Teaching Collaboration is hard. Group work is tough!

Just because students work in groups, doesn’t mean they are working well.

• I’m not talking about if they’re arguing or being distracted.
• I’m talking about the way they work in groups to get the job done.

And, even if they are working well, it doesn’t mean they are actually collaborating.

Teaching collaboration skills in the classroom means thinking about HOW we contribute in groups.

QUICK LINK: Jump to the “How to teach collaboration skills to students” lesson plan

I used to think teaching collaboration skills to students was the same thing as teaching “teamwork skills” or “group work skills.”

But I spent some time researching this learning strategy for a teamwork lesson plan.

And I had a huge ah-ha moment.

Collaboration and teamwork do not always mean the same thing.

Mind blown.

Are we teaching collaboration?

Or are we simply teaching our students to simply get along and be polite?

There is a difference.

While it’s important to get along, collaboration means creating new understandings to a problem or task.

And that means, disagreeing and finding ways to combine opposite points of view.

Sometimes, students want to avoid conflict because they want to get along.

But passively smiling and agreeing with everyone may not lead to collaboration.

(Check out this lesson about 4 different styles of communication. Communication is different from collaboration, but the two go hand-in-hand!)

Teamwork Lesson plans in the classroom should focus on the difference between collaboration and teamwork

Many students in the US and Canada are returning to the classroom after Covid online learning.

Shifting to online learning was tough. And, now we need to switch back to learning in the classroom.

Our students could use a little reminder with a teamwork lesson plan. Here’s the key idea that we can start teaching at the start of this 2021 school year.

By the way, these concepts are equally important at elementary, middle school, and high school:

• Collaboration and teamwork is more than just getting along with our partners.

• Both teamwork and collaboration are about the entire group working towards a common goal.

• But, collaboration is also about how we share ideas and create new understandings in our group.

QUICK LINK: Jump to the “How to teach collaboration skills to students” lesson plan

What does Collaboration actually look like for students?

If you’re trying to figure out how to teach collaboration skills to students, we need to clearly define what collaboration is.

We can use criteria to figure out if something is actually “collaboration.”

(By the way, using criteria is an important part of critical thinking! But, that’s a different unit.)

There are 3 parts to help students identify if something is collaboration.

Collaboration means you…

1. Share ideas
2. Create NEW understandings
3. Work on a common goal

Teamwork is when you are part of a group.

But the real question is HOW are we creating “new understandings”? That’s the key piece of collaboration.

Let’s take a step back and look at group work and teamwork.

Add this to your teamwork and collaboration vocabulary list. There are 3 different teamwork styles:

• collaboration
• coordination
• cooperation

QUICK LINK: Jump to the “How to teach collaboration skills to students” lesson plan

Group work doesn’t always mean the group is working.

Or that collaboration takes place.

As teachers, when we watch students participate in a group, we’re often looking from a classroom management perspective:

• Are students “working” and on task?
• Do group members distract others?
• Are they distracting themselves?

Yes, task management, independent work, and cooperating with others are important learning strategies.

However, a collaborative learning lesson plan should go one step further.

Instead of just looking to see if students are on task in the group, let’s also look to see HOW they are working together.

Just because students are talking and working together, doesn’t mean they’re collaborating.

Likewise, just because the class is chatty doesn’t mean they’re not focused and talking about work.

• In fact, students working in a group could be coordinating. The strong students are telling everyone else what to do.
• Or, students might simply be cooperating with each other. Everyone is focused on completing their own homework. They just happen to be sitting beside each other in a group.
• Or, students might actually be collaborating in their groups.

There’s a subtle and important difference between the three styles of group work: coordinating, cooperating, and collaborating.

Not all of them involve working towards a common goal.

This group work lesson plan can help students recognize there are different ways of working in a group.

Group work does not always work, you know?

Our collaborative learning lesson plans should include the following:

Have a look at your group work lesson plan.

Do students…

• Reflect on their own group work style?
• Develop a growth mindset?
• Recognize that we can use specific collaborative learning strategies to become better at collaborating?
• Understand that collaboration is different from coordination and cooperation?
• Understand that collaboration is not the same as communication. (Although you do need effective communication skills to be able to collaborate well with others.)

