Blog Post 3 - Collaboration

Collaboration is key. I really believe collaboration is the key to most successes. Even outside of school, sports teams, music/art/theater groups, all must work together to produce the desired result. My top three keys to collaboration from the rubrics include, Works as a Whole Team, Interpersonal Communication, and Makes and Follows Agreements. Compared to classes in the past, my class this year has had experience working in groups before. Something that this class needs to work on is using everyone in the group and Working as a Whole Team. For my PBL, they are in groups of three or four. Some groups are working great together, others are struggling to include everyone. It took a while for one group to really include another student in their project. Another group, which contains three leaders, have struggled to get anything done because they all have ideas and want it done in the way they imagine. When students realize that they are all equal in their group, they can begin to use each other’s strengths. For example, one girl finished writing her paragraph on hurricanes and asked me to review for edits and revisions. As I began to look at it she said, ‘Oh, I should just ask K. in my group to look over this since she’s looked over my other writings before.’ I told her that was a great idea and that she should do that. She was aware of the strengths of her group members and took advantage of them.

Interpersonal Communication also made the list because it is essential. I had to sit down with my group of three leaders and have them remake their group contract. The group was not working well together and they were constantly arguing. They were hardly able to share any of the great ideas they each had because they would not listen long enough to let their group members speak. When I sat down with them, we wrote down that they would communicate respectfully with each other. I asked them what this should look and sound like and wrote these down for them too. We also talked about how it is okay to have differing opinions, but that they needed to listen to what the other person has to say and then discuss the different options. This group is brilliant as individuals, but they do not yet have the skills to listen and communicate with one another to make their group brilliant. Once they can respectfully communicate with one another, their ideas will sky rocket.

Finally, Makes and Follows Agreements made the list because I think it is important to highlight on each team member’s strengths and to create group rules and will be followed. For the PBL, I had groups create a group contract. Without prompting, one group made rules and a tally system that would cause a member to get kicked-out if they did not follow the rules, similar to what was mentioned in the blog post. Everyone in the team agreed, so I let them keep it. The next day, one team member was playing around and not getting his work done, so his team members gave him tallies and he got kicked-out. The student was upset, yet admitted to not completing his work. Since he had agreed to the contract, he knew he had to follow it. What I found amazing was that his team wanted to give him a second chance, so they reviewed the rules with him and talked with him about how he needs to make sure he is doing his part so they can get the project completed. The student agreed and was invited back into the group. There have been no problems since. Only this group came up with rules which would get a member kicked-out, but I was most impressed with how they were able to talk openly about the contract they made. They all knew the final goal and needed to work towards it. When students are able to communicate with one another and work towards a common goal as a team, then they will be successful.

I offer my students many opportunities for collaboration, the easiest being in their table group arrangements. When my students sit in groups of fours, they are able to work with a partner, or their whole table on certain tasks. They practice communicating respectfully with one another, sharing the talk time, and working towards a similar goal. Other chances my students have are during projects, group tableaus, and book clubs. I have not started book clubs yet, but already have the feeling that my book clubs will be more successful this year because my students have had more opportunities to engage in collaboration.