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My students began to get a little “off” as the second semester approached in my classroom. Off task, off behaviorally, off academically – call it what you will, but they were not the cooperative, attentive fourth graders I had taught at the beginning of the year. Instead, behavior issues were increasing, and test scores were slumping. I wondered where I had gone wrong in my teaching and classroom management practices. They were uncaring towards each other, could not work together successfully, and struggled to complete even the most straightforward independent tasks.
In January, I attended a professional development about Kagan Strategies through my district that was seemingly a God send. I had heard of Kagan Strategies before but had never truly understood them or utilized them in my classroom until this PD. However, once I started using them, I was hooked! My students had a completely different outlook in the classroom after I began to use Kagan Strategies regularly; it was as though a lightbulb came on for them – or maybe one came on for me.
What Exactly Are Kagan Strategies?
Kagan Strategies are a researched-based program focused on student engagement. They aim to increase student achievement, reduce student discipline issues, enhance social skills, and form cross-race friendships. Instead of traditional, teacher-led lessons, students transform into leaders. As a result, the interaction between students is high when using Kagan Strategies, and teachers are able to engage many more students at a time. Districts implementing Kagan Strategies have shown positive results, such as skyrocketing positive behavior referrals, academic improvement in all subjects, and happier students who are more involved in their education. Kagan Strategies are traditionally divided into four categories:
Positive interdependence – When students work together, and their success depends on a group or partner, they hope for the success of their classmates. Positive interdependence also teaches students to realize that no task needs to be done alone; there is always someone to reach out to and work with within the classroom.
For example, student A and student B are placed in a pair and instructed to take turns writing their responses to social studies review questions. When we place our students in situations where the outcome is positive for everyone, students learn to cheer on and support their classmates.
Individual accountability – Kagan Strategies truly enforce that personal accountability drives achievement. Three pieces to this Kagan component must be present for students to succeed: students must be performing on their own, the performance must be seen by someone else, and the performance must be required. When these three key elements are intertwined, student performance improves.
A great way to utilize and understand individual accountability is a Timed-Pair-Share. In this easy-to-use strategy, each student shares their ideas for a specified time.
Equal participation – Kagan uses various cooperative learning structures to spread student participation. It is noted that involvement will never be fully equal since all students have different talents they bring to the table during cooperative learning; however, when the teacher provides cooperative learning structures for students to follow, participation balances itself out.
A Kagan way to practice equal participation is to always place students in groups of four. This way, there is not a third or fifth student left out who may sit back and let all the others do the work. Students are more likely to unify together or split into pairs of 2, assigning equal work to each member of the group.
Simultaneous interaction – “Kagan defines simultaneous interaction as the percentage of learners overtly engaged at any one moment.” Kagan realizes that one cooperative learning method is not more valuable than another; student interaction is what teachers should be gauging. As long as students are interacting and engaged, success will follow.
Perhaps the most difficult strategy for teachers who prefer quiet classrooms to grasp, a classroom practicing simultaneous interaction will not be a quiet workspace. As students become accustomed to working together and collaborating on assignments, noise in the classroom is likely to increase. This isn’t a bad thing – we want our students to work collaboratively, help each other, and encourage one another’s successes.
Examples of Kagan Strategies in Action
One of the best things about Kagan Strategies is that they are quick and easy to implement. As teachers, we know this can make or break a classroom strategy, especially one that is new to our rotation of classroom routines.
The below Kagan Strategies have all been utilized in my classroom recently, and I can verify that they are all practical and teacher-friendly!
- Showdown – This is an excellent concept for reviewing material your students are already familiar with and will work with any grade level or subject area. A question is presented, and the team captain calls for a “showdown.” Students show their written answers to the group, and the group determines if they agree or disagree with the answers. If they agree, they move to the next question. If even one group member disagrees, the group discusses why the answer(s) are correct or incorrect. I have seen my students go from arguing consistently during group work to slowing down and truly helping their peers when needed.
- Talking Chips – This Kagan Strategy is an easy way for teachers to spread participation equally throughout the classroom. Teachers use simple objects (cap erasers, coins, paperclips, etc.) and pass them out to students before a class discussion. Five students may receive a paperclip, five others may receive a cap eraser, and the remaining five may be handed a coin. Then, during a whole group lesson, the teacher invites all students with a coin to answer together and participate or all students with a cap eraser to discuss the answer to a question. Students who may have been too quiet, shy, or embarrassed to answer questions in a whole group are asked to do so in a comfortable, non-selective way. I love this method because none of my quiet, shy students feel singled out. My lower-level learners also feel more confident when answering questions with a group of peers as opposed to on their own.
- Fan-and-Pick – In this strategy, students answer questions from a deck. Each student in the group is assigned a specific role for participation, and the teacher can shift the roles at any time during the activity. One student will fan the cards, a student will pick a card and read it aloud to the group, a student will answer the question on the card, and one student will paraphrase and praise the answer. By rotating the student roles, the teacher allows students to participate in a handful of different ways. I love using this strategy in my science classroom! I have discovered that my students really like being assigned a “job,” which I had never tried during group work before. I am not a teacher who assigns or can keep up with classroom jobs, so the responsibility they feel from their group “job” title gives them the incentive to participate and learn!
The bottom line is that cooperative learning engages students and encourages them to learn in a kind and respectful way. My students have become quick to help their classmates and praise their achievements. They have learned how to work in a team correctly without depending on the strongest member and without leaving out the weakest member. They are on task and paying attention because they are practicing individual accountability. Behavior write-ups in my classroom have decreased by almost 50% between the second and third quarters since I implemented Kagan’s strategies in my classroom. Kagan is an easy concept to initiate and follow in the classroom and can significantly benefit our students!
Ashley Chennault is currently a freelance writer and 4th-grade teacher in the small coastal town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Ashley is in her 18th year of teaching and holds a master of arts degree in elementary education. In addition, she became Nationally Board Certified in 2020. In her free time, she enjoys her second job as a contract grant writer for philanthropy corporations, boating, beaching, cooking, watching her teenage sons play sports, and spending time with her three adopted wiener dogs, Georgie, Henry, and Tripp.
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