Hittites

Gizem's presentation

Date: February 25th.
Ana Escribano's reflection:

This is the last presentation about the first project. She had to do it alone because she joined the class after starting the cooperative learning task so the groups were already formed.

She chose the subject of History because nobody had done it yet. The topic was “the Hittites”, the ancient Anatolian civilization. I have to say that I found it interesting because it is not something that we usually learn in the Spanish system.

Since Gizem had seen all the other presentations, she could incorporate things the teacher had told the groups.

Her didactic sequence was clear and well-explained and it consisted of 3 sessions. She used the “jigsaw” technique because it is the most effective one to put cooperative learning into practice. At the end, there was a self-evaluation table for the students to complete.

Overall, her presentation was correct in terms of structure and content.

LASH

Pablo Magallares' reflection:

The last Thursday, 20^th of February, the group “LASH” showed us their project. They had to repeat it because the first time the project was incomplete. But they are a good group with hard-working students and solved all the mistakes. It is better late than never. They made a perfect team’s plan with objectives, personal commitments and micro task.  Although there are some personal commitments which are confusing, they can improve them.

They used two techniques (jigsaw and TGT). The second one, TGT, is about a cooperative game. They told us that teacher give points to the students that win the answer. But, what will happen with the others? I think that they did the game competitive and they must change it to a cooperative level. 

Encendiendo bombillas

Pablo Magallares' reflection: 

The last Tuesday, 18^th of February, the group “Encendiendo bombillas” showed us their project. They did a great work and fulfilled all their objectives. The same as us, they used for their sessions the jigsaw technique. I think that this technique is the most effective to cooperative learning.

On the one hand, they told us that they used less hours that they expected. It surprised me. I thought that there were two possibilities. First was that they expected a lot of time and then they used less. Second was that they worked more quickly. Then they told us that they have prevented more time that they needed.

On the other hand, they used virtual games to improve students’ knowledge. I think that it is good way to motivate them and getting that they learn. They are familiar with technologies and they can get on very well in this ambit. They have fun and learn at the same time.

Finally, they prepared prizes for all the students. In this way nobody felt bad and it couldn’t be any other all kids had fun.

Reflection about Gizem's didactic sequence

Ana González's reflection:
Gizem explained us her didactic sequence about the history of Anatolia for 5^th grade of Primary Education. She put in practice the jigsaw technique because it is the technique of cooperative learning that includes all the students so, it’s important to work cooperatively. All the pupils are important and necessaries. All of them should participate by equal way. The groups are heterogeneous. In this way, children can help each other. It is tested that children obtain better results and develop a lot with their partner’s help. She divides her didactic sequence in three sessions. I like these activities because children can know the context around them and use different tools to learn. Children in the future will be autonomous citizen. To develop properly in the society they must get used to the environment that surround them. The school is a good place where children can develop skills to develop their knowledge. I like a lot the final activity. Children in groups had to make a mural where they could prove all of they had learnt. At this activity they could develop their creativity while they are working in cooperative way.

At least, Gizem planned a self-evaluation where children could assess their own work. At this evaluation, they could qualify their work like good, very good or excellent. When children are working, they are making an effort so their work is at least good.

Through this didactic sequence we can understand the importance of the cooperative learning and to know some different activities to practice this type of learning.

Reflection about 'LASH'

Ana González's reflection:

The last group to present his didactic sequence was ‘LASH’. The explained us how to practise the cooperative learning through the science subjects. They chose the unit of animals and their type of diet. To practise the cooperative learning they used, like the rest of the groups, the jigsaw technique, where children should be responsibles wiht their work and explain each other the content of this subject.  I like a lot the different tools they used. This is a good method to teach children.It can motivate children because they can learn by an entertained way. One of the tools this group used was technology and moreover, different technological displays like computers, tablets or cameras.These tools can introduce children in this new technological era and  it can let them to develop different abilites like to select information, critical and creative thinking, multitasking, etc. All these skills make children to be more independents and responsibles.

The last part of the work, the game, (where children could use TGT technique of cooperative learning) could be better because they really don’t create an cooperative activity and with this game children wouldn’t be assess at the same way. In spite of that, they created an interesting didactic sequence where children could develop a lot of abilities necessaries for their future.

