Collaborative Learning

From the desk of Kris…

My boys were less than thrilled to go back to school a few weeks ago.  In fact, one of my sons came home recently and likened school to jail. His words: “School is like a place where they lock you in a room, force you to sit in a seat and listen to the teacher for hours.”  Who wouldn’t feel imprisoned in an institution that values teacher directed instruction and superficial, multiple choice questions over a deeper understanding and synthesis of information.  What is wrong with this picture?  Who can learn in an environment such as this?    It makes me sad as a mother and an educator to know that these practices still go on every day in classrooms. It is also a grave injustice to our children.

COLLABORATION

The Common Core Standards contain a whole section on Speaking and Listening.  We may think we have the “listening” down pat.  Don’t we make our students listen to us all day?  But what about letting them listen to each other?  What about letting them share their opinions? I know myself as a learner. I know that I cannot learn by just listening to someone speak.  In fact, many times when people are speaking I have a hard time listening to what they say.  I don’t learn best that way. I learn best by doing.  That ‘doing’ includes listening and speaking (collaboration) with others.  Students need to learn about themselves as learners and what better way than to let them collaborate?

I am involved in a book club.  When I go and join in on the book discussion, I learn new information and see events in a different light.  There may be conclusions I would never have drawn if I hadn’t talked to someone about it. Sometimes I hold a friendly argument with another reader and I can argue my point using evidence from the text or my own background knowledge.  I may remember information that I had forgotten and I always walk away with a deeper comprehension.  CCSS states: “Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.”   When I am given the opportunity to collaborate, learning is fun.  It is almost effortless.

Collaboration comes in different ways. Think about what happens when two educators happen to meet.  The conversation might go like this…. “Oh are you a teacher too? What do you teach? Well, what do you think about……..?”  My husband cringes when he hears this type of exchange!  He knows I could stand there for hours talking ‘best practices’ and other ‘education lingo’. I can think of so many snippets of information that I have gained from talking and collaborating with other educators.  I tuck away information (after writing it down first) and add it to my collective knowledge about education.  I don’t just automatically believe everything another teacher says or immediately implement her ideas or even think she has great ideas.  I have learned to filter information I gather and think for myself about what is best, what makes sense, and what will work for me.  Isn’t that what we ultimately want for our students?  We want them to listen to or read new information, collaborate with others, filter out what isn’t important, synthesize what is important, be able to articulate their thinking, and argue their point.  Think how exciting our classrooms would be!  Our students would be engaged critical thinkers.  Wow!

So how can we transfer this collaborative style of learning and make it relevant in our classrooms?  Think about the little Kindergartners who come into school eager to learn and excited about everything.  In Kindergarten there is plenty of time to collaborate and talk.  That is just the nature of little kids.  They want to share everything!    But wait….isn’t that the nature of older kids too?  What about adults? As students progress through the grades this excitement and engagement diminishes little by little until they are sitting at their desks in a silent classroom listening to the teacher and answering questions on a worksheet.  How can we remedy this situation?

Tips:

•  Dissect your school day and really look at how much time you talk in front of or at your students. Who does most of the talking?  You or your students?
•  Think about how much time you give students to collaborate or create their own learning.  Can you alter your lessons so there is more time for this?
• Think about yourself as a facilitator rather than a teacher. What are some ways you can present information and then facilitate your students into a deeper understanding?
• Don’t use all of your time and energy coming up with questions for students to answer.  Let them come up with questions that will enhance their learning.
• If you teach an upper grade and have assigned a novel, don’t assign chapters and give a packet of questions to go with it.  Assign a chapter and then ask a question that will encourage students to think about what they have read.  Then give them an opportunity to discuss what they have read with their classmates.  You can assess for understanding by listening in to their conversations.
• Think about how you learn best.  Imitate that learning style for your students so they can learn best.
• When you have Reader’s or Writer’s Workshop time and present your mini-lesson, give students a chance to ‘turn and talk’ to help students integrate new information into their schema.
• Assign group projects that allow students to work together to create a finished product of their choice.

Remember, the more opportunities you create for your students to collaborate, the more engaged they will be and the more learning that will take place.  Collaboration is a real world and necessary strategy that will help students be successful!