foster these connections, this chapter establishes the fifty-fifty rule for in-class interaction and supports that with five collaborative strategies that are sure to make your classroom a richer learning environment.
The Fifty-Fifty Rule
Two key social elements have a strong effect on academic success: (1) belonging and (2) cooperative learning. As students mature from the K–2 years, the genetic drive to connect unfolds. Students want to affiliate with likeminded peers (Lewis & Bates, 2010). Research suggests an especially positive and significant relationship between academic achievement and school belonging, and for minority students, a feeling of acceptance (Adelabu, 2007). In fact, a strong feeling of acceptance in class and school helps protect minority students from damaging environmental and social threats (Cook, Purdie-Vaughns, Garcia, & Cohen, 2012). Therefore, to effectively impact academic achievement, teachers should split class time equally between social time and individual time—that’s the fifty-fifty rule. On any given day, you might split social and individual time seventy-thirty or even ten-ninety, but over a week, it should all even out. Let’s dig deeper.
One of the more salient differences between the high-achieving students and the underachievers is the presence of supportive peers. Researchers note that even high achievers often experience lulls in their academic success. The high achievers likened having a strong peer network to the experience of trying to walk backward down a crowded staircase: “If students started to underachieve and tried to turn and walk down the staircase, many other students pushed them back up the staircase” (Reis, Colbert, & Hébert, 2005, p. 117). Now get ready to get blown away: sixteen of the eighteen high-achieving students told researchers they had strong peer support networks, compared with just one of the seventeen underachievers.
Second, when cooperative learning is done well, it has an almost magical effect. The effect size of cooperative versus individual learning is 0.59 (Hattie, 2009). This gain is solid; over a year’s worth of difference. Additionally, cooperative learning supports the critical feeling of belonging. Most high-performing teachers use one or more of the strategies in table 2.1 to create social time for students and balance it with individual learning time.
Table 2.1: The Fifty-Fifty Rule
| Social Time | Individual Time |
| Cooperative groups and teams | Solo time for journaling and mind mapping |
| Study buddies or partners to quiz each other | Practice self-testing |
| Temporary partners for summarizing time | Goal setting and self-assessment |
| Learning stations for social data gathering | Reading, reflection, and writing |
| Group projects for brainstorming and discussion | Seatwork for problem solving |
In the next section, we’ll take a look at the collaborative activities that enhance social time to connect for success.
Collaborative Strategies
Much of what makes social activity work (to the degree it does) is our own biology. We are not just driven to be social; we are genetically primed for it. As you can see in the following list, it’s a steady progression that begins from birth.
• Ages zero to three: A baby’s entire focus (security) is locking in the best caregiver around (mom, dad, grandma, aunt, or so on), which continues through the toddler years.
• Ages four to nine: By age four, children still don’t care much about their peers, but they still care a lot about their parents (connections). By mid-elementary school, our genes tell us to start affiliating by making friends. The meanest thing a fourth-grade student can say to another student is, “I’m not going to invite you to my birthday party!” Friends are becoming important, and peers form cliques, clubs, and teams. Students badly want to belong.
• Ages ten to seventeen: By middle school, we want more than to belong; we want to differentiate. That’s the role of status. Secondary students will do (and have done) just about anything to say, “I’m important,” “I’m special,” “I’m good looking,” “I’m smart,” or “I’m tough.” Why? Social status is hardwired (Zink et al., 2008). The beauty of knowing the biology of your students is that this biology gives openings for building interdependency.
Why does social time work so well? For elementary students, it is fun. Younger students are just learning to have friends, and social learning usually builds connections for social skills as well as academic skills. Students like their friends or peers and enjoy doing things with them. At the secondary level, pride and status are becoming important. Aside from having or making friends, students often don’t want to lose face by letting down a friend or classmate. When they need help, there’s an affiliated group to offer a hand. In short, the emotional side gets a big boost when you add interdependency to lessons, which makes for more robust effect sizes. Interdependency (see figure 2.1) means that student success depends on another student’s success, which raises everyone’s effort level. Four students in a cooperative group or team has a 0.69 effect size on student achievement (Hattie, 2009).
Figure 2.1: Interdependency builds connections.
In the next section, I begin with strategies for building effective cooperative groups and teams that foster interdependency. In the sections that follow, we’ll look at some other ways to build interdependency in the form of study buddies, mentors, and temporary partners. As you implement these in your classroom, remember it takes time to build and maintain relationships. Be patient, and your students will benefit from the good that comes from them.
Cooperative Groups and Teams
Many teachers will say how groups or teams just waste time. Teams are just structures. By themselves, they will accomplish nothing. Your students need social cues, prompts, and systems to establish and guide behaviors. Let’s break down how teams can work. In my middle school classes, teams of five seemed to work best. For elementary school, temporary cooperative groups of four or established teams of four work well. I have drawn the following ideas from many sources (for example, see Kagan, Kagan, & Kagan, 1997).
• Allow the team to have a unique name, slogan, cheer, celebration, and logo: This builds social status and camaraderie. Give students time for each of these when building teams.
• Give everyone a unique and valued role: Roles engage more of the class and build positive interdependence (examples include summarizer, leader, personal trainer, stretch leader, energizer, joke teller, and courier).
• Set class norms for all group behaviors: This reduces students acting out and builds individual accountability. For example, share three things you expect every team to do, such as (1) contribute to the class, (2) be on time, and (3) support each other.
• Ensure the team works together daily: Use procedures and rituals that involve everyone, every day. Foster equal participation using turn-taking that leadership and group norms regulate.
For cooperative groups and teams to be most effective, coach the team leader, and ask him or her to coach and teach the team how to improve. Make it clear to the groups that this is the leader’s
