Elementary school students often exhibit a lack of social skills that interferes with positive classroom interaction. This action research project examined the impact of an intervention for improving respect for others, self control, and listening to increase cooperative behavior in students. The targeted population consisted of a class of fourth grade students from a middle class suburban community. Their lack of social skills was documented by means of anecdotal records from the classroom teacher and the researcher, a teacher checklist of deficit social skill areas completed by the researcher during the initial cooperative group experience, and a survey of the 24 students. The intervention consisted of: (1) changes to make the classroom conducive to cooperation through prosocial signs and sayings to promote values; (2) direct teaching of social skills; and (3) cooperative learning activities to foster prosocial behavior. Social skills instruction occurred 30 minutes weekly from September through December using book lessons, T-charts, practice, observation and reflection on skills, and rewards for displaying positive targeted behaviors. Data collection methods to assess effectiveness included teacher checklists, anecdotal records, and student surveys conducted on a pre-post basis. Findings indicated that there was a decrease in the number of skill deficit areas observed in the targeted class. The majority of student responses were in favor of working in cooperative groups. (Six appendices include the data collection forms. Contains 19 references.) (KB)