BUILDING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY THROUGH COLLABORATION

Building Classroom Community through Collaboration

Grace Davis

University of South Florida

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BUILDING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY THROUGH COLLABORATION

Intern Background

Throughout my research in the Elementary Education program at the University of

South Florida, as well as my own personal experiences throughout my public education and in

schools through different jobs I have had, I have seen how important a strong classroom

community impacts everything that goes on in a classroom. I have been in many different

classrooms and schools through various jobs and internship experiences and it is clear that

classrooms that have a strong sense of community do much better academically and

behaviorally, which is my personal experience.

Context

My internship classroom was at Dolphin Elementary (pseudonym). The school is in a

low-income area close to the small downtown area of town. It is rated as a D school and there

is a lot of pressure from the county and the state to increase the school grade. As a result, the

county adopted a few different curricula and programs and therefore controls a lot of what the

teachers do. The third-grade level consisted of six classrooms which are all grouped by ability.

In addition, there are two retained third-grade classes, called third-grade academy, one English

speakers of other languages class, and one on-level to advanced class. Third-grade academy is

set up to have a very low teacher-student ratio with around 9 students to a teacher and a

paraprofessional. Only students who were retained in third-grade last school year are allowed

to be in the class despite a need for a few students in the other classes to be in a class with a

low teacher-student ratio. About halfway through my time in my class, we switched from self-

contained to English language arts all day, with my morning class being my previous class and

the high-achieving class in the afternoon. My focus class was one of two low-achieving

classes, which I had in the morning. Overall, the school is 52.7% Hispanic/Latino, 36.5%
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BUILDING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY THROUGH COLLABORATION

Black/African American, 8.5% white, 2.2% multiracial, and 0.2% Asian/Pacific Islander. My

students are 38.8% Hispanic, 33.3% black, 22.2% white, and 5.5% Native American.

Purpose

My students have had issues with consistently being mean to each other and often

argued with each other, which led to short, physical altercations on a few occasions. There was

one student who frequently cried because there are a few students who are mean to her, a few

students who were always getting in each other’s business and making fun of them for it, two

students who would argue with each other, and two students who would make fun of anyone

near them. The third-grade classes at Dolphin elementary are grouped by ability, or tracked,

which is a questionable practice (Hansen, 2022). There was a lot of conflict between students

and between teachers and students. As a result of the strife within the classroom, students

frequently lost a lot of instructional time, and all or most of recess. This time was instead used

during transitions within the classroom as well as transitions to other areas of the school and

correcting major disruptive behaviors during lessons.

Wondering

As a result of the lack of community in the classroom, I focused my wondering for this

semester on building the classroom community. My wondering was: in what ways can I build

classroom community through collaboration? This wondering was important to me because a

positive classroom community is what makes or breaks a classroom’s academic performance

(Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning, n.d.). This is because a positive classroom

community is often what determines if students are able to work together, as well as decreasing

the amount of time it takes to complete non-academic tasks. Collaboration is a great way to

build community, which is especially important because my students often had issues when

collaborating with others across contexts. My goal was to try to help my students as much as
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possible to succeed, even if the system they are in made it hard for many students to succeed. I

believe that community building is one major thing that I could work on to help my students

succeed.

Literature Review

To answer the question: “In what ways can I build classroom community through

collaboration?” I needed to first consider why this topic is important and how community

building and collaboration correspond to each other. Through my initial data collection, I was

able to see that my students had many conflicts throughout the day (see Appendix A). In doing

an interview with my collaborative teacher, we both agreed that a big area that this class needed

help in was in the classroom community (see Appendix B). A roadblock to this was that

instructional time is not something that I can take much of, so certain community building

strategies would be harder to do. Community building is critical to the success of a classroom.

It promotes engagement through helping students to feel that they belong in their environment

and gives them more control over their learning (Columbia University, n.d.). As the article by

Columbia University says, “Community building in the classroom is about creating a space in

which students and instructors are committed to a shared learning goal and achieve learning

through frequent collaboration and social interaction” (n.d. para. 4). This shows how

community building and collaboration are related because community building is, by

definition, collaborative. Through collaboration, I hoped to see an improvement in the

classroom community through measuring participation, conflicts, and high-quality student

work.

