In our school there are three classrooms, all with an interactive whiteboard; we have at our disposal some laptops, and tablets; there is also a good Internet connectivity. That helps us to go beyond our geographical isolation.

When designing a  collaborative learning activity we should consider this check list: 

Dr. Butler presents a scheme  that can help teachers to design high quality collaborative activities. 
Not necessarily all the activities must be level 5,  it  depends on the situation.

2. Explore - students collect information on a certain topic.

3.  Map - students structure their thoughts and ideas and seek to understand how they are related.

4. Make - students develop or create a product or practise an activity.

5. Ask - students ask questions, interview experts and stakeholders

6. Remake - students replan or revisit their product, on the basis of the feedback or further information they received.

7. Show - students publish and present the results of their work. 

LOW LEVEL COLLABORATION:
Students work together in pairs. They are asked to do grammar exercises after the explanation of a grammar topic. They help each other in finding the right answers (in general they underline them, or they fill gaps). They simply talk to each other and share ideas. 
HIGH LEVEL COLLABORATION: 
One of my classes is composed by pupils of different ages with different teaching plans. During the history lessons, the students are usually divided into two groups. In this period, while the teacher is  working with the group of the younger students about the learning method, the 7th grade students are divide in groups of 4 pupils each. After a short introductory explanation of the topic, they are asked to make and deliver a "product" within an agreed date (conceptual maps, timelines, analisys of some documents). They riceive instructions about their task and information about the evaluation method. Then they  have do decide how to organize themselves, which roles and responsabilities assign to the members, which tools use. During the work they write a group log. Teacher is a facilitator. Their share the evaluation of their final "product". 

Like other Italian teachers, I've started to write and use rubrics last year, after listening to professor Enzo Zecchi's lessons about PBL (project based learning) and the assessment of students' competences.  According to the project my  Science colleague and I were developing with our class (entitled “A class out of this world"”) , we have prepared rubrics to evaluate both the individual  and  the collective outcomes. As for me, the most difficult aspect has been to find simple and well defined criteria and to write clear and brief definitions of each level of progress. My rubrics were too detailed. This probably happened because I was thinking to the rubrics only as an useful tool to collect data for the “competences certification” (a document we have to fill in  at the end of the middle school), and not as a tool that could  help students in becoming aware and positioning themselves in the learning process .

Types of assessment:

In my school I have been collaborating  with my Science colleague in trans-disciplinary  projects during the last two years, and it has been a very positive experience. We have been working together on space and astronomy themes and we succeeded in engaging  and motivating students, improving their learning and social skills. While learning to collaborate we compared our teaching methods and assessment criteria; together we have prepared our first  evaluation rubrics. 

I teach in a multilevel class (the class consists of 15 pupils, 7 6th graders + 8 7th graders). In some subjects (History,  Geography) students - according with their Syllabus - have to learn different topics at the same time (for example: 6th graders --> orientation, how to read maps, meantime 7th graders --> the UE ). We have to organize the room, moving desks and creating two different learning areas. Pupils usually study in groups and use ITC (ebooks, tablet and interactive whiteboard) but that is not an easy job. They have to collaborate, remembering not to disturb their mates, they have to keep their voices at a very low volume, and sometime they loose their concentration.

Communication with parents is made easier by online tools, for example using the online school register.

To assess students’ collaborative learning we can use Likert scales, checklists, rubrics and quizzes with detailed feedback.
A rubric is a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work and articulates gradations of quality for each criterion, from excellent to poor.
Goodrich (1996) states that "rubrics can improve student performance, as well as monitor it, by making teachers' expectations clear and by showing students how to meet these expectations"
To construct a rubric 

Checklists are another useful tool for assessing collaborative learning.

Good checklists are accurate, efficient, well-targeted and easy to use.
To build a checklist:

A good checklist is easy to read, occupies no more than one page and is of quick application.