Continuous Learning - Designing Collaborative Activities

Designing Collaborative Learning Activities To Promote Language Production And Acquisition

Change Idea Overview:

MLs need many opportunities to practice speaking English to become more proficient. Oral language can provide a bridge to literacy as discussions can support students in understanding concepts they will read about in text or brainstorm ideas they will then write about.

Collaboration promotes student engagement which gives students a sense of belonging. Creating contexts in which MLs need to communicate with their classmates for authentic purposes (e.g. getting information from another student, negotiating an idea together) and are provided support for doing so will lead to greater engagement and participation.

Collaboration is a scaffold that allows students to access the diverse perspectives and ideas of peers, leading students to make meaning from higher levels of content than they would otherwise be able to on their own.

The Change Idea

THE PROCESS

STEP 1: Identify opportunities for collaboration

STEP 2: Group students

STEP 3: Introduce the protocol to students

STEP 4: Collect student work samples

STEP 5: Debrief the activity with students

Click here to access the full guide and supporting resources.

Measurement Tool

This data tracker is a tool for capturing student data (including their scores on the measurement tool) throughout the PDSA cycles you run, so you can responsively plan the next steps and track focus student progress over time.

Change Idea In Practice

You can draw from these change packets, which were created by our schools to share the way they used this change idea to lead to promising improvement, as you plan out how to implement and measure the change idea in your school.

09X232 - Adapting Discussion Protocols to Support ELLs Across

Content Areas

09X022 - Using “Give One, Get One” to Build Reading, Listening, and Speaking Skills

10X045 - Collaborative Discussion to Improve Listening and Writing

10X118 - Using Academic Discourse to Improve Writing and Voice

10X118 - See, Think, Wonder, and Academic Discourse

10X141 - Three Reads Protocol to Improve Student Discussion and Comprehension

10X141 - Stronger & Clearer Protocol to Improve Student Discussion and Writing

10X206 - Using “Pairs Compare” with Language Frames to Boost Student Writing

10X279 - Making Discussions Meaningful through Collaboration

10X308 - Aligning School Foci to a Change Idea: Collaborative Practices

10X308 - Using the Give One, Get One Protocol to Gain Deeper Understanding

10X315 - Increasing Test Analysis Skills through Reciprocal Teaching

10X315 - Building Language & Community

10X363 - Discussion Protocols to Spur Mastery of English

10X368 - Building Writing Skills with the “Give One, Get One” Protocol

10X447 - Reciprocal Teaching to Support Text Comprehension

20K220 - Listening as an Entry Into Improved Student Writing

24Q311 - Building Writing Skills and Student Voice with “Video Viewing”

21K096 - Utilizing Collaborative Practices in 4 Continuous Learning Teams

Practice In Action

Click the video below to hear how one math teacher uses collaborative learning activities to help students develop vocabulary and content knowledge; and hear from students why it works for them!

Click the video below to learn how one math teacher uses collaborative learning activities to help students develop vocabulary and content knowledge; and hear from students why it works for them!