Cooperative Learning Strategies

Hi Friends,

I know I've been M.I.A... it seems like that is the story of my life lately but I have good reason! Internship is FINALLY over and I finished it with a BANG! Graduation is coming up soon (in May) and then after that I can begin applying for a teaching position and I know that I am going to need all of the prayers I can get to find a spot here in Miami... but, in the meantime, I have been reading all of the amazing books that have been recommended by all of you in blogland.  I just finished reading The Daily 5 and I will probably work on some posters and rules for each soon so be on the lookout for that and I have begun reading No More "I'm Done!" by Jennifer Jacobson because I want to make sure that I have as much knowledge as possible to run Writer's Workshop in the classroom as effectively as possible so that my future students can benefit from it so look for some posts on that book soon as well.  In the meantime, here are some cooperative learning strategies cards that I created.  The explanations on how to implement each strategy in the classroom are featured on this link HERE and the classroom strategy cards I made can be found HERE .  My suggestion would be to print out the strategy descriptions first so that you can keep them as a reference as you introduce and use each strategy in your classroom and then print out the strategy cards I made.  I didn't decorate them too much on purpose because I know that all of you have different themes and colors in your classrooms... this way, you can print them out and glue them to any kind of scrapbook paper you wish to use and then laminate them for durability... I would also adhere some magnetic strips to each of them so that you can line them up on your whiteboard and have them ready in a moments notice.  If there are any strategies that you use in your classrooms that I did not feature in the file, please feel free to comment and I will add them to the set.

Note: When you download and print the strategy cards please make sure that you do not make any changes to the original cards... it took me a L-O-N-G time to put these together and I put a lot of thought into how I wanted them to look.  Thank you and Enjoy!

 Also, I did not make cards for every single strategy that is featured on the website (link above) because I do not use all of the strategies listed in the Primary grades; but if you find the file useful to your individual classroom needs then I hope you will take the time to comment and let me know how you like them and/or how you plan to use them in your classroom.  The teaching blog world is a collaboration of ideas and by us sharing our ideas, it allows other teachers (especially NEW teachers, like myself) to "beg, borrow and steal" those ideas to benefit the students because, after all, that is what we are here for! :) So, until my next post... happy teaching friends!

Here is a sample of one of the pages that is featured in the Cooperative Learning Strategies file:

Clipart used courtesy of DJ Inkers