Understanding Cooperative Learning

Like I have said in my previous posts I love cooperative learning and this week we got to learn more about cooperative learning ! In class we were able to learn about the number heads together structure of cooperative learning by actually doing it through a jigsaw. There are two types of jigsaws: 1: when you break into expert groups and then go to teach your base group. 2: There are expert groups and then they teach to the whole class.

Our first jigsaw project we broke into expert groups and then taught to our based groups. The topic we were working on was the components of PIGS. PIGS stands for  positive interdependence, individual accountability, group processing, social skills and face to face interaction. When the components of PIGS is present you are seeing real cooperative learning ! 

My expert group focused on social skills and face to face interaction you can check out my presentation below ! I really enjoyed working on this because at first I thought the concept was a little confusing but actually working on it made it easy to understand. Check out my presentation on the Muscogee here. 


The second time we practiced the jigsaw activity was to break into expert groups and then teach to the whole class. The second time I felt much more confident. I was very for this project because all of the core groups were broken into different Native American groups, and after we were done researching we were able to teach to the whole class ! between whole class instruction and the small group instruction I preferred this activity much more. Check out my presentation here. 

Out of all the groups I think Mikayla's group did the best ! they incorporated movement and they had a great independent practice where we got to make postcards. 

Practicing both types was a lot of fun !  We were all very important pieces to a puzzle and it really emphasised the importance of working together.