While there are many ways to promote a strong classroom community, I am focusing on

collaboration during instructional time. One way to do this is to have collaborative table teams

where students will develop a few guidelines called a team charter; choose and design a team
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BUILDING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY THROUGH COLLABORATION

name and mascot; and choose who plays what role in the group. The roles I chose to best

benefit my students were a materials person for gathering and distributing materials; a speaker

to speak for the group during constructive conversation questions in whole group instruction;

and a substitute to fill in for those roles if someone is missing, which are important roles in a

group described in the resources by Harrell (2020) and Columbia Center for Teaching and

Learning (n.d.). More roles could be added later on if they are needed. This is intended to help

students to streamline transitions as well as work with the people around them to best benefit

the whole classroom. Students also had to work with other people who they may not have

worked with before in partnerships with a focus on reading tasks. Research supports having

partners of mixed abilities so that one student can help guide the other to read and comprehend

better (Vezzani, 2023). Later on, students worked in groups which can help students to

generate more ideas and tackle more complex tasks since more minds are working together

(Illinois State Board of Education, 2014).

Participation comes through collaboration, and it can look a few different ways. Some

ways I looked for participation in regards to collaborating successfully and putting effort into

an assignment was by looking for students listening and responding to each other; taking turns

talking and waiting; writing when appropriate; and using kind and constructive language to

respond to what others are saying, which are described by Morcom in her journal article as

ways to check for participation during collaborative tasks (2022). This could include adding

onto what others say, complimenting others, and politely disagreeing with each other. Because

there is such a heavy focus on collaboration, conflict is expected to decrease as students are

encouraged to use constructive ways to talk to each other instead of ways that cause conflict.

In terms of data collection, I plan to collect student artifacts, which “are a form of

evidence that educators can use to tell the story of their classrooms and showcase their
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instructional practices,” (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education,

n.d., p. 1). I collected student artifacts to show how students perform while working with

others to show how my strategies were working. The other way I collected data is through field

notes, which, according to Dana and Yendol-Hoppey, include “noting what a student or group

of students are doing at particular intervals,” (2020, p. 99). I did this by making check marks if

students were participating in the lesson and tallied the number of conflicts once per English

language arts block, or about one and a half to two hours.

Methods

After I researched community building strategies that I can do during instructional time,

I determined that I would do three strategies: collaborative table teams, partner work, and group

work. I collected data through multiple sources, including field notes in the form of check

marks for participation and tally marks for total conflicts during the English language arts

block, as well as student artifacts in the form of student work during the different strategies.

Collaborative Table Teams

My first strategy was to introduce a way for students to collaborate with each other in

teams by creating table teams, which was guided by the article by Harrell (2020). My students

were split into three table groups with six or seven students in each group. I worked with each

table team during lunch to establish a team charter, “to formally codify norms and the team’s

envisioned impact,” (Harrell, 2020, para. 3). First, I worked with each group to come up with a

team name everyone liked, then we determined what rules they felt were important to working

together as a group. Then we determined who would do group roles such as: a materials person

for passing out and collecting materials; a speaker for speaking out for the whole group when

there is a group discussion during a lesson; and two substitutes for if the material person or

speaker are absent. I had all students sign it to help hold them accountable for their choices and
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get them involved in classroom and group decisions. These groups are not instructional groups,

and therefore will rarely be used for instructional purposes beyond an occasional group

discussion which the speaker will summarize for the group. The reason this strategy was

implemented first was to get students to be more collaborative during transitions and have

defined roles to limit conflict within groups before moving to other strategies which have

higher collaborative demands. I collected data for this strategy by making tally marks for each

student if they were collaborating successfully throughout the time we had with them, as well

as a total amount of conflicts in the classroom for each day. I also collected student work in the

form of the team charter sheet for each group.

Intentional Partnerships

My second strategy was intentionally including partner work during instructional time.

According to Vezzani, “Working in pairs can create favourable conditions for students’

involvement in reading comprehension strategies,” (2023, p. 181). Partner work is used

frequently in the classroom, however the use of partner work increased from the beginning of

the school year, and I planned to use it every day during my application of this strategy.

Students have become more successful in partner work as there is often some struggle to work

in a new routine at the start of a school year, but they still have issues with conflict and

participation. As students worked with their partner, I monitored for issues that I can help

students work through within their partnerships. Pairing students together and having them

work on the same task collaboratively boosts participation regardless of the current

achievement level of either student (Vezzani, 2023). I collected data on student participation

during the times they were partnered together and the number of conflicts overall each day. I

also collected student work completed during partner work as data.