QUICK LINK: Jump to the “How to teach collaboration skills to students” lesson plan

• What is Collaboration? (CHAPTER BIG IDEA):
• Collaboration is NOT the same as teamwork!
• Get 1 week of COLLABORATION SKILLS lesson plans
  • We provide collaboration worksheets and handouts:
  • We provide 3 different versions of the lesson slideshow (117 slides):
• Who is this COLLABORATION SKILLS lesson plan package for? How does this help improve group work in my classroom / school?
  • Homeroom Teachers
  • Literacy Teachers
  • School Leaders / Administration / Principals
  • Are teachers at your school collaborating? Or, simply coordinating to get a task done, or cooperating to help with individual goals.
• SAMPLE ONE WEEK game plan: (8 COLLABORATION SKILLS lessons)
  • PART 1. EXPERIENCE
  • PART 2. WATCH
  • PART 3. UNDERSTAND
• HERE’S WHAT YOU GET when you download the COLLABORATION SKILLS zipped file:

After this chapter, students will be able to explain that Collaboration is about:

1. Working with others…
2. to create something new (a new understanding, a new plan, a new idea)…
3. using a shared goal.

Students will have the opportunity to:

1. EXPERIENCE an opportunity to collaborate (and not just work as part of a team)
2. WATCH examples of collaboration where disagreement amongst the group eventually creates new knowledge and understanding.
3. UNDERSTAND what “collaboration” is by using a vocabulary building graphic organizer (Frayer model) to brainstorm features of collaboration, examples and non-examples of collaborating with others, and finally narrow down essential characteristics of the word.

I know. We thought it was the same thing, too!

Teamwork lesson plan? Collaboration mindset lesson? Teaching collaborative skills lesson? Group work lesson plan?

What’s the difference? Potato, potato, right?

But, after really getting into designing this collaboration lesson plan and looking at other people’s points of view, I started to realize that I was doing it wrong.

Collaboration is just one (of three) teamwork styles!

The Seapoint Center has a great post about the confusion between cooperation, collaboration, and coordination vs teamwork.

There are two key concepts explored in this resource designed to explore student collaboration strategies:

1. What are “collaboration” strategies that we can use to get things done?
   • This continues the “growth mindset” from the 6Cs Character Building unit.
2. What are 3 different teamwork styles, including “collaboration”?
   • Collaboration – working as equals, creating a new understanding / plan / idea
   • Coordination – teamwork through implementation of a plan. (We have a shared goal, but we’re not creating a new plan / understanding. Simply executing a plan.)
   • Cooperation– sharing ideas / resources, but we have individual goals, and we support each other and their goals. (We might end up creating something new)

Teaching Collaboration to Students? Try this first!

Sometimes, first-hand experience is the best teacher.

Think about the last time you tried to do some co-teaching lesson plans with another teacher.

(Or, try to work in a group with a colleague and see what happens…)

Which of these teacher collaboration strategies can you see in the following examples?

1. Co-ordinating
2. Co-operating
3. Co-llaborating

Co-teaching lesson plan – Scenario 1

You’re a new teacher. (Or, you’re teaching a new subject.) So, you’re looking to partner up and work with another teacher to co-teach. (You both teach the same subject and grade, but to different classes.)

The more experienced teacher shares their lessons with you. They’re great lessons, but you tweak them here and there to fit your teaching style and classroom dynamics.

Is this collaborating? Did you and the other teacher create new understandings as you co-teach the lessons?

Co-teaching lesson plan – Scenario 2

The same scenario – you’re a new teacher or teaching a new subject. You find another teacher at your school and you both teach the same subject / grade, again to different classes.

This time, however, you and the other teacher quickly discover you have very different teaching styles. Polar opposites, actually.

(It takes you a lot of energy to communicate with each other because you have very different opinions about what makes good teaching.)

The principal wants different divisions to work “as a team” and co-teach students so that there’s a common education across the different classrooms.

So, you and your teaching partner co-teach by sharing what you do with each other.

“Oh, here’s a lesson I found about puppies! It worked great in my classroom!”

