Collaborative Learning Supports Literacy

I believe that collaborative learning can and will support literacy. Through collaborative learning students get to share their ideas and listen to the ideas of others. They can come up with projects together and help each other to understand something that may not be clear to them. Collaborative learning will absolutely be a part of my classroom in the future.

            When I think about my collaborative learning experiences, I think about group projects and friends. In collaborative learning I can split children up into groups and have them experience other learners and how they work. Not only does this show children that each person is an individual who does a different kind of work to come up with a different product, but it also familiarizes children with each other. I think this is very important because it can help children to become comfortable with everyone in the classroom. You must be comfortable to work with someone and collaborative learning is a way to do that. Perhaps going into a project some students did not really know others. Through collaborative learning students will have the chance to meet and talk to each other and become comfortable with one another.

            So how can collaborative learning support literacy? I think by having children read a book together in groups is a brilliant way for collaborative learning to support literacy. Students can take turns reading different parts of the books in their groups. When they get to a part they do not understand or a word they cannot pronounce, one student may be able to clarify what just happened in the book, and another may be able to help the student pronounce the word he or she is having trouble with. Children together in their groups can predict what might happen later in the book, and can talk about the plot and the characters and how they are changing throughout the story. It is always fun to share what you are thinking with others, and it helps others to think about things in a way they may have not previously thought about.

            Collaborative learning can support literacy. Children can have fun in groups learning from one another, and talking to one another. As long as groups are kind to each other, listen respectfully, and use constructive criticism to defend their own views, collaborative learning will support literacy. I will include this practice in my own classroom in order to help my students learn about one another and to learn about the materials they are being presented with!