Meredith Michael

Cooperative Lesson

EDP 621, Summer 2002

Title: Who am I? Famous Person Study.

Objective: To study a famous person in depth as a cooperative group. All aspects of the person’s life will be researched including: time period, accomplishments, family life, physical attributes, and hobbies. Groups will be responsible for sharing the information with the class in the form of a quiz game using props and costumes.

Age Level: Second to fourth grade.

Time: This project will probably take about an hour a day for two weeks. Modify time according to the age and needs of your students.

Group size: 3 or 4 students. Groups should be formed with heterogeneous abilities.

Materials: Access to library resources (books and encyclopedias)

Notebook paper

Writing utensils

Index cards

Costume materials/props

Procedures:

1. Break the class up into groups of 3 or 4. Make an effort to put students together who do not normally choose to work together.

2. The first task is to help break the ice and allow the groups to get better acquainted. Having each student write down two true facts about themselves and one lie, and then guessing each other’s lie within the group is one suggested way to meet this goal. The teacher can decide on preferred ice-breaker activities for this purpose.

3. Students should decide as a group on a famous person in history that they would like to research. A list of options can be provided or students can be encouraged to brainstorm ideas depending on the age and ability level of the class. Some suggestions are: Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross, Annie Oakley, and Johnny Appleseed. This list can be created depending on the teacher’s curriculum. All students in the group must come to an agreement on their group’s choice.

4. Groups should make a trip to the school library to find biographies and other resources about their famous person.

5. The group should assume the identity of their famous person for the activity.

6. Questions should be addressed such as:

What time period did you live during?

Are you married?

Do you have children?

What do you typically wear?

What is you biggest accomplishment?

What is something that most people don’t know about you?

What do you like to do for fun?

What mode of transportation do you use?

Who are your closest friends/colleagues?

How old were you when you died?

Were there any big conflicts during your life? If so, what/with who?

(Questions can be modified to meet the teacher’s needs for the class.)

7. Each group member should be responsible for finding out different aspects of the person’s life. Each member should write down their important facts to share with the group.

8. Each student should share the information with the entire group.

9. The group needs to decide on clues using the facts they researched to stump the class about who they represent.

10. Each clue should be written on a different index card.

11. Group members need to decide what clothing and props will be needed to create their famous person’s look. They can either decide on one group member to dress up as the famous person or they can all elect to represent their group.

12. Group members should all contribute to creating the costume(s) for their group’s presentation to the class.

13. Students should rehearse their group’s presentation by using the clues/facts they have researched to have the class guess which person they are. Several rooms may be needed for this “dress rehearsal” if the classroom is not big enough for group’s to have their own space and not be overheard by other groups.

14. Group’s should be prepared to dress up as their famous person and read clues from index cards in a speech presenting “themselves” to the class. If all members of the class dress up, they should all read parts of the speech/clues. If only one group member dresses up, other members should decide on other responsibilities such as making the notecards, creating the costume, etc.

15. Class members should try to guess who the famous person is that each group has chosen to represent.

16. A study session should be allowed during which groups can review the facts of other groups’ presentations.

16. The clues can be compiled and given to the class to take a group quiz. Group members can help each other in completing the quiz, but they cannot help other groups.

17. Evaluation is done by other group members on areas including:

Each member’s willingness to contribute (5 pts)

How well they worked together as a group (5 pts)

The division of responsibility/contribution to the group (5 pts)

The quality of research that was done by each member (5 pts)

18. The teacher will give the group as a whole a grade worth 80 points and each individual will receive an evaluation worth 20 points based on the average of their group members’ evaluations.

Heterogeneous Grouping: Students of all abilities will be grouped together so that each student has a chance to contribute to the project in a significant way regardless of their designated “ability”. In addition, students of different races and gender will be grouped together.

Positive Interdependence: The students must work together, drawing from each student’s pieces of the project in order to put it all together. The project would be too large for one person to complete so they must rely on each other for the components of the project.

Face to Face Interactions: Students will be working in a variety of settings including the classroom and library. It is helpful if they can work around a round table or arrange their desks so that they are cubed together and facing everyone in the group.

Social Skills: Students are learning to interact with students that may have very different approaches to learning than themselves. They must learn to be patient with each other. Students must learn to divide tasks in a socially appropriate way. They also learn to trust each other and depend on one another. They are learning to communicate with each other and make group decisions which is an important social skill to learn.

Individual Accountability: Each student is responsible for their part of the research, speech writing, costume design, and presentation. They are accountable to their group for their contribution during the project and the teacher will evaluate them as well.

Relations to Text:

When the project is complete, the goal is that not only will the children learn about several famous people in history, they will also learn to work cooperatively in a group. Hopefully a secure atmosphere has already been established in their classroom, but this activity will contribute to that cohesiveness. Schmuck and Schmuck mention in chapter 5 that cohesiveness is essential to cooperative learning. They state that feelings of trust and membership within the group are important. These feelings can be achieved during this project as the group works together and accepts each member as an essential component of the project. They are learning about and accepting each other’s strengths, and cohesiveness is the result. Schmuck and Schmuck also state that shared influence is a component of group development. This cooperative lesson relies on shared influence within the group in order to complete the project successfully. The text also states that a pursuit of mutual goals is a stage in group development This lesson requires the group to reach for the same end result of a successful presentation of their group’s famous person to their classmates and parents.

This lesson also incorporates a shared vision with Sapon-Shevin that the students will feel comfortable “showing themselves” to each other after initial activities to build trust and communication within their group. They should share the things they are good at by volunteering for various aspects of the project. They have the chance to work on research, presenting, or creatively assembling the result. Through this task variety they should present both their strengths and weaknesses, goals and fears.

Leadership for this lesson may emerge in multiple ways as described by the Schmucks (Ch 8). Student emergent leadership may occur within the group or a functional leader can emerge. The leadership role is flexible throughout the project with the tasks at hand being the motivation for leaders to emerge during different stages of the project’s completion.