Hats, Huddles, and Puzzles: Start an Interaction Chain Reaction in your Social Studies Classroom

 

Stop # 7: Hats, Huddles, and Puzzles

Start an Interaction Chain Reaction in your Social Studies Classroom

Puzzles. One of America's favorite pastimes and the perfect activity for a snowy day. Whether you have puzzle mania like me, where entire birthday parties have been centered on team puzzle races, or you fall into the more common majority that breaks open a box once every few years, all individuals can relate to the extreme, and almost irrational elation associated with finding a match. Children will jump up and down, parents will scream, and grandparents may even clap their hands just knowing that this one small connection has brought them slightly closer to generating a finished product. Although this may seem like an irrational tangent, puzzles serve as a fantastic place to begin our discussion today on cooperative learning. In the previous two posts, we have taken some time to talk about the need for social-emotional literacy and the desire to generate democratic classroom environments complete with compassionate, reflective young learners. That said, we have never really taken the time to outline some of the key activities, practices, and methods that can help to accomplish these goals. If this is something that has been bugging you for a while now, fear not because today, just like a puzzle, we will be working hard to add those last few pieces necessary to generate a complete picture. As puzzles have gotten our discussion started this afternoon, it seems only appropriate to begin our analysis with the Jigsaw Method. 

Just as a jigsaw puzzle serves as a collection of various pieces that come together to make a complete picture, the jigsaw method of teaching is a collection of topics that will be fully developed by students before coming together to make a complete idea. As discussed in our assigned reading for the week, this strategy allows individuals or small groups to become responsible for one subcategory of a larger topic. After researching and developing their idea, each individual or small group has the responsibility to teach that subcategory to the rest of the class. For more information on the Jigsaw Method please watch the YouTube video linked below. 

To reinforce these concepts, I have also attached a personal example of the Jigsaw Method in action. In my Social Studies Methods class this week, Dr. Smirnova divided each professional learning community up into a series of groups by assigning every student one of the five major components of cooperative learning. From there, we were placed into small groups and asked to become experts on our assigned topic. Once the research had been performed and the group was very familiar with their Cooperative Learning principle, students were tasked with generating an engaging and interactive PowerPoint presentation appealing to the "Five E's of Education" (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate). At the conclusion of this process, all "experts" were sent back to their professional learning communities and asked to educate their peers on the importance of their assigned cooperative learning principle. As you can see, I was part of the group tasked with educating others on the principle of group processing.

Click On The Image Above To Be Redirected To My Group Processing PowerPoint

The second strategy that I wish to share with my fellow bloggers today is entitled The Six Thinking Hats by Dr. Edward de Bono. The Six Thinking Hats principle helps to provide a means for groups to plan their thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive way. In doing so, this strategy ultimately helps students work together in a more effective fashion. When discussing the red hat, teachers are told to think of fire and warmth. This hat is associated with emotions, hunches, intuition, and gut feelings. The yellow hat is associated with optimism and logical positive thinking. For this reason, many teachers refer to the yellow hat as the sunshine hat. The black hat is often called the stern judge hat as it is associated with critiques, analysis, and logical negative thinking. The green hat is associated with creativity, new possibilities, and exciting ideas. The white hat is neutral in terms of its overall analysis. When wearing the white hat, students should be objective and only focus on the facts that are being presented. Finally, the blue hat is associated with agenda, process, organization, and decision making. The teacher often describes this hat by comparing it to the sky, as it provides students with a broad overview of the topic being discussed. For more information on the six thinking hats, please watch the video linked below.

Now that we are familiar with the Six Thinking Hats, it is important to understand how they can help to improve the quality of a lesson. By utilizing this principle, teachers can break down the complex thinking process into six major categories. This helps students to understand that the brain works in a number of different ways. By visually seeing the hats and understanding their associated principles, children can work to cultivate these different thought processes in their own brains, which ultimately expands their ability to work cooperatively with others and engage in parallel thinking. Click on the link below to see the idea of the Six Thinking Hats applied to a real-life classroom. Notice how the teacher has chosen to use bears in order to demonstrate this complex principle.

The next collaborative learning strategy that I believe merits discussion is entitled, "Think, Pair, Share". Now, if you are an education student, odds are that this principle is not completely foreign to you. In fact, it is likely that many of my readers have experienced Think, Pair, Share in action with numerous different teachers throughout their educational journey. That said, just in case some of the ideas associated with this strategy remain a little bit fuzzy, I thought I would bring more clarity to this topic. Think, Pair, Share can be defined as a collaborative learning strategy where students come together to solve a problem or answer a question posed by the teacher on an assigned reading or topic. This strategy requires students to first think individually about a topic or answer to the assigned question and then share their ideas with both a small group and then the entire class. This discussion helps to maximize participation, focus student attention, and engage the children in comprehending the course material. Click on the link below to see this principle in action. In this video, you will see the teacher encouraging students to discuss the complicated issue of slavery.

The final strategy that I would like to discuss with you today is entitled "Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up". This cooperative learning strategy can be used to motivate students, activate prior knowledge, close a lesson or group of lessons, review previously learned material, or most importantly, to have fun! In this activity, students begin by standing up from their desks and placing their hands in the air as if they are about to give someone a high-five. From there, they mingle, mix, and practice meeting and greeting one another until they find a partner. Once they find someone that they would like to work with, the students will high-five one another and lower their hands to form a partnership. As soon as all students have a partner, the teacher will pose a question, or share the task that is going to be completed in these partnerships. Next, students are given time to think and discuss their answers. This helps to foster important communication skills such as being a good listener, turn-taking, and personal reflection. Once all of the students have completed the assigned task, teachers will randomly call on partnerships to share their thoughts and perspectives. It is important that every student feels validated and that each response is respected regardless of other student's personal opinions. These ideas once again tie into the overall goal of creating a democratic classroom and a safe educational environment, as was discussed in the previous post. To see this Kagan Strategy in action, watch the video below where Amanda Hicks integrates "Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up" into her sixth-grade math class.