5 Collaboration-Building Tools That Work For Me

Along with a brief reflection on why I believe in a collaboration-driven classroom

“I feel like our classroom is a community.”

This a student reflection from one of our first semester check-in surveys—one admittedly from a class that had gelled together quite quickly, as it was only early November when they wrote that—and I think does a better job than I ever could at succinctly naming my own hope for every student who steps into our classroom.

“I really love all of the discussions we have as a class,” this student went on to write, “because I love hearing everyone's perspective.”

Is this how every student feels in each of my class periods? Of course not. (Remember: we do lots of check-in surveys, thanks to Jim’s exit ticket strategy, so I get lots of varied feedback.)

But one of the strongest convictions I currently hold as a teacher is that the classroom can be a truly special place if it becomes a community for all the students in it—and I do believe in planning backwards from that vision throughout the year, considering what steps it will take to help as many students as possible feel as if they belong and have a voice in our space.

One of the requirements for a successful journey towards genuine community, in my opinion?

Students working collaboratively with each other consistently and purposefully and authentically.

For some classes, this happens rather organically. However, for many others—especially since returning back to the classroom after COVID-19-driven remote learning, building regular conversation has become much more challenging.

To the point, I worry, that many teachers have mostly given up on this goal.

While I have by no means “figured this out,” I do feel very confident in five different tools that I use quite frequently in the classroom as a type of kindling to work towards more conversation and collaboration—believing very much in the affirming warmth that can take place once the flames of a classroom community emerge.

Today’s post, then, is just a quick overview of each strategy—so let’s dive in!

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Tool #1: Whip-around Answer + Small-Group Debrief

On quieter days in the classroom when a bit of energy needs to be injected, this is one of my go-to moves as a teacher—especially earlier in the semester when students may still be getting to know each other.

Here is the three-step sequence involved in this strategy:

1. Have students decide on a one-word answer to share out to the entire class. As an ELA teacher, this may be a question like “in one word, what is this passage about?” or “describe this character in a single word,” but you can also use a simple agree/disagree question. (Suggestion: give students adequate time to decide on their answer and write down their reason first.)

2. Go around the room one student at a time (hence: “whip-around”) having them share their individual answers. This is a great way for you as a teacher early in the year to practice student names, and then to repeat back each of their answers—and, in doing so, to affirm them to the rest of the room. (This also has the added benefit of helping student learn their classmates’ names, too.)

3. Immediately after the “whip-around,” have students share the reasoning behind their answer with a partner or small group. Rather than asking for group conversation out of nowhere, this activity offers a kind of momentum through the whole-class sharing that makes the group conversation easier to jump into. I’m also very much a fan of the Kagan strategy of naming who will go first to avoid the awkwardness of groups being indecisive about sharing order. (Example: “Whoever is sitting closest to the door shares first—go!”)

Benefits of this strategy: every student gets to share, you get to say the names of every student in your classroom, and it creates a natural transition to partner or small-group discussion.

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Tool #2: Hands-on Activities in Small Groups

Something else I’ve come to realize as a teacher is that taking that additional step of creating hands-on materials for groups to work with can sort of “melt the ice” that may be preventing collaboration, particularly when students don’t know each other well. (Something I deal with often, as I not only assign seats but rotate them frequently.)

Yes, creating a hands-on activity takes a bit of extra work.

But I very much believe it worth that “extra” from time to time.

With the example activity pictured above, we were coming out of Winter Break and immediately into a new seating arrangement, and after two weeks out of school I wanted to build some energy for the final stretch of our first semester. So I printed out the events of the book that we had read so far—adding in three “fake events” to make it a bit more challenging!—and then tediously cut the possible events out so that each group would have their own bag draw from and arrange correctly.

Add in a bit of background music and a timer on the board, and this was how students walked into the classroom to begin 2024 this year.

Even the most reserved of students shifted their seats to see better as group members began diving into the work, and almost instantly you could feel the energy of the room revive for this brief activity—it only lasted five minutes.

Those were an important five minutes, though, I’d argue.

While that prep work for a five minute activity is quite an ask of a teacher (especially these days with all else that is being asked of teachers), it served as reminder to me that bringing in something hands-on can also make conversation easier in the classroom, and can help make later conversations easier as you move forward.

Benefits of this strategy: disrupts the routine of the classroom and can inject energy; can be really engaging for students who prefer more of a hands-on approach; and within the hands-on approach I’ve found that some of the barriers to conversation are more easily overcome.

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Tool #3: Either __ or __ Q’s—with 1 Vote Per Group

Along with Tool #1, this is my other go-to strategy in quieter classrooms—especially mid-lesson if I feel like we need that energy boost of conversation to take place. It is also probably the most flexible and easiest to access on the spot as a teacher, especially once you get used to it.

What does it look like? The first and most important part is thinking of an either/or dichotomy you can ask of the classroom. (Some of my go-to’s: [1] “Agree or disagree?”; [2] “This character or that character?”; or [3] “______ is good or bad?”)

Really, don’t overthink it! Just repeat the question a few times, and then add in the important qualifier: every group gets only one vote.

