Cooperative Learning for....Learning??

So often as teachers we use the term "Cooperative Learning" to describe what is actually "Cooperative Practicing" or "Cooperative Reviewing", and while I am convinced that some learning does actually take place in those situations, they aren't often used to learn NEW information.  I am here to tell you that new information can be learned through cooperative learning.

I don't know if it  is the "flipped teacher" in me or if it is just how I am.  I do not subscribe to the "Sage on the Stage" type of teaching.  My students RARELY (almost never) sit and get from me.  I feel like it doesn't mean anything to them if they are just taking notes while I am jabbering on.  I want my students to really "get" the content, and I find that traditional classroom lectures just don't do that.  Typically, my students learn information from videos that I create and that they watch at home.  That way they can stop and rewind, they can watch where ever and when ever it works for them, and they don't have to deal with the interruptions that typically occur with students in a typical high school classroom.

Sometimes, though, I want students to actually learn the information with my presence.  For example, today, my students were learning Interrogative Adjectives (the ways of saying "which").  We had already learned the demonstrative adjectives (they ways of saying "this/that/these/those").  I chose an engaging way for them to use deductive reasoning to figure out the usage rules for this grammar point.

Here goes:
Step 1: Students are in groups and each group gets a stack of little pieces of paper and a basket for the middle of the group.  Each student takes several of the pieces of paper.

Step 2: I created a slideshow of the grammar point being used.  For this grammar point, it was a story of a family at the mall shopping for Grandma's birthday.  Each slide had a question and answer part of the conversation.  For example, one slide might say "WHICH scarves would Grandma prefer?  --I think she would like these scarves".  I had the words that I wanted them to focus on in a different color.

Step 3: I went slide by slide and for each slide and had them write a comment about the word that I had in a different color.  I coached them by saying it can be what comes to mind.  What does this mean in English, how is it used, what do you notice about pronunciation?  Each student (without talking) writes their comment on a piece of paper, then puts it in the basket.

Step 4: We did this for each page of the slide show.

Step 5: I had one person be the "authority". This person grabbed their textbook and turned to the page that explained the grammar point.

Step 6:  When we finish with the slides.  I have them mix up the papers.  Then, students take turns reading one paper at a time.  The "authority" decides if the statement on the paper was supported by the textbook or not and the students create two stacks of paper.  One stack for the statements that agree with the book, another stack for those that do not.

Step 7: Using Padlet I have each group post something from their "Good Stack".  Padlet allows the class to see sentences on the SmartBoard, so as students are writing, I would say No Repeats, so that they would have to come up with a list of usage rules.

Step 8: Students wrote down what showed up on the board onto notes.  I had them discuss with their groups what would be good things to write down.

Step 9: As a final step, I had the "Authority"  read through the information from the book and make sure that everyone covered all of what was important about this topic.

I had one class that had a little extra time, so I as an additional step, I had them post an example sentence that wasn't from the textbook or from my examples, to show that they could use the grammar point.

This is a great way to put students in charge of their own learning.