“Nice, and here’s a lesson I just did about kittens. The students really liked it!”

And, then you close your classroom door and do your own thing. Because, you need to get marks for the report cards, and quite frankly the photocopied handouts you got from the other teacher doesn’t fit what you’re doing right now.

But, you are teaching the same curriculum concepts at the same time. Just in your own way.

Is this collaborating? Did the two teachers create new understandings (together) as they co-teach the lessons separately?

Co-teaching lesson plan – Scenario 3

What would real collaboration look like?

Where two teachers were collaborating and creating new understanding? (Something that neither one of them had at the start of the collaboration?)

Student Collaboration Strategies to try

Here are four student collaboration strategies from Lesson 1.

You can use these with any student collaboration activities, but remember, just because you’re doing group work doesn’t mean it’s true collaboration.

• If one student takes the lead and tells other students want to do, that’s an example of coordination.
• If students are working in a small group beside each other and sharing answers on student “collaboration” activities, that’s actually an example of cooperation.
• If students are working on an activity where they’re creating new understanding (i.e. figuring out an answer to a problem that they genuinely don’t know the answer to,) that could be collaboration. Is everyone contributing ideas to the solution? Or are some ideas from certain people given more weight than others? In that case, the student “collaboration” activities might be an example of someone coordinating answers (with some input from the teammates.)

TEACHING POINT: These are teamwork collaboration strategies to help a group achieve its goal.

• These are not communication strategies (i.e. how to communicate effectively in a group to get your message across.)
• If you’re looking for communication strategies, click here.

Some sample talking points are included below.

Possible student answers are included in the collaboration lesson plan (PDF)

QUICK LINK: Jump to the “How to teach collaboration skills to students” lesson plan

Student Collaboration Strategy #1: Establish Clear Goals (slide 17)

• What’s the problem with not considering the goals first?
• How do you know if you’re being successful?
• Is the point to get it done? Or, to get it done well?

Student Collaboration Strategy #2: Plan Backwards (slide 18)

• Planning forwards, and planning with the end in mind are two different, but equally valid strategies.
• Sometimes, you need to do both! (Work one step backward and two steps forwards.)
• What’s the end goal? What does it look like? What do we need to do that?
• Look at the step before your end goal. What does it look like? What do we need to get there?
• And continue to work backwards until you get to where you are now.

Executive Thinking, backward design, or reverse engineering is an important student collaboration strategy when it recognizes the group is working together to try to create a solution for a common goal.

(Once the group has constructed the plan and they’re simply executing the plan, we may have moved from a collaboration phase into a coordination phase for teamwork – getting the job done.)

Student Collaboration Strategy #3: Use your strengths (slide 19)

• Ideally students have had an opportunity to try different roles.
• Students may have difficulty knowing what their strengths are. Through conversation, you should be able to help guide them forward.

Note: Doing tasks that interest you is an excellent strategy as the year progresses. It’s important to recognize there is value, especially with the younger grades, to have students work in areas that are not typically their strengths as they learn to handle adversity in a safe environment.

• Many times in the classroom, we focus on making sure students can do everything well.
• We teach the curriculum and try to make sure all students excel in all parts of the curriculum.
• The Animal School story wonders about the importance of individual learners.

True collaboration is about a group working towards a common goal and creating something new.

In the business world, Forbes points out that we want to invest in strengths.

Focusing on strengths might be an important collaboration strategy for students to explore!

Student Collaboration Strategy #4: Use feedback (slide 20)

• Ideally students have had an opportunity to try different roles.
• Students may have difficulty knowing what their strengths are. Through conversation, you should be able to help guide them forward.
• Note: Doing tasks that interests you is an excellent strategy as the year progresses, but there is value, especially with the younger grades, to have students work in areas that are not typically their strengths as they learn to handle adversity in a safe environment.

