Using Cooperative Learning for Instant Engagement

   There are so many great ways to help our students learn the subject matter that is presented to them. One of the ways I like​ to use in my classroom is Cooperative Learning. This is an excellent way to get your students up and moving around the classroom. My students love to participate in Peer-Check-Review, a fun Cooperative Learning activity.

   Decide what you want your students to learn. It could be vocabulary from a story, a math concept, math facts, grammar skills; anything that you can think of can be plugged into a Cooperative Learning activity. Once you have a topic picked out, create questions and answers on index cards. Put the question on the front of the card, and the answer on the back of the card. Create one card for each student in your class.

   Now that you have the cards created, hand one card out to each student. The students will go around to their peers and check to see if they know the answer to that question. Each student reviews the question with their partner. After each student has answered the question, they give each other praise, switch cards, then find a new partner. Go through this process for several minutes. Give the students plenty of time to practice all of the different cards. It is ok if they get the same partner again because they will have different cards. I also tell my students it is ok if they get the same card with a different partner. It is all about practice.

    There are lots of different ways to use the cards that you create. You can use them as task cards, which allows a student to work on the cards independently. You can also use the cards to play Scoot. This is a great way to get the whole class moving around the room to check their understanding.

    If you don’t want to take the time to create your own cards, you can check out the ones that are in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Click here to see what’s there!

      

How do you help your students stay engaged and excited to learn?

Quiz-Quiz-Trade

I wanted to take a couple minutes tonight and tell you about another structure that I did in my class. I  originally wanted to tell you about this structure last night, but I was so tired I fell asleep at 8:30! Sometimes these school days take a lot out of me. 

OK, so back to the structure that I did with my class. I did an activity called quiz-quiz-trade. You start out by making flash cards with questions that you want your students to practice. You put the question on one side and the answer on the other side. The kids each get a card. They find a partner, and each one answers the question. When they are done answering the questions they trade cards and then raise their hand and find a new partner. Then the whole thing starts over. It's great because the kids can quickly practice the skills that you want them to learn. I did this yesterday to review for a quiz that they were going to take today. 

Here are some pictures of the kids doing the structure.

 Here is what the cards look like. The kids have a question on one side and then the answer on the other side. They look at the answer. 

 Here is the class working hard. 

 Here they are giving a high five to show that they are ready to work as partners. 

What do you do with your class to review concepts?

FInd Someone Who

   Today I decided to do some review with my third and sixth graders. The English program that we use is pretty difficult, so I wanted to make sure that the kids were practicing all the skills that we had learned. We did an activity called "Find Someone Who." All of the kids did a really great job with it. For this activity, the kids walked around the room and found people who could answer each of the questions. Then they had that person sign their paper. 

Here are some pictures of my third graders having fun with this activity. 

They all had lots of fun and enjoyed walking around the room. 

I also did this same assignment with my sixth graders and they did a great job as well. Here are some pictures of them having fun: 

I think the sixth graders got more into this assignment than the third graders did. It was really fun to watch them get so excited that they knew one of the answers. 

 I am going to include the activity for you to try in your classroom. I even added some fun Thanksgiving clip art to make it a little more festive. 

I also changed my AR bulletin board for my second graders today. Here is a picture of what I created. 

I am really happy with how it came out. Every child in my class has a different point goal based on their reading level. They will get to move the penguin for the different percentages that they complete towards their goal. 

I hope you all have a great rest of your night. It is time for bed for me. 4:30 a.m. comes pretty fast! 

Rally Coach

   Recently, I had my third graders do a rally coach activity. Rally coach is one of the structures designed by Dr. Spencer Kagan. I love using his materials in class. His structures are easy to tie into any lesson. There is hardly any prep that has to be done.
   This activity worked out to be a great review for our test on sentences. The kids all really enjoyed getting to work together. When I told them what we were doing for the day, all of the kids got so excited! They remembered doing this activity several time last year and were ready to get to work. Below are some pictures of the kids working hard on the activity:

 
The kids all worked really well together. I was so proud of them and all of their hard work!