Kayla Pfeifer

Professor Justin Henry

EDU 34600

03 November 2019

Collaborative Learning in English

Collaborative learning supports comprehension within the English content area through

having students work together and come to a similar understanding of what they are reading.

Collaborative learning includes assignments where students work with one another either in

groups or pairs. Many of these assignments may include discussion topics or report projects

where students must reflect on themes or aspects of their readings which they have all picked up

on.

One collaborative project which I would like to implement in my future classroom would

be having groups of about four students form to discuss certain topics and themes within what

we are reading. Every group would be given different questions and present their answers to the

class after meeting with their groups. By introducing different questions and topics to each

group, each student will be able to take note of what is occuring in different scenes and events

within what they are reading. This will create a classwide understanding of what is going on

within the text we are reading.

I would also include a collaborative project within my future classroom where students

are partnered up to read a short story of their choosing. These pairs of students would then have

to create a presentation on this short story, determining the themes, characters, uses of figurative

language where it applies, and the tone of the story. By having students work in pairs, they will
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have to be able to come to a mutual understanding of the story enough to describe it to their

classmates.

Collaborative learning supports comprehension within an English classroom in many

ways. Collaborative learning would fit in with my teaching style in that it requires students to

understand the purpose of their reading together, and it would fit in with other teaching styles

because there is a broad spectrum of assignments that can be developed using collaboration. I

would include collaborative learning within my classroom once every week or two so that my

students can develop comfort in working with each other as quickly as possible. By having

students judge the effectiveness and level of collaboration at the end of their group work, I can

see if the group assignments I have provided to them are fairly assessed and work well in

practice. While collaborative learning is important to implement in all content areas, I am certain

that it is extremely beneficial for comprehension in English.