The Team Collaboration Checklist is intended to serve as a useful reminder of the important aspects of team dynamics. It is not a rubric for grading purposes, but rather a reminder for student and adult teams about the key conditions for good collaboration. Teams might regularly refer to the collaboration checklist throughout a project, revisit it in moments when their progress is stuck, or us it to reflect on successes and challenges.

We intend these to be two separate docs that serve different purposes. While the Collaboration rubric would feature regularly in project design, facilitation, and assessment, the checklist is more of a supplemental tool to be used as needed to boost team performance. Given the differences between individual and group behaviors, it is best to think of these two resources as complimenting each other rather than being aligned to one another.

Elementary – 5th Grade Note:

Effective collaboration looks similar at the middle school and elementary level, although the sophistication of the projects and problems addressed will change, as will the sophistication of student roles and tasks. In addition, the 5th-grade rubric focuses on a slightly smaller set of dimensions (rows) and indicators (bullets) than the middle school rubric. We encourage elementary users to adjust your focus dimensions by class or grade level if you find that useful and to feel free to supplement with language that works well for your students and context.