A teacher recently mentioned to me that her students often worked individually, despite being instructed to work collaboratively in pairs or groups.
One way to greatly increase the chance of collaboration is to only give one resource per group.
For example, a whiteboard, a laptop, a worksheet, equipment to make something, or cut-ups for a sorting exercise.
You may have noticed the effect of this already if you sometimes have to share out limited equipment! But don’t wait for those times – be intentional and do it every time you want them to work together.
Note: make sure any shared resources are big enough for everyone join in with – consider whether anything needs enlarging.
(See also Oracy for revision.)
More about pair talk
