Of collaborative writing with teens

Recently, I have been working more on collaboration in my classrooms. It is not an easy task with teenagers. They can be so focused on themselves: their future university, their drama, their social life, at times they forget to really learn and get ready for real life, the one that will happen when school is out.

So to bring on collaboration in a motivating and exciting way, I used something which is part of their lives, constantly: their mobile phones.

The objective of the lesson was to write an argumentative essay using statistic facts, developing a compelling argument about living in big cities and the pros and cons of it. 

Boring!

How could I turn the task into something fun, cool, and most importantly, collaborative?

I had them assigned to my Google Classroom, and they had the app downloaded into their phones. So, accessibility: check!

Next, I created a document with a model essay, and asked them to look into this model to find the following information: reasons people want to live in big cities, problems that this brings, opinion of the writer, format of the essay (paragraphs and content of each), statistics, linking words (add, contrast, conclude). 

They had to complete a table with this information. And here comes the fun: I divided them into color-coded groups: each group had a slot under the information they needed to work on. They could help each other, correct each other's slot, tell each other where they could find information. Collaboration: check!

So what they had to do was connect to the document using their phones. I made the document visible to them on the board. The minute the first one started writing and saw that what he was writing was visible to everyone else on the board, they were enchanted. If one of them had a problem with the device or connection, I asked them to help each other, so they would be working entirely by themselves.

Occasionally I had to ask them to stop goofing around (yes, teenagers are a pain) but overall, the novelty of having a collaborative brainstorming was mind-blowing for them.

As for me, I increased collaboration, their problem-solving skill by helping each other, communication, critical thinking. 

It was a great class. After they finished brainstorming, they had to draft a rough version of what they would like to say using the same statistics from the model writing I provided for them. 

After this collaborative brainstorming and drafting, their writing was flowing naturally, and I can only imagine the reasons why: maybe I decided to bring myself into their comfort zone (and consequentially out of my comfort zone!), as they were able to work using their phones, something not very usual for them. Maybe the interaction was necessary for them to think better. 

Or maybe it is just what we need to start doing: a new setting for our classroom, to foster the so much needed skills in our students.

And, most importantly: get out of our comfort zone and develop these skills in ourselves, teachers!