How to Shuffle Students Into Cooperative Learning

Let’s assume a class of 22 students for this example, though you can do the same thing for as many or as few as you need. Let’s also assume that you want groups of four because the activity you will have them be doing needs four students to each share part of the work load. Generally, the extra two students would just be bunched into another group sharing the load and therefore disabling the cooperative learning goal for the group. Remember, the teacher needs to give students individual goals which lead to the group’s success.

Take a deck of cards and remove all numbers from 9 down to 2 which would leave you with all four Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks and 10’s. Also include the two Jokers. There are many different styles of decks that are age appropriate for many levels. You can find them at the big box stores like Target or even the smaller dollar stores if you are lucky.

Have the class pick through the deck one at a time at a slow pace so that the class can react to the student’s reactions. As long as they are positive, it will be great fun for everyone. There are many ways to create variations of this and if you are reluctant to use playing cards, simple make copies of any kind of picture and have the students pick them out of a hat.

As for the two jokers, give them each a facilitation task and base their grade on that. For example, one Joker will be the motivator who goes from group to group to help anyone come up with ideas who may be stumped. The second Joker could be the Taskmaster who will relay messages from the teacher regarding concepts and directions as well as keeping each group from fooling around.

Here are more Articles on Education by the Author

•  Silent Ball Assessment Game for the Classroom 
• Standards Based Curriculum and Assessment for Teachers 
• Mapping a Curriculum Online for Teachers

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