Task groups (consisting of three-five students per group), for hands-on, inquiry-oriented activities can provide meaningful learning experiences, develop interpersonal skills, and save money in the classroom. Suggestions for using task groups are provided, describing a recommended instructional model, instructional strategies, and student roles in…

Suggests that classroom exploration of the renga, a chain poem developed in eighth-century Japan, can awaken students' sense of the choices and constraints in writing. (MM)

Article examines some of the processes by which a group of pupils work together to create a group response which will be acceptable to all of them, in the course of this bringing their private responses to a sharper focus. (Author)

Suggests teaching a variety of sentence beginnings in writing instruction. (AEA)

Presents an exercise in which the aim is to practice question-forming in a game context, and to show students how to make well-formed questions. Students are broken down into groups. One member reads a story silently. The others, provided with vague clues, must ask "yes-no" questions and reconstruct the story. (Author/PJM)

Illustrates a method of helping students learn to write paragraphs and to organize their writing using a group writing technique. (TJ)

Describes a method of teaching college composition which involves students in writing poems in collaboration with the teacher and other students. (DD)

Describes a game which can be used to acquaint students with the basic elements of narrative fiction. (DD)

Building a railroad or writing about it in class takes a lot of organization. (Editor)

Suggests a pragmatic framework for reading instruction that attends to the needs of learners aged 11 to 14 years who struggle. Explains that five practices--daily oral or shared reading, guided reading in flexible groups, word study, self-selected extended reading and writing, and explicit comprehension strategy instruction--form the basis of the…

Describes an inquiry-based course that emphasizes integration of the sciences. Student teams pursue research projects of their own design using mathematics and physics to study biological phenomena. (Author/KHR)

Describes one elementary teacher's strategies to help students learn spelling using cooperative learning groups. Mixed-ability groups of four children are established, and students take turns being the caller, recorder, reader, and checker. Students retain more because of the amount of repetition. A weekly classroom spelling schedule is presented.…

Investigates out-of-class academic collaboration among students at a polytechnic in Singapore as they worked on collaborative assignments. Data were collected via a questionnaire completed by 232 students, interviews were conducted with 10 lecturers, observations were made of eight student groups as they collaborated on teacher-required work…

Cooperative learning encompasses both a teaching philosophy and instructional methods that encourage students to work together to maximize learning. This article examines the rationale for incorporating cooperative learning in health education, reviews cooperative-learning basics, and provides an example of cooperative-learning technique in health…