blogging if we follow Richardson's definition.  I have created websites in Dreamweaver and uploaded them to the Internet.  The Web sites are easily updatable as I have the power from my own computer to update them.  Take, for example, a classroom website created last semester.  Richardson would refer to this as a "class portal" (p. 21).

Another example of my experience with blogging is the online grading software, Edline, my school system purchased so students and parents could access grades at home.  While this was advertised to students and parents mostly as a way to monitor grades, teachers could also upload files and post announcements.  Edline was also an easily created and updateable web site from which I could publish instantly.

What is different about this blog is that interaction is encouraged.  In my first two experiences, comments did not exist.  There is space for comments on the classroom web page, however because I am on leave and without a classroom at the moment, I have not had the opportunity to explore this feature.  This blog has the ability to, "engage readers with ideas and questions and links" (Richardson, p. 18), and is not, "built on static chunks of content" (p. 17) as in my previous two experiences.  Because interaction is encouraged, this blogging experience will be much richer than previous experiences.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Corwin: Thousand Oaks, CA.

Why this blog?

This blog is the product of an assignment through my Master's degree program in Intstructional Technology, although I hope to use it for much more.  As part of the class, we have been assigned to read the text Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for the Classroom by Will Richardson.  My initial postings will be inspired by the advice Richardson gives in creating a personal blog.