Tag Archives: Cooperative Learning

A Skit! (bring the Revolutionary War to life in your class!)

Posted on August 29, 2010 by ecossick| 2 Comments

by Kelli Lewis

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Skits, anyone? I always strive my hardest to make lessons and activities hands-on, engaging, interactive, and interesting because I feel that is how students learn better and learn more. I taught a week-long unit on Paul Revere and wanted to find a way to incorporate some acting for the students to perform. I searched online but found nothing. I ended up writing my own script. My class did the skit several times, to ensure that all students received a part. The students broke into groups and practiced their parts with other students who had that same part.

The skit is primarily a conversation between two modern-day peers who are discussing the Boston Tea Party. As they are discussing the events that occurred, the setting flashes back to pre-Revolutionary War Boston, and other students then act out the events.

Here’s the script:

Narrator 1: Hey, what are you doing?

Narrator 2: Oh, I’m just learning about The Boston Tea Party.

Narrator 1: A tea party? In Boston? When?

Narrator 2: No, silly. The Boston Tea Party happened a long time ago during the American Revolution.

Narrator 1: Oh, what happened?

Narrator 2: Well, the colonists were tired of King George III.

Narrator 1: What was so bad about King George III?

Narrator 2: Well, for one thing, he lived in England over 3 thousand miles away from the colonies. He was making laws and trying to rule the colonists.

Narrator 1: Were the laws fair?

Narrator 2: No, so the colonists protested.

Sons of Liberty 1: Listen here, King George III! We have our own laws!

Sons of Liberty 2: And we don’t want yours.

Sons of Liberty 3: We already pay a lot of taxes!

Sons of Liberty 1: Yeah, leave us alone!

Sons of Liberty 2: We should not have to pay a tax on tea.

Sons of Liberty 3: Let’s go talk to Paul Revere.

Narrator 1: Then what happened?

Narrator 2: Well, a man by the name of Paul Revere led a group of colonists. They called themselves the Sons of Liberty.

Narrator 1: What did they do about the taxes?

Paul Revere: Listen, men, why should we pay taxes when the king does not listen to our opinion?

Sons of Liberty 1: Yeah, no taxation without representation!

Sons of Liberty 2: Let’s do something about it!

Paul Revere: How about we form a secret club, dress up like Indians, march on board the ships, and….

Sons of Liberty 3: DUMP THE TEA!!

[Sons of Liberty 1,2,3 and Paul Revere dress as Indians.]

Narrator 1: Wait, you mean they wanted to dump the tea from all of the ships?

Narrator 2: Yes, every last bit.

Narrator 1: How would that end the tax on tea?

Narrator 2: Well, if all the tea was destroyed, then no one could pay taxes on the tea.

Narrator 1: That would get the king’s attention!

Narrator 2: Right. So on December 16, 1773….

Paul Revere: Ready men? Tonight we take over the ships.

Sons of Liberty 1: Let’s go!

Sons of Liberty 2: I’m ready!

Sons of Liberty 3: Me too!

[Sons of Liberty 1,2,3 and Paul Revere enter the ship.]

Paul Revere: Grab every pound of tea and throw it in the ocean!

[Sons of Liberty 1,2,3 and Paul Revere grab all of the tea bags and throw it overboard.]

Narrator 1: It sounds like Boston was a real hot spot in the American Revolution.

Narrator 2: Yeah, the scene of a very famous party!

Narrator 1: Not just any party…the Boston Tea Party!

Kelli Lewis is an Early Childhood Education graduate student at the University of Georgia whose great ideas we are honored to share on A Learning Experience!

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Posted in Academic Success, Assessments, Classroom Community, Cooperative Learning, History

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Who Rules the School? Boys…or Girls??

Posted on July 22, 2010 by ecossick| 6 Comments

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by Kristin M. Woolums, M. Ed.

You know those little box tops on the packaging of General Mills products? I discovered a way to turn them into GOLD! Well, maybe not literally, but these are some very valuable commodities in my classroom, and they are quite an unexpected motivator!

