Classroom Management
Attention Getting and Quieting Techniques
Along with a new ways of structuring your teaching, come new problems based
on those changes. Cooperative Learning by it's very nature is noisy and involves
movement around the classroom. Thus it is important to review your
classroom management practices and ensure you have management habits
in place that are appropriate for the Cooperative Learning environment.
On the bright side, Cooperative Learning generally causes a reduction
in unwanted behaviour as students are more engaged, socially
interacting, often socially kept in check by their peers and
are generally enjoying themselves more in class.
Noise levels will naturally increase as, depending on the structure, up
to half the class could be speaking at any one time. Some structures
will also have the entire class moving around the room, and on occasion
talking at the same time.
To management these essentially welcome issues, teachers need to have signals to reduce noise levels while still maintaining students' ability to talk, and have complete quiet - possibly from a starting point of half the class talking excitedly and moving around the room at the same time.
Various common, though effective, methods will be added here over time that may be helpful in facilitating Cooperative Learning management in the classroom.
Choosing Students & Teams
One of the benefits of Cooperative Learning is students working in numerous combinations of pairs, teams and of course whole class. In order to facilitate choosing specific students, pairs and teams, many teachers have found placemats helpful. The placemats can be coloured to denote a team, have numbers (eg 1 to 4 on a table of four) to distinguish students in a team, and A or B to distinguish between students in a pair.
Clink on the icon below to see an example or go to the Resources section.