Title

Personal Peacefulness

Goal

To increase classroom cohesiveness by sharing personal information and gaining knowledge about classmates.

Abstract

This cooperative learning lesson involves the personal sharing of each individual’s “personal peacefulness” in order to facilitate communication amongst students within a class. The lesson allows students to learn about each other along with learning stress reduction techniques. It is ideal for middle school students through adults.

Materials

4 X 6 notecards for everyone in the class including the teacher.

Procedure

After arranging seats in a circle, each student is given a notecard and told to silently take a few minutes to think about and then write a description (on the notecard) of a technique that they use to reduce stress. The students should be told NOT to put their names on their notecard. It should be said that their techniques can be anything from physically doing something, to thinking of a place, etc. and should be very detailed. The teacher should participate, also.
After everyone has finished, the teacher should collect the notecards and shuffle them to ensure that they are mixed well.
The notecards should then be handed out randomly one to a person.
Then going around the room, the student will read the notecard they were handed and the group as a whole will try and figure out who wrote it.
Once guesses are made, the student who wrote the description should admit it is theirs and the class can briefly discuss it (i.e. ask questions, make comments, etc.).
After every card is read, the class should then process what just happened.

Positive Interdependence

This lesson employs group connectiveness. In the act of sharing the personal technique of stress relief, the student allows her/his peers to learn something about her/him. In this way the group becomes more connected.

Social Skills

In order to allow students to interact successfully, this lesson involves listening to others, taking turns, clarifying, and probing. Each student must listen to each technique thus helping utilize listening skills and the skill of taking turns. As the students briefly process each technique, they can use clarifying and probing. If a student is interested in why the technique is a method of stress relief for the individual or has any other questions, it can be asked to the student who wrote the technique.

Face-to-Face Interaction

This lesson should be done as the class has their seats arranged in a circle. This allows for close proximity and makes it so that the student speaking doesn’t have to stand in front of their peers.

Heterogeneous Grouping

By sharing the personal techniques, it allows for many perspectives to be explored. The lesson is designed to celebrate the diversity of the students within the class.

Evaluation

This lesson does not include formal evaluation

Processing

After everyone has shared, the class as a whole should reflect on what occurred and what they learned from participating in the activity. Likes/dislikes should also be discussed.

Individual Accountability

Each student is accountable for her/his contribution and discussion of a technique.

Concepts of Texts

Schmuck & Schmuck discuss the implications of seating arrangements in Chapter 4. Harold Leavitt found that when the class is organized so that the seats are arranged in a circle, communication is more likely to flow equally. Leavitt believed that in this circular arrangement, feelings of involvement (participation), satisfaction, and a constant flow of communication occurs.

In Chapter 5, Schmuck & Schmuck states that cohesiveness involves feelings of closeness, trust, and membership. It is achieved when members of the class are highly accepted by others. Students who do not feel like they are liked or part of the group tend to not work to their academic potential. Using cooperative lessons such as this one allows each student to learn something about all of her/his peers allowing for acceptance and group membership.

Sapon-Shavin discusses the need for schools as communities where there is security, open communication and mutual liking. When students participate in cooperative learning lessons such as this one, they are learning about each other. This allows for students to realize that each individual in the class has something to contribute to the group as a whole (i.e. talent or strength). This in turn, allows for a sense of mutual liking, security, and open communication. Communication will become easy as the students feel the can connect freely. This helps create the cooperative classroom in which members work together to attain mutual goals.