Students are divided in small groups and each team chooses a spokesperson who will answer for the group. When a wrong letter is told, the teacher begins to draw the “hangman” on the board. The goal is to guess the word before the “hangman” is totally drawn.

As I teach English as a foreign language, the game is done in English and it is a funny way to learn new words and synonyms without annoying students. Moreover they learn to collaborate effectively to reach a common goal, even if this kind of activity has a low and “easy” level of collaboration from students.

To make them feel ready to engage in the conversation and to take risks in their own learning me and my team try to call children individually so that everyone has the chance to participate and to have an applause promoted by peers. The positive reinforce is very useful in this (and every) kin of situations.

reflect on their involvement in the project and decide to do better next time. 

It is important to set the rules, value all responses and contributions without students feeling fear of being shamed or criticized.

I make sure that my students know that I respect them. Also, mocking is strictly forbidden and they know that they can say anything that cross their mind without any fear of being mocked. I always point out that everybody makes mistakes and that it is not end of the world if they say something wrong. 

Depending on the activity/task, I let them choose who they want to work with and this contributes to their responsibility. However even in these cases, when they build their group, I previously discuss with them the importance of the heterogeneity of the group. In other words, they become aware of the necessity of including weaker, slower and quieter students in every group. Helping each other and developing team spirit is also discussed with them. Students need to know the rules, the resources, what is expected from the group and everything that involves the process of learning. Some students prefer to work in the classroom, others go outside or even to the library, according to their preferences and needs.

Engagement then comes from the way you involve them in the topic or issue. I usually provide them with a quote, an opinion, something that will arise their curiosity and interest. I enjoy provoking their attention. 

I always underline the respect they should have towards everyone’s contribution and allow time before research for discussion. This helps them share previous knowledge.

1. How do you make students to feel safe and comfortable? 

The school must be a safety place for students and teachers. I check if they can establish eye contact together, I encourage them to have fun, to exchange ideas. 

2. How do you make them feel ready to engage in the conversation and to take risks in their own learning? 

At  the beginning or the learning I propose a reflective moment to improve their concentration and also we set a guidelines for working in groups. One student takes notes so everybody else is involved in the discussion , another one is monitoring how the conversation is going and one student is the moderator who makes sure that everybody exchanges ideas. At the final, I check how the learning has been developed by asking students : How did you do? 

Each member has a task that must be solved and contribute to the group's success.

Pupils feel secure if they have support and timely feedback from the teacher.

No negative reviews. The student's self-confidence should be strengthened.

contribute; 

help each other; 

encourage each other; 

share; 

solve problems;

give and accept feedback from peers.

In class, I admit that I’m particularly careful and, depending on the activities, different roles are usually assigned according to their interests, profiles and skills: one may be the moderator, another one the spokesperson, a third st may be the scriber…so that, one way or another, they may learn to respect each other by listening as the discussion goes back and forth, and all engage in the conversation and are proactive. Furthermore, on the one hand, these opportunities give me more chances to observe them, to get to know them better, for personalised teaching and learning and for future group buildings; on the other hand, sts tend to enjoy these (still) new practices in spite of all constraints in classroom arrangements and with other teachers this may arise.

To make my students feel safe and ready to take risks I show them what they to the best and each student also says comfortable words to his colleague. 

I strongly believe that is very important to discuss some rules of conduct and essential values with students, like respect, listening to each other, being polite and eye contact with colleagues. The main problem is that some students don’t have such values at home, so sometimes is hard to guide them.  

To engage students in collaborative learning it is also crucial that they feel safe and comfortable, so I alway give them positive feedback. 

There are clear guidelines on what values should they uphold in the classroom and the group work: respect others and yourself, clear and interrupted speech, calm and productive manner etc 

They have regular feedbacks and on occasions they ask for my help if they are not sure in which direction to go with the work. Still working together they have clear roles in their groups. 

I always choose the first element of each group, in order to distribute the students who have higher proficiency for each group. Then, these elements choose the others. So, they choose the ones they feel more comfortable working with, which helps the group work and the learning environment within the group. Sometimes, you can have them share the work they are doing with the other groups, and for this you divide the group into student A, B, C, D… then you put all A’s, B’s… together, which means they all get to speak and at the same time they feel comfortable with it, because they have already prepared everything within their original group work. 

