Types of Collaboration

Think-Pair-Share
Think-Pair-Share asks students to think about a specific piece of information, pair off with a peer, and discuss the information. While in pairs, students can summarize, synthesize, analyze, or discuss the information in some other way. This strategy allows students to share ideas and work through difficult material in a safe learning environment. The Think-Pair-Share strategy is a great way to get students interacting with course material. It engages more students in the learning and gives them time to process the information.

Think-Pair-Write
Think-pair-write extends the traditional Think-Pair-Share strategy by asking students to explore ideas through writing exercises. After students spend some time thinking about their learning and sharing their ideas with their partners, they are given time to write about their learning, developing their thoughts through reflection and original analysis. Another way to engage students in this activity is to have each pairing of students write a response, reflection, or summary together. In this environment, students learn how to support each other through the learning process, utilizing their strengths and in turn strengthening their weaknesses.

Table Talk
This strategy asks four to six students to come together and engage in an academic discussion. The small group could discuss a passage in a text, a concept, or any other topic that would lead students to deepen their knowledge of a particular strategy or course concept. To ensure the discussion is purposeful and productive, set the context for the discussion, provide clear directions and post a prompt for all students to see. Depending on the task, you may want to consider assigning group roles.

Jigsaw Activities
Jigsaw activities are a type of cooperative learning. "The basic premise of a jigsaw activity is to divide a problem into sections, one for each group member. Each student receives resources to complete his or her part. The student who are responsible for the same section join together and form a new, temporary focus group whose purpose is to master the concepts/ ideas that make up their section and to develop a strategy for teaching what they have learned to the other students in their original learning group." Source available at http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/cl/doingcl/jigsaw.htm.

Literacy Circles
A literacy circle is a student centered reading activity that engages students in the reading of a fiction and or non-fiction text. "Each member of circle is assigned a role which helps guide the group in a higher level discussion of the text they are reading. Literacy circles provide an opportunities for students to control their own learning": to share their thoughts, to deepen their knowledge of the text, and to explore ideas in a safe learning environment. Description of Literature Circles can be found at http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/lang_lit_circles.htm.

Reciprocal Teaching
"Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity that takes place in the form of a dialogue between teachers and students regarding segments of text. The dialogue is structured by the use of four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The teacher and students take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading this dialogue...The purpose of reciprocal teaching is to facilitate a group effort between teacher and students as well as among students in the task of bringing meaning to the text. Each strategy was selected for the following purpose:

Summarizing provides the opportunity to identify and integrate the most important information in the text. Text can be summarized across sentences, across paragraphs, and across the passage as a whole. When the students first begin the reciprocal teaching procedure, their efforts are generally focused at the sentence and paragraph levels. As they become more proficient, they are able to integrate at the paragraph and passage levels.

Question generating reinforces the summarizing strategy and carries the learner one more step along in the comprehension activity. When students generate questions, they first identify the kind of information that is significant enough to provide the substance for a question. They then pose this information in question form and self-test to ascertain that they can indeed answer their own question. Question generating is a flexible strategy to the extent that students can be taught and encouraged to generate questions at many levels. For example, some school situations require that students master supporting detail information; others require that the students be able to infer or apply new information from text.

Clarifying is an activity that is particularly important when working with students who have a history of comprehension difficulty. These students may believe that the purpose of reading is saying the words correctly; they may not be particularly uncomfortable that the words, and in fact the passage, are not making sense. When the students are asked to clarify, their attention is called to the fact that there may be many reasons why text is difficult to understand (e.g., new vocabulary, unclear reference words, and unfamiliar and perhaps difficult concepts). They are taught to be alert to the effects of such impediments to comprehension and to take the necessary measures to restore meaning (e.g., reread, ask for help).

Predicting occurs when students hypothesize what the author will discuss next in the text. In order to do this successfully, students must activate the relevant background knowledge that they already possess regarding the topic. The students have a purpose for reading: to confirm or disprove their hypotheses. Furthermore, the opportunity has been created for the students to link the new knowledge they will encounter in the text with the knowledge they already possess. The predicting strategy also facilitates use of text structure as students learn that headings, subheadings, and questions imbedded in the text are useful means of anticipating what might occur next." Source available at http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/atrisk/at6lk38.htm.

Writing Workshops
Writing workshops are a great way to engage students in the revision process. For this collaborative activity, groups of 3-5 students work together to improve their writing. Each student brings multiple copies of his or her text to the group so that all members of the workshop have a copy. Students take turns reading their texts out loud, while members of the group write comments on the text. Once the text has been read, the author listens to the groups' comments. The process is repeated until all members have had an opportunity to workshop their texts.

Group Projects
One way to prepare students for post-secondary education and the world of work is to create opportunities for students to work on projects together. In order to ensure all members of the group put forth equal effort, assign specific tasks to each of the members and give grades to each member for their contributions. Working well together is a skill that our students must acquire. Assign group projects and help them learn how to do this type of work.

Stand and Deliver
A great way to keep students focused and accountable for their learning while working in groups is to ask them to share elements of their discussion with the whole class. You might ask students to literally “stand and deliver,” or you might have them share from their seats. Either way, the expectation that students will be responsible for sharing their thoughts with the whole class raises students’ level of concern and motivates them to hold a serious discussion. When setting the context for the discourse, explain to the students that once their discussions are over they will need to share their ideas with the whole class. If you do not plan to call on all groups, make sure the students know that all groups must be ready to share and that you will randomly call on them.

Other Learning Environments that Foster Collaboration and Academic Discussions

--Socratic Seminar
--Literacy/ content tutorials
--Philosophical Chairs
-- Fishbowl