1. Creating Communities of Learners (pg. 127-129)
To create a productive classroom learning environment, students must
engage in dialogue with each other and the teacher
Creating a community of learners begins with co-operative learning which
includes 3 specific elements:
o A feeling of individual accountability
 “each group member feels that she is responsible for
completing the task.”
 Individual accountability can be established in different ways.
Eg. Individual grades, worksheets, quizzes, etc
o A feeling of positive interdependence
 “students believe that each individual can achieve the
particular learning goal only if all the learners in the group
achieve the learning goal” “sinking or swimming together”
(Johnson, Johnson and Holubec)
positive reward interdependence- everyone is
rewarded or no one is
postitive resource interdependence-each member only
has a portion of the information needed to complete the
task
task interdependence- task is broken into a series of
steps and then completed in assembly like fashion
positive identity interdependence- the group form its
identity. Eg. Group name, decorating group flag
o Face-to-face interactions
 “Placing students in close physical proximity to each other and
ensuring that they are required to talk to each other in order to
complete the assigned task”