Issue 119: Jan 10, 2011 Connections Newsletter

Collaborative Pairs-Implementation and Accountability

Brenda Hill
Jan 10, 2011

How do you effectively implement Collaborative Pairs while holding students accountable for their behavior and responses?


One exemplary practice found in exemplary schools is Collaborative Pairs. The use of Collaborative Pairs allows students the opportunity to discuss and talk about new learning (it’s hard to get lost in a pair) and is used as a procedure for refocusing after students have reflected on the acquired knowledge. Research shows that learning is first a social activity before it is a cognitive activity. These findings emphasize the importance of using Collaborative Pairs to have students discuss new learning, but it does not necessarily eliminate the effectiveness or accountability issues that sometimes cause concerns for classroom teachers. If pairs are to truly have a positive impact on student learning and achievement, then we need to effectively plan for the purposeful and meaningful use of this exemplary practice for the retention of learning, while at the same time holding students accountable for their behavior and responses in pairs.


The effective implementation of Collaborative Pairs is achieved through thoughtful and purposeful planning. It is not only important, but imperative, that we carefully plan for how pairs are to explain, clarify, summarize, or synthesize the newly acquired knowledge that will enrich and enhance each student’s learning.  Collaborative Pairs are used in Acquisition Lessons during the Activating Strategy, during Teaching Strategies as distributed practice, distributed summarizing, and Assessment Prompts and/or are used during the Summarizing Strategy as students answer the Lesson Essential Question. Assessment Prompts in Acquisition Lessons provide opportunities to focus and guide you when planning the discussion points for Collaborative Pairs. Ask:  "What are the essential “chunks” of the lesson that I want students discussing?"  and "How do I want students responding to or thinking about the acquired knowledge?"  Once we have planned for the “what” and “how” of Collaborative Pairs, then guidelines should be established in order for them to be used effectively.


Established guidelines are not only important, but necessary, as the foundational basis for the efficient, effective implementation of collaborative pairs.  Here are some suggestions for planning for and establishing guidelines for collaborative pairs:

1. Determine who will work together as partners (partner selection). Older students may be given the opportunity to choose their own partner. If students are given the choice of choosing a partner, think about how you will have them choose. Remember: partner groupings work best when pairs are grouped by low/average, average/average, or average/high. Once students have begun working with partners there may be times when one or more “pairs” will need to be “re-partnered."  There are several reasons this situation could occur, such as student absences, the inability of the pair to cooperate and work together, off-task behavior, etc.  Make sure you have reflected on how you will regroup pairs and have a contingency plan in place to address this situation if it does occur.

2. Decide the length of time the partners will work together. For example, the same pairs may work together for just one lesson, a week, or for an entire unit.  Collaborative Pairs may even be specifically grouped to work together on a particular task, product, or performance.   

3. Establish and communicate the expectations and guidelines for behavior and discussion in pairs. This is the foundational basis for using partners effectively to increase retention of learning and student achievement. You may want to chart “non-negotiables” for pairs and keep these guidelines posted and visible as a reminder to students of how they are to respond and behave when working with a partner. Role playing is also key to ensuring partners understand the expectations for discussion in pairs. Model appropriate behavior in pairs by role playing with another teacher or another student. Additionally, pair(s) of students can be selected to role play the appropriate responses and behaviors they are to demonstrate. Once the established guidelines and expectations for pairs have been clearly communicated to students through modeling, role playing and opportunities for practice, then the expectations are that all students will follow them all the time. There may be times throughout the year that you will need to revisit the expectations in order to ensure the effective use of pairs.

4. Have a procedure for re-focusing. This may be a raised hand (“Give Me Five”), the start of music playing, a clapping pattern, a bell ringing, etc. If you randomly change the procedure technique for re-focusing the group, make sure it has been clearly communicated to the class.

Once guidelines have been communicated to students establishing the expectations for pairs, how do you hold students accountable for what is being discussed and shared?  The following are some accountability measures that may be used to ensure students are responding as directed in collaborative pairs:

  • Give pairs a specified time frame for discussion. For example, you have 1 minute to talk with your partner. Many teachers choose to use a stop watch, kitchen timer, or even an hour glass sand dial to keep discussions within the specified time frame. 

  • Assign each partner a specific discussion point. For example, 1s tell 2s the three types of rocks, 2s give 1s one characteristic of each. This alleviates time being spent deciding who will talk first and keeps the second partner from repeating what the first partner has already said.   

  • Randomly select Collaborative Pairs to share what was discussed. For example, once you have refocused students you may ask:  “What did your partner share with you?”  “What did you and your partner discuss?”  This builds in an accountability measure for students to stay on task as they do not know who will be called upon to share what was discussed.

  • Listen to what is being said and discussed as partners work together. By moving strategically around the classroom and listening to the partner discussions, pairs are more likely to stay on task and respond appropriately to and with each other. In addition to monitoring the discussion and responses of pairs, you will also discover, if or what, you may need to revisit or re-teach.

These guidelines and suggestions should provide you the information necessary for answering the question, How do you effectively implement collaborative pairs while holding students accountable for their behavior and responses?  Remember: Collaborative Pairs is not peer tutoring or “random talk” that is not directly related to helping students answer the Lesson Essential Question, but rather opportunities for students to be actively engaged in thinking about new learning.  Therefore, the effectiveness of Collaborative Pairs as an exemplary practice to positively impact student achievement is directly related to the thoughtful and purposeful planning of classroom teachers to determine “how” and “when” it is to be used in Acquisition Lessons.

