EDSS 541: Reading Reflections #16 - 21

Reading Reflection #16

           There are 5 different components of Cooperative Learning: Positive interdependence, Individual and group accountability, Group processing, Social skills, Face-to-face interactions. Positive interdependence refers to students having the responsibilities of learning the content and ensuring that all group members learn the content. Interdependence comes when each student is able to see that the group cannot succeed without all of it’s members. Individual and group accountability is just as it sounds. Individuals must have accountability for learning and possible tasks, while group accountability as a whole is also needed. The group processing of cooperative learning involves students having conversation about how well they are achieving their goals and maintaining effective working relationships. Social skills are always important when being involved in relationships with others. Students need to be able to have leadership, need to have good decision making skills, trusting, and be able to manage conflicts when being social with others. Lastly, face-to-face interactions help promote cooperative learning by students being about to check for understanding with one another, orally explain how to solve problems, and to discuss concepts being learned.

Reading Reflection #17

              Throughout our entire ITU, there are multiple opportunities for group work in which students are able to cooperatively learn. Throughout our ITU we have multiple opportunities for students to exhibit cooperative learning. Below I mention a few of the components and how they will be used:

             Individual & Group Accountability will be incorporated into the final project students create. There will be individual roles put out for each student as well as an entire group product they will create. Social Skills will be used throughout the unit when students are asked to work in groups. Students will need to be able show leadership skills at different moments and be able to manage conflicts that arise within the group. Face to Face Interactions are used for majority of the group work in the unit. For the final project students will work face to face to create a project about diversity whether it includes an artistic or technological component.

Reading Reflection #18

*See final ITU product

Reading Reflection #19

         There are many differentiation strategies a teacher can use for assessments. Teachers can use visual or auditory cues for students, he or she can group students in a way to benefit others (heterogeneously), and/or the teacher can provide the class with many different types of assessments. For example, the teacher could assess students in a discussion, on a group or individual project, on a rubric.

             Reading Reflection #20

         Discussion is a key assessment strategy used in our unit because our unit theme, diversity, is a very subjective topic. Therefore, it is important for students to openly discuss their view points and understandings about diversity. By using technology in our unit, we can assess students on the content through technology. Students learn about analyzing data and they will be able to make spreadsheets to evaluate their own data after I have shown them different techniques. Also, students will be working with Mr. Payad on commenting on a blog or using twitter to answer various questions. Lastly, we also use group assessments often within our unit. Because our unit theme is diversity, I feel cooperative learning is very important for our students. Students will be assessed on cooperative learning skills as well as the content being learned or produced while in groups.

             Reading Reflection #21

         Using all of the assessment strategies in these readings will be beneficial in the TPA tasks. For English language learners, providing may different language cues throughout the implementation of the assessment will be beneficial for them to understand what is expected of them. Also, creating a rubric for the scoring criteria for the assessment will be beneficial to having an equitable grading system as well as, handing out the rubric before the assessment, will make the expectations clear.