Student collaboration is a key aspect of my class. Students are often placed into specific groups depending on ability levels and take part in deep discussion to understand a text in at a more profound level. Practices such as jigsaw, stations and literary circles are most commonly practiced in my classroom. Jigsaw exposes students to several works and gives a sense of ownership to students over the educational process. Stations supplies students with a sense of urgency and focus as they complete work diligently within a specific time limit before they transition to another station. Literary circles are a collaborative technique that I usually have students practice several times before we enter our Book Club Unit. In literary circles, each student within a group works with the same text, but is in charge of a different role. In given time, they then share their ideas based on their specific task to their group members. By practicing different roles in literary circles multiple times in the beginning of the year, by the time students enter their Book Club groups, they are capable of individually going into a text and accomplishing all of the roles on their own, rather than just focusing on a singular job. Students become comfortable with their classmates and their own ideas throughout all of the student-centered activities. Below is an example of one of the many collaborative group lessons.
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William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a major work that we study in English 10. As a pre-reading activity I create stations that cover multiple aspects of Shakespeare's work so the students could apply this newly learned knowledge to their prior knowledge.