As part of this learning strategy, students pose questions, put forth theories, negotiate, and refine their thinking, with the goal of improving the ideas of the entire learning community.
Working collaboratively is the act of working effectively with other students and/or adults within diverse groupings. It is an essential part of conducting science.
Communication is the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, and/or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else.
Collaborative learning is an approach to learning and teaching in which a group of students work together to achieve a common goal (e.g., to solve a problem, meet a challenge, answer a question, share learning). Collaborative learning requires a learning environment that is fluid and inclusive, and that supports independence and interdependence of students with each other and with the educator.
Think-Pair-Share is a collaborative learning strategy where students work together to answer a question, or begin to solve a problem. Students are first asked to think individually about the question or problem, then to pair up with another student to compare their thinking and to come to a consensus on one response or solution. Pairs of students then share their selected response with other classmates.
A Consensus Mat is a group discussion strategy that gives each student in a group an opportunity to record his/her responses, ideas, information or points of view. Students share and discuss these ideas and as a group produce a collective, agreed-upon response (consensus).
This strategy provides students with opportunity to either activate prior knowledge on a topic or consolidate recently-learned information. This strategy is for use with small groups of students.
This is a collaborative oral learning strategy that allows students to present and share their own ideas about a subject through a combination of individual thinking time and small group discussion using a graphic organizer.
This is a collaborative learning strategy which provides students with the opportunity to write their own opinion and make personal connections to a topic/concept, reading, video and/or other medium. Students engage in a silent discussion with their peers by responding to other students’ written responses.
This strategy has students summarize key ideas from a reading or viewing selection, then form pairs and finally groups of four to eventually negotiate the key idea of the selection.
Group Talk is a learning strategy that assists students in learning how to share their ideas and questions as well as to listen to the ideas and questions of others.
This strategy provides students with the opportunity to explore a topic from the perspective of family or community members who lived during the time period when particular events occurred through creation of a video or podcast. This strategy is appropriate for use with individuals or groups.
A Consequence Map is a graphic organizer that requires students to think about the potential long-term impacts of a real or imaginary event, issue, problem, trend, or developing technology. Consequence mapping encourages deeper thinking about interrelationships and cause and effect.
