In kindergarten, collaboration is so very important. For some students, this might be their first schooling experience and it is where they build many skills. They not only learn to collaborate with their classmates, but how to communicate and be a member of a community. I believe there are many ways that I use this teaching strategy in my classroom. One way is the use of tables/community supplies (not this past school year) in my classroom. Students learn the tools that we will be using in our classroom using a guided discovery. After that, the students get a chance to learn how to use the materials effectively and properly. (For example, how to properly put a cap on a marker, how to use a crayon properly, etc) Then they are expected to keep these supplies in a community bin on their table. Students really learn to work together to take care of their materials and keep them nice.

Another way I use collaboration in my classroom is through my centers. Again, not really this past year, but in previous years, the center materials are placed on a table and students are expected to work together for a common goal. Collaboration is such an important skill for students to learn at a young age because they will spend a majority of their lives working with others, some who might be very different from themselves. 

For written communication, depending on the type of class or level, I have students practice this language skill by partaking in varying and numerous writing comprehension activities that range from simple writing prompts (such as narratives) to more complex prompts such as writing summaries of short stories we read or providing alternate endings to said stories. Writing comprehension can also take the form of more creative platforms such as opinions on current events (in the news), poetry, cooking recipes, digital storytelling, etc. Oral comprehension follows suit, in terms of having students practice and be assessed using varying prompts, platforms, etc. Oral communication can take the form of answering simple comprehension questions on any given task or activity during a lesson, having conversations with other classmates, review games, providing descriptions of varying images (depending on the thematic theme of the unit), video presentations for projects or by use of platforms such as Flipgrid, or digital storytelling. 

In addition to using the Bitmoji classroom to help students communicate, I like to use other strategies and technology tools. I often use Flipgrid in my stand alone class and co-taught ELA classrooms. Flipgrid allows students to use all four language modalities and improves communication skills by tasking students with listening and responding to one another. I also like to use QSSSA in the classroom. This stands for Question, Signal, Stem, Share, Assess. Students are able to communicate their thoughts in a complete sentence with the sentence stem provided. Also, by having students in the class share their thoughts aloud, students can hear how proper English is used. I like this strategy because it helps give students the tools to succeed when sharing orally in the whole class setting. Lastly, I like to use strategies such as Turn and Talks and Think, Pair, Shares for oral communication because I feel that they are less anxiety inducing. When possible, I like for students to jot down their thoughts, or a sketch, ahead of time. I have applied this “Stop and Jot” strategy to Jamboard before class discussions and it has helped students communicate their thoughts. 

In the beginning of class, or the previous day, I share some basic concepts about the lesson and the students will take some notes.  When it comes time to practice, I give them the PDF with QR codes,  they scan the START code, answer the question, find the answer above another QR code, scan it.  Keep repeating the process until you are back at the START HERE box. 

Besides allowing the students to practice the material being taught on their own, it enables me to walk around the classroom helping individual students who need more personalized instruction. The self-assessment builds confidence because the students do not have to ASK if their answer is correct. More than likely if they got an answer that is in one of the other boxes, they answered the question correctly.  Since I designed the questions, I make sure to not have very similar answers.  It is NOT my goal to confuse them. On some scavenger hunts that I’ve created, I add an extra twist with a theme.  For example, my “simplifying radicals” scavenger hunt has cool bits of information about J.K. Rowling. When they get the right mathematical answer, they’ll also find the answer to the question.  (Where was she born, what is her given name, how did she come up with the idea of Harry Potter, etc.).   I try to choose topics that are interesting to the students and will engage them WHILE doing math!

The second activity I like to use are the Pixel art ones. With these activities, the students do the problem and enter the answer in the correct place. If the answer is correct, the box will typically change colors , and colored pixels on the artwork will appear.  As the student is answering the questions, the picture comes to life.  The students really enjoy trying to figure out what/who the picture is.   The artwork engages the student to keep working on the problems. The activity is self-correcting, since only correct answers will add colored pixels to the artwork.  They know when they need to call on me for some extra help.  In the meantime, I can focus on whoever does need help on working through the assignment.   There are facebook groups that have pixel art activities that anyone can use.   Additionally, there are some you can get/purchase on Teacherspayteachers.com