ABCs of Cooperation
Puzzle

Teacher Bonita Slipke has a favorite cooperative-learning activity that she uses with her middle school students. The project results in a bulletin board that remains on display for the entire school year.

Slipke organizes students into pairs and distributes letters of the alphabet, one letter to a pair. Each pair of students develops a trait of cooperation that begins with the assigned letter, positions its letter on the bulletin board, and writes the corresponding trait next to it.

This year, she organized the activity in a little different way. She made a 26-piece puzzle. Each piece represented a letter of the alphabet. After a class discussion about cooperation and its importance, she had the students make their own ABCs of cooperation. Each student was responsible for a certain letter of the alphabet. He or she wrote the letter on the puzzle piece and decorated it.

"When all 26 pieces were done, the students worked together to assemble the puzzle," added Slipke. "I use it as a permanent display in my classroom. It is at the front of the room where all students can see it at all times."

Source: Bonnie Slipke

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09/14/2010