Week 7

1. I have experienced P.E. activities in both elementary and college. Dance teams in college required a lot of cooperative learning. In elementary school and in college, I was asked to solve problems as a group. In college, writing a research paper as a group is another example of a collaborative activity.

2. I personally feel that cooperative learning promotes learning because it allows students to develop necessary skills for the workplace and home. It also enables students to recognize that there are various perspectives to look at things. For students who struggle a little, it allows them to develop confidence in the learning process and realize that they aren't the only one who is learning.

3. Both reciprocal questioning and instructional conversations involve asking questions. Some of them are very deep and require higher level thinking skills. Discussions are also a huge part of both of these strategies. Both try to build on previous experience. Reciprocal questioning relies on background knowledge, while instructional conversations rely on the conversation building on each other.

4. You would want to use ability grouping when working on reading. Guided reading groups are a great example of ability grouping. It enables the students to achieve and stay motivated. Mixed-grouping would be more appropriate with some skills tasks like P.E. You would want a mixed-grouping with say a softball game to keep the competition level down and to allow students struggling with certain skills (for example, swinging the bat) to learn from those who excel.