Students
should 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.
How Does S&L Standard 1 Relate to
Complex Text?
Speaking
& Listening Standard 1 presents increased expectations for students and is
directly related to accessing complex text (reading standard 10) in that
students discuss the complex text they have been reading. Not only will this assist students in
comprehending the text, but it will also provide practice in critical thinking,
argumentation, and usingevidence in their
responses (reading standard 1).
According to Douglas Fisher and Nancy
Frey, authors of Rigorous Reading,
collaborative learning is one of the most effective practices through which
students access complex text. These peer-assisted learning opportunities
furnish students with a means of applying the skills and strategies they have
learned during teacher led or assisted classroom activities and serve as an
effective scaffolding tool before students are expected to complete independent
work.
It’s not enough to have complex text in
the classroom - students need support to fully access the text. Collaborative
learning is an effective way to provide support as students read and discuss
complex text.
Student interaction with the text, the
teacher, and other students is vital to
enabling students to comprehend complex text.
Building
Structures for Collaborative Learning
Designs That Require Students to
Work Together
To ensure that group work goes smoothly,
teachers should post, teach, and revisit group norms for interaction,
especially those that explain how to debate and disagree without being
disagreeable, and how to seek, offer, accept, and decline help graciously. When groups are first implemented, task
complexity should be temporarily lowered to make it possible for students to
attend to the collaborative learning processes and procedures that are new to
them. Once students are familiar with
the group design, assignments that require “productive struggle” will keep
students working together
Structures That Elevate Productive Struggle
The growing research on productive struggle in learning indicates
that students who initially fail/struggle at a task are more receptive to
subsequent instruction and show increased achievement and performance (Kapur,
2008).It is best if students do not
experience this struggle in isolation.The best time for students to struggle is during collaborative
learning.When group work is too easy,
groups typically divide the work and go their separate ways until they meet
again to reassemble the pieces.Ideally,
the assigned task should be difficult enough so that students have a reason to
talk with one another to resolve their confusion (Fisher & Frey 2013).
* The task should be novel – not a mere
reproduction of what the teacher just did.With tasks that are too easy, students often “divide and conquer” and no
thinking is required.
*The task should require interaction and
teamwork.The text should be of a high
enough complexity that students actually need each other to broker an
understanding of it.This causes
students to discuss the content – not just the task.
Require Groups to Use Academic Language
Academic
language is the language used in textbooks, in classrooms, and on tests.
It is different in structure and vocabulary from the everyday spoken English of
social interactions. Many students who speak English well have trouble
comprehending academic language. Low
academic language skills may contribute to low academic performance.
Students benefit from using the academic language and
should be expected to use it as they work in groups.Scaffolds can be used that encourage academic
language and vocabulary.Sentence frames
are a great way to begin guiding students in using academic language.Use the following example of sentence frames
to assist students with argumentation in their discussions and to move
discussion forward:
*I disagree with ______ because _________.
*The reason I believe ______ is ___________.
*The facts that support my idea are ____.
*One difference between my idea and
yours is
____________.
Ensure Grade-Level Work
According to Fisher & Frey, it really doesn’t matter how
good the instruction is if students are working on below grade level
content.The authors go on to say that
even though many students are performing below grade level, lowering expectations
is not the way to close the achievement gap.During collaborative work, the group works together to make meaning and
the text should be more complex than those texts students may use during their
independent reading.
Key Elements of Collaborative Learning
Although there is a
strong research base in support of peer-assisted learning, teachers also know
that it is often a challenge to implement.
Collaborative learning requires careful planning.
Grouping – Heterogeneous or Homogeneous?
Research indicates that heterogeneous grouping works
best. Bennett and Cass (1989) found that
the optimal group is composed of two lower-performing students and one-higher
performing student.
Goal Setting
Successful collaborative groups understand what their
goals are for the task at hand. Give
groups specific directions concerning the task.
Rubrics describing what you are looking for in the final product work
well. Timelines or task cards can also
be beneficial for keeping students focused.
Accountability
A
common criticism of collaborative learning is that the distribution of labor
can be uneven. A way to combat this
problem is through the use of both a group assessment linked to the completion
of the project and an individual assessment designed to gauge each individual’s
contributions to the effort. The
following strategies are ways to increase accountability:
Collaborative
Poster: Each member of the group is assigned a different color marker to use in
the development of a collaborative poster.
The colors serve as evidence of each member’s contribution.
Discussion
Roundtable: Students divide a sheet of paper into quadrants
leaving a box in the middle (see figure 4.3) As the student reads the text, he
takes notes in the upper-left quadrant.
Students then discuss the text with the group and record what peers
share in the other quadrants. The middle
section is used to summarize, identify theme, or write questions about the text
depending on the task assigned by the teacher.
Collaborative Learning Structures
It is important to have structures in place that
encourage students to read with deep understanding of the text. When collaborative learning is first
implemented, learning structures should be modeled by the teacher and
procedures put in place for each group to follow.
Collaborative Strategic Reading
CSR teaches students to use strategies that fluent readers
use – prediction, self-monitoring, and summarizing. The teacher first teaches
and instructs the students in each of the strategies used in CSR. When students
understand the strategies, they are put in groups and assigned a small “chunk”
of the text.Groups progress through the
following steps:
-Preview: Before reading the text, groups discuss what they
already know about the text and make predictions about what they expect to
learn from the text.
-Click & Clunk: Students learn to identify when the
reading “clicks” (smooth reading that makes sense) and when it “clunks”
(unfamiliar words, rough reading).Clunks signal students to employ other strategies to resolve
comprehension problems – reread, read ahead to the end of the paragraph,
analyze unfamiliar words for familiar word parts, ask partners for help.
Get the Gist:At the
end of each text chunk, students summarize the main ideas and important
details.
Wrap-Up:After the
group has finished the entire reading, the group revisits their predictions and
checks for accuracy.
When CSR is first implemented, it is helpful to assign roles
within each group.As groups become
proficient with the process, roles fade away.Studies show that when students are carefully taught the strategies of
CSR, off-task group talk decreases.
*Both “click & clunk” and “get the gist” are
completed several times until the entire reading.
Reciprocal Teaching/Reading
(Also Discussed in March ELA Focus)
During reciprocal teaching
conversations, students practice specific comprehension skills and are assigned
roles of predictor, questioner, summarizer, and clarifier.Roles can be combined or shared so that groups
can consist of more or less students.
As the groups read, they pause
periodically to talk about the text.Students can keep the same role for the entire text or switch roles
after each section.If students are going
to switch roles, it is very important that the teacher has procedures for the
switch to avoid confusion.
*Students can either read
sections silently, or they can take turns reading in the group.
Where Does Collaborative
Learning Fit In My Lesson Progression?