Daniel P.

Baucino
Professor Hone
EDU 412
1 April 2016
NCPTS 2 Assignment
Rationale:
Over the past two months, I have taken the time to learn about my students and to find ways to
help them become 21st century citizens. In Mrs. Harris classroom, I have seen a lot of issues
with collaboration. Students seem to have a hard time working effectively and respectfully with
those who are different from them (i.e. reading levels, math levels, disability, etc) In A/B
buddies, I will often see negative interactions between the partners and how they are disagreeing
on what to say or do in class. In one instance, I saw two students working together. One of the
students is an advanced learner while the other may have ADHD. They were asked to compare
fractions together and had to use cross multiplication to help them see the comparison, the child
with ADHD does not have his multiplication badge so he takes a little longer in multiplying
numbers. The advanced learned became increasingly frustrated and impatient. With the attitude
of the advance learner and the slowness of the ADHD student, they were going a lot slower than
their classmates and were having a hard time working together. This made me realized that
students need to be able to tolerate working with others that are different than they are. They
have to be willing to make necessary adjustments in collaboration with others so that the
common goal can be achieved. In addition, both students should value the contributions of each
other. In todays society, students will be faced with many challenges. We live in a country full of
people from different walks of life and that we are not always going to agree on everything but it

is very important to make compromises and find ways to work together so that things can be
achieved.
Whole Group Read Aloud/ Activity Plan
In order to help teach effective collaboration and the importance of being civil with each other.
I thought it would be best to do a read aloud.
I will pair up the students with someone that they dont know very well and have them talk
about what is important when you are collaborating on a project.
Have students share what they discussed with their partner. Here I am activating their prior
knowledge and getting them to open up with others.
Tell the students that today we are going to be reading The Giving Tree.
Read The Giving Tree
Ask the students to talk with their A/B buddy about what they thought The Giving Tree was
about. (Emphasis on the relationship between the boy and the tree.
Tell the students and their partners that they are going to be given a paper tree.
Tell the students on this paper tree, you will see several branches. In each branch, I want you
and your partner to decide on a characteristic of a good collaborative working session. (This
will allow the students to build on prior knowledge and understand what is important when
you are collaborating with another student)
Give the students about 20 minutes to work on their paper tree.
Then call everyone back to the carpet and ask some students to share their trees.

 Talk about why it is important for students to have effective collaboration and that sometimes
you will be faced with situations in which you will work with someone you do not know and
you have to make accommodations for each other.
Relationship to Math and Science
Math
Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Model with mathematics
Look for and express regularity in repeated reason.
In collaboration for math, students have to work together to solve problems. In the lesson,
students have to figure out what to add to their paper trees to describe the characteristics of a
good collaboration. In order to do this, they have to mention different characteristics to each
other and evaluate whether they should be added to the tree or not. In addition to sharing their
strategies they also have to show it and explain it in a way that it is effectively comprehended by
their partner. They also have to respect others opinion.

Science
Asking questions and defining problems.
Developing and using models
Planning and carrying out investigations.
Constructing explanations and designing solutions.

In collaboration for science, they have to work together to discover some of the awesome things
about science. For The Giving Tree lesson, they had to ask each other questions and work
together to find those answers, then they have to figure out how they are going to answer these
questions. This allows them to find the different characteristics that are important in a good
collaborative session. Like in science if students want to be able to have a good experiment, they
will have to learn to respect and collaborate with others.