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How I Attempted to Comply with the
Directions
July 27, 2006
Dear Dr. Johnson,
Links1 below contains the highlights from my reading of
Cooperation in the Classroom.
Link 2 below summarizes the training we received at Chatmoss Country
Club in Martinsville, VA during four days in May, 2006 from you and your
brother.
Link 3 contains a bit of an adjustment. My schedule this summer
included travels and presentations to a variety of community colleges
throughout the US. I therefore went beyond planning, and tried to
incorporate principles and practices associated with cooperative
learning. Audiences did not have chapters to read. In fact
the audiences told me what I should lecture about, if that were my
method of choice. My equivalent of the implementation assignment
was to prepare a series of lessons in which they could readily
participate. You'll find that within Link #3 in the table below.
Three Things to Start With:
I started with (1) the experiences we generated at Chatmoss Country
Club. This was followed by (2) a more complete reading of
your entire book. (3) The next thing I created was a series of
Quality Charts online that could be used to measure individual and group
mastery of three social skills and three academic skills for each
lecture I was planning.
Two Things the First Day of Each Class:
(1) I created name tags so that participants could more easily introduce
themselves and get to know one another.
(2) I provided some background so that I could set an expectation about
reaching group success through the cooperative effort of all
participants.
Five (or Six) things for the first semester:
You'll find links to the lesson plans I created for visits to five
different schools this summer.
1. The first lesson plan at Chesapeake
Campus of Tidewater Community College in Virginia involved
a bit of a tournament between the economists and the non-economists in
the subject of elasticity of demand.
2. The Joliet Junior College presentation in
Illinois came the closest to being a jig saw for the
participants, with Keynes and the classical economists occupying
portions of the puzzle.
3. The Clarke College presentation in
Vancouver, Washington permitted the students to manipulate
variables and see calculated results emerge from a pre-designed
spreadsheet encapsulating the underlying principles regarding
productivity, demand, and resultant wages.
4. The Bainbridge College presentation in
Georgia was a computer lab within which we performed some
knee-to-knee paired reading about profits and the regulation of big
business.
5. The Chippewa Valley Technical College presentation to Eau
Claire, Wisconsin was accomplished by means of videoconferencing between
that school and Patrick Henry Community College. Again, the
shared-paired reading was performed with respect to evidence cards
containing materials about leading economic indicators.
6. The Estrella Mountain Community College
briefing in Phoenix, Arizona incorporated both directed reading
and paired-sharing, and concerned material in handouts and avialable as
evidence cards pertaining to labor unionization and labor organization.
Five things for the second semester:
1. Additional presentations of the sort I am undertaking will
become shorter, and focus on a single academic objective so that the
exercise can be completed within 15 minutes. Each such
presentation will strive to set forth clear directions for achieving
positive interdependence and individual accountability.
2. I will incorporate the jig-saw method in at least one
presentation.
3. I may practice the GIG method with a group of educators.
4. We will use 2-minute feedbacks exercises with more regularity
at the onset of classes, in order to begin the classes in those areas of
difficulty identified by more than one student.
5. I will continue to offer students the opportunity to write an
issue-paper individually or to work as a member of a two or three person
team. In my classes, in a team of two, the first person writes a
standardized issue-paper and the second team member illustrates it using
PowerPoint by presenting an Introductory slide, the Major Topic Slides,
and the Summary or Conclusions slide. In a three person team, the
first member writes the traditional paper, the second member illustrates
it using PowerPoint, and the third incorporates the work of the first
two in a digitized sound recording of the materials that must be
playable in class and on my office computer.
My dream is more limited than what I intend in five
years. I have asked Carolyn Byrd if I may attend your next seminar
which we are encouraging her to arrange in conjunction with other
schools who have been interested in cooperative learning. The
peace and negotiating strategies you have been thinking about would be
appropriate learning for an "old cold warrior" like myself. It
will be my "dream" to be able to attend such a session.
In ten years, if I have a Ph.D., I'd like to be on the sorts of advisory
boards that provide futuristic guidance to our military academies.
I have already served at Air Force Academy and West Point. Perhaps
I shall dream of making myself heard around Annapolis.
While you were in Martinsville, you may recall attending
a party at the home of Susan Shearer. Susan introduced me to a
retired naval commander at that time; he read some of the materials I
recommended and in return he enrolled me in the Naval Institute which
should provide me some interesting reading from his point of view for
awhile. I may also share a link to these writings with Susan
Shearer.
Link #4 in the table below reflects my effort to "go for
the 'A'." It was an exciting summer in which my wife and I
traveled about as extensively as Alexis De Tocqueville had done in
America. However, we did it in reverse, and included a stint in
Prague, in the Czech Republic. What Tocueville could absorb in 13
months or so, we had to cram into 4. Of course mine is not a
perfect parallel to his experiences. Yet I felt the summer should
be chronicled for the enjoyment of my family and to reflect and build
upon my experiences. I hope you enjoy the short essays about the
places visited, and that it enhances your own sense of wonder as you
travel the globe.
Best regards,
Tom Meyer
Thomas J. Meyer
645 Patriot Ave.
Martinsville, VA 24148
276 656-0283 (W)
276 956-5532 (H)
tmeyer@ph.vccs.edu
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