Week 7 Social Constructivism

1) As far as cooperative learning in elementary school, I remember doing lots of group projects and team activities. I don't remember too many of the actual activities at this level. The only one that was really memorable was 5th grade and we dissected owl pellets. We were in groups of 3 or 4 and we used gloves and tweezers to pull it apart. We later identified the bones that we found. It was disgusting but neat. There was a lot of discussion when we got down to identifying what we found. At the college level I have done similar activities to the one from 5th grade. I have participated in group projects of all kinds. My favorite was one where we all read a book, it was "Cirque Du Freak," the class was a juvenile lit class, during the reading of the book we did a book group. This was a great experience because we examined the book from many different perspectives. There were things that I hadn't noticed that they others had and that made the book that much more enjoyable.

2) I think that cooperative learning does have its place in the classroom. There is a time for a lecture but there is also a time for peer discussion. There are things that can be learned more effectively in a group of peers than from a teacher. Generally a teacher only offers one point of view, theirs, and in group, or cooperative learning a child shares their point of view in solving the problem and gets the view of others in the group. Each child can help the others with scaffolding their learning. A teacher is necessary but cooperative learning and problem solving is something that children will be doing for the rest of their lives so the might as well learn it well.

3) Both reciprocal questioning and instructional conversation get the students thinking outside of their usual box. It gets them thinking about questions and asking questions that they usually would not ask. They are both more student centered. The teacher acts as a guide in both, making sure they do not deviate too much from the topic being discussed. In reciprocal questioning, the teacher provides the students with a basic skeleton of the kinds of questions they want the students to be asking and the students create there own questions using the stems given. They then get into groups and ask and answer each other's questions and discuss them. In instructional conversation the teacher maps out how they want the conversation to go and then begins to guide the students in asking and answering questions together. In both, the teacher must take some time to give some background knowledge for the discussion.

4) Grouping according to ability is something that can be good as well as bad, like the book said. Many times I have heard of ability grouping in elementary schools but mainly in reading. I think this is good because the students feel like it is easier to read if they are not the only one reading at a certain level. But I think that at the same time there are things to be learned in mixed groups. Math was one subject where mixed groups would work out well I think. They can get help not only from the teacher but from other students that may be able to help more redily than the teacher in certain situations. I am not saying that they should copy what the other students are doing but group projects can help everyone to learn together. For reading mixed-grouping would work well if a readers theater was being done.