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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Description and Application of Numbered Heads Together: A Cooperative Learning Procedure for the Judaic Classroom


When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices. Accordingly our mentees should know about the Cooperative Learning Model of Teaching.

One example of a cooperative learning procedure for the Judaic classroom is Numbered Heads Together. A description of this cooperative procedure and a sample application for the Judaic classroom follows:

Numbered Heads Together (*Spencer and Miguel Kagan, 2009): The students in each quad are given or choose a number: 1, 2, 3 or 4. When the teacher poses a question and says, “Numbered Heads Together,” quad members get together and discuss the question making certain that all members can answer the question posed. After a specified period of time, the teacher restates the question and announces a number, i.e. 1, 2, 3 or 4. Students having that number in all the different quads are invited to state an answer to the question. The teacher then calls a second number and the procedure continues.

Sample Application: What are the names of the Hebrew months in consecutive order?

*Kagan, S. & Kagan, M. (2009). Kagan Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing, www.KaganOnline.com .

On the next post we will describe and give a sample application of another cooperative learning procedure, Corner or Clusters.

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