Week 8

(Prompt) Reflect on a cooperative learning technique you may have used.

In my opinion, all classes need to be fitted to accustom every student’s learning needs/styles. I have found that if you, as an educator, do not apply this, especially to co-taught classes, students often get confused, usually leading to frustration. Classes, especially co-taught, needed to be divided among tasks; this is to ensure that students are not forced to work on one tedious assignment for the entire hour and a half class time (which usually results in aggravation---and behavior problems). If students are assigned different activities or assignments at regular intervals (I’ve found that at least every 20-30 minutes works exceptionally well), students are less likely to get frustrated on a smaller assignment, where they can receive more individual assistance; also, when students are given multiple of these divided assignments, they are more likely to remain on task, which also helps to eliminate behavior problems.

But, for these co-taught classes especially, this divided class time strategy also requires structure. These classes are prone to get, and remain, off task which has the potential to become quite a challenge to steer them back on track. While the co-taught classes differ in assignments, as they correspond with the material being taught, the structure usually remains the same. For the first twenty or so minutes the students do a warm-up, or pre-cursor, exercise that leads up the material that is going to be taught that particular day. The next two portions of class are divided up into studying the material, and then apply and utilize the material or skill taught. For these classes, it is also important to take as much time as needed to cover a particular topic. For example, the co-taught classes did not catch onto the information and skills employed during a unit on characterization. Because of this, they required more time and practice to fully comprehend this necessary material. Although more material was presented to them to in order for them to grasps the concepts in this unit, the class was still structured around the divided schedule that they have grown accustomed to; essentially, these students require class time to be divided into portions, but those consequent portions need to be structured and adhered to. This is only a few learning techniques that I have found so far in my teaching career that really work for me and the students, especially co-taught students. Although I am sure I will encounter many more learning strategies, I also realize that the successfulness of these techniques dictate from the students to which they are applied. Various learning needs and styles accompany students, and the unique mixture of these will vary year to year; therefore the techniques that work for students this year, may not work so well for next year’s sophomores. I realize the need for technique changes and the students changes, and I can only hope to keep up with the ever-changing learning styles and needs of my students.