Written by: Sherri Widen
| We’re building resources for the K–12 Durable Skills Framework, and we need your voice.Whether you teach elementary, middle, or high school, coach teachers, counsel students, or lead youth programs, you can help us create tools that learners need in and out of school. Pilot test our resources, share what works and what doesn’t, and shape the framework alongside educators nationwide. Sign up for the pilot here |
If you’ve ever assigned group work only to watch one learner do everything while others scroll, you’re not alone. Collaboration sounds simple: just put kids in a group and magic happens, right? Wrong. Collaboration is a skill, and like any skill, learners benefit from explicit instruction and practice to develop it.
Learners often lack the vocabulary, frameworks, and practice that collaboration requires. They don’t know how to respectfully disagree, divide labor fairly, or keep a team on track. When learners understand how to collaborate, authentic practice, and structured reflection, collaboration becomes something they can do well.
Collaboration is one of the skills our resources were designed to support in our K-12 Durable Skills Pilot Project. Others include communication, active listening, self-management, and more. We’ve developed resources for each grade band that educators can use to help learners work together effectively.
Grade-Level Approaches
Collaboration looks different in each grade band. In grades K-2, learners learn to share, take turns, and use kind words. Educators can post and refer to the collaboration anchor chart showing what collaboration looks like: “Including everyone,” “Sharing what we have,” “Using everyone’s strengths.”
In grades 3-5, the collaboration resources help learners identify team strengths, set clear roles, and communicate about progress. A Team Challenge (building the tallest tower in 10 minutes with a structured debrief) makes visible how teams divided work and handled disagreements.
In grades 6-8, students learn to respectfully disagree, listen to different viewpoints, and give helpful feedback. Activities like the Human Knot (where students grab hands across a circle and untangle without releasing hands) require communication, problem-solving, and patience.
In grades 9-12, students navigate virtual teamwork, build consensus among diverse opinions, and leverage each member’s strengths strategically. Real-world projects like developing a social enterprise or creating a documentary push them to tackle authentic collaboration challenges.
What Works
Clear role assignments ensure everyone participates and knows what they’re responsible for.
Structured reflection helps learners recognize what they did well. Simple prompts like “On your team, when did collaboration make the work better than if you worked alone?” drive real learning.
Anchor charts give learners visible frameworks and the language they need to collaborate. For example, posting the anchor chart with ‘What does collaboration sound like?’ provides learners with clear examples (such as ‘You’re really good at organizing—could you help us plan?’) and works across grade levels.
Authentic accountability matters. When students know they’ll reflect on their specific role—”What did you contribute to the team’s success?”—they’re more engaged and take their responsibilities seriously.
Why This Matters
Collaboration skills deserve intentional support because learners who can work effectively with others are better positioned to succeed in school and beyond (i.e.,in college, careers, and life). They’re more creative (diverse perspectives lead to better ideas). They’re more resilient (a teammate helps when you get stuck). They’re more empathetic (collaboration requires seeing others’ points of view).
But they won’t develop these skills by accident. They develop them through practice, feedback, and reflection—the same way they develop other skills.
What would it look like to explicitly teach one collaboration skill in your classroom this week?
Join our K-12 Durable Skills Pilot Project
Our K-12 Durable Skills Pilot Project is designed to support educators in bringing collaboration (and other durable skills including communication, active listening, and self-management) to life in their classrooms. We provide ready-to-use tools and resources that integrate into your routines and practices and tailored to your grade band and a community of educators to learn with.
If you want to help your learners become collaborative learners—and ready to tackle the “everyone doing their own thing” problem—we’d love to have you join us.
Together, we’re building a generation of learners who know how to work well with others.
