Imagine a classroom community in which student partners actively work with each other, give constructive feedback, support one another in achieving their goals, and engage in strong academic conversations.
This is possible in your middle and secondary school classroom and I want to share some ways to make this dream come alive!
Why Student Achievement Partnerships are Needed
Accountability partners are all the rage in the corporate world for good reason. Accountability partners help one another achieve goals, invest in overall success of others, and foster a sense of belonging. I mean there are motivational speakers and authors, such as Simon Sinek and Adam Grant, that have made a whole career teaching professionals how to build great teams and incorporate accountability partners.
As a teacher I want all those things for my students so they can be successful in their learning and professional lives, so I implemented learning partnerships several years ago.
When students returned back to my classroom full time from pandemic learning I noticed they all struggled to communicate effectively. They also choose to work alone versus engage in collaborative activities.
It hurt my teacher heart. It also made teaching more challenging.
Student need support from others in their class and I have to teach them how to do it.
Ways to Partner Students
I love traditional ways to partner students together in the classroom. Clock partners, name sticks, and partner wheels all have a place within a classroom, but the root of the problem was not HOW to partner students. The problem was that students lost the skills to communicate and work with others effectively.
So that is where learning partnerships begin.
Student achievement partnerships are accountability partners within the classroom. They support one another through academic activities, provide feedback on assignments, and actively check in with one another to encourage success in reading their goals.
How to Get Started with Student Partners
I engage students in student partnership learning stations at the beginning of the school year in order to establish a classroom culture of teamwork and collaboration. I include these activities along side activities to establish strong independent reading routines. This work is foundational to student success in my class, but also foundational to building habits of success outside of the classroom.
Students engage in watching short videos about accountability partners and strong teamwork skills. Students also participate in activities that have them using communication skills to achieve a task. They even learn academic language related to teamwork and partnerships.
Then, students create ‘Partner Wanted’ posters that communicate the skills they can provide to support another student and the skills they need from a student partner. I ask students to keep their names off of the posters so that they are not swayed into choosing a partner based on friendship, but based on what each partner can bring to the partnership.
Students engage in a gallery walk of the ‘Partner Wanted’ posters and select several posters that represent potential student partners. I did a digital gallery walk last school year, and will this school year, which worked well. Students then indicate their potential student partners on a form. I code each ‘Partner Wanted’ poster so I know the owner of each poster.
The last step is to analyze student responses and match up student partners. I reveal the partnerships the next day and student set goals together for the first unit we are studying.
Resources and Feedback
I’ve made my student partner learning stations available in my TPT store so that you can implement student achievement partners in your class this school year.
If you are skeptical or unsure about trying student partnerships, read what my previous students have said about student partners:
Check back in the next few weeks for specific strategies and activities I implement in my classroom to foster student teamwork and collaboration. Building strong student partners takes some intention, but it is so worth it.
Remember that classroom community I mentioned at the beginning of this post? It is possible and you can start today by teaching your students the purpose and skills of being strong student partners.