One thing I am striving for with my recent move to 3rd grade is to foster and encourage collaboration in my classroom. I see time and time again students who don’t know how to work together or how to be respectful towards their peers!
Our students HAVE to be able to agree, disagree, collaborate, cooperate, and work as a team. They can’t do that if we don’t show them how! The cards below will help you do this starting on day 1 of your school year.
Being in a new grade level, however, I know I have to take baby steps or else it won’t work for me. I created these job collaboration cards to make sure my kids are held accountable for their group work.
I printed the cards on cardstock in different colors. The first time we used the cards, I passed out the cards and the students got in their color groups.
The next time we used these collaboration cards, I noticed that the students had already caught on to color groups and I saw them picking the same color as their friends!
The 3rd time we used them, *insert evil teacher laugh here*, I went back and wrote numbers on the cards. Now they could be grouped by color or by number. The students won’t know which way they are grouped until AFTER they have chosen a card!
You should have seen their faces after I let them pick cards and then told them they would not be grouped by the color of their cards.
Lastly, this is how I explained the job responsibilities to my students. I also put it on the board in case they need a reminder while working.
Depending on the number of students you have and the activity you are doing, you might not use all of the jobs every time. You also might give 1 student 2 jobs.
I am passionate about my students collaborating and problem solving while learning the necessary academics. These job cards have already been SO instrumental in my classroom!
Click any of the job card photos in this post to head over to my TpT store to download these cards for FREE! You can also click here. I hope these cards are helpful to you and your classroom collaboration. :)