Encendiendo Bombillas

     Different from the other groups, Encendiendo Bombillas started their presentation by showing their micro task instead of a team plan. Addition to explaining their responsibilities, commitments and objectives, they mention what they’ve learned from this project. And this shows their awareness of their gain, which is really important from my point of view.
     As a subject they chose “Plants” which is a subject of Science for the students of 3rd and 4th grade of primary education. They prefered using “Jigsaw” technique and they divided the it into 5 sessions.
     In the first session, they planned to take the students to the computer class and make them do an exercise that can help them familiarize the plants there. Using computer class is a good idea, because technology offers us lots of opportunities.
     In the second session, students formed the basic groups and go to the botanical garden. I like this idea, because by this way students have the opportunity to learn experimentally. And i think if the learning process is related to real life, it can be permanent. At the end of this activity students were given some rewards. And they such planned the process that all the students can have a reward and feel like an achiever. And they had known the rewards before the activity started, that’s why, it was a very good idea to motivate all the children to learn.
     Another idea of activity that I think really good was in session 4. In the activity, each group needed to prepare a notebook including what they’d just learnt. This activity could allow them to put together and  summarize all the things that they’d learnt.
     Lastly, after self-evalutaion part they had the idea of giving all the students prizes on categories such as prettiest notebook, most cooperative group and etc. I think, their categories were really good-planned.
     In conclusion, I liked their all ideas. I think Encendiendo Bombillas did a very good job.

Four Magic Teachers

     The Four Magic Teachers made their presentations through the Cooperative Learning. They used music and and they told us their team plan with a video while presenting their topic and by this way, they succeed to change the mood of the class and they showed us how materials can be effective on attracting attention of the students practically.
     At the beginning of their presentation, they explained what is cooperative learning breafly. The subject that they chosen was Spanish Language. They talked about types of words. To maket his kinda boring grammar subject they used some videos. I think it was a good idea because children like those kind of things. Instead of listening it from a teacher’s voice, they prefer and enjoy watching a video which includes maybe a cartoon character. And if they enjoy, the learning process will be easier for them.
     I think the idea called “Gymkhana” was very creative and useful. With this, they support their hypothesis about students’ learning from experience.
     Lastly, they told that they would give certificates to all the students.  The idea of giving a price to all the students was very good, because by this way each student can have the feeling of achievement and it may motivate them, however; I would prefer other types of prizes instead of certificates.

LASH

Date: 20th February.
Ana Escribano's reflection:

This was the last group presentation for this project.

First, they showed the team planning tables and explained it, including the modifications they had made from watching the other presentations.

The subject they chose is Science, and the topic, the types of diet in the animal kingdom.

The techniques they chose to develop are: the Jigsaw technique and the TGT; which have been the most commonly used throughout this project.

As part of the second session, students had to search on some specific webs on the Internet; this is an appropriate activity to work on their digital literacy skills.

The longest session is the third, in which they are divided in expert groups and have to make a mural with all the information they have gathered.

The game takes place in the fifth session. The kids are given cards with pictures of animals and have to compete to classify them as fast as possible. The ones who make it first are given more points, and receive a positive. However, to not make the others feel bad, everybody is given sweets. There are some problems with this approach: it is not recommendable to encourage students to compete and they only award one skill. A teacher should take into account several abilities that their students possess when assessing a project, this way, every group or individual can receive a reward, since each person is gifted with a different set of talents. Besides that, the reward should be other than sweets since a class is likely to have some students with diabetes others intolerances to sugar and it would be an unnecessary risk.

Lastly, the assessment is multimodal: the teacher assesses the students, individually and collectively, and the students evaluate themselves and the other groups.

Reflection about "Encendiendo bombillas"

Ana González's reflection:
Last Tuesday we saw the presentation of the group “Encendiendo bombillas”. They showed us a didactic sequence about the science’s subject for the 3^rd and 4^th courses of Primary Education. For me this was one of the most entertained didactics sequences because they created interesting activities to practice the cooperative learning. As other groups, they use the jigsaw technique but they worked it  by a different way. Children should go to the countryside, observe the nature and learn through that. This type of activities motivates children because makes them to work freely and cooperatively and learn how is the environment around them. This is useful because they begin to acquire responsibilities and begin to respect the rules of the society as future independent citizens.

Other interesting aspect is how our partners as teachers recognize the pupils’ effort . All the members of the class are important so, they create different prizes for all the groups.

To finish, they planned an useful assessment table because they prove what the children’s have learnt. At these way, they as teachers can realized if children have fulfilled the objectives that they proposed and change something if they don’t fulfilled them. In conclusion, this group planned original activities to encourage the children’s participation and to learn how they should work through the cooperative learning.

The four magic teachers

Date 13^th February

Pablo Magallares' reflection:

This group showed their project last Thursday. First, they explained their team plan. They choose language’s subject to develop didactic sequence about cooperative learning. They told us their team plan with a video that they were making. I think that the video was good idea. This part is few bored but with the video they caught our attention and interest. We have the opportunity to use new media and we must do it.

