Teaching Today publishes innovative teaching tips on a weekly basis. Written with the busy teacher in mind, each tip is concise, practical and easy to implement in the classroom right away. Topics covered in Teaching Today are classroom management, career development, high stakes testing, instruction and planning, parental involvement, reading in the content areas, using technology in the classroom, and portfolio development. Teaching Today also offers free weekly downloads that correspond to the tips. Our free downloads make implementing the teaching tips even easier. Teaching Today provides educational resources for teachers looking for everyday solutions to the challenges of the classroom.
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Teaching Today - This Week's Tips Teaching Today - This Week's Tips

This Week's Topic

Teamwork and Cooperative Learning—Part 1
Teamwork, or cooperative learning groups, provide students with the opportunity to work and solve problems together. Teamwork increases respect for others and helps students use and develop interpersonal relationship skills. This week’s Teaching Tips focus on the goals and activities of teamwork and cooperative learning.

This Week's Tips

Use Cooperative Learning in the Classroom (Monday)
Cooperative learning gets students actively involved in their own learning, and at the same time provides the opportunity for peer teaching. Cooperative learning works especially well with problem solving, critical-thinking activities, and conceptual learning processes. Here are the basics of cooperative learning elements: Group goals are emphasized. Students must learn the material and help other members of the group. The success and failure of the group is shared by all.

Teamwork in the Classroom (Tuesday)
Teamwork is emphasized in most organizations. Employers may give prospective employees evaluations and assessments to determine if they are suitable to work within a team framework. To prepare students for teamwork, see this week’s Download Depot and give students these guidelines: Listen while others are speaking. Respect other people and their ideas. Stay on task. Be responsible for your part.

Download your free Teamwork Guidelines today!

Preparation for Cooperative Learning (Wednesday)
To set the stage for cooperative learning, prepare using the following tips: Create space in the room for groups to meet. Create groups of two to five students. Assign students to groups to create diversity and a range of abilities in each group. Remind students that they are to work together to accomplish one goal and that they are also responsible for their individual learning.

Suggestions for Cooperative Learning (Thursday)
Cooperative learning can be used with both large and small classes. Groups can outline chapters in the textbook, work together on the end-of-chapter reviews and activities, or work in groups to solve problems. Here are some more suggestions: Give students case studies and have them come up with solutions. Present the lesson to the whole class, and then have groups work together to outline and study the material.

More Suggestions for Cooperative Learning (Friday)
Use the following for cooperative learning: Have game teams compete on oral tests and hold tournaments. Assign each team member a task. Everyone on the team must cooperate as the information is collected, organized, and reported. Give the teams the entire assignment and let them decide how the tasks will be divided. Have students work together to provide a written analysis of a problem. Have students work together to give a multimedia presentation about an issue.



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