 You've done quite a bit of this on your own. You're going to work with a group to put your ideas from your graphic organizer with their ideas into a group graphic organizer. Today in my fifth grade classroom, my students worked in cooperative groups during reading. This was not their first experience in cooperative groups, so we had already established early in the year the expectations of them while they're working with their groups. When you're in your group, your voice levels are quiet. They're down. We are polite to each other. The first time was not as pleasant as this time. And as the year goes on, I do see them getting better and better with working with their groups. There are still some issues occasionally, but we work through those as a group. Everyone gets to participate. And you never ever ever tell anyone to shut up. Never tell anyone to shut up because everyone has a right to say what they think. Before my students got into their cooperative groups, we went back over the expectations for their working together. At the beginning of the year, we established those as a classroom what it would look like with people that had to work together in the real world, not just within the classroom setting. And so they helped create the norms that we used. These five people will make one group. There are four places around the room. Lily, you're gonna be my captain of this group. You have Isaiah, Elliot, Shania, and Madison. Will you please move with your group? To make sure that students have the social and emotional skills to work in a group, every day we work with communication between each other, the correct ways to communicate, things that you should say, things that you would be better off not saying. I need this group to stop for just a moment. Everyone has to work together. Everyone needs to stay on task. Everyone has a say, but you must stay focused and on task. Now, and that's a good point to make and thank you for giving him that compliment. Now, you asked me what your job was in the group. Everyone has a job of voicing what they have to say. That's a job. Did you share your point? Yours is on there. I see yours. What was your point? Sometimes when they do get into a discussion with each other and it's not appropriate or there's a better way of doing it, I will mediate and ask them, is there another way you can express these feelings or these concerns with your peer besides yelling and ranting about it. And we'll work through it that way. Many times the students will understand where they went wrong and they'll fix it themselves, but that is an ongoing process. Today, there were a couple of instances where the groups didn't seem to want to work together or in one particular, the student did not want to do the work. And I went back to that group and I said, okay, let's go through our expectations for group work again. And the one that we really pinpointed that time was the fact that everyone has to do their work. So how are you gonna fix this? Okay, all right, we're all gonna work together. You're gonna do your share too? All right. So now let's see if we can talk about some points and some reasons and evidence. Another instance was a student wanted to have more of a say and I had to explain to that child that everyone has a say. It's not just one-sided. After that, it did get a little better. And eventually she had to be moved out though because she still continued. Okay, hold on. Listen. Listen for a minute. Yes. Remember everybody's working together. This is Hunters the Captain, right? Yes. When I had to pull this student out, hopefully she learned that if she wants to be in the cooperative group that everyone has to have a say, it can't just be her. When I have to remove someone from a group, I have mixed feelings over it because I want them to have that interaction with that peers, but at the same time, sometimes students need to be alone to work. I would prefer she could work with the group, but as an adult, I know that that doesn't always work with adults as well. When I tell you to, you will move back to your seat, bring your conversations to an end. The best advice I could give someone that wants to try cooperative learning for the first time is get to know your students. Those relationships that you have with your students will spill over from student to student, but it will also help you know which students can be placed in which groups. So you got started as a group and you'll finish it on your own. Christian's group moved back to your seats quietly. Connor's group moved back to your seats.