My school collects General Mills Box Tops – it’s a great program that pays $.10 per box top directly to my school. In an effort to boost collections, my school began a “Who Rules the School?” campaign in which the students could place their box tops in the “boys” or “girls” box, and one box top (or Campbell’s soup label) equals one vote. The box with the most votes wins not only the coveted title of ruling the school, but a free dress day (the students wear uniforms at my school). This always causes a big buzz around the school, so I decided to take it one step further! Since I’d accumulated lots of these Box Tops, I decided that instead of dividing them up half for the boys and half for the girls (which wouldn’t get either side ahead and seemed like a lot of work for me), I would give them away for correct answers during math class. All I can say is…Wow!… participation, correct answers, laughter, smiles, friendly competitive spirit… all of this suddenly increased! Who knew?!

It didn’t stop there, either! The students came into class saying, “I think I got all my math homework right. I can’t wait until math class!” After my initial thought of “Who are you, and what did you do with my students?” passed, I realized I had just stumbled into a super motivator, and I could hardly believe its effects! So of course, as a teacher, I milked it for all it was worth: I used it in other subjects, for when I caught someone doing something without being asked, for those that were prepared for class, and for those that asked good questions during class. The opportunities were endless! I especially liked that it gave an opportunity to reward students who aren’t normally in the class ‘spotlight’ or not as academically strong… pretty soon, everyone had earned rewards.

Perhaps the neatest part of the process was that when we all walked down the hall to the voting boxes, the students had such a proud look on their faces as they deposited their “votes.” Funny…some girls chose to place their box tops in the boys’ box and vice versa (How cute! 5th graders… I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand them!).

Ground rules: I give boys and girls equal opportunity when giving away Box Tops, and I tell them that the Box Tops are to be treated carefully – if they’re lost, so sorry! Also, if your school doesn’t do a school-wide Box Tops campaign, you could easily have a class-wide competition instead, or if you see many classes during the day, change them to “Which Class Rules?” If free dress isn’t applicable, perhaps other prizes could be free homework pass(es), extra recess or computer time, etc.

So, who rules the school? Maybe it’s the girls, or maybe it’s the boys. But in my book, General Mills Box Tops rule, hands down!

Kristin M. Woolums, M. Ed., teaches fifth grade at a private school in Atlanta and works at The School Box at Southlake during the summer months.

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Posted in Behavior Management, Classroom Community, Cooperative Learning, Motivation

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Engaging and Easy End-of-the-Year Activities

Posted on April 18, 2010 by ecossick| 2 Comments

The end is drawing near, and it’s time to finish with a bang! Here are some grand activities to take you through the final days of the school year.

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by Kristin M. Woolums, M. Ed.

Collaborative writing

In groups of four, have each person write an opening to a story (a mystery, a silly story, or whatever you decide).  Let them write a story opener for 5 minutes, then pass the paper to their left.  The next person reads the story opener of the person who just passed to them, then continues the story by adding the conflict or problem.  This person also writes for five minutes.  Then, each person passes again to the left, reads what’s written, then writes for five more minutes (continuing the story), and then pass again.  Finally, each person writes a final time (the conclusion), and then passes so that each person has the story they began.  Once they see what their group members wrote, the giggle fest begins!  And guess what… they just wrote four paragraphs!

Culminating projects

I like to send my students on a “scavenger hunt” to review the topics we learned throughout the year (see attached details and grading rubric).  Although you could easily tailor this project to any subject area, I use this idea in math.  This review project shows that the concepts they’ve learned in math have real-world relevance, application and connection.  The students enjoy the openness and creativity with which they’re tasked – no rigid project rules here!  Students’ projects are so creative and different from one another, too!  (A big thank you goes to Sharon Shaw for the idea; I took her high school version and made it fifth-grade appropriate).

Review games

I love the variety of PowerPoint games you can find online these days!  From Jeopardy! to Who Wants to be a Millionaire! to Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?… the options are endless!  You can choose from making your own questions from the templates or the ready-made games (both free!) chock full of good review questions.  Use your favorite search engine to find the exciting options out there!

As we draw to the close of another school year, we need to keep the academics flowing even if the energy level is low.  Students will enjoy these hands-on, energetic activities that review and reinforce the concepts taught throughout the year!

