Collaborating at the Stapler? Strategies for Real Collaboration

1. Collaborating at the Stapler? Strategies for Real Collaboration A Writing Across the Curriculum & Writing in the Disciplines Professional Development Presentation Dr. Robert T. Koch Jr. Director, Center for Writing Excellence University of North Alabama October 09, 2008

2. Goals Understand the difference between collaboration and cooperation as it pertains to writing Consider strategies for collaborative invention, revision, and editing Consider technology uses in collaborative writing

3. Cooperation or Collaboration IN WRITING? Cooperation Work is distributed among group members, completed independently, and assembled at the end (meeting at the stapler) Collaboration Work involves all group members through all process steps, so that everyone learns about and understands the topic content

4. Why Collaboration? Vygotsky’s Theory of Language Development suggests that we develop language and critical thinking skills from social interaction as opposed to working alone. “If thought is internalized public and social talk, then writing of all kinds is internalized social talk made public and social again” (Bruffee, 1984, p.642).

5. Why Collaboration? “our task must involve engaging students in conversation among themselves at as many points in both the writing and the reading process as possible, and that we should contrive to ensure that students’ conversation about what they read and write is similar in as many ways as possible to the way we would like them to eventually read and write” (Bruffee, 1984, p.642). “Participants in collaborative learning groups learn when they challenge one another with questions, when they use the evidence and information available to them, when they develop relationships among issues, [and] when they evaluate their own thinking. In other words, they learn when they assume that knowledge is something they can help create rather than something to be received whole from someone else” (Gere, 1987, p. 69).

6. Why Collaboration? UNA Implementation of the National Survey of Student Engagement 2008 Comparisons of NSSE 2006 and NSSE 2008 results for the active and collaborative learning benchmark shows no increase among seniors. We are holding the line, but not necessarily improving . “[C]reating more group work would allow students to work on projects outside of the classroom with their peers and may assist in in diversity interaction” (p.14).

7. Why Collaboration? Three types of collaborative tasks: High-order thinking -- define, discuss, and debate to solve complex problems Division of labor -- very large jobs that cannot be completed by an individual within a limited time frame Specialist or expertise-based -- each collaborator has a different area of expertise to contribute (Lunsford, 1991, p.6)

8. Group Meeting Role Play Writing Roles to play during meetings (everyone should alternate, so that each person reads the whole text): Brainstormer – Everyone plays this at all times. Drafter – This person sits at the computer or with the paper and pen and does the primary writing. Reviewer – This person will read what the other person has written to identify and examine paragraph focus, idea arrangement, development. This is best done when the reviewer reads out loud to the group! Editor – This person will do grammar check, review source integration, check formatting.

9. Group Meeting Role Play For all group meetings, do the following: Have an agenda – some writing goal(s) to accomplish by the end of the meeting. Assign specific writing roles – for each group member to play – in meetings and/or beyond. Do not assign parts to write – assign roles to play! Be sure people understand their writing tasks to be completed by the next meeting. Good, realistic planning and timely execution often lead to success. Be aware of time constraints – make sure everyone understands the deadlines

10. Group Dynamics Decisions Made by Monarchy (appointed group leader) Democracy (group vote) Dictatorship (somebody grabs the reins) Stick with the pick, or move to strategies that allow for more democracy, not less.

11. Group Dissonance “Learning cannot be understood strictly on cognitive grounds; it means rather joining new communities and taking part in new conversations” (Trimbur, 1989, p. 605) “The Consensus that we ask students to reach in the collaborative classroom will be based not so much on collective agreements as on collective explanations” of difference (Trimbur, 1989, p. 610).

12. Collaborative Invention Every time you meet, discuss the topic in depth with your group. For each meeting, have two or more note-takers who keep track of what is said and who can compare notes after the fact. These notes will be used to draft, revise, and edit the paper. Write your thesis together and develop an organization or outline for the whole paper together.

13. Collaborative Drafting Select your best typist or two to be the primary drafters. Everyone else sits around the drafter and “feeds” the person sentences – write the document together, so that it doesn’t adopt one person’s voice, or multiple voices.

14. Collaborative Revision and Editing Read the paper out loud together and discuss whether or not each idea, sentence, and paragraph connects to the ones around it. If the paper has been cooperatively written, group members should trade sections and read them as if the topic is entirely new. Ask open-ended questions, especially “how?” “why?” and “what is the connection?” This will help you see how to tie sections together.

15. Computers and Collaboration Synchronous Technologies Chats Instant Messengers Asynchronous Technologies E-mail Discussion Boards Mixed Technologies MySpace Facebook Blackboard eCollege

16. References Bruffee, K. A. (1984). Collaborative learning and the “conversation of mankind.” College English 46(7), 635-52. Gere, A. R. (1987). Writing groups: History, theory, and implications. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Lunsford, A. (1991). Collaboration, control, and the idea of a writing center. The Writing Center Journal 12(1), 3-10. Trimbur, J. (1989). Consensus and difference in collaborative learning. College English 51(6), 602-616. Vaughn, M. J. (2008). Synopsis of the results from the National Survey of Student Engagement – 2008. Florence, AL: University of North Alabama, Institutional Research, Planning, and Assessment. Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.