Group Work
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My third strategy was group work during instructional time. My students had not

worked in groups before I implemented this strategy as they needed to build collaboration

skills, so I decided to do this strategy last to help prepare them. Group work took the place of

partner work from the previous week with the second strategy. According to the Illinois State

Board of Education, “Larger groups generally generate more ideas [and] deal better with

complex ideas,” (2014, para. 5). Through working in groups, students have more minds

working together to work on the same task, which helped all students in the group to better

understand the content and generate higher quality products. Students worked in groups of

three to five students depending on individual student needs and absences for the day. Like the

previous week, I monitored issues within the groups and helped students resolve them if

necessary. I collected data on participation in groups as well as overall conflicts for the day. I

also collected student work as data from their work.

Data Collection Plan

For each strategy, I collected data in three different ways. The first two ways are field

notes, which can provide a lot of data about action that is happening in the classroom more than

other data can (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2020). One way I collected field notes was by giving

students a check mark if they had been participating during the collaborative portions of each

lesson. The other way I collected data using field notes is by making tally marks for total

conflicts throughout my morning English language arts block. My other data collection

strategy was to collect student artifacts in the form of student work on the assignments we did,

which are a valuable way to show how students respond to strategies (Massachusetts

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, n.d.). I then rated on a scale of one

through four based on the quality of the product done during a collaborative time in the lesson.

By collecting this data, I gained insight into the effectiveness of these strategies bettering the
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classroom community because as the community improves, student work and participation will

increase while conflict should decrease.

Data Analysis

To analyze my data, I started by graphing the quantitative data based on my field notes

(see Appendix C). As I started graphing, I realized that I would need two separate graphs: one

for participation and one for conflict (see Figures D1 and D2). When I was done, I realized that

it showed the data overall, but it did not easily break it down by strategy, so I rearranged my

data by strategy to create two more graphs. These graphs compared each strategy together

done over five days (see Figures D3 and D4). I also realized that the averages for each strategy

were relevant, so I calculated them and put them at the bottom of a table (see Table D1). I then

went through the student artifacts that I collected and scored them based on effort (see

Appendix E). I then separated them based on strategy into the rest of the data. I had my initial

data field notes with averages by strategy, then I had a pile of student data for strategy one,

strategy two, and strategy three in order so it corresponded with the graphs (see Appendix C

and E). The overall graphs were set above the other piles more because they were relevant but

could not be sorted into one stack. Once they were sorted into piles, I started writing notes

about each pile and what they show. I also compared piles together using both the student work

and the graphs related to the field notes. Through this process, I came up with three learning

statements about community building through collaboration.

As Students Collaborate, they Improve their Collaborative Skills and Grow the

Community

As students practice collaboration, they get better at collaborating and the classroom

community grows. In terms of field notes, I decided to measure the success of collaboration by

looking at participation and conflict. If students are not collaborating successfully, they have
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decreased participation and have higher conflicts. By looking at the graph for overall

participation, the trend line shows an increase in participation (see Figure D1). The averages

for each strategy show that the participation average for the second and third strategy, partner

work and group work respectively, were within a percent of each other, or 91.57% and

92.77% respectively (see Table D1). This is about a 10% increase from the first strategy,

collaborative table teams, which averaged 81.38%. Another interesting piece of information is

that the average number of conflicts for each strategy decreased each time, going from 6.6 to

4.6, then to 4 by the third and final strategy (see Table D1). Student artifacts also show another

way I can mark the success of collaboration as student work is higher quality when

collaboration is successful. Student work reflected the increased participation and students put

more effort into their work when they are able to collaborate, which is shown by the high

scores seen in the student artifacts towards the end (Appendix E). This statement is supported

by literature as well. The article by the Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning states that:

“Community building is vital to active student engagement,” and that students “are able to

engage in dialogue and reflection more actively and take ownership and responsibility of their

own learning,” (n.d., para. 5). This quote supports the data from the two forms of field notes

and student artifacts that shows that the classroom community improved over time because

overall, students were participating at a higher rate, there were less conflicts in the English

language arts block, and students produced higher quality work.

