Cooperative Learning During the weekend I spent learning about the theories and frameworks of cooperative learning, I became fascinated by five components of cooperative learning. I intend to use these five in my classroom. We start with the introductory games Pleased to meet you and Knot Knowledge followed by the creation of the basic groups and finally STAD and TGT. These are five simple but exciting ways to use cooperative groups in the classroom. I will use the first two introductory games at the beginning of the school year, because students are nervous about starting school and these games are great icebreakers. I would start with the Nice to meet you form. This gets students talking to each other and opens the door for new students to see that they have things in common with their new peers. Once they had ample time to complete the questionnaire, I would sit them down and tell me some of the common traits they shared. After spending a few minutes talking about the importance of working as a team and learning to count or with your partners, we would work through the knot-tying knowledge activity. This would show me who the leaders were, who the analyzers were, and who would simply follow the others. This is another activity that will help new students become part of the group. By feeling comfortable in the classroom, new students will feel less shocked by being in a new school and will assimilate to it...