Collaboration is just the start of it

Mill Rythe Junior School using Wizkid collaboratively for homework

We have been focusing on improving children’s collaborative skills in class, so I decided to create an activity on Wizkid that could be done as homework, and included collaborative working.

put the children into history groups of mixed ability, and gave each group a significant Tudor person to research. Their project was to create a fact file for their person over three weeks. Each week the focus of the task was slightly different, and the children had to research the information individually, then compile their research in history lessons back in class.

I set up a separate subfolder for each group, which included their worksheet that they could save to their eLocker, download and work on at home as well as in school; a selection of websites from which they could begin their research; and a discussion board that they could use to ask each other for help and suggest additional web resources for others in the group to use.

The children responded very positively to the homework tasks, with many going above and beyond the recommended 40 minutes for the homework. Some even went onto the discussion boards of other groups to assist them, because they found the task so interesting and enjoyable!

Here are a few comments posted on the discussion boards at the end of the task:

“I really enjoyed doing the homework as a group
because we got to help each other.”

“I really enjoyed this homework mainly because it is different and because if you get stuck you can ask your friends. I hope we get more.”

“I think the discussion board was a good idea for group working because everyone can help people when they’re not in your house!”

This post has come courtesy of Lisa Rae.