Collaboration

Student collaboration encourages participation and leadership among students at the same time that it de-emphasizes the traditional hierarchy in the classroom. Collaboration in the classroom is also good preparation for the work world. Learning to distribute responsibility for a research project among group members, carry the project to competition, and effectively write up the results in a single document are skills new employees often have to learn on the job.

As Andrea Lunsford and Lisa Ede report in Singular Texts/Plural Authors: Perspectives on Collaborative Writing (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press, 1990), "Ninety-eight percent of all the respondents to a study of writing on the job reported that effective writing was either 'important' or 'very important' to the successful execution of their jobs. In addition, the results indicate that a significant number of respondents from all the professions (87%) sometimes write as part of a team or group" (151).

About Collaborative Assignments

Collaboration works best when the group work is integrated into the design of the curriculum—it has a reason in terms of the larger course.  The collaborative assignment itself should demand collaboration; that is, it needs to be sufficiently challenging to justify it as a group project.  Factors unique to collaboration need to be considered before making the assignment:

What will be the make up of the group? Most collaborative groups have between 2-7 members.  Membership in each group should be thought out in advance.

What will be the nature of group participation? Each group should develop a formalized work plan.  Students should be assigned (or assign themselves) various roles (chair, recorder, etc.). All members should participate in the project.

When will the groups work?  Will students need to work during class time?

How will the project be evaluated and graded?  Students should have an opportunity to monitor and to evaluate the group process itself, both during and after the writing task. Many believe that the completed document should receive the grade, which means that the collaborative project will earn a single grade.  This practice reinforces student commitment to the group writing task itself.

About Collaborative Writing

The writing task in a collaborative project requires special planning. In addition to the writing assignment itself, anticipate how you want the group to work together to produce the final product. 

What is the structure of the document you want to receive from the group?  Do you want a single document from the group?  Should each member present a separate complete document?  Or, should each present a component of the whole?

If the group is to produce a single document, how should responsibilities be distributed?  Should each write a section? (If so, you are likely to read uneven and possibly illogical prose.)  Should all write together?  (The prose will be more even but the collaboration will take time.)  Should there be a lead writer? (The prose will be even, but the other members need to establish ways to be represented in the writing, in the planning and/or revising.)   

Collaboration in the Classroom

Planning for Collaboration

Engaging Student Groups in Discussion

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Teaching