How to Help Your Students Collaborate

Collaboration and communication are essential skills in the world beyond school.  Teachers often have difficulty teaching students how to collaborate.  Many times some students do all the work while others slack off.  Paul Curtis, Director District Development at New Tech Network, is adamant about meaningful student experiences that allow them to succeed in their chosen life after school.  He models and discusses his "Group Contract" where students commit to certain tasks.  It will take time for students to collaborate effectively but the structure is in place.


Easing the Pain of Student Collaboration.  Paul Curtis.  2.17.15 (originally published 3.26.14). Tch Teaching Channel
https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2014/03/25/deeper-learning-student-collaboration/?utm_source=newsletter20150214

Use Technology to Collaborate with other Schools

Certainly it's not impossible to collaborate with others these days with technology to connect with students elsewhere.  Read how one class paired up with another class in another school district and learned both positives and negatives about the project. There were problems, of course, and the students agreed that problem-solving was part of the process.  They would do it again for sure.  An extra bonus for this class is that they got to meet their collaborative partners on a joint field trip.


West Stanley Middle School students team with Cabarrus class.  Shannon Beamon. 01.06.15. The Stanley News & Press.
http://www.thesnaponline.com/gallery/west-stanly-middle-students-team-with-cabarrus-class/article_6bd5ea98-95b0-11e4-a18f-fbd304118ddf.html

How to Get Students to Discuss, Debate & Collaborate

As teachers, we know that our students need practice in the 21st Century Skill - Communication & Collaboration.  So often they remain silent, give one-word answers and prefer the much sought after digital method.  This wonderful article lists and explains a dozen ways you can get your students talking in the classroom - and this from a math teacher!
Excellent! - a must read especially for math teachers.  Share your methods to stimulate conversations in Comments below.


12 Steps to Get Students Talking.  Lorraine Jacques.  11.13.14.  ASCD Express - Talking and Listening in Class.  Vol. 10.
http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol10/1005-jacques.aspx

Conversation - Essential 21st Century Skill

This article is appropriate for the "haves" and not for the "have-nots."  What I mean by this are those students who have digital gadgets, particularly cell phones.  This article presents this amazing statistic.  According to the Pew Research Center, one in three teens sends over 100 text messages a day!  Only 33% regularly talk face to face.  Given that knowledge, is it any wonder so many teens have such trouble with conversations?  Students need to know that there is no more important 21st Century skill than being able to sustain confident, coherent conversation.
 


My Students Don't Know How to Have a Conversation.  Paul Barnwell.  4.22.14. The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/04/my-students-dont-know-how-to-have-a-conversation/360993/

Collaborative Learning More Powerful than Solo Learning

"Great inventions, solutions, and technologies are always supported by a group of people." This is the first sentence of this article.  What an implication it has!  Technology has helped the collaborative effort.  No longer do people have to sit and collaborate in the same room!  The author mentions the "study cages" she experienced at the University of Wisconsin.  You have too, I'll bet.  How many of you have learned the benefit of collaborative learning?....perhaps your students more so than you.  PLCs in your school are an interesting popular PD example.  This article is not to be missed especially for you doubters out there.

Say YOLO to Studying Solo:  The Power of Collaborative Learning.  Becky Splitt. 8.9.14. EdSurge
https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-08-09-say-yolo-to-studying-solo-the-power-of-collaborative-learning

Remember the "Audience" Concept?

What a gifted writer - Terry Heick!  I can see why he is now an English teacher.  All of us at one time or another in our past schooling were taught the concept of 'audience.'  Who is going to listen to me?  Who is going to read this?  What is important to that person?  Why should I be the person communicating?  All of these reflective questions are the basis of Heick's article.  As teachers we need to be reminded that the students we see every day are our audience.  Are we reaching them?  How can we tell?
Please share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

Audience and Purpose.  Terry Heick. 8.8.14. edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/audience-and-purpose-terry-heick

Giving Voice and Choice to Students

Have ;you every been asked a question by a student that you don't know anything about?  What was your response?  Might have been " I don't know."  Then because you are such a 'wonderful teacher', you then asked, "Who knows something about this that they can share?"  Now you've got the ball rolling......
The author of this article proposes 5 ways to get that ball rolling in transforming the learning space you share with your students into a place where you serve as facilitator and guide, presenter or instructor.  This artical is not to be missed because all of us, I'm sure have been in this postiton sometimes.
After reading the article, please post you comments below.

5 Ways to Give Your Students More Voice and Choice. Rebecca Alber.  3.31.14. Edutopia. 
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/five-strategies-more-voice-choice-students-rebecca-alber

Fun Strategies to Practice Collaboration & Communication

Besides academic preparedness, we know that success after high school depends on key skills.  When a student is developing a career or attending college, collaboration and communication skills are essential.  In this article Rebecca Alber offers strategies that are fun for students and help develop those important skills.
How can teachers help prepare students for this eventuality?  She offers strategies in these three areas:

• Strategies for Mingling
• Strategies for Listening
• Practice Persuading

Common Core in Action:  Why Collaboration and Communication Matter.  Rebecca Alber. 1.16.14. edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/common-core-in-action-communication-collaboration-matter-rebecca-alber