It's Too Loud in Here! Teamwork in the Classroom

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

When you give students the opportunity to make personal connections with their learning, a deeper understanding occurs. In this lesson, first- and second-grade students have the chance to connect their prior knowledge with new knowledge as they work with their peers to develop classroom rules. Following a reading experience, students are divided into small groups to discuss and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, and ideas, which aid in the whole-group discussion of classroom rules. Peers help to initiate, scaffold, and guide the learning of others, as text-to-self connections are made through social interaction. This activity can help develop a framework for future social interaction activities.

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FEATURED RESOURCES

Team Member Job Cards :This handy sheet lists different team assignments and helps ensure that each student participates in the group work.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Wiseman, A.M. (2003). Collaboration, initiation, and rejection: The social construction of stories in a kindergarten class. The Reading Teacher, 56, 802–810.

• Stories create opportunities for children to interpret and reflect on their own experiences as well as the experiences of others.
  
  
• Responding to literature through writing and talking gives children opportunities to connect text to real life.
  
  
• Children collaborate together to make sense of the world, providing each other with comfort, acceptance, and a knowledge base for developing thoughts and ideas.

   

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