They told us that Students must learnt from experience and teacher did not explain words because if. In this way, they prepared a text relational with reality. Then they had an idea to revise their knowledge, a Gymkhana. Their project is really good.  

Finally, they told us that they will give to students a certificates for the activities. I think that we can not do it becouse if we give a certificate for all sequences to students, it will finish the trees of the world. 

Encendiendo Bombillas

Date: 18th February.
Ana Escribano's reflection:

The first thing this group did was showing and explaining the team plan with tables. They talked about micro-tasks, responsibilities and commitments like the rest of the groups. I liked that they also included a table about what they had learned doing this project.

The subject the chose to develop was Science, aimed at 3^rd and 4^th grade students. The specific topic was the plants’ classification.

They used the “Jigsaw” technique and, in general, I would say that the sessions and respective contents were relevant and well thought. In order to complete the work they had to go on a trip to the Botanical Garden, which I found interesting.

The only thing I found a little confusing is the task assigned to the expert groups. They specialized in one aspect of the plant and, apparently, had to work together during the trip. However, the teacher had told the characteristics of a tree they had to find to the base group. Each base group had to look for a different tree, but they were not together exchanging information and telling each other what they had learned. It was after the trip when the base groups got together again and share their knowledge. In my opinion, there should have been time assigned before the visit to the Botanical Garden to work in the base groups since the objective should be learning about all the characteristics of a certain tree, not just your expert area.

Finally, it was a good idea to give certificates to all the participants and hand out prizes rewarding different skills and the work done in different areas, so that every group has one award and do not feel left out.

Reflection about 'The four magic teachers'

Ana González's reflection: 

The four magic teachers have presented today their didactic sequence about the language subject. They used original resources to make an entertaining presentation. About the didactic sequence, they explained what s the cooperative learning and what techniques it contents. Then, they show us what technique they would use in their sessions and why it is important to work in groups. After that, they explained us each activity of the didactic sequence. I liked them because they combined traditional and modern tools to teach  and it can motivate children to learn because the classes would be different, but I would change  some things at these activities. These sources should help students to develop skills and strategies for their future. In the activities our partners have proposed I can’t see that. This is a good idea but they could modified a little the activities to fulfilled their objectives.

 In spite of that, the rest of planned activities are very useful to learn cooperatively and make children know all of them are equal and they should help each others. The assessment was very useful too because children can evaluate them as a group,  in pairs, individually so, they children can express if the objectives of the cooperative learning have been fulfilled .

The Four Magic Teachers

This presentation took place on 13th February.
Ana Escribano's reflection:

This group used prezi to show their presentation and a video made with powtoon to explain their team plan, which I thought it was a good idea to add dynamism and be different from the rest.

Before getting into their project, they enumerated and briefly explained the cooperative learning techniques and the types of groups that exist, in my opinion it was a little redundant and they could have just described in detail those that they had chosen to do. In the beginning I did not know if they were talking about techniques they had used or not, so it was a little confusing for me.

The subject they chose is Spanish Language, specifically the types of words. To make the lessons more enjoyable, they used videos which explained each word’s category. The videos did not add anything that the teacher could not have said; I think that we have to make an effort to incorporate exercises that encourage reflection in grammar, so that the children can reach their own conclusions.

As the final activity, the gymkhana was interesting because the students could experience the grammar learning process, which is usually thought as monotonous and boring, in a different way and realize that they can also learn from playing.

The Minions

Gizem Mutaf's reflection:

“The Minions” developed a didactic sequence in which they used ‘Jigsaw’ Cooperative Learning Technique. As a subject they chose Music (spesifically orchestra) which is a rich sensory learning environment.
     Even if it couldn’t be actualized in the classroom successfully because of the technical reasons I think the idea of using classical music in the first session was very good. Because classical music brings the students into the optimum mental state for the effortless acquisition of the material.
     In the second session the base groups were seperated to form the expert groups. In this session the idea of conceptual map activity was also good. Because a concept map is a visual organization and representation of knowledge. It shows concepts and ideas and the relationships among them. It helps the expert groups to make a brainstorming together and  put together all the information that they have. Each member can add something to the concept map and by this way they can feel themselves important and this feeling may motivate them.
   In the third session in which students returned to their base groups, I can not remember if they had an activity or not.
   Lastly I like the idea of individual diary. Because in this way, children can find the opportunity of writing their own thoughts and thinking about their learning and writing things down can help them to clarify their thoughts.
   In conclusion I like all the ideas but I think to actualize at least one of these activities would be better. Because instead of talking about the activities and materials, showing them in the classroom would be much more effective. 

