As students grow as collaborators, they can successfully work with their classmates, teachers, family and community members now and in the future.

Collaborators:

• Respect other people’s thinking
• Work together within a group to learn, be productive, and achieve common goals
• Consider perspectives to include a variety of viewpoints
• Give and receive helpful feedback to improve work

Ideas for Discussing Collaboration at Home

Pay attention to when you use collaboration skills throughout your day.  Try to regularly share these examples with your student. Explain how you used specific collaboration skills to work through scenarios. Over time, you might share examples of how you used skills well and opportunities for you to grow, too. Sharing your stories will help build understanding of how skills can be used in and beyond school and why these skills are important.

You might also ask your student questions such as:

• How did you help someone today?
• When did you listen to other points of view? What did you learn?
• How did you help members of your team finish the ____  [activity, project, assignment]?
• Were there moments when your group struggled? How did you handle that? What did you learn from that experience?
• How can you be a good collaborator when you are ____ (ex: a member of a team; in a group with people you don’t know yet; disagreeing with someone)?
• What do you want to remember to be a good collaborator tomorrow?

Portrait of a Graduate in Action