 



Designing Literacy Lessons

Jennifer Partrick
Jan 10, 2011

As you think about planning lessons where learning is always the outcome, there are questions that you can ask yourself to ensure that instruction is created to support learning. The first place to start is to know what the students have to learn, and not memorize for tests. This information is provided to you from your Standards. Once you understand what your students have to learn, move to the next step. How do you plan for learning? There needs to be modeling, opportunities for students to practice working with the content they are learning and opportunities for students to discuss what they are learning. Practice and discussion are critical components of learning. Students must be able to put into words what they are learning. They must be able to manipulate the information in different ways that represent understanding, and not simply memorization. But, in order for students to truly learn, learning must then be meaningful, engaging, appealing, thought provoking, and reflective.  Contrary to this, many students memorize content in preparation for a test, after which they dump that information to leave room for the next set of content they will memorize for the following test and so the circle continues. We know this happens because everyone laments each year about how unprepared their students are, how lacking they are, but at the same time, teachers in the previous grades all taught and worked long hours. One of the biggest reasons why teachers work so hard is that they are constantly in re-teaching mode. They have to reteach what was taught last year, last month, and sometimes last week. In order to stop this pattern from continuing, shift your thinking and ask, "did my students truly learn it, did they understand it, could they talk about what they learned; could they manipulate the information in different and meaningful ways?" Because, if understanding is truly present, students should be able to carry that information from week to week, semester to semester, and year to year, but often that is not what is actually happening in our schools.


Lets look at a typical lesson on literary elements. Teachers typically read the story that in many instances is in the curriculum and beginning in Kindergarten, teach character and setting and plot and ask the same tired questions year after year: who are the characters, what is the setting, what happened first, etc. and we leave literary elements there in that boring, tired heap and then wonder why our students have disengaged, why teachers almost beg students to learn, why we work so hard to get our students to produce, why we work so hard day after day and at times wonder why we bother. Who wants to have to answer those same boring questions year after year? Instead of teaching the ‘what’, (characters, setting, problem, solution) shift your teaching to the ‘why’. Instead, teach your students that fictional text has a pattern, there are always characters that function within a setting or multiple settings and how they interact creates the plot. There is generally a problem and most of the time the problem is solved. When students understand how fictional text works they can then use that pattern to help them interact and understand other fictional text. They know to look for how the characters interact and that this drives the plot. They learn to identify the problem and then, based on data at any time, predict what they think will happen next. The reader often identifies with one or more characters and vicariously lives through that character in order to interact with the text. Students also use the pattern to help them write their own stories. They use their understanding of how authors manipulate literary elements to help them manipulate the same elements in their stories. Have you ever read books that you did not want to end? Why? What made that book so wonderful? It is most likely how the author manipulated literary elements.


One of my favorite books of all time is Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. This book can be used to teach just about every aspect of any Language Arts curriculum. How did White manipulate elements of fiction in this wonderful book? What did he do to engage and entice the reader to read on? Do you ever wonder why the main characters are a pig and a spider? How does the juxtaposition of the ethereal and feminine spider and a pig; supposedly dirty, ungainly, and for many, repulsive animals help deepen our understanding of both Charlotte and Wilbur? Why would White do that? How come he did not use cows or horses, bigger animals? Most of the story takes place within a barn. White did not describe the barn in great detail but how he wrote about the animals in that space had the readers envisioning a warm and cozy place, where they would like to be. How did White build momentum and suspense so that as we read on we were fearful for Wilbur? Why did Charlotte choose Wilbur? Did she really want to save Wilbur or did she have an ulterior motive? Was her motivation to find someone to take care of her babies when she died? If so, what did she see in Wilbur? Did she think that he could be manipulated so she chose him? Did she choose Wilbur because she recognized a kindred spirit in him? Did she see that they shared some common bond? When you use a book like Charlotte’s Web do you ever have those types of discussions with your students so that they begin thinking like an author and in turn can write exciting and creative essays themselves? Do you model “I wonder" questions and ideas so that your students do the same thing? Do you model at all, or do you assign pages to read and then ask your students to answer the questions at the end of the passage? That, by the way, is assessment - not teaching. Do you share different types of authors so that students can appreciate how authors manipulate literary elements and then can begin using those patterns to write? When you teach for learning and understanding to be the only outcome acceptable, then you must move from teaching the ‘what’; what are literary element, to teaching the ‘why,' the ‘how.' Why did White choose a spider and a pig to be the main characters? How did he move the story along? What techniques did he use? If you move your lesson construction from simply teaching the ‘what’, the joy of learning is then moved back to the student. This happens because the answer is not necessarily evident. Students have to explain, manipulate, support, and construct meaning as they interact with content they are learning.


So how can you design lessons where students are doing the work? Shift from teaching the ‘what’ to teaching the ‘why’ and the ‘how’. Create lessons that allow opportunities for students to practice and discuss with an emphasis on constructing support, gaining meaning, manipulating and looking at the content in new and different ways. When you teach like this, learning becomes the job of the student!