Module 4 - KWL, Cooperative and Collaborative Learning Styles (Kirsten Zinzer)

Module 4 

Chapters 9 and 10 in the Woolfolk textbook covers a lot of different types of learning strategies.  Since my focus is secondary English, I enjoyed reading about the section in Chapter 9 that covers developing metacognition.  According to Woolfolk, metacognition means "knowledge or awareness of self as knower" (Woolfolk, Chapter 9, p. 328).  In a nutshell, metacognition is the ability to think about your thoughts with the end goal to improve learning.  As a future educator, my job is to help get my students excited about their learning path and become independent thinkers in many aspects of their lives: school, future careers, and life.  Chapter 9 highlights that being metacognitive can be linked to being more conscious, reflective, and aware of one's progress along the learning path. My goal is to not only teach my students the subject matter, but also real-life strategies that can be applied to all aspects of their lives in and outside of school.

I liked the strategy that is used to guide reading that's mentioned in Chapter 9 called KWL.  These steps include:

K - What do I already know about this subject?
W - What do I want to know?
L - At the end of the reading, what have I learned?
(Woolfolk, Chapter 9, p. 330)

I remember using this strategy in many of my college and high school English courses.  I believe the KWL strategy helps students identify prior knowledge and encourages them to monitor their own progress.  This strategy can help students explore a topic and become engaged in a metacognitive process. 

Within Chapter 10, I enjoyed reading about cooperative and collaborative learning.  I plan to operate my classroom with a lot of group work, so it was great to review and read about these types of learning styles.  There are five elements that define true cooperative learning groups: positive interdependence, promotive interaction, individual accountability, collaborative and social skills and group processing (Woolfolk, Chapter 10, p. 388).

What I like about cooperative activities is that students look for outcomes that are beneficial to themselves and beneficial to the other group members.  It also allows students to work together to maximize their own and each other's learning. 

In Chapter 10, cooperative work reflects in students when they work collaboratively with others, compete for fun and enjoyment and work on their own from time to time.  With cooperative learning and collaboration, teachers can create lessons based on that mindset.  I look forward to creating my lessons based on cooperative and collaborative learning activities.  The possibilities are endless!