Cooperative Learning Lesson

Debbie DeGennaro

EDP 621, Summer I 2002

Safari Africa

 

Level: 9th grade

 

Goal:  To have fun learning to recognize the locations and names of various cities, countries, and physical landmarks of Africa.  Another goal of this cooperative lesson plan is to help students develop skills for working cooperatively with others.

 

Abstract:  At a time when the news focuses on people and events from around the world ( i.e. the Olympics, World Cup Soccer, health issues, environmental concerns, global conflicts, business transactions), and peoples of a different culture and/or ethnicity often find themselves  in closer proximity to one another, it seems more important that students learn about other places around the world.  Becoming more familiar with geography is one way that this can be accomplished. Too, the secondary social studies curriculum is changing so that freshmen, instead of taking American History, will be required to take a World Studies course.  In order to make learning place names more interesting, and to promote the retention of newly acquired information, a TGT format is utilized. 

 

Materials:  A large bulletin board display map of Africa with individual name tags for each  of the locations being discussed.

 

2 Geosafari games, each with 5 individual map cards made to represent each of the 5 regions of Africa.

 

Computers with access to the following websites:

 

www.funschool.com

www.geography-games.com

www.quia.com/geo.html

http://members.aol.com/bowermanb/games.html

 

Stopwatches (1 per group)

Record keeping sheets (1 per student)

Certificates and prizes

 

Time: The time needed to effectively cover the continent of

Africa would be 3 weeks.  This time could be lengthened or

 shortened,

 

Procedure:  Using a TGT (Teaching, Games, Tournament) format, students are presented with information about different regions of Africa one day, and then set up in teams to study the material the next day.  The five regions of Africa that will be covered are:  northern Africa, the western/coastal region, the eastern/coastal region, central Africa, and southern Africa.

 

            Students are placed in their teams in a heterogeneous manner so that they are mixed according to their gender, behavior (extroverted vs. introverted, and cooperative vs. disruptive), their ethnicity/culture, and according to their geographic ability (high knowledge, medium knowledge, low knowledge).  There will be four people on a team.

            The team study consists of students helping each other learn the place names via the Bulletin board display map, the Geosafaris, and the computers.  After a one day teacher-led presentation, the teams have a day to learn the names, working to improve the time and accuracy of their identification. Within each group, there will be one person making the identifications, another person keeping time with a stopwatch, another person who will keep record of numbers of mistakes made and the time it takes to complete the identifications, and the fourth person will act as helper – answering questions, clarifying meaning, assisting with pronunciations, and providing answers when needed.  The jobs will rotate after each person has a turn, and each person will get 3 turns per study session.

            Teams would rotate using the bulletin board, Geosafaris, and computers on an every other day basis. A presentation would be made on Monday, then the teams would study, using one of the assigned tools, on Tuesday.  Another presentation would be made on Wednesday, and the teams would study together, using another assigned tool, on Thursday. 

            The tournaments would take place on Fridays. The first tournament would cover the material that was learned that week – the northern and western/coastal regions of Africa.  The following week, another tournament would be held on Friday, this one covering the central and eastern/coastal regions of Africa that were studied that week.  The third week, after presenting the southern region of Africa on Monday, the teams would study on Tuesday, and have a tournament on Wednesday.  Thursday would be spent with teams preparing for the final culminating tournament on Friday.  Individual points would be awarded after each tournament, and each individual would carry those points back to his/her team. Teams would be recognized for most total points after each tournament, and prizes would be awarded after the final tournament.  Every team would be recognized and win a prize.

            Whereas the study teams were heterogeneously grouped, the tables for the tournament games would be homogeneously grouped (high, medium, and low).  The tournaments would be set up so that students would be required to identify various place names as they are being pointed to.  Members in the low group would be given three place names to choose from.  Medium group members would be given the regional lists of place names to choose from.  The members of the high group would not receive any additional help.  The same number of points would be rewarded for similar performances in each of the 3 groups.