Teaching Collaboration Skills in the Classroom means:

• Introduce the concepts of collaboration. Provide five different collaboration strategies for students try as they work their way through creating answers in a common task.
  • For example, in this lesson plan package, you get a word jumble (Activity 1.)
  • Another example to try would be an escape room (not included.)
  • Both of these are examples of student collaboration activities.
• Allow students to discover different styles of teamwork by playing with words and grouping different examples of teams. For example:
  • explore Collaboration, Coordination, and Cooperation through a series of Minecraft videos,
  • allow students to do a gallery walk activity applying their understanding of teamwork styles.
  • analyzing video clips explaining which teamwork style is exemplified in each clip.
• Provide discussion points of collaboration in different scenarios by watching and analyzing YouTube videos
• Allow for deeper exploration of the concept of “Collaboration” by playing with the vocabulary term using the Frayer Model of understanding

We provide over a week of lessons to teach COLLABORATION learning skills with your class to help them start to think about how to get things done, and how working in a group doesn’t always mean we are collaborating.

You get a total of 184 slides and pages across 8 lessons.

Each group work lesson plan is between 40-50 min long.

We go through ALL 8 LESSONS in more depth at the bottom of this page.

Teaching Collaboration Lesson Plans, Worksheets and Handouts:

• 5 different word jumble activity handouts (and answer key) to allow students to see if their teamwork is collaboration.
• 1 create-your-own word jumble activity handout
• 5 DIFFERENTIATED versions of a teamwork styles handout + answer key
• 9 “team examples” photos for a gallery walk activity
• Vocabulary Builder graphic organizer (to develop a deeper understanding of what Collaboration means.)
• Student Self Evaluation of their “Collaboration” Learning Skill
• Chapter Review assessment and answer key of possible answers

3 different versions of this Teaching Collaboration lesson slideshow (117 slides):

You get the following:

• A link to the Google Slideshow so you can show it right away. (Get started in seconds!)
• A link to a version of the Google Slideshow that you can make a copy of the presentation. (Edit the content to fit your exact classroom needs.)
• A powerpoint file that you can download (PPT) and modify. (Edit the presentation to fit your needs, and use the presentation when the internet is down!)

Teachers could use this group work lesson plan package in their classrooms. Teaching collaboration skills for students means getting them to realize that it’s more than just about working in a group or “teamwork.”

When we are working in groups, we may not always be working towards a common goal.

(We may simply be cooperating and working towards individual goals… while sitting close to each other – relatively speaking. Pandemic and all that jazz.)

Successful collaboration is about coming up with new understanding – not simply cooperating with others to reach individual goals, or coordinating others to implement a plan (to reach our common goal).

Teamwork activities for high school

For older students, it might be good to frame these teamwork and collaboration activities in terms of life skills and work skills.

There is a time and place that you want to just co-operate and get things done.

For example…

• You have a work task to do.
• It’s not important to you.
• You don’t love the people you’re working with.
• Just get it done.

There are also times when you want to co-ordinate.

• If you’re mass vaccinating a country or community, you don’t really want an open-ended discussion involving the entire country about how to do it.
• At this point, we’re really looking at implementation of the plan.
• So co-ordination might be the best teamwork strategy.

But, if you want to truly generate new ideas and to solve problems with genuine buy-in from the people involved, collaboration is ideal.

If we look back at our country vaccination example…

• Figuring out how to vaccinate an entire country would have happened a lot earlier during the planning stage.
• This is where you would want true collaboration where input from the entire group helps create a new solution. This solution is brand new. It didn’t exist before the group work, but came about because of the group work.
• Hopefully, the group involved knowledgeable people with different points of view.

Older high school students might appreciate teamwork scenarios they can relate to. And teamwork just means any time you’re working with someone other than yourself.

Most high school students will probably think teamwork, as in class group work or working on a sports team.

But, if you’re in a relationship, that’s also an example of teamwork

Here are some 4 examples of high school teamwork that students don’t really think of teamwork:

• Your boyfriend / girlfriend / romantic partner wants one thing, but you want another. How can you come up with a solution that works for everyone?
• A bunch of friends are bored. How do you decide what to do?
• You have a new project to do – how should you best go about getting it done?
• You and your friend are making a YouTube / Instagram / Tiktok account. How do you create content?

Chances are the Word Jumble activity will instantly reveal students default teamwork styles.

