Comment

Comment by Mary Anna Kruch on February 23, 2011 at 11:48am

Hi Derri. Your added video is great food for thought, and is a great advertisement for Google Docs.

 

I think one of the keys to getting started with collaborative groups in the classroom 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. 

 

What are some ways you foster collaboration in your classroom?

 

Mary  Anna

 

 

Comment by Derri Scarlett on August 25, 2009 at 3:03pm

Four TEACHERS in a forum, and NOBODY has anything to say??? Hmmm.