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Five Levels of Cooperative Learning
Activities for Adult Learners

Level C
At this level learners participate in group share activities on a regular basis. The groups get together for more than just a single session; however, the organization of the group is very loose and doesn't require stable attendance. Two large group examples of this type of cooperative learning would be a daily session "opening" or "closing." One routine to implement might be the "status of the class" (Atwell, 1987), a brief verbal commitment by all class members regarding what they're going to be working on that day. This might lead to more focused work, to people wanting to work together on an activity, and to the teacher better keeping up with who is doing what. Another type of opening activity would be to have a "Daily News Update" and use one of the following questions: "What's going on in the news today that's worthy of discussion?" "What is going on today that might be good for a writing topic?" In small groups, learners might be to share reviews of what they've been reading and writing. Teachers might share excerpts from what they are reading.

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