Collaborative learning roles
As on this article by the Primary Professional Development Service, we have introduced roles into all of our group tasks. There are a few things which have shifted in our classroom. The first has been a need for students to slow down and go deeper in their discussions, allowing them more time to react, respond and further question what they are studying at the time. Initially getting the students to offer their thoughts or explain their thinking involved far too much teacher input/questioning. Giving the other groups more wait time and guiding only when needed has paid off with all students happier to discuss and pull apart the texts. The second development has been a slow, but steady shift in collaboration between students. Guided Reading is now treated as group discussion and conferencing together to unpack the questions, text and tasks together. By sharing more of the decision making over how to "Create-Share" their work engagement has improved across the class. Attit