For Students, Collaboration Might Bring Fear: Talk About It

As we look to make our classrooms more collaborative environments, we have to set expectations. Our goal is to create a classroom culture that embraces collaboration as a foundation to learning.

Simultaneously, we have to acknowledge the barriers that might cause students to shy away from collaborative experiences.  Remember when you were a kid?  Sometimes you had to work with someone who might not have been in your peer group, and it may have been difficult to begin sharing ideas.

Collaborative communities take chances and are willing to exchange ideas with others who are different from us.  Maybe we should embrace that fear...that barrier...and talk about it so we can reach new understanding about the opportunities that might exist when we invite students to destroy their own barriers.

This video might provide teachers with a story that can be used to discuss the hard truths about collaboration (and the exchange of ideas):

• What's difficult about collaboration with people who we feel are different from us?
• Why might people struggle to collaborate with different peers?
• What might be the benefit of collaborate with people we might not know very well?
• What is this man's super power?  How might his super power help you to think about goals when engaged in collaborative experiences?

And if you like a different spin on using a video to talk about diversity in your class, your kids may like this little video with  Herman Munster singing "It Takes All Kinds of People."