To encourage less confident students, I usually give them easier tasks at first and when we are interacting orally, I use positive feedback and ask them more direct questions, not involving much reasoning, or let them answer after listening to some of their colleagues.
 I usually say "Well done" in class and when I forget to say it, there is always a student that says it to his/her colleague for me.
When they’re doing group work, when we are making the groups, I always see if there are some students with more proficiency in the language in each group.

 I let them divide the tasks and work freely.
 As each student has to present a part of the work in English, and they know that they are all equally responsible for that part, they usually help their colleagues preparing their oral presentation.

 I can see that they feel more confident and motivated when collaborating and sharing ideas and opinions with their peers.

First  of all and before starting collaborative work it’s very important to create a good empathic relationship with students and allow them to get to know each other , show interest in their opinions and likes and define clear  rules where basic principles such as respect and tolerance are promoted. Then we must not emphasize mistakes but encourage participation. Students must feel that making mistakes it’s part of learning  and when I assess students’ work I  always give positive reinforcement to students who dare to take risks and get involved in activities. 

I always make sure my students feel at easy. They can ask about everything they feel uneasy. They help each other sharing their skills: everyone’s goal is to solve the problem. 

 

 

I usually let them to choose their partners

The team decide the leader/member who will mediate and lead the group.

I encourage them to idealize the activity they want to develop.

Students define the rules and the purpose of tasks. Everyone have the opportunity to participate. 

The must define a planning time with tasks description for each member.

Time to time they meet to summarize the state of progress

But sometimes, groups are organized by my orientation . 

I try to clarify and clarify the activity, with well defined guidelines; forming balanced groups; distributing roles (moderator, spokesperson, time controller); establishing the time for completing the task and communicating the evaluation criteria. My role will be to facilitate learning by unlocking situations. 

In the next class, we discuss and establish the set of rules for class functioning and we make sure they are consensual and followed and are placed where everybody can see them. I also try to relate the topics we study with real life situations or with what students love/need/have experienced, because this facilitates students’ engagement and motivates them to participate and set clear guidelines for each activity so that they keep track on its aims.

As for collaborative learning in groups and to avoid “discrimination”, students are grouped together randomly and groups vary throughout the schoolyear, giving everybody the chance to learn and work with everybody else. At first, students don’t like this very much, but they end up realising that’s a good way to improve interpersonal skills and to contact with diverse viewpoints from people with varied backgrounds assuring that the whole class functions as a big learning family where everybody/every opinion counts, and nobody can ever be left out. Little by little, risks are taken, students proactively participate in the “Harkness discussions” and all parts of the learning experience are enthusiastically embraced. Positive reinforcement is also a must in my classes.

Group work offers opportunities to learn and improve continuously through problem solving and projects.

 

I like teaching in a discussion-base way (in small groups and/or in a round table with all the class) . Unfortunately, adolescence ghosts sometimes are a serious obstacle to this methodology because young adolescents are hypercritical to themselves and to those around them and have many complexes that make their public exposure difficult, especially among their peers. 
I have heard that the two things most people fear are death and speaking in public, and that comes first. Students are not an exception but they need to know that speaking to an audience is neither easy nor comfortable for a lot of people. Some can not overcome fear and discomfort, but can learn the basics of the art of public speaking and explore some strategies and techniques to master it and reduce anxiety. 

In group discussions I always make a point of remembering that they are all fellow students who are in queue to present / to talk after each other. 

Before discussions, I prepare a set of guideline for students. Like in the  video about everyday teaching at the College Preparatory School in Oakland, California,  there is three roles to be filled by students: the scribe role, the monitoring role (to control how the conversation is going) and the moderator. The other students are engaged in the conversation that is happening. 

Teaching in a discussion-base way develops skills specific to collaborative efforts (it contributes to the development of listening skills and presentation skills), allowing students to tackle more complex problems than they could on their own, to share diverse perspectives (being opened to diversity) and deepen social skills and values.  

In the constitution of the small groups I prefer team work of two or four elements and I allow students to choose the criteria. When according to the objectives of the lesson, I want homogeneous or heterogeneous groups, then I alone decide the criteria of constitution of the groups.