Partner and Group Work were Similarly Effective, but are Better in Different Situations

Partner work and group work were the most effective in terms of participation, conflict,

and quality of student work. For many of my students, however, partner work was easier as the

collaborative demand is lower, but group work also worked better for my students at different

times as some work better when they have to collaborate with more people. As mentioned
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previously, the average participation percentage for both group and partner work were within a

percentage of each other and were the highest overall at 91.57% and 92.77% respectively (see

Table D1). This shows that these strategies were similarly effective to each other, as well as

more effective than the first strategy, collaborative teams, in terms of participation as the

average for that strategy was 81.38%. The number of conflicts tells a similar story, with group

work reducing the conflict by a bit more than partner work did, averaging at 4.6 and 4 conflicts

during the English language arts block, respectively. Student work was of the highest quality

during partner work and group work, which can be seen by the high scores on the student work

during those strategies. During partner work, the three samples of student work I collected

scored a three and four, in order of time (see Figure E2 and E3). When doing group work, the

two samples were both fours (see Figures E4 and E5). This shows that partner work and group

work had similar levels of high-quality work with clear effort put in. However, many students

have outside circumstances that affect their ability to resolve conflicts and overall collaborate,

so some students felt more comfortable with less collaborative demand, such as with partner

work. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, “smaller groups will require fewer

social skills and will work more quickly,” while “larger groups generally generate more ideas,”

and “deal better with complex ideas” (2014, p. 1). This is supported by my data because

students in partners had fewer social demands and many students succeeded with that, as well

as being able to work quicker. In larger groups, students were able to talk to more people about

their ideas and during think-pair-shares, were able to have more ideas ready to share with the

class, but overall were a bit slower despite high participation. Anecdotal evidence from my

classroom supports that different students do better at different levels of collaborative demand.

During my application of partner work, I had one student who refused to work with girls, and

overall, did not collaborate well. He had interrupted schooling and has missed out on some
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social development that he would have gotten in school. When we did group work, he worked

very well with both girls and boys as he had more people to rely on and did not feel pressured

to work with a girl individually. Other students did not do well in group work, but they

excelled during partner work. This shows me that partner work and group work are both

effective, but every student is an individual and may work better in one than the other. When

students have built up their social skills, I believe that group work could be used more

frequently without intervention. All of this data and research shows that partner work and

group work were the most effective, but in some situations, one may be more effective than the

other.

The Quality of Student Work is Higher when there is a Positive Classroom Community

From analyzing my data, I can see that the quality of student work was higher as the

classroom community improved. Towards the beginning of my data collection, I collected a

student artifact where students worked together and then I wrote in front of the class what

answers students wanted to share and I scored it a two (see Figure E1). A score of two

indicates that many students did not put in effort, but there was effort shown by those students

who had been participating and answering. While many students did put in effort, many did

not, which can be seen by the lowest participation score being the day of that assignment,

which was 70%. That is lower than the average for that strategy which was 81.38% (see Table

D1). The averages for the other strategies were 92.56% and 91.77%, which was a statistically

large difference from that day’s participation rate. If students are not participating, they are not

putting in effort, therefore, the quality of student work is lower when the participation rate is

lower. Towards the end of the data collection process, the classroom community improved

according to the data. Students were participating at higher rates and conflict had gone down,

which can be seen by an overall increase in participation rates reflected in the trendline, as well
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as conflicts trending downward overall (see Figures D1 and D2). The student artifacts towards

the end of my data collection had improved as well. Students who, in the past, had issues with

participation put effort into assignments put more effort into their assignments, which was

reflected in their work samples where I gave them a score of four for effort (see Figures E4 and

E5). I gave those artifacts a score of four because effort was put in when working with their

groups and students created high quality products. For example, one student was relatively

disengaged and participated in behaviors to get out of assignments. Through building the

community and emphasizing a growth mindset, he was able to improve his work ethic and he

was one of the furthest ahead on a summarizing assignment, which I gave him a score of four

because of the clear effort put into the assignment (see Figure E5). This shows that community

building is “a key component of successful student engagement and performance in class,” as

community building directly affects the academic performance of students (Columbia Center

for Teaching and Learning, n.d., para.7). Student performance on assignments is directly related

to how weak or strong the classroom community is, which is reflected both in data-based

research as well as through my data collection.