Kristin M. Woolums, M. Ed., teaches fifth grade at a private school in Atlanta and works at The School Box at Southlake during the summer months.

To submit your own ideas for publication, simply e-mail an original educational article (250-500 words) to editor@schoolbox.com. You’ll receive a $35 School Box Gift Card if you are selected for publication!

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Posted in Assessments, Behavior Management, Classroom Community, Cooperative Learning, Discipline, Games, Writing

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Start the New Year with a Bang! Games and Activities to Inspire and Excite

Posted on January 10, 2010 by ecossick| Comments Off

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By Sandra Jacoby

The presents have been opened, fireworks have welcomed the new year and kids have gotten used to being home for two weeks! Now it is time for back-to-school, the winter version. How do we, as teachers, get our students back into the swing of class? Instead of jumping head-first into the pool of knowledge (that is more than likely frozen over), you have to break the ice. Hold off on the piles of homework and start slow. Find something that will get their gears going without the stress.

Primary/Elementary Levels:

Games and hands-on activities are a great way to review the previous semester and ignite students’ excitement to be back in class. A scavenger hunt on the playground or in the classroom, for example, is sure to grab their attention! Students can find five rocks (to work on counting) or things that starts with a certain letter or sound (such as /b/). A scavenger hunt can be adjusted to any subject and any grade…and it doesn’t take a lot of preparation.

Junior High/High School:

Stretch students’ brains and get them talking with optical illusions. Just search “optical illusions” on Google Images, and you’ll find plenty. Students can write about what they see and discuss their different perspectives.

Students, Come on Down!

Another option to get children of any age tuned in to the new semester is to take previous tests and quizzes and use them as questions in a game show. You can break students into groups to play (students are generally more motivated when they’re working with their peers), and you might choose to award the winners with five extra credit points on the next test or a dismissal from a homework assignment.

Starting the new semester with a game or activity will inspire your students to even greater heights during the second-half of the year!

Sandra Jacoby graduated from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in December, 2008, with a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies. She currently teaches pre-kindergarten in Fredericksburg, Texas.

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Posted in Classroom Community, Cooperative Learning, Games, Writing

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Unique Assessments III: Reader’s Theater

Posted on December 10, 2009 by ecossick| 2 Comments

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This is part three in a three-part series on unique assessment ideas. (Part one and part two can be found here and here.) Here is an idea for using reader’s theater to evaluate comprehension.

Reader’s Theater is essentially just creating a skit based on a book or historical event. Because the skit will encompass all of the main ideas surrounding the historical event or plot of a book, it is a superb way to assess student comprehension. Here are some quick steps to generate reader’s theater skits with your students:

1. Groups. First, break students into groups of four to six. Assign (or allow a chance to pick) a different historical event or portion of a novel to each group.

2. Main Ideas. The groups need to first brainstorm the main ideas of the event of story and list them chronologically. You might want to model this first as a whole class, using a different book or historical event than those assigned to the groups.

3. Characters. Next, the groups should list all characters and major players.

4. Skit Conventions. Now would be a great time for a mini-lesson on playwriting conventions, such as format, use of colons after each speaker’s name, use of parentheses to describe emotion or voice inflection, dividing the story into Acts and Scenes, etc).

5. Plot. Next, review the elements of a story’s plot (beginning, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion). Students can fill out this printable form to help organize their story into these plot components.

6. Writing. Now the groups are ready to turn their lists of main events, plot elements, and characters into a skit! Model this as a class, first.

7. Practice. Allow time to practice, create props, sets, etc. This can get as elaborate or as simple as you desire. Simple props work just fine!

9. Then…perform! While the rest of the class will LOVE watching the other groups perform, other possible audiences include parents, other classes or younger students. Your students can complete this printable Reader’s Theater Audience Feedback Form on each group, as well.

This is a fun and unique way to assess comprehension while also encouraging public speaking and cooperative learning!

written by Elizabeth Cossick, M.Ed.

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Posted in Assessments, Classroom Community, Cooperative Learning, Teaching

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