PD Discussion: Collaboration and Plugged Classroom

I assign groups of 4, each having a role: Leader, scribe, researcher and spy. i give multi-step instructions. For each of the steps, they shift into a different role within the same group.

I have exactly three students in the second semester of ECS, and they are mixed in with first semester students. This has created an unique opportunity for me to create collaboration opportunities among these three. At times when I’m instructing the first semester students, these three have active discussions and find each other help pages on the Scratch program. We actively use Google Classroom for assignments, announcements, and helping each other out.

My students are hesitant to do the “pre-write” activities that are helpful (such as story-boarding, flow charts, psuedo-coding etc.). So I am planning on having each student sketch out an objective for a program (e.g. find all primes in a list, draw a seven pointed star). Then they will give this to a partner who will have to write the program. They will then collaborate in debugging, refining and improving the program

I have my students work in groups. Each group has a group leader and different roles for group members. Students are required to work on certain projects together. Students must also ask peers questions about projects before they can ask me.

I like to roam around the room and observe. I also encourage students to work together and/or help others who may be struggling. I want students to try to find the answer themselves before asking a teacher.

Our school is set up as learning communities, so I have kids all over. After a brief lecture or class discussion kids are working all hour, so I combine roaming desk to desk and stationing myself in a common location for kids to come see me

I encourage students to work together to solve problems. We meet at the beginning and end of class to discuss issues they are having and students suggest ideas for solving the problems.

I too would roam the room and see who was struggling. I rearranged the seating to place a strong student with a student who needed assistance, so it did not take a lot of effort to get attention. I used group activities on some of my assignments, driver/navigator, since I saw that work in the face-to-face where we worked on this Unit.

I find the pair-programming idea works well. Students understand that there is a structure determining who is in the drivers seat and who is navigating. They know that they will take turns being the driver and they realize that they are still contributing to the coding problem even when they are not the driver.

As an online class, my students automatically collaborate on their own, since programming naturally offers students a chance to ask each other questions about small issues in their code.

I let students try on their own then group them together to share their ideas. It is beneficial to pair a student who may be struggling with a student who is better able to deliver content and ideas in a clear and compassionate way.

Students can be seated in collaborative teams in order to maximize the learning. That practice easily allows students to help each other as they work. Students who quickly learn the concepts and understand them can be assigned as student leaders/teachers’ assistants and assist others as needed. This gives them an opportunity to share their thoughts/ideas, communicate effectively, and practice what they’ve learned.

Often by allowing them to work in groups, as well as assigning different roles to groups.

Collaboration with students is vital to understanding how technology works and impacts our world.

Collaboration using a discussion board where students can respond individually and to other students posts’.

I choose heterogeneous seating arrangements so that there are a mixture of skill levels among all groups. I also like, have used and will continue to use the “driver/passenger” model of having students act with a different role in partner activities. During html I used this device at the beginning of class as students were engaged in their Do Now for the day. I plan on extending this to this unit since students have gotten used to it in my class.

I continue to use poster boards for sharing of ideas as well as collecting information from groups that are collaborating. I also do peer reviews for grading where students grades are based on their peers feedback of their work.

I try to make the lessons as interactive as possible. I’m constantly moving around my room and trying to help when needed but I will also make them look harder into the lesson if I think they’re not following instructions and just wanting me to give them the answers.

I try to have students work together as often as possible. We use Google Drive and Classrooms so that students are shared on documents together and can keep communication open throughout the process.

I have been developing a fondness for peer coding this year. By working with a partner students are able to exercise different aspects of programming thought. When students are not the ones typing, they are freed up to focus on bigger context ideas. At the same time, working with a partner gives students someone to rely on when working, so that they do not feel overwhelmed.