Collaborating

Context 

The Teacher’s Voice

Our class was part of a WE Wellbeing Pilot Program focused on service learning. The program encourages students to set goals (what you want to accomplish) and have intentions (how you want to be/feel while working towards your goal). When we discussed what our project might be, students felt strongly about doing something for the environment to address climate change. They worked collaboratively to set the goals and intentions of their project, then organized themselves into four groups to execute their plans:

• Gardening group

• Recycling group

• Energy management group
• Swap cart group.

I provided minimal teacher support was minimal because students had a strong sense of purpose and agency. Afterwards, students self-assessed their core competencies and reflected on their work.

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Student Work Samples: Goals and intentions

Garden Group

• Goals: To help the environment by planning vegetables and fruits; To raise awareness
• Intention: Have fun!

Recycle Group

• Goal: To increase awareness about plastic

• Intention: To share knowledge

Energy Management Group

• Goal: To reduce energy use
• Intention: To share knowledge

Student Reflection

Goals of our class project

• Increase awareness

Intention of our class project

• Gratitude

Goals of your group’s project

• To collect 20 pens, get the ink sponge out, and recycle them.
• To raise awareness about the plastic usage in our environment.

My personal intention (how I would like to approach this activity)

• I would like to approach this in a responsible way and a mature way.

Self-Assessment

My strength is giving and adding onto other people’s ideas. One example is one day my group was trying to find a way to find out how we were going to recycle and I said, One day we get pens and markers, then other days we take the ink out of them, and repeat. I can get better at keeping my group on task. To do this I need to stay more focussed. 

Context

The Teacher’s Voice

In mid-September, my class developed a Classroom Constitution - a code of expectations, responsibilities, values and beliefs. This project was student-initiated by students who had completed a similar activity previously. The constitution was entirely driven by the students and they created their own plan for how the development process would unfold. My role was to facilitate their collaborative plan with supplies, space, and time.

The students started by inviting each classmate to individually answer a set of student-created prompts. They then paired students to share their ideas. This was done by pairing a returning student with a student that was new to the classroom. The pairs then formed groups of 4 and then groups of 8 to continue the sharing process. Each time a new group was formed they identified, discussed, and starred the ideas they had in common. Each group of 8 then wrote out these common ideas on chart paper and shared them with the whole class.

The chart paper was then cut apart to separate the ideas into individual pieces. These pieces were then arranged by moving the ideas around, grouping similar ideas, and creating a logical flow. The constitution was then left in ‘draft’ form for over a week in a shared classroom space. During this time, pieces were moved, modified, and discussed until a consensus was achieved. After they developed the constitution, the students asked me to “make it pretty.”

Once completed, the students invited each member of the community (learners, teachers, EAs, and support staff) to sign it as evidence of their commitment to the community values.

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Student Work Sample

• Classroom Constitution (DOCX)

Teacher Observation

What I observed:

• Diverse leadership – many people took turns leading the group.
• Willingness to ‘try it’ and then ‘try again’ if it didn’t work – reasonable risk taking.
• Laughter!

What I heard:

• “Yeah but we need to hear from everyone, this needs to be ALL our voices”
• “Can you tell me more about that?”
• “I wonder what might happen if we tried...”
• “Does anyone see any patterns?”
• “Wow, I think everyone had that! Can we all agree that that one is a ‘keeper’?”
• “How are we all doing? Should we do a check in? Do we need a break?”
• “Is there another way to say that? How could we turn it positive?”

Context

The class was learning about habitats and what animals need to survive. Students were encouraged to work with a partner to create a habitat for an animal of the Pacific Northwest using loose parts found in the classroom. Their habitats needed to include the features necessary for the animal’s survival (e.g., food, water, shelter, space).

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Student Work

Teacher Reflection

I observed:

• Students being patient and taking turns.
• Students thoughtfully contributing to the project.
• Students changing their minds and explaining why.
• Students helping one another.
• Students being flexible and compromising.
• A few students finding it difficult to compromise with their partner.

I heard things like:

• Do you want to make a habitat for a rabbit?
• Let’s use blue gems for the water.
• What can we use for carrots?
• Can you help me hold this?
• I like the flowers on the tree.
• It’s ok.  We can fix it.
• I think it would work better with a cardboard tube.
• Where should we put the rabbit?

Context

Four years earlier, the student read the novel "Fatty Legs" by Christy Jordan-Fenton and was inspired to read more books that told the story of First Peoples experience in Canada. Her teacher recommended "Indian Horse" by Richard Wagamese and this book transformed the student’s thinking. She continued to seek out stories of Indigenous Canadians and her interest to learn more was fostered by her parents. She attended presentations by Indigenous experts and activists, including a colloquium with Wab Kinew and she was persistent in searching for information about the injustices felt by Indigenous Canadians.

As the student listened and built her understanding, she also spoke to others about what she was learning. In a conversation with a family friend, she discovered that an awareness initiative about Residential Schools and Indigenous injustice was already growing in Canadian schools. Orange Shirt Day wasn’t a part of her school yet, but because it was already an established day and other schools were doing it successfully, she felt it was possible to make it a part of her own school culture.

The student recognized that there was limited awareness of Canadian Indigenous injustice at her own school and she felt empowered to create change. She approached her school counsellor, her leadership teacher, and her principal. She showed them examples of Orange Shirt Day from other schools within her school district and expressed her belief that their school needed to do this. Everyone was in full support of her ideas. 

