Сooperative learning approach in organizing
статья по английскому языку на тему

COOPERATIVE LEARNING APPROACH IN ORGANIZING CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Демина С.М.

Муниципальное общеобразовательное учреждение Дубровская средняя общеобразовательная школа Шолоховского района Ростовской области

Cooperative learning approach (learning in small groups) appeared at the beginning of the 20th century.  Cooperative learning theory was established by Allport, Watson, Shaw and others. Philosopher John Dewey influenced the cooperative learning theory used today. The main idea of cooperative learning is working (learning) together, but not simply doing something together. Students work in groups to complete tasks collectively. Cooperative learning is considered to be a successful alternative to traditional methods of teaching [2]. Cooperative learning (according to Johnson and Johnson, 1994) consists of 5 elements:

1. Positive interdependence (all students participate and take an active part in their work group, and they are responsible for the work of the whole group);
2. Face-to-face promoting interaction (students explain and assist one another in understanding and completing the tasks);
3. Individual accountability (students are accountable for their work);
4.  Developing social skills (leadership, decision-making, trust-building, communication, conflict-management skills);
5. Group Processing (groups assess their effectiveness) [1].

There are 4 variants of cooperative learning:

1. Student Team Learning (STL);
2. Cooperative Learning (Jigsaw);
3. Learning Together;
4. Research Work.

Cooperative learning helps to organize classroom activities according to the abilities and skills of students, their interests; it develops the sense of responsibility and increases self-esteem. Cooperative learning teaches students how to communicate with each other, to listen and to hear what other people say. As for the teacher, he plays a very important role in organizing students work. He is responsible for creating the appropriate conditions and atmosphere for working in different classroom situations, but he mustn’t do what his students are able to do by themselves.

There are different ways/forms of using cooperative learning approach at school. Working at a small rural school I find Student Team Learning variant of this approach the most useful and successful. Judging from the experience of using the cooperative learning approach for 5 years, I can state that cooperative learning helps to develop listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. We can combine the individual work of each student (when he/she is responsible for his/her own task) with the group work (when students are given one and the same task by the teacher). Students are divided into small Home groups (3-4 students). They are given different texts to read (we can differentiate according to the abilities of students). Then students from different groups (who read the same texts) meet in Expert groups and discuss what they have read about asking for additional questions (to see if they understood right). Questions may be formulated by a teacher or by students themselves (it depends upon the students skills). After that students return to Home groups and tell others what they have learned about. Then after listening children ask questions for some new facts. When this work is done a teacher may give additional tasks (True-False, crossword puzzles, questions, etc) to check the work. So, we develop listening (students listen to each other), reading (students read texts), speaking (students tell what they have read about) and writing (filling in a crossword puzzle) skills.

This is an English Lesson Plan with the examples of using cooperative learning approach in the 7th form.

“Let’s celebrate American Holidays!”

Textbook: Kuzovlev V.P. 7 form

Objectives of the lesson:

1. To develop reading, listening skills;
2. To develop skills in monologue and dialogue spoken language;
3. To present new information about American holidays;
4. To bring up such qualities as responsibility, attentiveness.

Stages.

1. Greetings, aims of the lesson.

      Good morning, students. Today, my dear friends, we’ll travel to American families. Let’s celebrate some holidays with them. What  American holidays do you know?

       Look at the pictures and say what holidays we shall speak about (the teacher shows the pictures of Halloween, New Year, and Christmas - slide 1).

1. Phonetic exercises.

Let’s listen to the tape and repeat the words to make our pronunciation clear – slide 2.

     [t]- travel, tourist, presents, gifts, Santa, Clause

     [s]- celebrate, sunny, Christmas

     [h]- Halloween, here, his

     [w]- winter, why, when

     [ei]- celebrate, take, translate, Good of you!

2. Speaking exercise –warming up (T – Ps).

-Do you like holidays?

- What is your favourite holiday?

- What American holidays do you know?

II. STL (working in small groups of 3). Students are divided into two groups of 3 pupils in each and are given different texts about American holidays.

T: Now we are going to read some texts to find out new interesting facts about Halloween, New Year and Christmas. How do Americans celebrate them? Do you celebrate these holidays? How do you celebrate them? We’ll answer these questions after reading the texts. We’ll work in groups.

