Mr. McDonald:
As the 2014-2015 school year draws to an end, it is time to
begin thinking about the upcoming school year.
For the past several years Churchill has established a 20 minute time
period between second and third hours devoted to sustained silent reading (SSR). Each SSR period is spent silent reading or
used as a study hall by students. Due to
MStep testing this spring, SSR time has been eliminated for the remainder of
the school year. You recently e-mailed
faculty members for their opinions, ideas, and thoughts on the schedule for
next year: Return to the SSR
schedule? If so, keep SSR or use that
time period for something else? Or keep
the current schedule? This letter is
written with the intent to propose the implementation of cooperative base
groups to replace the time devoted to SSR.
I would like to first build a theoretical framework for
cooperative base groups and from there share my vision for cooperative base
groups at CHS. A cooperative base group
is defined as long-term cooperative learning groups with stable
membership. Within these groups,
students provide each other with support and encouragement. Students get the most benefits out of their
experience as a member in a cooperative base group when the group is
heterogeneous and meets regularly over an extended period of time. David W. Johnson has conducted extensive research
on the formation and implementation of cooperative base groups and has studied
the effects of cooperative base groups on students’ educational
experience. I encourage you to look
further into Johnson’s work if this is a direction you choose to pursue.
My recommendation is for CHS to implement cooperative base
group meetings one day a week for a 40 minute time period. In terms of scheduling, this means that four
days a week classes will be 59 minute periods (as in the current MStep testing
schedule) and one day a week classes will be reduced to 52 minute periods to
accommodate the base group meetings.
Although Johnson recommends a daily or bi-weekly meeting of base groups,
this setup should allow students sufficient time to engage in a meaningful
manner within their base groups without taking away instructional time from
teachers. In fact, this proposal will
give teachers more time devoted to instruction in the school day than the
previous SSR schedule.
Cooperative base groups will be separated by class (i.e.
freshmen will be together, sophomores will be together, and so on). Students will be randomly assigned to a
teacher as a freshman and this teacher will oversee these students for the
duration of their high school career until graduation. The teacher’s role is to divide students
assigned to their room into smaller base groups consisting of four to five
students. Over the next four years, this
teacher should cultivate a safe and nurturing environment in the classroom
where students grow to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts. There should be little to minimal planning
and paperwork involved for teachers as they serve the role of overseers and
facilitators in the cooperative base groups.
Since base groups are intended to meet the needs of
students, students should have primary control over the activities and
discussions that take place within a base group. Students would be responsible for creating a
general agenda for each base group meeting and documenting the general
discussion points or activities that occurred during meetings. Johnson suggests several activities students
can engage in during their base group meetings, of which I will differentiate
between academic support tasks and personal support tasks. One example of an academic support task is a
grade-check where students bring an up-to-date grade print out to their base
group meeting. Students can check for
any missing assignments and set academic goals (i.e. make up all missing work
by the next base group meeting, study for upcoming biology test for minimum of
an hour). By sharing these goals with
one’s base group, a student is more accountable for their action as they will
have to report back to their group. A
group study session could be classified as another academic support task. Students can draw on their academic strengths
to assist others in their group who may be struggling in a particular
class. Finally, I think it would be
interesting for members to share a personal area of expertise or interest by
teaching a mini-lesson to their group.
This could be a requirement for each student to complete once a
year. This activity would highlight the
diverse interests and talents of Churchill’s student body and provide students
a meaningful learning experience outside the normal academic classroom setting.
Personal support tasks allow students to engage in
conversation and discussion about their lives outside of the school
setting. This type of task may take the
form of team building exercises or activities.
Another type of personal support task would be a round robin of sorts
for students to share something that is going on in their lives: Perhaps a student has started working at a
new job and is having difficulty juggling school and work; their base group
members could suggest helpful time management ideas. Maybe a student is struggling with a
relationship in their life; base groups would provide a safe place for the
student to share their feelings and seek support from peers on how to repair this
relationship. Ideally, the safe environment of base groups would allow for
these types of discussions to occur where students can be supportive and
encouraging of each other. This type of
environment may be the only setting that some students feel comfortable sharing
their thoughts and it is important that we provide this powerful outlet for
students.
As you can see, cooperative base groups would provide a
setting where students support, encourage, and assist each other to develop
academically and personally. There are
several reasons why I feel CHS would benefit from cooperative base groups. Churchill houses 1,600 students and has the
most diverse student body of any high school in the district. A disadvantage to being such a large school
is that some students feel they are just a face in the crowd. With programs like CAPA (Creative and
Performing Arts) and MSC (Math/Science/Computer) and academically tracking
students, the number of opportunities for students to interact with students
who have different academic skills, abilities, and interests are limited. With cooperative base groups, those
interaction barriers will be eliminated and students will be able to take full
advantage of this unique diversity by working with and learning from their
peers. Research has shown that base
groups “…provide the social support needed to improve attendance, personalize
the educational experience, increase achievement, and improve quality of
life.” Furthermore, the implementation
of base groups will not cost the school money in terms of any equipment,
resources, or additional staffing.
In alignment with our school mission, cooperative learning
groups will provide a safe and positive environment for students at school by
giving students the sense of belonging.
Students will no longer feel anonymous as they go through their high school years. This student is now part of something
bigger: They are accountable for and to
their group and they know they have a teacher who is supporting them on their
journey through high school. I look
forward to further discussing this proposal with you as I feel that
implementing cooperative base groups is a direction CHS should pursue for
students to reach their greatest potential.
Best Regards,
Amanda Raupp
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