IPT 301 Week 7

1. I can’t remember that much about cooperative learning in elementary school, although I am sure we did it. I have seen cooperative learning in schools I have worked at schools that have used a lot of this type of learning in their centers. In college, I have experienced a great deal of cooperative learning. I have many classes where a lot of our projects are based on these methods; we often have to make presentations or lessons as a group.

2. I think that cooperative learning has a place in the classroom just like any other method. For certain subjects, such as science, where an experiment needs to be done and discussed as a group, cooperative learning would promote learning because the students could all input their strengths and they could get a variety of input in the discussion.

3. Reciprocal questioning: method of reinforcing new concepts, information, or procedures that students have learned in class, encourages structured conversations among students.

Instructional Conversation: assumes that teaching involves conversation, the students have something important to say and their input is valued, is between the teacher and students.

4. Ability grouping is good for math and reading because it is much easier to taylor instruction to the heterogeneous group. This type of grouping is also better for the higher achieving students to give them some enrichment rather than having them work on things that they have already mastered.

Mixed grouping would be appropriate for activities where you want groups of different ability levels. This way, you can get different input from people with different interests and levels. The lower kids will benefit from having the help of the higher levels and the higher kids can help teach the lower kids.