1. (Developing reading skills). Reading in home groups (5-7 minutes). T: Your time is up. Now join the classmate who has read the same text and ask questions for additional information to see if you understand everything.

Texts (given in the cards).

1. New Year’s Day celebrates the start of a new year. Americans celebrate New Year’s Day on the first day of January, but the celebration actually begins on December 31, New Year’s Eve, the night before New Year’s Day. All children like New Year’s Eve, because parents allow them to stay up until midnight. Some people stay up all night! They blow horns and whistles at midnight to announce the beginning of a new year. Some people shake hands, kiss, hug, sing, and shout “Happy New Year”.

Answer the questions:

1. When do Americans celebrate New Year? 2. When does New Year’s Eve begin? 3. What do the people do?

2. Halloween is one of the best holidays for children. American children celebrate Halloween on October, 31. Children wear masks and colorful costumes. The most popular costumes are ghosts, witches, and skeletons. The children walk door to door and shout “trick or treat” most people give them a treat – a candy or fruit. They also decorate houses and schools in the traditional Halloween colours: orange and black. Popular decorations are witches, ghosts, skeletons, black cats and jack-o-lanterns. Jack-o-lanterns are pumpkins people carve to look like faces. Everyone tries to look scary on Halloween.

Answer the questions:

1. When do the children celebrate Halloween? 2. What are the most popular costumes? 3. What are the popular decorations?

3. Americans celebrate Christmas on December,25. Christmas is a religious holiday and one of the happiest holidays of the year, because it is the day that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. People prepare for Christmas weeks before. They buy gifts for their families and friends. They choose a tree and decorate it with ornaments and lights. People prepare special foods and cookies. Christmas is also the day that Santa Claus visits us and brings presents in bright paper and ribbons. He delivers them on Christmas Eve, when children are sleeping. He climbs down the chimney and leaves the present under the Christmas tree. People wish each other a “Merry Christmas”.

Answer the questions:

1. When do Americans celebrate Christmas? 2. How does Santa Claus appear? 3. What do the people wish to each other?

2. (Developing listening and speaking skills – dialogue). T: Now join the classmate who has read the same text and ask each other questions about the texts. (Meeting in expert groups (students work in pairs discussing the texts they’ve read. The questions are written in the card).
3. (Developing speaking skills – monologue). Discussion in home groups.     T: Now return to your home groups and tell your classmates what you’ve learned about American holidays. You may ask questions if you need.

T: Now you are to work together again and decide if the given statements are true or false. (Thus every student is responsible for telling only right information based on his text to complete the given task and get a good mark. The result of the whole group work depends upon the individual work of each student. The students may give marks to each other).

True or false? – slide 3.

1. Americans celebrate New Year’s Day on the first day of January.

2. New Year’s Eve begin on December, 29.

3.  They blow horns and whistles at midnight to announce the ending of the old year.

4. American children celebrate Halloween on November, 31.

5. The people play tricks at animals.

6. Traditional Halloween colours are orange and black.

7. Christmas is the day that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

8. Santa Claus appears from a chimney.  

III. Lexical games to practice writing skills.

1. Connect the holidays with the date of its celebration. Write down in your exercise books. (e.g.: Halloween is celebrated on …).

                Halloween                   December, 31

             New Year                    October, 31

             Christmas                    December, 25 (slide 4)

2. Find out what words are hidden here.

                       C r i m a h s t s

                       H l o e a l w e n

                       D c m r e e b e (slide 5)

3)     Crossword puzzle. Let’s guess the crossword.

1. Who brings presents on Christmas? (Santa Claus)
2. When do skeletons, witches and ghosts appear? (Halloween)
3. When do we celebrate Christmas and New Year?(December)
4. One of the costumes on Halloween (skeleton)
5. The month we celebrate Halloween (October)
6. One of the Halloween’s colours (orange) (slide 6).

IV. The conclusion of the lesson.

Well, what holidays have we spoken about today? Which one would you like to celebrate with the Americans? Your marks today are…). And at home you’ll prepare a story about one of your favorite holidays! I wish you good luck! Good-bye!

Literature:

1. Johnson D., Johnson R. Learning together and alone, cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning. Needham Heights, MA: Prentice-Hall, 1994.
2. Robert E. Slavin. Research on Cooperative Learning; an international perspective/ Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, Vol.33, №4, 1989.