Student Collaboration Module
Purposeful Listening and Speaking Practice in the Classroom
This Module is part of a series of modules designed for the Lower Kuskokwim School
District. Modules are part of the Teacher Evaluation System Training and are designed to
gain shared understanding to increase reliability and assist in goal setting and gr owth
support. Modules are built for principals to use as site level staff development.
Teacher Evaluation Document Reference
The topic is referenced in the following critical attributes in the LKSD Teacher Evaluation Document:
A.5 CA-b Teacher regularly (daily or almost daily) and effectively creates opportunities for students
to participate in meaningful interactions with other students (e.g., student-to-student in pairs or
small groups) that allow them to practice speaking, negotiate meaning, clarify ideas, support
hypotheses and other techniques.
A.6 CA-d Oral language development and language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and
writing are developed in conjunction with one another; and student content activities regularly and
consistently integrate all four of the language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) with
structured practice of academic language.
A.6 CA-e Teacher regularly and consistently implements activities that encourage students to discuss,
interact and work together to make abstract concepts more concrete (e.g., solving problems in
cooperative groups, partnering students for a project, engaging in discussion circles).
A.1 CA-e Inclusion of meaningful activities (e.g., surveys, letter writing, simulations, constructing
models) that integrate lesson concepts with language opportunities for reading, writing, listening
and speaking; lesson and unit planning demonstrates purposeful selection of these types of
meaningful activities.
A.2 CA-e Teacher regularly and consistently emphasizes key academic language and academic
content vocabulary (e.g., introduced, written, repeated, highlighted for students to see, displayed);
and regularly engages students in using academic and content vocabulary.
A.9 CA-b Teacher regularly gives students alternate means of discussion and asking question using
online communication tools to bring out the ideas of all students; and/or teacher allows students to
initiate discussions in online forums such as classroom blogs, discussion lists and social networking
tools.
C.1 CA-d Teacher regularly and consistently plans and uses multiple strategies to encourage student
accountability and leadership in the learning process (e.g., cooperative and/or collaborative
learning).
C.1 CA-eTeacher regularly and consistently plans and uses a variety of classroom management
techniques to establish and maintain a positive environment in which all students are able to learn;
and teacher maximizes instructional time by regularly and effectively managing instructional groups,
effectively using high-engagement strategies, and efficiently managing smooth transitions and
smooth distribution and collection of materials and supplies.
C.3 CA-bTeacher creates an environment where students are very respectful of one another (studentto-student interactions), and teacher responds successfully to disrespectful behavior among
students.
C.3 CA-cTeacher successfully creates a positive environment where active listening and engaged
learning are expected; and classroom interactions both between teacher and students and among
students regularly and consistently show evidence of respectful talk, active listening and turntaking.
C.3 CA-dTeacher successfully creates classroom environment where there is clear evidence that
students generally feel valued, safe and comfortable taking intellectual risks; and there is clear
evidence of classroom norm
C.4 CA-b Teacher consistently and clearly communicates high academic expectations for both
learning and participation to all students (including those in multi-age classrooms) through both
verbal and nonverbal behaviors.
Materials needed:
Presenter Guide
Presenter Slide show
For Each Participant:
Copy of the teacher evaluation rubrics
Highlighters
Copy of the activity sheets: 2.1; 2.2; 3
Copy of Sample Rubrics and Structure: Activity 5- 3 documents
Access to electronic document of the AK Listening and Speaking Standards
Copy of Listening and Speaking standard 1 for the appropriate grade level for
each participant
Bonus Reading: Collaborative Conversations, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey
Lesson Overview:
The Student Collaboration Module demonstrates alignment between the LKSD
teacher evaluation to the AK Standards for Listening and Speaking.
The focus of the Module is to provide teachers with the opportunity to:
 Develop a common understanding of expectations about student
collaboration in the LKSD teacher evaluation.
 Understand how the AK Listening and Speaking standards are reflected in
the LKSD teacher evaluation.
 Understand the expectation of the Collaboration Strand of the Listening and
Speaking Standard, and gain exposure to the other Listening and Speaking
Standards for their grade range
 Observe other teachers working a process of explicitly teaching a
collaboration skill within a science lesson.
 Identify opportunities to embed explicit collaboration skills into their
classroom, and potentially practice embedding collaboration into a lesson of
their choice.
Activity 1:
“Getting into the
teacher evaluation
document”
Introduce: Explain that we will go through a “scavenger
hunt” in the teacher evaluation to find where purposeful
practice of listening and speaking through classroom
discussions are part of a critical attribute.
Model: (Slide) Show A.1 CA-e and (Slide) C.1 CA d & e with
highlights as examples
Activity: Have the participants scan through the evaluation
and highlight any critical attribute that strongly references
purposeful listening and speaking
Activity 2:
Vocabulary and
shared
understanding
activity
Introduce: (Slide) show the key vocabulary slide and
introduce the activity of gaining shared understanding of
these key words.
Model: As a whole group discuss Academic Language and
Content Vocabulary. Come up with a definition of eachdescribing how they are different and when they overlap.
Activity 2.1. : Have participants individually add “My
Content Examples” in the box around the venn diagram and
share with a mixed-job partner.
Introduce: (slide) show the A.5 CA-B with underlined
words. This is a “power” critical attribute for listening and
speaking. Share the goal to gain a shared understanding of
what meeting this critical attribute means and would look
like as well as generate ideas of how to plan and structure
this purposefully in your class.
Activity 2.3: In groups of four—or whatever grouping
structure works with your staff size—have teachers use the
“Turn Table” sheets. Complete “looks like” and “ideas” 3
minutes per corner—then turn and comment on others and
make own comments.
Activity 3:
Background: For this module, teachers will be exploring the
Exploring/Describing AK standards for listening and speaking in their
expectations- what
construction of what classroom discussions should look like.
does it look like?
Introduce: Explain that we will be exploring the AK
Standards for Listening and Speaking to further our
knowledge of the expectations of classroom discussions.
(slide) show the anchor standards for listening and
speaking. Explain that today we will only be focused on
Anchor Standard 1. Share that each Anchor Standard has
further detail for a specific grade level or grade range.
Have teachers explore the full range of listening and
speaking standards though an electronic document.
Pass out a copy of the appropriate grade level standard 1 to
each participant.
Activity: (slide) Working in like-grade level groups, have
participants read their L&S Standard and discuss and
complete the graphic organizer on what to look for and
ideas for scaffolding the skill in the classroom. Have groups
report out to each other.
Activity 4:
Observation and
Model--- watching
video examples and
potentially applying
expectations to the
video
Activity 5:
Applying the concept
in my class/contextan activity of
application
Introduce: (slide) Explain that the video they will watch is a
sample of a co-teaching partner introducing a specific
collaboration skill of expanding on others’ ideas with 2nd
grade students. The video is not meant to be an exemplary
model, but it is a good demonstration of teachers
purposefully embedding distinct listening and speaking
collaboration skills into a lesson.
Video Observation: (embedded in presentation)
Watch Collaborative conversation co-teaching with Annie
Adamsky _ Chris Vecchi.mp4
Discuss at the table what the teachers did to be explicit in
instruction.
Introduce: (Slide) Explain that the next activity will be
creating a specific tool that each will be able to use in their
classroom to create the classroom discussions we desire.
We will be using the ideas and understandings shared in the
previous activities to build two classroom tools:
1. A specific structure to use with students
2. A self-evaluation tool for students to use to reflect
on their use of a specific L&S skill.
Model: Show the model structure and self evaluation
Activity: Have teachers work independently or in groups to
build a structure and self evaluation.
Have teachers share.