Some Types of CL Techniques that Work

Some Types of CL Techniques that Work

1. Jigsaw
   This type involves four to six members in a team working on material that has been broken down into sections. Each “home team” member reads his or her section. Then, members of different home teams who have studied the same sections meet in “expert groups” to discuss their section. Next, the students go back to their home teams and take turns teaching their teammates about their sections.
2. Jigsaw II

Unlike Jigsaw, students work in groups of four in a team working on the same material. Each member of the team has a different job to do concerning the material. For example, if there are 12 comprehension questions, student A does questions 1-3, student B questions 4-6, student C questions 7-9, and student D questions 10-12. Then, members of different home teams who have answered the same questions meet in “expert groups” to discuss their answers. Next, the students go back to their home teams and take turns teaching their teammates about their answers.

3. Learning Together
   In this CL activity, the students are organized into teams that include a cross-section of ability levels. Each team is given a task or project to complete, and each team member works on a part of the project that is compatible with his or her own interests and ability. The intent is to maximize strengths of individual students to get a better overall group effect. Final assessment is based on the quality of the team’s performance.
4. Numbered Heads Together
   In this CL type, students number off in teams, e.g. 1-2-3-4. As soon as the teacher finishes asking a question, the students in the teams literally put their heads together to make sure everyone knows the answer. The teacher calls a number. Students with that number raise their hands to be called on, as in traditional classrooms.
5. Roundtable/roundrobin
   In a roundtable activity, a student in turn writes one answer as a piece of paper and a pencil are passed around the group. With roundrobin, the students say the words orally.
   Roundtable-roundrobin dictation
   Students work in groups of 4, each takes turn reading a sentence and all must write. When finished, peer correction is done by each of the team reading and correcting the others’ work.
6. Think-Pair-Share/Think-Pair-Square
   Students think to themselves on a topic provided by the teacher; then they pair up with another student to discuss it. They then share with the class their thoughts.

In Think-Pair-Square students (1) think to themselves, then share with a partner to discuss the problem. After that they share with another group, so the two pair together become a square.

7.    One Stay-Three Stray
 The students form groups of four. Given a task such as a ranking or problem- solving task, the students discuss in groups. When finished, three students (“strayers”) go to different groups to learn results of discussion; one (“a stayer”) stays to tell his group’s results to strayers from other groups coming to him. Finally, the “strayers” return to their home groups and discuss their findings. Groups might want to change or improve the results of their discussion.

8. Flip it!
   This is a picture description technique that can be generalized to any type of discussion. The key is that everyone has an equal amount of time to contribute to the discussion.
   Students  work in pairs. Each pair has a picture, including going beyond what can be seen to hypothesize about the people in the picture. Then, the teacher says, “Flip it!” and the other partner continues the description. This procedure repeats several times. Finally, students are randomly selected to share their pair’s description with the class.
9. Graffiti
   The teacher and the class decide on a theme. The students work in groups of four; each group write a statement or a question on the theme. This is written at the top of a large sheet of poster/chart paper. Groups take turns adding responses to other groups’ statements and questions. At the end of the activity, groups review the responses they have received from other group.
10. Strip Stories
    Students work in groups of 4-5. Each member has one or more strips of paper on which are written sentences from a text. Students read but do not show their strips to group mates. The group uses their knowledge of language and content to put the strips into a correct order.
11. The Five Friends
    Students work in groups of four. The students take turns reading and answering the clues which are looped and linked in an intricate way. Students record information on the worksheet next to the appropriate person and category. If their answers are accurate, their will be four blank spaces in the table. Figure A lists 19 clues for students. The students’ worksheet (Figure B) is an empty chart with the four questions listed after it. After filling in the blank spaces, the students will know the answers to the four questions.
12. Paired Storytelling
    A narrative text is divided into two parts. Students work in pairs; each member is assigned different segments of the text. After they read their own parts, they jot down key concepts found in the part. Each student is to list the key words/phrases in which they appear in the text. Then they exchange the list and relate the clues to the story part they have read. Each student develops and writes his/her own version of the story’s missing part. When they finish, they may read the original version of the whole story and conclude the lesson with a discussion.