COOPERATIVE LEARNING COMMENTS - Elvira Astola

Musical Chairs

(Beatriz, Irene Megías, María Jiménez, David Ávila and Ayperi Sal)

They were the first and they did it very well. They started the presentation making reference to a guide so they made a poster to explain us everything.

The poster was so useful because as they were the first group to present the project, it helped us to understand the main ideas of the cooperative learning. They only wrote the most important things so it was so clear and easy. They also saw us four sections with the different techniques and their main ideas so it was easier for us.

The last (but not least) thing that they did was the activity. It was one of my favourites. First they made groups and then they gave us a box and some papers with pictures and information from different countries; the objective was working in groups and knowing a little bit more about that country. As I said before it was one of my favourites because it was fun and creative.

Amigos del Football

(Sandra Fernández, Alejandro Díaz, Melike Cetin and Çisem Yüksel)

This group gave so much importance to the definition of the method cooperative learning and how can we use it. This was so useful for me because they were the second group to present the project and I got so much more information about the main concepts.

Other thing that I think it is important to remark is that this group also named as significant the importance of celebrating the good and the bad things that the pupils do referring to the issue of homework, exams and all the efforts they make because it is so important to motivate them.

At the end they did their activity that was focused on getting all the members in the group to know each other. It was a diana and I found it interesting because the design was different.

The unknowns

(Marina Cáceres, Alfonso Llanos, Virginia Madrid y Marta Moyano)

They made a prezi. It was quite good. I used to hate this programme but I have to say that they made it very well and very clear too. One thing I appreciate when I see others presentations is the clarity of the explanation and they got the point.

The things which caught my attention was first of all the way they explained the figure of the teacher, not as someone who corrects but as someone who helps. And the second thing was the fact that they would like to rotate positions referring to the roles; I loved this idea.

Finally, they explained us their activity: they made a ball of paper and told the class to make a circle, then, we had to throw the ball to other classmate at the same time that we say things we like or we dislike. The objective was to get to know the rest of the class.

Team Perk

(Silvia Jiménez, Sara Granizo, Javier San José, Irina Meca)

This group added some interesting things like for example a page with a table of self-assessment which I think it is a good idea because it is important to recognize the things you are good at and the ones that you need to improve.

In my opinion they had a very good organization, they all talked more or less the same and their English was fine. The last fact is not as important as the rest but I think it is a good idea to tell them about it.

For their activity, they brought some tennis balls and made some groups. The main objective was to make a review of all the important things essential for the proper functioning of the group. Finally, one of the members of the groups had to write them all in the blackboard so we could compare with the other groups.

Modern Students

(Borja de la Cal, María Encinas, Patricia, Elia Rueda y Sabanneh)

Referring to concepts, this groups was (in my opinion) the most complete. They did mention to things that other groups don’t.

I find very interesting the tips they made for the teachers to help them with the difficulties of the cooperative learning like, for example, making team rules, talking about group problems and promoting positive interdependence by assigning different roles to each member of the group.

Other thing that I liked a lot about their presentation was the skills they made which we had to prepare for the next class and then they asked us for it. It was a good way of learning.

Finally, as all the groups, they did the activity. I think it was my favourite one; we (all the class) had to make a big circle and close our eyes and they started putting stickers with different colours and shapes in our fronts; then we opened the eyes and started looking for the people who had the same sticker as us. The main objective was to search for yourself but also help the others to find their group. It was quite funny.

Dumbledore Teacher's Army

(Gonzalo Gallego, María Pérez, Gema Gutierrez and Adalisa Licu)

This group started the presentation explaining the concept of cooperative learning as all the groups but they also add some extra information like for example that the evaluation is not only a thing from the teacher to a pupil, it is also something that the pupil have to do to him/herself to know the things she or he have more problems with so he/she can spend more time on it and improve.

The only bad thing I would remark about their project was that it looked as if they did all the things separated and then they put it in common.

To finish the presentation they did the activity; in pairs we made questions to our partners and finally we had to describe them. It was good because the most of the time we did activities to get to know our classmates but we always changed the couples so the person we were talking with was different.

Wanderslust

(Sara Mora, Miguel González y Belén Jiménez)

In order to the theoretical part of the project, this one was my favourite group. They made a presentation in a different way in comparison with the rest of the groups.

They made some videos to explain us all the concepts so we can see it in a different and more amusing way and it was so clear and entertaining. They insisted very much in the definition of the different groups and the different techniques.

The effort of the videos plus the fact that one of its components leaves, in my opinion, deserves an extra recognition.

As everyone, the last thing they did was the activity but, as they were the last group to present the project, they decided to do something different and useful at the same time.

They divided the class in three groups and then they told us to put in a paper all the things that we (individually) have learned during the presentations. Then, we put in common the ideas and wrote the ones that our classmates said.

In conclusion, it was very useful to review all concepts.

By: Elvira Astola