AGQTP Day 3 2007

Some more cooperative ideas:

• Transfer booklet. Give students a sheet and a question. Give minimal verbal input on how to do the booklet and how to answer the question. As the students get closer to what you want, give minimal positive feedback. If they say things that are irrelevant, ignore them.
  
• Donut strategy. Two circular groups - inner and outer. Inner talks about a point, then outer talks. Rotate outer circle for three people. Repeat tell and retell. Better in outside area.
• Acrostic introduction. Use the letters in a person's name to introduce them to others. It could be used to explain what key words mean as well. Or use an acronym to summarise a key point.

We spend most of the day planning a small input session explaining what TRIBES is. My limited understanding of the topic was that it was cooperative learning made explicit in ALL aspects of school life. So the key features such as caring for others, high expectations and an opportunity for all to participate are promoted in all aspects of school life - not just the classroom.
We decided that we TRIBES was very much like what Catholic schools are on about. So our first step was to present some key ideas about TRIBES as quotes and then ask the participants what activities, programs, people, processes etc., encourage and develop these values.
They then brainstormed by using the ABC graffiti method ie list all the letters of the alphabet. Then add the names of the people, programs and policies that reflect the values mentioned earlier.
Once that was done, they should they revisit the ABC graffiti and group them according to what TRIBES value was being met ie high expectations. We expected that they should see gaps in what they were trying to do in schools ie use it as an audit. We then encouraged them to try to fill that gap (in part) before the next day in June.
We were then reminded to journal our experiences. For me, this day remains a little fuzzy - typical of the approach used so far. There are so many things to consider that it becomes difficult to hold it in your head for the day.
The good thing is that we were reminded of some good teaching strategies and also could interact with some of the other teachers from other schools.