Opinion Blog

Classroom Q&A

With Larry Ferlazzo

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to lferlazzo@epe.org. Read more from this blog.

Teaching Opinion

Q&A Collections: Cooperative & Collaborative Learning

By Larry Ferlazzo — July 26, 2021 2 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

During the summer, I am sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past 10 years. You can see all those collections from the first nine years here.

Here are the ones I’ve published so far:

The 11 Most Popular Classroom Q&A Posts of the Year

Race & Racism in Schools

School Closures & the Coronavirus Crisis

Classroom-Management Advice

Best Ways to Begin the School Year

Best Ways to End the School Year

Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning

Implementing the Common Core

Challenging Normative Gender Culture in Education

Teaching Social Studies

Today’s theme is on Cooperative & Collaborative Learning. You can see the list of posts following this excerpt from one of them:

inquirysuzie

* ‘To Maximize Group Work, Make It Metacognitive’

A three-part series of supporting effective student group work is “wrapped up” today with commentaries from Nancy Frey, Doug Fisher, Michael Fisher, Laura Greenstein, Debbie Zacarian, Michael Silverstone, and Cindy Terebush.

* ‘Maximizing Student Learning Gained Through Collaboration’

Katrina Hankins, Dawn Mitchell, Andrew Miller, Andrea Keith, and Michael D. Toth share their ideas about ensuring that group work in the classroom goes smoothly.

* Effective Group Work Starts With Classroom Culture

Karen Goeller, Jill Kester, Rachael Williams, Kara Pranikoff, and Cheryl Mizerny share their ideas for effective student group work.

* Effective Ways Students Can Teach Their Classmates

Bobson Wong, Adeyemi Stembridge, Jennifer Davis Bowman, Starr Sackstein, Kathy Dyer, and Rachelle Dene Poth share ideas on how students can teach their classmates.

* Students Can Become ‘Co-Teachers’

This second post in the series on students teaching their classmates includes commentaries by Rita Platt, Paul Solarz, Laurie Buffington, Laura Greenstein, and Anne Taffin d’Heursel Baldisseri.

* The Value of ‘Peer Teaching’

Amber Chandler, Cheryl Mizerny, Andrew Miller, Karen Goeller, Michael D. Toth, Megan Bang, Laura M. Brady, Stephanie A. Fryberg, and Mary C. Murphy share their ideas on students as teachers.

* Students as Teachers in the Classroom

This four-part series on peer teaching is wrapped up today with responses from Bryan Goodwin, Jenny Grant Rankin, Sarah Thomas, and Bradley Witzel.

* Assessing Students on ‘What Really Counts’ This post features commentaries from Andrew Miller, Suzie Boss, Meg Riordan, Abbie Sewall, Daniel Schwartz, and Vicky Layne. They primarily discuss assessment in project-based learning.

* Different Ways of ‘Learning by Doing’

Guest responses in this post come from educators Suzie Boss, Jeffrey Wilhelm, Steven Anderson, and Stephen Lazar.

* Learning by Doing—Part Two Jeff C. Marshall, Nancy Sulla, Derek Cabrera, Christopher Panna, and Heather Wolpert-Gawron and Ron Berger all share their thoughts.

* The Best Advice on Doing Project-Based Learning

This post is a Part Two to last year’s popular one by Suzie Boss (and readers!) on Do’s and Don’ts for Better Project-Based Learning. Suzie agreed to share additional ideas this year, as did many readers.

* Do’s and Don’ts for Better Project-Based Learning

Few people know more about project-based learning than Suzie Boss, and she graciously agreed to respond to this “question of the week.”

The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Teaching Profession Webinar
Evaluation Beyond the Checkbox: Turning Ratings Into Teacher Growth
Ratings alone don’t help teachers improve. Join us Nov. 10 to hear what happens after the evaluation: feedback, follow-up, and growth.
Content provided by Frontline Education
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
The Assessment Trust Crisis: How to Measure Learning in the Age of AI
AI is reshaping learning. Is assessment keeping up? Join this webinar to explore how to measure student thinking, not just right answers.
Content provided by Instructure
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
From Student Trends to Counselor Action: Turning Insight Into Impact
Find out what is changing in how students approach planning for life after graduation and how schools can help.
Content provided by PowerSchool

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Opinion What ‘Sold a Story’ Misses About Direct Instruction
A veteran educator takes issue with Emily Hanford's stance on a contentious instructional system.
6 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week
Teaching Opinion 'Just Stick to Romeo and Juliet': How to Miss the Point About Teaching
Teaching may look easy. It requires skills that make the profession anything but.
5 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week
Teaching Direct Instruction: What to Know About the Topic of the Next 'Sold a Story' Podcast
The Direct Instruction program and explicit instruction are in the spotlight again. What are they?
12 min read
Pages from the book How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons by author Sigfried Englemann
Pages from the book <i>Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons</i> by the late professor Siegfried Engelmann. That book, which exemplifies Engelmann's step-by-step, scripted approach to instruction, continues to be popular with parents—but in education circles the technique, known as Direct Instruction, never took off. Engelmann's work is explored as part of a new season of the Sold a Story podcast.
Marvin Joseph/Education Week
Teaching Opinion A Teacher's Guide to Navigating Classroom Censorship Laws
How can educators handle laws constraining the instruction of "divisive concepts“?
5 min read
Paper cutouts of diverse business people holding hands in row with long shadow on warm background. Concept of teamwork, unity, partnership, and community support. Divisive Concepts, classroom censorship.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week + Getty