Conclusion

Through this inquiry, I have learned a lot about community building especially when I

have limited time where I can do community building. There are multiple effective ways to

build community in the classroom. The three ways I researched were all effective and have

their place in the classroom. I feel that collaborative teams help organize transitions better and

encourage students to form roles within a group, but this strategy was not as effective if it is not

paired with other strategies, which is reflected by my field notes (see Appendix C). The data I

collected shows that partner work and group work were both effective on their own and helped

to grow the classroom community further (see Appendix D) . A successful classroom

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community leads to higher participation, less conflict, and higher quality student work because

students feel valued as a member of the classroom and want to do better because they care

(Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning, n.d.).

One new wondering I have based on my inquiry into community building through

collaboration is about combining the strategies I did to have the most effective lessons. I would

like to further explore the benefits from varying the strategies applied, such as having students

who work best in groups work together, and students who work in partners together.

Collaborative table teams could be done as well to help transitions as well as help students feel

more comfortable with those in their groups. This research has also made me wonder about the

effectiveness of other community building strategies that I would love to try but did not get the

chance to due to having restricted time, such as morning meetings or incorporating giving and

receiving critiques on work. I would like to explore more strategic partners and groupings as

my class was more homogenous and therefore it was hard to group students based on skill

levels since there was little variation. Research shows that homogeneously grouped students

have a higher level of success, partially due to students being able to learn from each other and

to see positive examples of behavior and academics (Hansen, 2022). Overall, I have learned a

lot and that has led me to wonder about more ways I can learn about community building both

with new strategies and improving on the ones I researched.

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References

Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Community building in the classroom.

Columbia University. https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/teaching-with-

technology/teaching-online/community-building/#:~:text=By%20engaging%20in

%20activities%20that,safe%20learning%20environment%20for%20themselves.

Dana, N. F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2020). The reflective educator's guide to classroom

research (4th ed.). Corwin.

Hansen, B. (2022). What “failing” schools really need. Educational Leadership, 80(4), 66–70.

Harrell, J. H. (2020). Making teams more collaborative. Edutopia.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/making-teams-more-collaborative/

Illinois State Board of Education. (2014). Collaborative learning guide.

https://education.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/casei/collaborative_learning_guidea.pdf

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (n.d.). Inclusive practice

tool: Example artifact list. https://www.doe.mass.edu/edeval/guidebook/5b-

exartifacts.pdf

Morcom, V. (2022). Social practices and relational agency to support student collaboration: A

sociocultural perspective. Issues in Educational Research, 34(4), 1530–1547.

Vezzani, A. (2023). Analysing students’ interaction during the in-pairs reading comprehension

task: What kind of procedure supports the focus on the text? Journal of Theories and

Research in Education, 8, 181–202.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/10.6092/issn.1970-2221/15950
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Appendix A

Initial Data Collection

This was the initial data I collected after noticing a lot of conflict in my classroom. I

collected the amounts of times that students had conflicts, such as verbal altercations and

physical altercations if it got to that point. This reflected my time with students for the full day,

which is why there were so many more recorded conflicts than in my official data collection

and analysis. In addition, this data was collected before a student with major disruptive

behaviors that often caused other students to participate in major disruptive behaviors too was

moved to a class that better fit his needs. After he moved, the class did calm down a bit, but

there was still a high need for community building to reduce the still high amount of conflict in

the classroom.
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Appendix B

Goal Sheet

This is the goal sheet I created with my collaborating teacher to create goals and

recognize classroom needs. We identified specific areas the classroom had needs and then

talked about ways the school was addressing these issues already and what I would be able to

do. We also talked about ways I could collect data and struggles I may have with this

wondering.

Current Wondering/Inquiry Topic: In what ways can I build classroom community through

collaboration?

1. What do you already know and what do you hope will happen as you engage in

this inquiry topic?

I know that community building is incredibly important, and I want to learn more about

ways to help build community in my classroom to use in future situations. I also want

to help my current students while I am still here. Community building can decrease

behavioral issues by helping students feel valued in their class.

2. What formative data might you collect to (1) learn more about your topic and (2)

learn what your students already know or are able to do related to your topic?

Amount of conflict and time lost in instruction. This will help show a need for

community building as those are two things that decrease with a stronger community.

Some students are already collaborative, but many have issues regulating their

emotions.

3. What ideas do you already have for changes/actions/strategies in your teaching

practice that you might make related to your inquiry this semester?
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I could do morning meetings or collaborative teams. Increasing rewards related to

relationships might be beneficial. Different ways to collaborate helps students to work

together better and improve the community.