Presentation. Date 11th february.

Pablo Magallares' reflection. 

Today “the millions” show us their work. They choose the subject of music. As the rest of the groups, they showed us how children can learn through the cooperative learning. In their didactic sequence they choose jigsaw’s technique to teach the orchestra. I think that it is good idea working with music, nobody choose this to a project.

I think that they have good idea. Despite music is not my favorite subject, this way of see it like me. Students must know all types of music and with this sequence they can meet different type.

Although the principal idea (cooperative learning) was obvious, they pay more attention to other things as the individually daily. For example, this daily must had been in groups where all students had a role. They understand very good jigsaw technique and we can saw it in their presentation. They told us about class distribution or how groups formed.

Finally I speak about their plan team.  It was a bit confused. I think that they forgot to put it in the presentation. For this reason I hope that they will write this in their blog. 

Reflection about 'Los Minions'

Ana González's reflection:

Today, ‘The Minions’ have presented their work at class .They have created a didactic sequence about the content of music’s subject to show how children can learn through the cooperative learning. They chose an specific part of this subject: the orchestra. To practice some  techniques of cooperative learning they planned some dynamic  and creative sessions to motivate pupils to learn by a entertained .

They chose the jigsaw technique to learn children to work cooperatively, to fulfill responsibilities, to respect different opinions or ideas, etc.  I liked the activities of each session because children can develop their creativity and share their ideas all together, play and have fun and develop skills while they are learning some content. In this way, they can expand and improve their knowledge because they receive a lot of information from the other partners and they can their doubts and help each others
To finish this sequence, the children must evaluate themselves to explain their progress  and their results with a personal diary. This is the most important activity for our partners because children can explained how they feel with these activities. They can explained if they like them or not, how was the cooperative work, what they have learnt, etc.  Through this evaluation, our partners as teachers could analyze if they have fulfilled their objectives with these activities.
 In my opinion, this is an interesting way to evaluate children because they assess this didactic sequence and, at the same time, they can improve some skills like writing, critical thinking or creativity, for example, but, I would include a group evaluation because children also have to evaluate in group how they have work through the cooperative learning. In spite of that, this is an good project to teach children all of them have the same importance and they have to work together to get a good class job.

Presentation. Date: 11th February

Ana Escribano's reflection:

LOS MINIONS

The subject they decided to develop is Music, specifically the topic relating to orchestra. They used the “Jigsaw” technique and divided the lessons into 3 sessions.

In the first session, the students listened to Vivaldi’s classic “The four seasons”; even though this is a beautiful piece, it would have been a good idea to use a more contemporaneous song that the kids may recognize. This would prove that the exercise is relevant to their daily lives.

After forming the base groups, the students separate again to form the expert groups, as the “Jigsaw” technique describes. There, each group specializes in one family of instruments. In my opinion, the activities designed for each part of the process could have been more specified, it was not clear enough or I do not remember it.

The conceptual map activity in the second session is a good idea because each expert group will have to work together to do it their best; and it is an efficient way of summarizing great amount of information. 

I think that in the third session, when they return to the base groups, they do not do enough cooperative work, but the game idea is interesting.

Finally, an important part of the project was doing an individual diary, which is a good tool to encourage students to be conscious of their work and reflect upon it. However, I think that this should not be a central point of the project, since it was intended to teach students how to work cooperatively, so I would not have made the individual self-reflection a priority.

How did we choose our name/ Why K.I.A.?

Hello! We are 3 students of the bilingual degree in Primary Education from the University of Alcalá de Henares. The reason why we chose KIA (Kids in Action) as our name is, first of all, because we will be dealing with kids and that is something that we enjoy. When we say in Action it means that we are ready to set in motion the necessary skills to accomplish our goals. We are eager to prove it during this subject.

Besides, our logo is a puzzle. It is a symbol of organization. When we make a puzzle we need to put each piece in the right place, in other words, we need structuring and organization. Therefore we think it is a suitable logo for this subject.

Now we will tell something about ourselves:

Pablo Magallares is from Guadalajara and he lives there. He has two villages where he goes very often. He played volleyball in high school but now he only practises sports in his free time. He likes listening to music and going out with his friends. He loves partying.

 Ana Escribano is also from Guadalajara. She loves listening to all kinds of music whenever she can and she also likes watching films. The thing she enjoys the most is travelling, preferably abroad, where she can have new experiences.

Ana González is from Alcalá de Henares. She likes doing sport, dancing and going out with her friends. She loves animals (specially the cats) and children. She has experience with them because she usually takes care her cousins.