Cooperative Learning

At Southport Middle School, students in Ms. Banken’s class were highly engaged in a Dots and Boxes activity.  8th graders in pre-algebra had to solve task cards correctly to earn one line, with the goal of creating full squares. Students worked in teams of 2 with one student being the player and one being the coach.  Only the player could hold the pencil and work out the problem while the coach could offer verbal guidance and encouragement.  Once the team had answered the question accurately the player marked a line on the board. If they were able to connect the last line to form the square, they wrote their initials and conquered the square.   The number of squares they created was their score.