Cooperative Learning through Problem Solving

Teaching students to solve problems and better yet, work together to solve problems, is a key skill in elementary school. This cooperative learning resource is a structured activity where students work together to put squares into a specific sequence.

When I taught upper grades, I loved a book called Get It Together.  It taught students how to work together and use logic to solve problems.  The book is a little advanced for second graders, but I wanted something with a similar concept, so I created my own set of problems for groups of three and four.

Cooperative Learning through Problem Solving contains sets of cards that encourage students to work together to solve the given problem. All of the problems involve an amount of colored squares and basic clues to solve the number of each square.

The situations are basic, but without everyone’s participation, the problem can’t be solved.  Each student gets a clue to solve the problem.  The rules are that students cannot show each other their cards, but can only read the card to their group.  Each student is responsible for verifying that the requirements of his card is met before the group can say, “We’re done.”

Students will need to understand the words and phrases: equal to, fewer than, less than, more than, double, even, and odd.  More advanced problems will require language and concepts such as: half as many, twice as many, and half of.  The cards do get somewhat more advanced as you move through the problems.

How do you help your students learn to cooperate together in groups?