Does Collaborative Learning Support Literacy?

             Today, my education professor posed a question to the class: does collaborative learning support literacy?  It got me wondering…exactly how does collaborative learning support literacy?  I think a good place to start is with learning theories.  Proponents of social constructivism have found that it’s motivating to have students actively engage in a lesson within a social setting.  These theorists have found that making learning a part of a collaborative effort motivates children both intrinsically and extrinsically; the internal motivation is derived from doing well and feeling good about it, and the external motivation comes from being a part of a community of learners.  So how would social learning specifically support literacy?  For starters, literacy is improved through meaningful discourse.  Students can share text-to-self connections with their peers, resulting in new perspectives.  Text-to-text connections can widen their understanding of one author’s ideas compared to another, and test-to-world connections can yield enlightened new ideologies.  Collaboration can also improve fluency as students read aloud to one another or choral read in small groups.  Students can broaden their vocabularies through their discussions, or by testing one another on new words.  Finally, collaboration can enhance comprehension skills as students share ideas and answer questions together.  Collaborative learning supports all aspects of literacy and the social aspect of it makes the entire experience enjoyable.