Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. Thanks to Stacey, Anna, Beth, Tara, Dana and Betsey for creating a place for us to work collaboratively.

Collaboratively

What does it mean to work collaboratively?

Dictionary.com defines collaboratively as:

adjective

1.  characterized or accomplished by collaboration:

collaborative methods; a collaborative report.

Dictionary.com defines collaboration as:

noun

1. the act or process of collaborating.

2. a product resulting from collaboration:

This dictionary is a collaboration of many minds.

How do you work collaboratively?

Do you use Google Docs?  Google Hang Out?  Zoom?  Skype (some form of video conferencing) Telephone conferencing?  Email back and forth?  Texting? How does it work for you?

Do you focus more on the process or the product?

How do your students work collaboratively?

What devices do they use?  How do they use them?  Does their “quality of work” improve with collaboration? Does extra “talk” up front encourage deeper responses?  Does rehearsal with a partner in a collaborative environment promote higher levels of engagement?

Is their focus more on the process or the product?

Planning for NCTE14

It was truly a pleasure to join a Google Hang Out on Sunday with fellow NCTE14 collaborators:  Julieanne Harmatz, Steve Peterson, Mary Lee Hahn, and Vicki Vinton.  Our conversations interwove both process and product as we shared our thinking about student work and what we wanted to share. The combination of visually seeing each other and talking through our ideas was exhilarating as we added to each other’s conversations and made connections across multiple texts.

No surprise to those that know me; I have a plan that I will begin later this week with some professional development.  I hope to bring in a snapshot view of how the reading/understanding/thinking goes with both teachers and students. Because I am not in a classroom on a daily basis, I’ve been thinking about a progression of events for a bit and found what I believe to be the perfect material to use.  And as always, the plan will be flexible so that learning is the priority so maybe process and product will take a back seat for awhile.

When do you collaborate?  When do you literally have to share your thoughts with others?  How often do you work collaboratively?  What are your personal benefits from working collaboratively?