In most schools grouping students is a requirement due to the effectiveness of collaborative learning. Although students might have literacy groups, classroom desk must also be in collaborative groups. The support for this is found in the earlier statement that learning is a social activity. In collaborative groups students feed off each other and are able to assist each other. Another benefit of collaborative groups is that it fosters critical thinking because discussion helps students recognize inconsistencies between their views and their peers’ views, try to find common ground between the two, and either adapt their peers’ views or modify their own views (Webb, Troper, & Fall, 1995). Teachers usually walk around to monitor collaborative groups, but don’t get to all groups so literacy groups is a good area for collaborative learning. Teachers are able to monitor students’ discussions for use of correct terms and interpretation of …show more content…
The article cited, in several schools, one third of the students were involved in passive learning by listening to lectures and watching videos (Conderman, Bresnahan, & Hedin, 2011). One interesting strategy they pointed out was reciprocal teaching. This allows students to use strategies good readers use with their partners after their teacher has modeled the strategies. There were several others that teachers should be aware of and use regularly in their