Designing Opportunties for Students to Work Collaboratively

This book is a great resource to use for teachers to get ideas. On pages 66 and 67 there is a list of strategies to use to meet specific goals. The teacher I am working with is having a hard time designing opportunities for her students to work collaboratively in groups and pairs. I have provided a variety of strategies with page numbers to meet both needs.

• Teammates Consult is a strategy used so that all students may participate, promote development of communication skills and cause students to think before they "fill in the blanks." I think this is a good strategy because it promotes mastery learning. It helps put students at ease and gives them the opportunity to learn from peers. (page 97)
• Reciprocal Teaching is designed to help students develop expertise with the thinking and process skills of predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing. It works well with all learners. At the elementary level this strategy works good with guided reading and in the secondary classroom its used to structure small group work. This strategy requires students to predict, clarify, question, and summarize material. When modeled and practiced students can become very proficient at it and this allows you to rotate around the room and listen in on the discussions. This strategy works well in Multi-age classrooms and upper grades. I believe this strategy would promote a lot of collaboration which is what my teacher is looking for. (page 133)
• Graffiti is a strategy that allows you to write problems, formulas, sentences on pieces of large chart paper and post around the room. Students then move into small groups and work together to complete the assignment. Each group works on a different question or topic and writes or draws responses on paper. Then allow time for students to rotate to the different topics with their groups. You may allow the groups to use different color markers to keep track of contributions. Basically I selected this strategy because it is one that we use in teacher workshops. It gets the students up and moving and actively engaged in the learning process. It allows group members to use their various learning styles to present information. (page 79)
  
• Numbered Heads Together requires students to work in teams of 4 or 5. Students count off in each group so when the teacher ask a question all the number 3's in the group have to answer. Teacher ask the questions the team huddles up and collaborates and makes sure each member knows the answer. Teacher calls a number at random. All the number 3's raise their hands and the teacher selects one student to answer the question. This activity sounds like a good team building activity and one that would require a lot of practice to perfect. I feel that upper grades would really enjoy this activity. (page 90)
• Sort Cards allows for individual work and group work. Students work independently at first and generate words or short phrases that come to mind on a topic. Then record each idea on an index card. Then students break into groups and share ideas, clarify similar ideas Once cards have been sorted then groups rotate around the room to analyze the work of other groups. This activity requires students to provide individual work and group work which allows the teacher to assess two ways. The teacher can see what the child knows and then allow him/her to collaborate to come up with the best solution. (page 93)
• Consensus Conclusions requires students to work independently at first. They must generate a list of the five most important concepts or facts learned from topic being studied. Then students move into assigned groups. The groups must come to a consensus about the most important facts. Then have each group present their selections. Lead a discussion about the content identified, the similarities and differences and about the process. This activity also allows the teacher to check each students understanding of the topic and then allows for collaboration for mastery learning. (page 76)

All of these strategies can be used throughout the curriculum.