I also don’t give them long to deliberate, usually only a couple minutes. This oversimplified “either/or” framing is meant to start conversation and thinking—not encapsulate the entire discussion. (Tip: give them a “30-second countdown until voting,” as some partners/groups may have to resort to rock-paper-scissors for a decision!)

Then group by group, ask for someone to share their group’s response. I keep tally as they share, and then typically move to asking for volunteers to explain both response options—but the key to this activity, especially forcing them to come to consensus, is how it immediately gives purpose to each group to work together.

Benefits of this strategy: it is really easy to pivot into regardless of the lesson; it often can get the ball rolling towards a really cool whole-class conversation; and it is somewhat “low-lift” for your quieter students, who can opt out from any whole-class sharing once the group arrives at consensus.

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Tool #4: Silent Peer Gallery Walk + Small-Group Debrief

This is without question one of my favorite additions to the classroom this year: having students explore the ideas of their classmates silently and then record their favorite findings.

My most recent example of this: students were creating a character web for their first impressions of King Lear after reading and then watching the first scene of the play, asked to come up with 4-5 different traits/inferences.

After compiling their individual character webs, everyone was asked to set down their writing utensil and leave their spiral notebook on their desk. They then had two minutes to silently walk around the classroom and find at least three more traits/inferences that they hadn’t considered in their own interpretation.

The result? Pin-drop silence for precisely two minutes, and then students headed back to their desks to quickly scribble out their findings.

At this point is when I asked them to share with their group members the best thing they found on someone else’s paper, and following this each group had to share out their best finding overall as a group whole-class.

Once again, this only took 5 minutes or so! But reflecting back on that ninety-minute lesson, I think this was probably the most important 5 minutes we spent.

Benefits of this strategy: I’m always a “get students out of their seats when possible” fan, and this one has the added benefit of emphasizing and affirming the viewpoints of classmates. (The conversation component isn’t quite as central, but it is in some ways more accessible since they are asked to share the best thing they found on someone else’s paper.)

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Tool #5: Group Gallery Walk—with Consensus Required

This is my newest one—but the early results have been promising! (And also the output can be really cool for further activities and reflections.)

However, this also takes the most planning and prep in advance, so I’ll try to walk through each step separately:

1. I create a series of gallery walk posters for the classroom, typically with an “agree/disagree” scale for students to respond upon. (As an ELA teacher, I love using this as an essential question activity to open units with longer texts, but I’m sure it could apply to many other contexts!)

2. Students are then tasked with circling the room and only talking to their partner/small-group members as they move around. Similar to Tool #3, they must arrive at consensus at each station—one of the key factors in helping motivate discussion here. (Tip: I give them stickers for them to add their initials to as a group, and then color-code by class to see if there are differences between sections.)

3. We rotate around the room by station and group in this activity, with the goal of avoiding any logjams as groups travel the room. (Side benefit: some groups will answer earlier than others, but then that gives them time just to chat with group members who they may not talk to otherwise.)

4. The follow-up to keep the conversation going? Show students all of the different station prompts and have them write down the one they find most interesting or important along with their personal opinion on it—and then have them share with their group the one they chose. (You can also do a quick class vote to see which students found which one to be most interesting/important.)

Benefits of this strategy: the output is really cool and also useful later in the unit for further conversation (see pic above), and like the previous strategy this gets students moving around the room purposefully. Though the set-up admittedly takes longer, I definitely plan on doing this much more going forward.

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Why I Think These Tools Matter

I recognize others may disagree with placing this much of a priority in the classroom on peer-to-peer conversation and collaboration. Indeed, one of my favorite things about being more open in recent years in sharing my teaching ideas and strategies via The Broken Copier and elsewhere has been encountering perspectives different than my own—as each time I’m forced to reflect on my position and reasons, and often In find myself walking away with an even better path forward for our classroom.

That said, I am really confident, at least in my classroom, that this emphasis on a collaborative learning environment is impactful in a positive way.

One of my most frequent conversations with newer teachers includes asking them what they want their classroom to look and feel like at the end of the year, and then to consider how to “backwards plan” for classroom community the way they would for any other aspect of their content.

In my own “backwards planning” for our classroom community, I firmly believe tools for collaborative discussion are essential ingredients—and without them, I do not think we could arrive where we often do. (Curious about that what “arriving” can look like? Here’s a snapshot of last year’s, if you’re interested.)

Furthermore, we live in a society in which it has never been easier to retreat into your own bubble—often a bubble entirely comprised by the screen glowing back at you from your palm. This is a problem with adults even more than students, and it is hard to imagine with much confidence a reasonable way to interrupt the direction we are heading as a society.

Still, I am always going to choose hope over cynicism, and often how I do so is by focusing on the incredible opportunity we have in communities all over the country in the form of public education: where everyone, no matter their differences, is asked to show up to the same local school, and the same classrooms within that school, to learn alongside peers that they likely would never encounter otherwise.

(Note: this post is already long enough without me going on a rant about the many ways we are forsaking the opportunity that is public education right now, so we’ll save that for another time. Probably several other times, really.)

We need to make the most of the opportunity we have with public education, I believe, and part of that “making the most of it” means building community within those classrooms.

An essential part of building this community, in my view, are consistent, purposeful, and authentic conversations between students within our classrooms.

To the point where they themselves say they feel like they belong.

And that begins with them talking to each other.