Middle school Homeroom / Advisory teachers

• Do this group work lesson plan package in the first month of class, to set the gold standard ideal for what group work looks like.
• Throughout the year, you could ask students if they are collaborating, cooperating, or coordinating with teammates at any given moment.

English Language Arts teachers

Here are 4 ways ELA teachers can use this group work lesson plan package:

• Reading – Read a sample text to compare and contrast ideas. (Activity 2 Teamwork Styles handout)
• Writing – Brainstorm / generate ideas and group ideas  (Activity 2 Teamwork Styles)
• Oral Communication – Listen to others / points of view (Activity 2 Teamwork Styles)
• Media Literacy – infer meaning from photos (Activity 2 gallery walk)

From a Bloom’s Taxonomy perspective, students get a chance to:

• List collaboration strategies and teamwork styles. (REMEMBER)
• Explain collaboration strategies and teamwork styles (UNDERSTAND)
• Watch new videos / scenarios and justify which teamwork style is predominant (APPLY)
• Compare / contrast the differences supporting arguments in a scenario for / against a specific teamwork styles (ANALYZE)
• Justify an opinion by appraising the evidence supporting and against a specific teamwork style for a given photo (EVALUATE)
• Some students will create a deep understanding (ah-ha moment) about the subtle differences between the 3 teamwork styles (CREATE)

Principals / VPs / Division leaders and informal leaders

School leaders could use this “Teach COLLABORATION Learning Skills” lesson package in their schools to create a common language for students and teachers to help everyone explore and develop a growth mindset.  

Especially if your School Learning Plan (SLP) is about exploring “School Community” or  “Collaboration”

• Use this package to help students learn they need to be an active participant in a group
• Community means more than simply being part of a group. You need to actively participate – collaborate, coordinate, or cooperate!

Common Language, Common Learning Goals

• This unit provides a systematic way for a grade, division, or school to explore learning skills / character development as a framework of delivering provincial / state curriculum..
• Collaboration is different from coordination, and cooperation. If all students are exposed to this language, it makes it easier for everyone to identify what stage they are at, and openly discuss how to improve.
• Doing the same (Frayer model) vocabulary building graphic organizer provides a common tool / framework that students and teachers can build around in other areas (i.e. math concepts, grammar concepts, science concepts, etc).

Are teachers at your school collaborating?

Or, simply coordinating to get a task done, or cooperating to help with individual goals.

This unit on Collaboration strategies can help both students and teachers to start to reflect on the differences between collaboration, coordination, and cooperation.

Ultimately, this chapter is meant to kick off a year / lifetime of discussion, as opposed to being a one-off activity.

If all classes start off with the same approach, then throughout the year, as teachers do different activities, you could still connect it back to concepts of teamwork.

SAMPLE ONE WEEK plan: (8 COLLABORATION SKILLS lessons)

Here’s a week of Collaboration Skills lesson plans. It’s based on a 50 minute class period and has around 40-45 minutes of content per lesson.

Depending on your teaching style, how often you see your class, and classroom dynamics, you may find that you can get through all 8 lessons in 5 days… or that these collaboration strategies lessons stretch out to two full weeks.

Heck, if you’re teaching middle school homeroom / advisory classes, then you might be able to stretch these collaboration skill lesson plans out for months if you only have homeroom/advisory class once per week!

TEACHER TIP: If you’re short on time, pick and choose which teamwork examples to show your class, and which videos to watch.

PART 1. EXPERIENCE

DAY / LESSON 1 – Word Jumble (slides 1-21) – 45 minutes total

• Introduction of collaboration (slides 1-3) – 5 min
• Divide students into groups and solve word jumbles (slides 4-8) – 15 min
• Open discussion about collaboration (slide 9) – 5 min
• Give 5 strategies to try (slides 10-21) – 20 min

DAY / LESSON 2 – Word Jumble Round 2 – Strategies (slides 22-30) – 50 minutes total

• Introduce challenge & review strategies (slide 22-27) – 10 min
• Creating own jumbles (slide 28) – 15 min
• Present your best jumble (slide 29) – 15 min
• Discussion which collaboration strategies you used (slide 30) – 10 min

