How Do You Facilitate Collaboration in Writing and in Learning?

Last summer, Derri Scarlett posed a similar question in Collaborative Learning Groups, and it is a discussion worth pursuing.

What are some ways you foster collaboration in your classroom?

I think one of the keys to getting started with students' digital collaboration in writing and learning in general is the establishment of what Rob Rozema and Allen Webb refer to as a "Web presence" in their book, Literature and the Web: Reading and Responding with New Technologies (2008). Once teachers are comfortable and have themselves participated in digital (as well as face-to-face) collaboration, they can best apply their knowledge and experience to their classrooms. As you know there are many additional resources along these lines, including Troy Hick's The Digital Writing Workshop (2009), and Sara Kajer's Adolescents and Digital Literacies: Learning Alongside Our Students (2010).

Also, I have found that when a teacher sets up a classroom like a community of learners, has student and teacher-written classroom rules, and takes part in a routine process of forming consensus, collaboration in general follows. Steven Zemelman and Harvey Daniel's A Community of Writers: Teaching Writing in the Junior and Senior H... (1988) has been a source of great support to me as well as many educators.

Do you have a specific way that you foster collaboration in your elementary, middle, or secondary classroom?

Mary Anna

Tags: collaboration, collaborative, college, consensus, elementary, group, high, learning, middle, school, More…teamwork, work, writing

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Permalink Reply by Celeste Turner on February 23, 2011 at 7:19pm

Collaboration in my classroom has been heightened by using collaborative journals. The journals rotate within a group of 4 students. At first I was concerned because students would need to do journal entries in addition to the homework. It turned out to be a fantastic way to supplement the writing program. Students love this form of writing and it gives them a voice that we don't always have time to hear during class time. The computer teacher has given me 7 handheld computers with keyboards. We are going to switch our collaborative journals to electronic in March. The children are very excited about using the handhelds for writing.

This is my second year using the journals. Earlier this year I conducted a professional development activitiy teaching my coworkers how they could use the journals. The response has been positive.

Celeste Turner

Detroit Public Schools - Bates Academy

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Permalink Reply by Mary Anna Kruch on February 24, 2011 at 12:25pm

Celeste, this is fantastic!

Do you invite students to write on a particular topic, to a prompt, in response to their reading, or are the journals free-writes?

Thanks for joining the conversation.

Mary Anna

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Permalink Reply by Celeste Turner on February 24, 2011 at 9:11pm

There is no particular topic assigned. I found that students wrote more when they directed the discussion. There is quite a bit of students responding to other student entries. It reminds you of social networking on a journal level. One of the teachers from my professional development presentation created a blog for her collaborative journal and the students really enjoy that format.

Fun writing activities create great writers.

Celeste

Mary Anna Kruch said:

Celeste, this is fantastic!

Do you invite students to write on a particular topic, to a prompt, in response to their reading, or are the journals free-writes?

Thanks for joining the conversation.

Mary Anna

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Permalink Reply by Mary Anna Kruch on February 25, 2011 at 10:21am

Thanks, Celeste. It sounds like students share their entries with other students in class currently. The blog for collaborative journaling sounds terrific.

One last question for you: are students' discussions directed toward topics of pop culture? If so, which ones? Movie and music reviews? Conversations about their interests and events in their lives? Do you also take part in the journaling?

Mary Anna

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Permalink Reply by Celeste Turner on February 25, 2011 at 11:52am

Thanks Mary Anna for your interest and questions. My students are 4th graders, so the writing reflects topics important to that age level. Friendship, family events, likes/dislikes, favorites are normally the topics that come up. However, a student did write about Michael Jackson being her favorite singer and how his death effected her. The other students spent about 2 weeks on this subject in various degrees. Another group wrote a couple of entries on Justin Bieber. It was my introduction to who this fella is and what he does..

The 8th grade science teacher started a collaborative journal associated with the science fair. She found that students brought up questions and concerns in the journal they didn't share during class time. As a result she knew what to revisit when giving further directions about the scienc fair.

Teachers have been sharing with me some of the writing being done in the journals. I plan to give them a survey soon to gather additional information about the results of using the collaborative journals.

I don't write in the journals, but take them home monthly to read what the conversations are about. The students have done a good job of monitoring each other. I have noticed that if someone writes a negative comment about another student, immediately the next person will direct them back to the rule: Respond to the topic/subject/idea, but not the person.

Collaborative journals have been my passion this school year. Currently I am editing a paper I wrote on the subject that was begun as an inquiry project for Meadow Brook Writing Project.

Celeste
Mary Anna Kruch said:

Thanks, Celeste. It sounds like students share their entries with other students in class currently. The blog for collaborative journaling sounds terrific.

One last question for you: are students' discussions directed toward topics of pop culture? If so, which ones? Movie and music reviews? Conversations about their interests and events in their lives? Do you also take part in the journaling?

Mary Anna

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Permalink Reply by Mary Anna Kruch on February 25, 2011 at 1:22pm

Keep up the great work, Celeste! I look forward to hearing more about your students as well as your paper begun as an inquiry project for MBWP.

Our local writing project, Red Cedar Writing Project at Michigan State University, has been an ongoing source of inspiration for me while teaching and now as a retired educator ( I taught middle school and university grads and undergrads) and writer. I only wish I had attended the summer invitational much earlier in my teaching career!

Mary Anna