            

           

           

                                                          

                                                       Regional Place Names

 

 

   Northern Africa

Mediterranean Sea     Red Sea

Suez Canal                Atlas Mountains

Cairo                          Sahara Desert

Egypt                         Casablanca

Nile River                  Tunisia

Libya                          Madeira & Canary Islands

Algeria                       Western Sahara

Morocco                     Mauritania

 

 

   Western/Coastal                                           

Congo                        Ghana

Gabon                        Ivory Coast                                              Southern Africa

Cabinda                     Liberia

Cameroon                  Sierra Leone                                                  Madagascar

Nigeria                      Guinea                                                            Indian Ocean

Benin                          Guinea-Bissau                                              South Africa

Togo                          The Gambia                                                   Lesotho

Atlantic Ocean           Senegal                                                          Swaziland

                                                                                                         Botswana

                                                                                                         Zimbabwe

       Central Africa                                               Mozambique

Rwanda                                 Niger                                                  Namibia

Burundi                                 Mali                                                    Malawi

Uganda                                  Upper Volta                                       Angola

Zaire                                      Congo River                                      Capetown

Central African Republic      Lake Chad                                          Johannesburg

Chad                                                                                                 Pretoria         

                                                                                                         Victoria Falls

                                                                                                         Zambia

      Eastern/Coastal

 

Tanzania                               Djibouti

Lake Tanganyika                  The Sudan

Lake Victoria                        Khartoum

Kenya                                   Equator

Somalia                                 Tropic of Capricorn

Ethiopia                                Tropic of Cancer            

 

 

Cooperative Learning Elements:

 

Positive Interdependence – There is a common goal for everyone to learn about place names in Africa and for each team member to do well for the sake of the entire team.  The individual members develop a group connectiveness.

 

Individual Accountability – Each person’s individual scores are kept with a record of the rate at which they completed the task and the number of errors that were made. Each individual brings back points to the team.

 

Social Skills – In order for the student teams to be successful, they must be demonstrating social skills such as active listening, taking turns, giving help, and clarifying and/or paraphrasing.

 

Face-to-Face Interaction – The students sit in close proximity to one another as they meet in their team. Helping and sharing information requires some face to face interaction.

 

Heterogeneous Grouping – This was accomplished as each team was formed based on student gender, ethnicity/culture, behavior, and geographic ability.

 

Evaluations – The students would be evaluated based on their individual and team scores as well as on their ability to participate in all facets of the game. Records would show individual improvement with respect to time and number of errors made when identifying the places. Students would evaluate both their own academic performance, and the instructional behaviors of the teacher. The teacher would evaluate both, too.

 

Processing – After the final tournament, students would have the opportunity to reflect on the game and their individual and team performance.

 

 

Mara Sapon-Shevin writes of a civics curriculum based on six values that, when emphasized, could provide guidance for this cooperative lesson plan, and help to make the class a caring community. Courage would mean that the normally shy students would feel safe participating and that students could venture to take a guess without fear of ridicule. The groups would be inclusive simply as a result of the way that they were grouped, but Inclusion would entail everyone being made to feel welcome and accepted by the group. Value could be achieved by providing an opportunity for students to work together that may not have previously been able to do so, and by providing an opportunity for everyone to feel like they have contributed to the groups’ success. Integrity would be achieved by making sure that every body was treated in a respectful manner.  By establishing early rules for the team, everyone’s integrity could be kept in tact.  Cooperation requires that the team members be good listeners, that they encourage one another, fully participate in the team process, and assist each other when necessary. Safety can be insured by having students remain in their seats, keeping their hands and feet to themselves at all times, and following the basic rules of the classroom.

 

 

     A good cooperative lesson would create a community of caring that would, according to the Schmucks, allow for several group process components to develop. As the lesson progressed, positive signs of communication should be apparent.  Students would be complimenting one another, and they would be using encouraging words, and showing respect for others ideas and feelings The teacher should be visible, providing immediate feedback and a caring attitude.

      Hopefully, some signs of friendship and team cohesiveness would be apparent as well. Students would be making good efforts to be in class, would be taking active roles in their learning, and would be supportive in their actions.

      During the evaluation and processing of the lesson, it should be apparent that some of the norms and expectations of the assignment  had been altered.  Whereas students may have expected that it was going to be a “stupid” game, or that they would not get along with a particular member of their group, may now find that the assignment was OK after all, and that one particular student actually made some valued contributions.  Maybe a student felt like he or she was going to be ridiculed or ostracized for not being a good contributor to the group.  Hopefully, these negative expectations would become positive experiences.  The evaluation should be organized so that it would take place more equally between the teacher and the students.

     Each team should have students demonstrating signs of leadership. Because a climate of encouragement and safety would have been established, there would be some motivation to do well, and obvious rewards for success would be made available, it would make it more likely that student leadership would emerge.

     Conflict is inevitable.  What becomes important is what type of conflict emerges, and how it is handled. A distinction needs to be made between miscommunication and conflict; miscommunications are OK and may require some teacher involvement in helping the students to clarify and or paraphrase their comments.  Serious conflict requires an immediate and appropriate response to the source of the conflict. Having a conflict resolution  team already in place may help deal with some of the more serious conflict, should it arise.