DAY / LESSON 3 – Teamwork Styles Round 1 (slide 31-49) – 50 minutes total

• Collaboration is not the same as teamwork – 4 corners activity (slides 31-36) – 15 min
• Brainstorming examples of teams / groups (slides 37-39) – 10 min
• Photo Analysis – 9 Team Examples (slides 40-49) – 25 min

DAY / LESSON 4 – Teamwork Styles Round 2 (slide 50-66) – 50 minutes total

• 3 styles of teamwork: collaboration, coordination, cooperation (slide 50-55) – 15 min
• Discuss answers (slide 56) – 5 min
• Reflect on your teamwork style during the Word Jumble activity (slide 57) – 5 min
• LDShadowLady overview (slide 58-60) – 1 min
  • Cooperation video clip (slide 61-62) – 8 min
  • Coordination video clip (slide 63-64) – 8 min
  • Collaboration video clip (slide 65-66)  – 8 min

DAY / LESSON 5 – Teamwork Styles Round 3 (slide 67-83) – 50 minutes total

• Explain gallery walk / review 3 styles of teamwork (slide 67-70) – 5 min
• Gallery Walk (slide 71-79) – 20 min
• Discuss answers (use slide 71-79 again for discussion)- 5 min
• What style is this? (slide 80-83) – 20 min
  • Video 1. Big Hero Six – first battle
  • Video 2. Big Hero Six – second battle
  • Video 3. Toy Story 2

PART 2. WATCH

DAY / LESSON 6 – Collaboration Strategies in Video Clips (slides 84-94) – 40 minutes total

• Review collaboration strategies / 3 styles of teamwork (slide 84-86) – 4 min
• Video 1 Big Bang Theory (slide 87-90) – 18 min
• Video 2 Oceans 11 (slide 91-94) – 18 min

PART 3. UNDERSTAND

DAY / LESSON 7 – Vocabulary Builder (slides 95-111) – 40 minutes total

• Introduce Part 3 – Understand (Vocabulary Builder) (slide 95)
• Graphic Organizer set up (slide 96-97)
• Minds on (slides 98-99)
• Filling out the graphic organizer (slides 100-103)
• Revising graphic organizer (slides 104-108)
• Summary (slides 109-111)

DAY / LESSON 8 – Self Evaluation / Review – (slides 112-117) – 40 minutes total

• Student Self Evaluation (slide 112-116) – 10 min
• Chapter Review Test (slide 117) – 30 min

HERE’S WHAT YOU GET in the Teaching Collaboration Lesson Plans Google Drive folder

Printable PDF lesson plan

This lesson plan is available in PDF format for printing. Pretty. 

• 117 Slides!
• Customizable Powerpoint PPT file so you can change the slideshow to fit your classroom needs.

2 Google Slides links

• 117 Slides!
• Get a Google Slideshow link so you can present the slideshow as is (right away without any changes)
• Get a different Google Slideshow link to make a copy in your own Google Drive and modify it to fit your specific needs.

HANDOUT: Word Jumble (PDF and DOCX)

• 5 different pages based on different themes
• 10 word jumbles per page
• Answer Key provided
• Create Your Own Jumble worksheet handout

HANDOUT: Teamwork Styles (Differentiated Handouts) PDF and DOCX 

• There are 5 differentiated versions of this handout. Choose the one most appropriate for your class.
• This is an opportunity to differentiate for different learners.
• Answer Key provided

GALLERY WALK: Team Example Photos (PDF)

• 9 pages of different teams
• What teamwork style could this be?
• 8.5 x 11 colour pages

HANDOUT: “COLLABORATION” Vocabulary Builder (PDF, DOCX)

• Frayer Model graphic organizer for COLLABORATION
• Discussion points provided

HANDOUT: Collaboration Learning Skills Self Assessment (PDF, DOCX) 

• Student Self Evaluation of their “COLLABORATION” Learning Skill at the end of the week.
• Use the same handout at 3 different times in the term to get diagnostic, formative, and summative information to help with Learning Skills comments for the Report Card.

HANDOUT: Chapter Review Assessment (PDF, DOCX)

• 6 short answer questions to see what students remember from the week’s worth of lessons. 
• Answer Key is provided.

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