Trade-a-Problem (Kagan, 1994)

Method
1. Students are in groups of four; each group member has a number from 1 to 4. Each
writes a thinking question on one side of a piece of paper and a response to the question
on the other. (Previously, the class has discussed the difference between a text-retrieval
question -- one for which the answer can be retrieved directly from the text -- and a
thinking question -- one for which the answerer needs to go
beyond the information given in the text.)
2. Groupmates review one anothers questions and responses
and discuss their quality. If necessary, the group makes
changes. The questions (only) are then written on four
separate slips of paper.
3. Each group exchanges its four questions with another
group. Each group member receives one of the other groups
questions and writes a first draft of a response.
4. Each person reads out the question he or she received and the draft response. The group
discusses these responses and tries to reach consensus about a single group response to
each question. The resulting responses are written down.
5. The teacher calls a number. The students with that number in the two groups who
exchanged slips of paper explain their groups responses; in turn, the other group shares
the responses they had earlier written to their own questions.
6. The group representatives return to their original group. Groups discuss the other groups
responses.
7. Whole class discussion follows.

PIES Analysis: Positive Interdependence, Individual Accountability, Equal

Participation, and Simultaneous Interaction

Students work together in their teams to prepare their questions and to respond to
the questions they receive. The groupmates help on another to prepare questions
and responses. The group needs to rely on the one member who was chosen at
random to present their responses.

All group members need to work alone initially to create a question with a response,
and then to write a response to a question from the other group. All work is
presented to the group. Also, the group representative is chosen at random to
present the groups responses to another group. Thus, everyone needs to be ready.

Each student writes a question to send to another team and an initial response to the
question he or she receives from the other team, and each group member has an
opportunity to speak when reading the questions and responses.

Twenty-five percent of the class -- that is, one student per group -- is speaking
simultaneously when questions and responses are read and shared.

From Reading Alone Together: Enhancing Extensive Reading via Student-Student

Cooperation in Second-Language Instruction by George Jacobs and Patrick Gallo.
Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted February 2002