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Laura Candler's Cooperative Learning Resources Cooperative learning is a powerful teaching strategy that's more than just a passing fad. Research has shown that when implemented properly, students in cooperative learning classrooms outperform their peers in traditional classrooms. The key is knowing how to implement the strategies to foster interaction while making sure all students are held accountable.

Laura Candler's website is a great way to learn more about cooperative learning. Her website includes great learning pages, and also printable's that you can use in your classroom. 

Learning front is a free online learning community for connecting people and professional tools to advance the frontier of learning. This site can help you build a network of colleagues, create or jooin a team, use proffessional tools for developing and sharing learning resources, participate in professional development, and communicate worldwide.

This article has several ideas for small group activities that build skills and promote teamwork. It focuses on building learning strategies with diverse learners. I really like this website and will be using it it the future for teaching Reading and helping those that are struggling with this subject. ABCs of Teaching Reading classroom strategies helping struggling readers, reading topics from a-z Cooperative Learning has been proven to be effective for all types of students, including academically gifted, mainstream students and English language learners (ELLs) because it promotes learning and fosters respect and friendships among diverse groups of students. In fact, the more diversity in a team, the higher the benefits for each student. Peers learn to depend on each other in a positive way for a variety of learning tasks. Students typically work in teams of four. This way, they can break into pairs for some activities, and then get back together in teams very quickly for others. It is important, however, to establish classroom norms and protocols that guide students to: Contribute Stay on task Help each other Encourage each other Share Solve problems Give and accept feedback from peers

Use these strategies to improve your students' cooperative learning skills. Included are articles to teach you about each concept and lesson plans with which you can implement the strategies. These are great professional development resources and are an excellent resource to ensure that you are improving your professional skill set.

Several different articles about cooperative learning strategies.

Cooperative Learning strategies, games, and software

View Study Skills View Organizers Cooperative Learning Instruction Strategies For a teacher who is trying to teach through cooperative learning from the teacher's resources or lesson plans, he or she might face problems of discipline or noisy lessons as after all it's just a class full of students.

This website discusses how to use cooperative learning techniques with pre-schoolers. It focuses on teachers concerns about using cooperative learning with low status students who will not participate and/or that high status students will take over the group. Teachers must create groups that are equitable so that all students participate fully and use multiple-ability strategies (Cohen, 1998) if cooperative learning is to work. Teachers also need to convince students of three things: That different intellectual abilities are required in cooperative learning, that no one student has all of the abilities needed, but that each member of the group will have some of the abilities (Cohen, 1998).

Engaging students in experiential (hands on) learning activities that will promote social skills with teamwork, critical thinking skills, problem-based learning, and technological skills is a great resource for students. There is also a video that you will be able to view on this website

This website offeres a expansive list of Cooperative Learning activities for the students to do. These can intergrated into lesson plans or used as a introduction activity.

Cooperative Learning Structures Explanation Jigsaw Groups with five students are set up. Each group member is assigned some unique material to learn and then to teach to his group members. To help in the learning students across the class working on the same sub-section get together to decide what is important and how to teach it.

Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement.

This presentation outlines 60+ strategies for activities and cooperative learning.

I like how they use presentation slides to outline the strategies.

Introduction Cooperative Learning! A fascinating concept. Humans are social beings. Transescents are VerySeemingly, then, cooperative learning would be an excellent fit for the middle level classroom. What better place than in the middle level classroom for young people to begin learning to cooperate. Yet, it carries so much controversy.

Cooperative learning is an instructional strategy that simultaneously addresses academic and social skill learning by students. It is a well-researched instructional strategy and has been reported to be highly successful in the classroom. For a more in depth explanation of this strategy, follow this link to the self-guided tutorial.

A website that offeres a overview of what exactly Cooperative Learning is. Also includes the elements and some examples for teachers to run through with their students.

The website gives a good description of cooperative learning, gives reasons to why you should use it in your classroom, and gives a nice list of different activities that could be done with this strategy. 

Information on cooperative learning; how to use it, what it is, techniques, and examples.

This website contains many cooperative learning games for elementary students.

This website is great for answering some of the basic questions to cooperative learning. It gives information on how students will benefit and what the teachers role is when implementing such program. 

This lesson plan was a good source for a science activity. 

A cooperative learning lesson on butterflies and moths. Grades 2-3 Science

Dedicated teachers are always looking for better ideas to meet the many challenges they face in school, especially as diversity increases in the student population. Cooperative learning methods provide teachers with effective ways to respond to diverse students by promoting academic achievement and cross-cultural understanding.

Learn at your own pace online with these 1-2 or 6-10 hour interactive activities. Learn online from certified instructors with your colleagues. 1-2 hour seminars, week and month long courses are available. Earn state and university credit. Attend an NSTA workshop in person to learn hands-on techniques with other teachers. This site also offers free lesson plans and resources for the classroom in the Science curriculum. You can search by grade level. There are also books, e-books, and journals. They also have podcast, and online seminars and classes.

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