Collaborative Learning Community

Creating an Environment for Growth

Establishing a CLC

Stage 1 Knowledge/Communication

Communication within group members allows for connections to be formed. The more students know about each other, the better they will understand one another. Lasting friendships can be built through forming early connections. Before working together it is invaluable that the teacher allows time for students to share life experiences and facts about themselves with the group. With time built into the schedule to share, listen, and simply think aloud together collaboration will be easy. When students are able to make connections through communicating and sharing personal facts/experiences, a caring and understanding environment develops. Students will feel welcomed, safe, and respected.

How can I build connections in my classroom?

Partner introductions
Pinwheels
Personality Scavenger Hunt
Compass Points (North-South-East-West)
I Like People Who
Daily Morning Meetings

*Compass Points is especially important in helping students understand their peers' "working style", strengths, and weaknesses. Activities explained in CLC Key Tools and Resources below.

(Thomas, 2013, p. 31, 101)

Stage 2 Cooperation

Group members become familiar with one another and tackle assigned tasks. For the most part, everyone gets along and work is completed. Positive growth is occurring, but the group is not fully effective, and not producing work that is brilliant, innovative, or inspirational. The majority of tasks given to groups in stage two should be low risk and low stakes tasks. In order to move group work from Cooperation to genuine Collaboration, a foundation of trust must be laid so that group members are willing to take risks. Activities are used to build connections, strengthen community and position the group to move into the stages of collaboration and maturation.

Sample Tasks for Cooperation

build a vocabulary list
create a poster
review previous material
practice a process or skill
identify where in the room important materials can be found

(Thomas, 2013, p.31, 35, 47)

Stage 3 Trust

Emotional Safety means being able to act, think and feel without fear. It means being able to try activities I'm not good at, express my ideas without censoring them, display my feelings and have them respected, question my teachers without fear of punishment. It means being able to take risks and expose what I don't know. It means being valued for who I am instead of how well I perform. It means that the teacher is interested in me, in my ideas and experiences. (cited in "Transformative Teaching" from Bluestein, 2001)

The importance of a safe learning environment cannot be underestimated and is not attained accidentally. One must be deliberate when teaching what a safe environment looks like and feels like; simply encouraging participation is not enough. Modeling is the first step to creating this atmosphere; creating norms and consistently revisiting these norms are key to maintaining the group's emotional safety. Having a motto such as "This is a risk-taking, mistake-making classroom" can help create a culture of trust.

An emotionally safe classroom means having the following:

One's own unique talents, skills, and qualities valued, recognized, and acknowledged
The freedom to not be good at a particular skill, make mistakes, forget, or need additional practice and still be treated respectfully and with acceptance
The freedom to make choices and influence one's own learning, pursue personal interests, and control various factors in the process of learning
The freedom from prejudice, judgement, and discrimination based on academic, athletic, creative, or social capabilities, modality or learning-style preferences;temperament...

How can I build trust in my classroom?

Recognize effort-"Thank you for making it to class today" or "I noticed you have been staying after for extra help to improve your grades."
Creative positive nicknames
Give encouragement
Write encouraging notes on the student's paper, even if the grade was low: "This is ten points higher than the last test! You are getting it!"
Remind students of past successes
Stop by to watch a student in an event they are doing at school such as a play, concert, or debate
Concentrate on strengths, and invite him or her to share his or her talents with the group (class comedian can share morning jokes)
Share topics in which the student is interested
Smile
Call students by name
Acknowledge birthdays (if the child celebrates them)
Get to know your students learning style, preference, interest and cultural experience
Teach fair vs. equal by recognizing students need different, personalized treatment

(Kryza, 2016, p.54-57)

Stage 4 Collaboration

After a strong foundation of knowledge, cooperation and trust has been laid, the group will enter the Collaboration stage. It is in the Collaboration stage that big problems can be assigned and where the real learning is starting to occur. In this stage, the group has synergy. The work is done enthusiastically and energetically. When solving a problem, group members will no longer assign roles, but things will get done naturally by the person with the time, ability or proximity to do that particular task. When groups are in this stage, they are completing work beyond what is required, and this is where masterpieces are created. All members are invested in the work they are doing, and proud of the product. (Thomas, 2013, 31-32)

Because stage four can't happen without trust building and comfortability, my students and I spent a lot of time engaging in small group activities and presentations to allow them to cultivate a sense of ease.

