Week of Jan 22

In the article "Cooperative Learning Groups," several points were made that reminded me of some areas in which I struggle when coordinating group activities in the classroom. One area I have difficulty with is teaching individual accountability and personal responsibility. It seems that there are always several children who do not work well with others and who do not contribute a fair share to the group effort. This also affects the element of interpersonal and small group skills. I have not yet mastered the art of guiding these children effectively through the cooperative group process so that they are successful and so they do not hamper the efforts of others in the group.

While reading the above mentioned article, webquests came to mind. A well constructed webquest would be a great way to use cooperative learning groups in the classroom. Because these activities require several processes in order to complete the final goal, it would be easy to delegate equally important responsibilities to every group member.