Destination 7: Cooperative Learning

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Welcome to our 7th Destination.. Cooperative Learning!!

Yesterday was my groups last lesson for Social Studies Methods. Before we get into how the lesson went, I would like to speak about this experience overall. Although I was nervous going into the first session, I calmed down right after I started to teach. I was surprised how comfortable I was in front of the class since I never taught whole class. However, it came naturally. I am so thankful to have had such an amazing experience and to work with such great, smart kids!

Now lets talk about the lesson...

Prior to the session starting, we passed out the materials the students needed for todays session. 

Once the class started, we once again introduced ourselves and reviewed the terms that the students would need in order to complete today's lesson. These words included; demographics, laws, occupations and services.

The students were instructed to create a poster that included those four terms. The students could also decide what type of community they would like theirs to be.

The students also had jobs that had to fulfill in their groups:
Once we explained their jobs, checked for understanding for the directions. When then gave them 15 minutes to create their posters!!

My group and I walked around to ensure that the students stayed on task. The 15 minutes went by fast. Overall, the students did well however, the time given was not nearly enough for them to produce what they wanted. However, we only had 40 minutes for the ENTIRE lesson.

The four groups then had 2-3 minutes each to present their posters to the class. It was interesting to see the uniqueness of each poster and how creative they got, even though they all had the same materials to create it.  See below for the finished posters!



In the end, we did not have time for the students to work on their group evaluation sheets or their letter to the newspaper about their community they created. 

I believe this lesson was a great end to our three lessons. At time it was slightly chaotic and could definitely have ran more smoothly if we had a larger time slot.  However, I am happy with the way we handled and managed our time and the students successfully completed the sessions and showed off their newly earned knowledge!!!


Click here for our Cooperative Learning Presentation

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