Our class is enthusiastic about small groups and cooperative learning. They love "think pair share" and other methods of sharing what they know. My goals with this group are to create an atmosphere of learning where students will truly help each other learn. We have a challenging group of students. Their scores are extremely low in DIBELS and STAR. I hope I can motivate as much as teach. I understand these students will have to do a lot of work to "catch up". I do hope as the students develop a feeling of helping each other, they will show progress and promise in their learning.

My goal for this coming year is to build a cooperative learning atmosphere.  We have worked to develop individual and group responsibilities for each team (table) in our class.  Students rotate through roles of team leader, cheerleader, materials person, scribe, and spokesperson. 

We use various team building activities.  One of the favorites is "think-pair-share".  We participate in a magic circle activity each week.  Students love to share their opinions and make connections with each other.

We have a lot of work to build to higher levels of thinking.  The essential questions will be a big help to lift the students to higher thinking.  I like the idea of keeping a clip board handy to check-off each student as they create questions.