Our district recently hosted a workshop on Kagan Cooperative Learning Strategies. Here are two strategies from the workshop that I have found extremely helpful!
Group seating
Classroom setup is so important to maintaining structure and a safe learning environment! Seating arrangements are one of the first things to consider when setting up your new space!
The Kagan presenter recommended that students be placed together deliberately in heterogenous groups of four. Each person within the group has a number and a letter assigned to them for collaboration.
Kagan sells mats online, but I just taped color-coded notecards to each desk. This lets me address cooperative groups in Spanish by their table colors, allowing students to passively learn their colors!
Here is a list of ways I have used this system so far:
- Thank you yellow table for being ready to start!
- Person 1 collect the materials for your table.
- Numbers 2 and 4 from every table get up and trade places with someone from another table.
- Person B open your computer and share your screen with your shoulder partner.
- Person A take out a pencil and person B take out a piece of paper. Person A writes first and then B.
I have found that this removes the wasted time where students are fighting over petty things like who goes first or who has to write. It’s really helpful!
Increased participation
In my class we do a lot of oral questioning. I usually project something on the board and toss a ball for students to make statements or answer questions. Since the Kagan cooperative learning workshop, I have been sharing my presentations with the students via Google Drive so they can work in partners to answer the questions.
One partner will open her computer and the other partner will answer the first question. Then they will trade off each slide. This has really increased participation among the shy or less focused students because everyone has to answer at least 50% of the questions. It’s also extremely helpful in difficult classes. By forcing them to focus on the task, it provides increased input and repetition, which can be especially helpful for that particular group. Furthermore, it gives them more think-time, which usually leads to them asking more questions.
I typically format the slides with a picture and a question. The answer is animated to appear when they click, allowing them time to think and process. Here is an example from a unit practicing affirmative and negative words in Spanish.
As they practice, I circulate and spend time listening to everyone. This really holds students accountable because everyone has to participate! And by grouping students at mixed ability levels, someone is always able to help if the group gets lost. If I want to challenge the higher achieving students, I just assign them to be partners for that activity. It has really changed the way I think about group work and setting up my classroom!
