What is Cooperative Learning?

Cooperative learning is used in the classroom when students are put into groups and they have to work as a team or group to accomplish one goal. There are five basic elements of cooperative learning: positive interdependence, individual accountability, group processing, social skills, and face to face interaction. After observing the class working together using the Jigsaw method and making slideshows of the five basic elements, I feel like I understand these elements well.


   1. Positive interdependence: Every member is dependent on each other to achieve their goal. If one member of the group fails to do their part, then the whole group will fail to achieve their goal.

   2.  Individual accountability: Every group member should be equally contribute to the group's goal. Every student in the group takes responsibility for their part of the work.  

   3. Group processing: The group works together and reflect on each other's ideas. Every member rates their performance and their group members's performances after the completing the task.

   4. Social skills: The students use their communication skills in the group and learn how to work with each other. Students should help each other complete the task and remain positive when working in a group.

   5. Face to face interaction: The students in the group interact with each other to accomplish their goal. Interacting with each other can result in students teaching and helping each other.

When using Cooperative learning, each group member should have an individual role. Some roles include a researcher, timekeeper, team captain, writer, illustrator, and many more.



One type of cooperative learning strategy is the Jigsaw method. This is a method that has home groups and expert groups. Every student gets put in a group which is their home group. Each member in the group is assigned a specific role or something to research about. Every student that researches the same thing in the class meets their expert group to research together. After researching, the students report back to their home groups to explain to their group members what they learned. Here is an explanation of the Jigsaw method.

The Jigsaw method is very efficient and something I would use when I become a teacher. Students can learn the five elements of cooperative learning in the jigsaw strategy and learn how to work and behave well in a group.

Goal vs. Objective

Did you know that goals and objectives are two different things? During Week 2, we discussed the difference between a goal and objective. Goals and objectives are used for writing lesson plans.

A goal is a statement of a purpose or intended outcome. It is expressed in general terms or verbs like understand, grasp, learn, know and more. 

An objective is a more specific statement.  There are three components of an objective: behavior, condition, and criterion. The condition is the setting, the behavior is the action is expressed by the verb, and the criterion is the expected performance level. The formula is "Given (a task or materials) the students will (verb) with (an expected level of performance)". 

Effective Ways to Assess Students

During week 2, we learned how to assess students and different types of assessment. Assessment is the collection of data over time and is used for checking for understanding. Assessments always include a rubric. There different types of assessment are diagnostic, formative, and summative. 

Diagnostic assessment is used as a pre-assessment to find out what the students know.
Examples: KWL charts, brainstorming, graphic organizers, pre-tests, etc.

Formative Assessment is used when to keep track and check up on the students. 
Examples: Observation, Journal, Note-taking, Check for Understanding, Thumbs up/ thumbs down, quizzes, exit tickets, ect. 

Summative Assessment is a cumulative assessment used to measure the success of the unit and to make sure the students understood the material.
Examples: Projects, portfolios, presentations, essays, unit tests, etc. 


When I become a teacher, I will use KWL charts to get students to brainstorm about a topic before learning information. 

KWL gets students to use their prior knowledge for the K (What I Know), brainstorming skills for the W (What I Wonder), and their knowledge of what they just learned to the L (What I Learned).


I will also use exit tickets. Exit tickets are efficient in seeing what the students learned that day and seeing if they are confused or have any questions. Teachers can benefit greatly from exit tickets to see if the students are on track with understanding the material. Here's an example: 

I like this exit ticket because it gets students to think about what they learned that day. I also like the question section to see if they are confused with anything. It's really important to make sure the students are fully understanding and many students sometimes won't ask their questions so this is a good idea to get their questions out. 

What Are Some Websites That Can Be Used to Design Tests?

In week 2, we learned about assessment and how to create tests online. There are a few websites that can be used to design online tests. 

1. Googledocs Form 

This form is Google Drive and it's very simple. This test can be used to individually pre-assess or post-assess students. This website has all different types of questions like multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer and many more. You can also choose one of many cool templates! This website saves time and is very effective! 

2. Kahoot 

Kahoot is an entertaining strategy to assess students in the classroom. The students would need to use technology to answer the questions. This can be a group assessment or an individual assessment. The teacher will put the website on the SmartBoard and the questions will be given on there along with a shape and color for each choice. The students on their technological devices are given the shapes and colors and they have to read the questions off from the SmartBoard. I believe that this is effective for assessing students since they get more involved when they are doing something that entertains them and also teaches them. 

Why Learn Social Studies?

During Week 1, I have learned how to define Social Studies and the importance of teaching it to students. Students learn Social Studies from kindergarten to twelfth grade. I never really understood why Social Studies was a subject. Social Studies is defined as the study of individuals, the world, and society to promote civic competence. Social Studies consists of many disciplines including geography, history, sociology, anthropology, and many more. Each discipline provides different aspects of humans and society that can be applicable in the real world.

The main purpose of learning Social Studies is to develop civic competence to become involved in and learn about our society. Civic competence leads to becoming a better citizen in our democratic republic. By learning Social Studies, one can make contributions to society to improve our democracy. Understanding the ideas and values our democratic republic government can create and contribute different ideas. It is very important to improve our performance as citizens to make the world a better place.

About Me Project using Glogster

To get to know each other in our class, Dr. Smirnova assigned an About Me Project. For this project, we were instructed to introduce ourselves digitally and we were to select a media tool from a given set. Dr. Smirnova's set included Pinterest, GlogsterEDU, word cloud, MoveNote, Animoto, QR codes, and many more. I choose GlogsterEDU which is a media tool where one can create posters. I found this media tool very interesting because there were many templates and it was very easy to use. As I was looking through the templates, I noticed that this website can be used for many projects including presentations, book reports, experiments, autobiographies, and timelines. You can select a template and change it the way you want it to look. It was easy to add pictures and videos and I thought it would be a good tool to introduce myself to the class. 

In my poster, I put a variety of pictures, including a picture of myself, a person exercising, puppies, Taylor Swift, and a teacher in a classroom. I could use these images to explain my likes and dislikes and my future job. When I presenting, I first introduced myself to the class by saying my name, my year, and my major. I shared my hobbies, facts about me, my personality traits, my likes and dislikes, my favorite singers, and my goals.  

It was interesting to learn about my classmates and see the tools they chose to introduce themselves. This project introduced us to technology that we can use in our classroom. It also helped the class break the ice and feel more comfortable with each other. This project was useful in getting a some experience teaching to a class and it was easier since the topic was about ourselves. Overall, I enjoyed this project. 

What Other Tools Can Be Used to Present Information Besides Microsoft Word and PowerPoint?

During the first week, we presented about ourselves using technology. We were given 15 different tools to use to introduce ourselves to the class. This provided us practice using technology which is important in the future. The tool I used was GlogsterEDU. This website is a type of presentation using a multimedia poster.

There are different templates to use that are very creative. This can be a good tool for students to present a book report, a biography, or testing an hypothesis using the scientific method. The poster tool can also be used for extracurricular activity posters and upcoming special events at school. All you do is pick a template, add pictures, and add different text boxes to add notes on the poster. This tool is an interesting way to present something and very simple to use!

Another tool I enjoyed looking at was Prezi. Prezi is a presentation software. It is similar to PowerPoint on Microsoft with a few differences. Users can navigate to each important part of the presentation and also use creative templates that make viewers more interested. This software can be used to present anything. Teachers can use it for lessons and students can use it for presentaions. It's free and easy to join!