Establishing Routines and Strategies for Collaboration and Conversation

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These shoes work well together. You can see the difference in each pair while recognizing that they seem to complement each other. To me, THIS is collaboration - unique, diverse students who complement each other with thinking... and students who are able to work well together.

As part of best practice, teachers develop routines and structures within the classroom, including those that support effective collaboration. When these routines and structures are established, students are given daily opportunities to interact verbally, share ideas, collaborate, and think "out loud". It's critical that students have opportunities to talk with peers about their learning. Why? Consider research connected to: 

• students as social learners,
• the need for students to engage in "oral rehearsal", and 
• the need for students to formulate thinking. 

These conversational experiences lead to deeper understanding and greater clarity in student thinking and understanding. In the end, students might also find themselves transferring ideas from conversations into writing (experiences we connect with writing-to-learn). To support students in their development as collaborators, we might provide opportunities for them to evaluate themselves (self-evaluation) and consider possibilities for change.

Establishing routines for students to talk about their learning supports the 21st Century Skills of Collaboration and Critical Thinking and Reasoning. As you establish these routines, expectations, and strategies, consider these additional tools:

• Video - Think Time and Collaboration (2:19) from the Teaching Channel
• Strategy - Using Partner Talk to Strengthen Student Collaboration and Understanding from ReadWriteThink
• Video (Strategy) - Organizing Desks into "Four Corners" (1:18) from the Teaching Channel
• Video (Strategy) - The Four Tribes: Agreements for Learning Together (2:31) from the Teaching Channel
• Blog Post with Strategies - How to Foster Collaboration and Team Spirit from MindShift
• Blog Post with Strategies - Nurturing Collaboration: 5 Strategies from Edutopia
• Best Practices - 20 Collaborative Learning Tips and Strategies from Global Digital Citizen
• Strategy for Using Academic Language with ALL Learners - Discussion Chips (example is in math)

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."

Using Google Maps to Collaborate

While Google Earth is a marvelous tool to examine places on the earth, Google Maps is the perfect tool for collaborative experiences.  This tool is perfect for collaborative work among teachers, and for collaborative work among students.  This brief video (5:48) is created by @MrBrianBobbit to easily show how you might use Google Maps.  As you watch, consider these questions and offer your insights in the comments sections:

1. How might teachers use Google Maps to collaborate and create tools to support student learning? 
2. How might students use Google Maps to collaborate and share thinking and learning?
3. What historical information (people, events, locations) might be mapped? 
4. What geographic information might be mapped?