4. What is your greatest hope and your greatest concern related to your inquiry?

My greatest hope is that my students will be able to work better together to learn more

despite the fact that the classes are grouped by ability. My greatest concern is being

able to do this inquiry topic while not taking too much instructional time since that is a

big concern.
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Appendix C

Field Notes

These were my field notes that included two of my data sources. One was participation,

which was shown in the checkmarks down the column, as well as one new student who came to

my class in my second who had his participation recorded underneath the columns under the

other data. I then took the total number of students present for the day and counted how many

participated so I could later show how many students participated as a percentage since the total

number of students varied each day due to absences. Underneath each column are tally marks

that indicate the total number of conflicts for the English language arts block, which is about

two hours every day. I also made notes to indicate where one strategy starts, as well as within

columns if I was unable to collect data on those days.

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Appendix D

Tables and Graphs based on Field Notes

These were the graphs and tables I created based off of the data I collected through field

notes. They presented the data in a few ways, including overall throughout the four weeks I

collected data, as well as by strategy and then averages by strategy.

Figure D1

Overall Participation by Percentage Over Time

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Figure D2

Overall Conflict Over Time

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Figure D3

Participation by Strategy Over Five Days

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Figure D4

Conflict by Strategy Over Five Days

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Table D1

Participation and Conflict Data Over Five Days with Averages

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Appendix E

Graded Student Artifacts

Throughout the three strategies, I collected some student artifacts. I graded each one on

a scale of one to four based on effort and the quality of the product. One would be no effort

and four would be very clear effort.

Figure E1

Text Feature Graphic Organizer

Note. This artifact was written by me based on a whole group collaboration on October 23rd

during my execution of the first strategy, collaborative table teams. Students worked with a

partner to complete this graphic organizer, then we came back together, and I wrote what

students had on their paper. By having students work together first, many students were willing

to share in front of the whole group and I received high quality responses, however
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participation was relatively low on this day. If students did not have the correct answer, I asked

further questions to lead them to the correct answer or asked someone around them to help

before I went back to them. Many students did not participate during the writing portion of this

lesson, and it took some prompting to get responses from more students than just the ones who

were willing to share who had participated the whole time, so I gave a score of 2.

Figure E2

Student Responses to Writing Prompt

Note. On October 26th during the application of my second strategy, group work, students

responded to the writing prompt “Using text evidence from the text, “Election Day,” describe

the order of events that led to women and young people gaining the right to vote.” There was a

special event, so the lesson was cut short, but these were two responses that were well

developed. I rated it a three because the information is correct but out of order and sentence

structure could be improved. There is effort put in, which is something I am looking for even if

the answer overall is not answering the question fully. It was unfinished; however, I did not

penalize either student due to not having enough time due to the event.
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BUILDING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY THROUGH COLLABORATION

Figure E3

Summarizing Graphic Organizer for the Passage, “Election Day”

Note. This was a student artifact from October 27th, also during the second strategy. It was a

summarizing graphic organizer. This sample is from a student with interrupted schooling, and

while he had help, he worked well with others and used resources around him, such as his

book, the teacher, and students around him to put his ideas together. He put a lot of effort into

this assignment and wanted it to be correct as well as skillfully put together, so I gave him a

four. He made some errors; however, the details are correct and the summary flows together

nicely. This assignment was not finished by most students as it was fairly long, and the

intention was for students to work on it for more than just one day.
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BUILDING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY THROUGH COLLABORATION

Figure E4

Timeline Close Reading Response

Note. I collected this student artifact on November 7th, during the third strategy, group work.

This is from a student who usually has conflicts with those she collaborates with. She was very

motivated and worked with the people she was with to fill out the questions for this close read.

I gave her a score of four because she put a lot of effort into this and it paid off, with her

answers being correct, save for a few minor spelling errors.

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BUILDING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY THROUGH COLLABORATION

Figure E5

Summarizing Graphic Organizer for the Passage, “African Americans and Women Get the

Right to Vote”
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BUILDING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY THROUGH COLLABORATION

Note. These two images are a front and back of a summarizing graphic organizer from

November 8th during the third strategy, group work. This is from a student who, towards the

beginning of the school year, lacked motivation to work on assignments and put effort in.

Through this inquiry, as well as through emphasizing and praising skills and behaviors related

to a growth mindset, he has improved his work ethic to be able to keep up with and put effort

into assignments like this one. He worked with a group with adult intervention as he has high

behavioral needs and successfully completed all relevant details, therefore I gave him a four.