The student recognized that she was going to need help to make things happen. She is not Indigenous, and she did not have experience in organizing school-wide events. She spoke with Indigenous activist Phillis Webstad, who is the spokesperson for Orange Shirt Day, and she sought ongoing advice from her leadership teacher and school principal. She understood that she wouldn’t be able to take this on by herself, so she recruited a team that was willing to help organize the event. 

Leading up to Orange Shirt Day, she set and adjusted goals based on the advice of her experts. She listened carefully to the feedback she was receiving and created actions that were attainable for everyone involved. She spoke at a staff meeting and provided resources to get the teachers involved. With her team, she worked to promote Orange Shirt Day throughout the school by selling t-shirts and speaking in classrooms about the event.

Illustration

Student Reflection

The student wrote a reflection on the process of organizing an Orange Shirt Day. She also wrote an acrostic poem after this experience self-assessing her core competency in Communication.

• Student Reflection on the Process (PDF)
• Acrostic poem reflection on communication (PDF)

Teacher Reflection

On Orange Shirt Day, many students wore an Orange t-shirt to school and the student felt that there was increased awareness of the legacy of Residential Schools among her peers. The students who worked on her team also became more passionate about raising awareness about the legacy of Residential Schools. The event also received media coverage. Although she is proud of her accomplishments, she recognizes that there is still opportunity to grow. She continues to be active in raising awareness about Indigenous injustice issues and she looks forward to the next school year where she can build on the momentum in making Orange Shirt Day an important part of the school culture.

• Tri-City news item (PDF)
• Article in The Canoe (PDF)

Context

The Teacher’s Voice

As part of our Friday Challenge, students from three different classes worked together to create shoes made from newspaper. They had approximately 1 hour to make the shoes. The groups were chosen randomly and were made up of students from different classes.

Illustration

Activity Photos

 

Teacher Reflection

Some groups were able to complete a pair of shoes. Other groups that had more trouble collaborating struggled to get one shoe done. It was difficult for some students to allow others to offer ideas and opinions.

Context

The Teacher’s Voice

A few students were making domino chains in class. Other students wanted to get in on the action, so I suggested they make it into a class activity.

Students formed teams to create domino chains. They collaborated on the design for their chain and communicated with each other so that the dominos do not get knocked down by accident before they were finished building.

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Activity Photo

Context

The Teacher’s Voice

The class was doing a novel study. To prepare students for working in Literature Circles, I asked them to work individually to reflect on previous experiences working in groups, and answer questions about collaboration on a graphic organizer:

• When will collaboration be helpful?
• What will collaboration look like?
• What makes collaboration difficult?
• What do I need from my group to be successful?
• What do others need from me to be successful?

Students were asked to summarize their reflections by developing their own definition of collaboration.

Next, students met with their Literature Circle group for the first time and worked collaboratively to generate ground rules for their literature circle.

Students were very quick to generate the non-examples, but experienced difficulty identifying the qualities and aspects of collaboration that would help them with their novel study.

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Student Work Samples

• Student work (PDF)

Context

The Teacher’s Voice

My class had been working on measurement in Mathematics and wanted to demonstrate what they had learned on the app ‘Shadow Puppet’. The class next door, two years older, helped teach the younger children how to use the app.

Each of the older students was partnered with a younger student and together they decided on what each younger student was going to show. The older students helped them set up different measurement examples and then filmed the little ones demonstrating and talking about what they were doing. The older students had only used the app one other time, so they were often learning alongside the younger students. After the editing process, the finished videos were posted on the younger child’s e-portfolio.

Illustration

Activity Photo

 

Teacher Reflection

The older students did a good job collaborating with the younger students and they demonstrated a great deal of patience.

Context

The Teacher’s Voice

This student was given the opportunity to represent his school at a community Wreath Laying Ceremony on Remembrance Day. At the event, he met local veterans and heard their stories. This led him to develop an appreciation for Veterans and inspired him to bring their message to other students.

He brought other students together and formed a group called “Hold High the Torch” that works to connect veterans and students, as well as to provide opportunities to show appreciation for all the contributions veterans have made to society.

I am very impressed with the ingenuity and dedication of this student, especially considering this is not a topic that most high school students feel they connect with in such an intense level.

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Activity Description

The group has organized a Veterans Appreciation Lunch, a Valentine’s for Veterans event, and a Community Dialogue Town Hall.

 

Their vision is well-articulated on their website. They also maintain a Facebook group, and have ambitions for developing into a non-profit.

• Our Vision (DOCX)

Student Reflection

The student who started the group reflects on the process of getting it off the ground, and issues of leadership and collaboration within the group.

• Student reflection (DOCX)

Context

The Teacher’s Voice

The topic for a school-wide write was “If I were a…” My class chose to write about animals. After the class brainstormed a list of animals, each group of five or six students voted to choose an animal. They then worked collaboratively to write a paragraph.

Illustration

Student Work Samples

 

Teacher Observations

The teacher heard and saw things such as:

• Does everyone like that sentence?
• Who has not had a turn yet?
• Body language (thumbs up, raising hands)
• Students reading the room (other groups) to pick up on cues as to how to work together