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Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

The Building Blocks of Collaboration: Partner and Small-Group Chats (Grades 5–6)

Children learn a great deal, academically and socially, by collaborating—working together toward common goals. A good way to help students begin developing collaboration skills is by teaching them how to exchange ideas, information, and opinions as they converse with partners or in small groups. Partner and small-group chats require complex…

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Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Magnetic Friendships

As a kid, I was fascinated by magnets: the force they exert, the way they could push and pull through tables, windows, and papers . . . sometimes without even touching! Now as an adult and a teacher, I've been thinking about those pairs of students I've taught whose attraction…

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Photograph by Jeff Woodward.

Partner Sharing in Morning Meeting

If you visited my classroom during Morning Meeting these days, you'd probably see first graders working with partners and using the conversation skills we've been working on all year. We're now doing lots of partner work during the school day, and Morning Meeting is one of the times when we…

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Partner Greetings in Morning Meeting

By now my first grade students are pretty good at chatting with a partner. They know how to pair up quickly and how to decide who will go first. They sit knee-to-knee and look each other in the eye. They usually stay on topic, and each person has a chance…

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Building Community One Child at a Time

Grafton Elementary School has 750 students in grades 3 to 5. With over 200 children at each grade level, it's easy for children to feel invisible, especially in spaces beyond the classroom, such as the hallways, cafeteria, and playground. This year, Grafton's 104 staff members are trying a new way…

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Teaching Children How to Converse

These days, curriculum often recommends using "partner chats," "turn-and-talk," and other one-on-one conversation strategies to help students reflect on and deepen their learning. Although it may seem like a simple thing, chatting with a partner involves a complex set of skills that many children do not come to school with:…

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First, Partner Skills

This year didn't start off quite as I'd planned. I'd hoped to start teaching conversation skills right at the beginning of school, but once I met my new class, I decided that this particular group of first graders needed to be more comfortable working in pairs before I started teaching…

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