Here, students are engaged in an abstract To Kill a Mockingbird assessment challenge where they were given non-negotiables and we brainstormed as a class what a creative presentation would look like, chunking out the form and content together. The process, however, was completely up to them.

Groups were randomly chosen, and after we did Compass Points so that they could have a visual in front of them that would explain how each student attacked tasks. According to my students, this was an eye opener, which has helped to display more trust, allowing them to tackle this challenge.

No project is the same. The class generated the following ideas: slam poetry; a moveable diorama to show different and changing perspectives; a novel soundtrack; a piece of artwork with an oral component; a rap; newspaper articles of the same events from the eyes of the black community and white community; and dramatic character monologues.

Because of the groundwork we laid at the beginning of the year and throughout the semester, my students have been able to avoid conflict, listen to one another, and collaborate together.

English 10 Honors Keene, NH. 2017

Maintaining a CLC Throughout All Phases

Stage 5 Maturation and Maintenance

In this stage, the teacher can increase the collaboration demand because students have developed connections through sharing and communicating. Students have had experiences that allow for cooperation and collaboration. Through these experiences trust and safety has been formed in the classroom environment. To maintain and grow a CLC a classroom should have rituals and traditions that students look forward to. Some of these rituals and traditions can include: morning meetings, closing circles, publishing parties, compliment time, greeting students/guests at the classroom door, creating a class name, etc. Team building activities should also be part of the classroom culture. Encouraging students and teachers to use the words "community" and "collaboration" when speaking about the classroom will also assist in maintaining a CLC. Maintaining a CLC will positively impact a classroom by optimizing student learning and creating a family-like atmosphere. Students will experience a feeling of ownership over their learning and the classroom as a whole.

(Thomas, 2013, p. 32)

(Critical Skills Program Level 1 Coaching Kit, 2007)

CLC Key Tools and Resources

Suggested Activities, Tools and Resources:

Get-to-know-you games
- Partner Introductions - In pairs, students are given time to talk with a partner and instead of introducing themselves, they introduce their partner.
- Pinwheels/Concentric Circles - students form two concentric circles with the same number of students in each so that pairs are formed . The teacher gives get-to-know-you questions to be discussed. Then the inside circle rotates, creating new pairs for a new question. (Thomas, 2013, p.46)
- Personality Bingo/Scavenger hunt - Using basic information shared by students, students create bingo cards. Students who embody that characteristic sign the square and the winner is the student who fills the card first. (Thomas, 2013, p. 45)
- Compass Points - Students break down into groups based on their feelings about a topic or project: E - Excited, W - Worried, N - Need to know, S - Suggestions for moving forward. Or alternatively: N - I want to do it Now, S - I want to Share and Support feelings, E - I want to express, envision and imagine, W - When, what,when,where, how? Notes can be take on a compass as a visual anchor and this gets students out of their seats and moving around. (Thomas, 2013, p. 101) also: http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03c_Core_routines/CompassPoints/CompassPoints_Routine.html)
- I Like People Who - Students sit in a circle with one person in the middle. The person in the middle says "I like people who..." and states something about him/herself. All other people who have that fact in common with that person get up and switches seats. The person who does not find a seat quickly enough is the new middle person. (Thomas, 2013, p. 45)
- People to People - The teacher creates a list of questions (e.g. favorite kind of pizza ) and students quickly group themselves by their responses. (Thomas, 2013, p. 46)
- Two Truths and a Lie - In a whole group or a smaller group of 3-5, students state two truths and one lie about themselves. The rest of the group needs to guess which is the lie. (Thomas, 2013, p. 46)
- Line Up - Without speaking or writing, students are asked to line up in alphabetical order by last name. Variations include birthdays or opinions on various topics. (Thomas, 2013, p. 46)
Classroom Rituals and Traditions to Maintain and Grow a CLC
- Full Value Contracts/Class Norms and Class Expectations - At the start of the year, students and teachers draft expectations for the year for their learning community. These are student generated and teacher guided, often taking several days to perfect so that every member is invested in the final product. (Thomas, 2013, p. 41-45
- Morning Meetings/ Closing circles - A time set aside at the same time each day to greet, share news, do an activity, share plans for the day or reflect on the days work.
- Publishing parties - an end-of-project party to celebrate the finished writing work with parents and school.
- Compliment time - Time set aside for students to give each other compliments in general or about their work that day.
- Greeting students/guests at the classroom door
- Creating a class or group name - whether it is choosing a class mascot, class name or a name for a group starting a project, this can often encourage collaboration
- "Do Now" - An opening activity which is done each day at the start of class to review the previous day's material, serve as a jumping off point for new material or simply something fun.
- Good News - Students share good news at the start of class to encourage a positive environment from the start.
- Celebrating birthdays - have a way to celebrate birthdays of student

