Friday: Cooperative Lesson
Today was our group's last lesson in Mrs. Birnbryer's 2nd grade class; overall, I think it went very well! I liked that this lesson consisted of a lot of craft time because it kept all students engaged in something throughout most of the lesson. Also a big help was the smaller group sizes. After the inquiry lesson, we did not want students to be working in such large groups again even though it saved time in moving desks. After contacting Mrs. Birnbryer, she was nice enough to move the desks to accommodate us. By having 5 groups of 5 it was much easier to manage the group with roles, and keep everybody participating in some way. Throughout the lesson my group and other colleagues helped to guide the students' groups. This was helpful because it allowed the groups to finish their work in time before moving to the next round.
One part of this lesson that did not go as planned was the timing. Originally, our plan was to have three rounds of activities, but after the first round took longer than expected, we decided to eliminate this activity to make sure we had time for the group presentations. Also, we would have liked to been able to assemble the scrapbooks with the ribbon we brought but even after eliminating the last round, we still did not have enough time.
Based on these problems, I think we should have done a shorter introduction and started the lesson earlier. Before sending students to groups, it may have been helpful to go over proper group behavior, and our expectations for each group, but with our activities we tried to start as soon as possible. 
Although after reflecting I can think of a lot of things that could have been done to improve our lessons, I am very proud with our group's work. Teaching my first full classes was a great experience, but I could not have done it without my group; I am very happy to have been cooperating in a group with such great teachers, and friends.
Brian,
ReplyDeleteAs a member of your group, I experienced this lesson firsthand from a teacher perspective. I agree completely that our timing did not go as planned. I think this was perhaps the biggest flaw of the lesson because we ultimately eliminated an entire section of the scrapbook. The section we had to cut was a journal entry which would have been beneficial to students because they would be using their knowledge to create an informational entry. Sunal states “social studies develops and refines thinking and problem-solving skills” (2011. p. 305). Unfortunately for our group, we could not solve the problem of time management without eliminating the third round! Though I do not think it hindered student learning, I think it would’ve been extremely useful as a summation of the information included in the scrapbook. Since it was the final day of our entire class’s time in the second grade I feel our group was even more crunched to stay on task than we had been in the previous two lessons simply because we needed to provide closure to the entire fieldwork experience. Most important however is that the children enjoyed the lesson and while I was definitely feeling the pressure, I feel the students enjoyed it and did not show any negative signs of being rushed or lost in the assignments.
I also agree that we should have had a shorter introduction. While we did a thorough assessment of prior knowledge, this began negatively taking away from the day’s activities. The session was slightly stressful at the start because we could not gain internet access. I don’t know about you, but I had quite a moment of panic! However the internet finally cooperated and we were able to begin our lesson. If we were to teach this lesson again, I would lessen the amount of physical materials given to the students and probably keep it to two rounds rather than the three we originally planned.
Of course I gained a lot of valuable experience by teaching whole class but personally the most memorable part of the entire experience was working with our group. You and Julie definitely took on a fair share of potential sister drama partnering with Rach and me! You're all the best colleagues I could ask for and the greatest friends!
Sunal, C. S. (2011). Social studies for the elementary and middle grades: A constructivist approach. (4th ed.). Pearson.
I think this websites are useful!
http://k6educators.about.com/od/helpfornewteachers/qt/Cooperative-Learning-Tips-And-Techniques.htm
https://www.teachervision.com/cooperative-learning/teaching-methods/48449.html
these websites*
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