My opinion of cooperative learning groups

1-      The first group composed by Beatriz, Aypery, David and Irene made a poster where they explained with very fluent English and understandable which were the objectives and purpose of their cooperative learning project.

By the time I was attending their explanation very carefully, Yolanda interrupted them saying that she wanted other classmate of their group to explain the techniques in order to ensure that all members had participate in every single thing of the project (which is one of the main goals). The boy that was chosen to answer the question did great. So as far as I am concerned all of them understood what cooperative learning is.  

Finally I want to say that the play they had chosen was one of my favorites. We should draw some countries instead we didn’t know by ourselves and I enjoy it so much because I’m a good drawer and I think that drawing could be a very positive and useful tool to use with children, they feel very comfortable and it’s a good way to develop their creativity.

2 -        Futbol friends  

Alejandro, Sandra, melike , cisem-

First of all this group had to introduce their project in two sessions, in the first one they explain all the things related to the theoretical part through a full PowerPoint they talked about the techniques, sort of times, values, assessment.

The play they did consisted in writing your likes, the questions given were like: What was our favorite kind of music, or color as well, and that stuff. I think this sort of plays can be very interesting at the beginning of the term, it guarantees that most of the children in class know them more deeply.

In conclusion they did it well, they show they worked together and I liked it because they put some ideas very similar to mine.

3-      Team Perk.

Silvia, Irina, Javier, Sara.

What I liked the most of this group was the PowerPoint and how they organize all the ideas and structure, it looked like all of them know exactly what they should do so they must had worked a lot.

The activity was very different from the others, the aim of this game was to know the rules and values that must be followed in the class, this is important for children because thereby you can avoid some conflictive situations. We were divided into groups and we should pass a tennis ball and before giving it to another class mate, we had to ay a rule we thought was important to mention and work with. Then, a bell rang and the group that got in that moment the ball had to write all the rules they said on the blackboard. This method ensures that everybody is able to participate, developing the spontaneousness. They did something different; they visited a school to see how children sit in classrooms nowadays.

4 -      Viajeros chronicles.

Miguel Carazo, Amaya, Elvira, Zuleika.

This group was the most original one, because they introduced the idea of travelling and flying as they name refers. They explain everything very clear with some new innovative ideas.

I remember most of the project because they did it very entertained, everybody was comfortable and the idea of the tour was brilliant.

In my opinion it was a pleasure hear some of them and the sentence they said was amazing, cooperative learning is like  a plane you don’t know who you are travelling with(in this case studying), but both of you go to the same place.

5-      Unkowns

Alfonso, Virginia, Marina, Marta.

This group has done a very good job with the prezi, which it was perfect, very clear and easy to understand all the points.

I like a lot how they divided the project and the images. What I did not like is that at the beginning, I saw that some people of the group know more than the others, so I can say that there were people that should worked more than others, but they did it very well, they were able to answer all the questions they had to answer with no problem and they finally show that they understood what cooperative learning is.

They introduced some things that no one had said before and how they concluded the presentation was related with the answers given.

6 -      Dumbleldore

Maria schnell, Adalisa, Gema, Gonzalo.

If I have to say which group is the most original of all, I would definitely say this one, in relation with their name, they introduced their project with a Harry potter’s theme which I enjoy a lot because it was a little bit confused to read everything but that sort of things makes you be more focused on the presentation so at least it was nice.

They had some problems to express some ideas and they were a little bit puzzle, but they did it very well in Spanish, a partner of us get very nervous but it is understandable because of the language issue, but I am sure that next presentations they let that things away and do I much better.

Their game consists in putting us in random pairs to do a questionnaire, I really believe in this method of cooperative learning, especially when you have some new pupils in class that nobody knows, or even new foreign pupils from another country, by this way you are improving and helping your students to know more about their partners.  

7-    Modern students.

María Encinas, Borja, Patricia, Elia.

They did it very good as well like the rest of the teams, I think some of them know more than others in some aspects, but besides that, they did a nice job.

What captioned my attention were the ideas given to us, like the trust matter, I remember a lot this word because they explain what this should be and how we could do this up with our students, (e.g. sometimes we will have to work harder with some students but we can’t divided our selves, trusting in your students you would be able to let them work alone because you know they would do it and focus more on the students that need help) and leadership, explaining that there must not be just one leather, sometimes you have to force some partners or students to face some problems, encouraging them to do more things alone and being the guide of the group. I really liked this innovation thing.

Its play was very easy to understand what cooperative learning consists in. We were bound to close our eyes and with a sticker in our forehead we should find where our partners were with no talking, how do we know where our partners ere if I didn’t know what color my sticker was? This is the point of this game; classmates have to tell you where your partners are worrying first on their classmates by mutual helping. With this game you have a group that must work together, and also you can see which the pupils that are more competitive or less and which one is cooperating.