What A Collaborative Learning Community Looks, Sounds and Feels Like

This photograph shows what a collaborative learning community looks like once the first three stages of the CLC have been established. Students are "chewing" on information presented to them on Mangroves and will come back together to share. Students have access to different mediums to show their understanding and can work standing, sitting, at the table, or on the ground. A CLC honors ALL learners by allowing them to "chew" on information how they learn best! The vibe in the classroom at this stage is one of peace and collaboration, students feel safe to reach out for help but also feel comfortable taking risks alone and together-Home-school Cooperative, Multi-Age classroom (5-8y.o) Placencia, Belize

Collaboration in upper elementary often includes focused work, busy hands, proud smiles, conversation, risk, and growth. In a collaborative learning community, students work through meaningful challenges in which they are so engaged in the "work" that they can lose track of time and engage in the task out of pure intrinsic motivation because they have made personal connections within themselves and the classroom community. STEAM Lab (10-11 y.o.) Deal, NJ. 2017.

Collaborative Learning Communities support each other in the quest for new knowledge and understanding. This example from a trip to a local bridge construction project to meet with the engineer, started with a simple conversation. I asked her, "What didn't work last time you used the Bridge Builder Program?" After some discussion around the unrealistic budget set by the curriculum, we reached out to our business administrator and school engineer. Next, we were connected with the county engineer leading the nearby bridge reconstruction. The entire class was motivated to learn more and support their peer in her quest to identify a real-life bridge budget and understand the actual costs and complications that create budget conflicts . We met with the lead engineer, on site engineer, business administrator, principal, science and math teachers from the school, and a local reporter. This is how content-rich and engaging experiences can create meaning and value for students. This class was empowered to learn, and directed their own learning, while valuing each others' interests and passions. STEAM Lab (13-14 y.o.) Deal, NJ. 2016

References

Critical Skills Program Level 1 Coaching Kit: Fourth Edition. (2007). Antioch University New England: Keene, NH. ISBN I-881245-08-X.

Why did you select this?

The Critical Skills Level 1 Coaching Kit was chosen because is filled with a pedagogy and a framework for establishing a Collaborative Learning Community which utilizes authentic, real-world, relevant learning models to create environments for learning.

How do you think it could prove useful at this stage?

The kit includes rubrics, sample challenges, team building activities, and a delivery model that is flexible for every subject area and curriculum.

What facilitation problem does it solve?

The methods are designed to support building critical skills and dispositions which are the backbone of effective collaborative learning communities. This is an invaluable resource for all stages of the facilitation process.

Kryza, Kathleen (2016). Transformative Teaching: Changing Today's Classrooms Culturally, Academically, & Emotionally. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Why did you select this?

Transformative Teaching is an extremely practical book with valuable information and tools to help teachers transform their teaching practices. This book offers direction and down-to-earth solutions for issues we face in our diverse classrooms, including facilitating deep thinking classrooms and creating a collaborative learning community!

How do you think it could prove useful at this stage?

Transformative Teaching includes an entire chapter on creating a safe learning environment for your students and breaks down the information into what it means to have a safe learning environment, why it works, and what the research says. The chapter continues on and describes how you can build a trusting relationship, get to know your students, create a community of belonging, and establish classroom norms to ensure your students will continue to feel safe and connected throughout the year!

What facilitation problem does it solve?

This resource is very comprehensive and has real life strategies for teachers to use that will increase connection and trust in their classrooms. There are many ideas that can be modified to be useful in all teaching environments.

Thomas, L. R. (2013). Facilitating authentic learning, grades 6-12: A framework for student-driven instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Why did you select this?

This book was chosen because it provides an extensive list of creative and different ideas, tools and guidelines to promoting the creation of a collaborative learning community.

How do you think it could prove useful at this stage?

It is incredibly useful because it not only explains why creating a collaborative learning community is so important, but it outlines how to get there and what to look for in each of the steps to know that a group is successfully progressing

What facilitation problem does it solve?

It helps solve the problem of identifying which stage a group is in so that the teacher can best tailor future teaching to meet the needs of the members.

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