My classroom THRIVES on groupwork, but it doesn’t happen overnight.
I absolutely love to incorporate group work into all of my classes. My classroom THRIVES on groupwork, but this doesn’t happen overnight. We work really hard in class to show students how to positively collaborate and engage with each other.
There are so many benefits to students working together, but my favorite is their ability to learn from their peers in addition to learning from me. Several students prefer to ask a question in a team of 4 as opposed to in front of an entire class. I also believe that this helps build relationships amongst the students as well as with myself. It helps students decide whether they want to stand out in the classroom – or if they would rather not. It is easier to call out a team for a wrong answer as opposed to calling out an individual student.
I find that in order for teamwork to be productive, the students have to learn about each other and be willing to speak to one another about math AND life. I start off the school year with several non-math related activities (see my other blog page on back to school activities) where students get to know their teams. I also use every opportunity I have to force students to speak to one another. Here are my favorite examples:
- “The youngest member of the team is going to return the calculators today”
- “Whoever has the cleanest shoes on is going to bring their team’s worksheet to my desk”
- “Whichever teammate ate pizza most recently is going to put their answer on the board today”
- “Whoever is wearing the most red at your team is going to pass out white board materials today”
These are very few moments in the day – but typically encourage a discussion amongst teammates.
When forming the teams I either group students according to confidence in the current material, a mix of ability level in a team, or go completely random. It depends on the activity at hand or the students you have. When I decide to go completely random we will use a deck of cards or a random team generator online. These days are fun because students can see that the teams were not pre-planned and therefore seem genuinely more invested.
Here are some of the role cards that I use in class. I also use “calculator” role that is not pictured here. I also typically show the slide to the right before we complete an activity so that all students understand what their role is in there team. Sometimes I will pass out all the role cards, other days we only need a leader and a runner. I will use these on activity days – and I let the students decide their role.
On activity days, some will require a team name. When I allow students to come up with their own names – most times they panic and don’t know what to say. I write down the FIRST thing that comes out of their mouth.
Yes, I have had several team UMs, UHs, and I Don’t Knows. It’s fun for them and doesn’t waste precious class time especially when it can take up to 5 minutes for them to come up with Team Dolphins. If the team name is inappropriate I give them a mathematical based team name such as quadratic formula, pythagoras, or archimedes.
There are absolutely negative sides to this. It takes good classroom management skills to make teams work on a daily basis. Some days, it won’t matter how good your classroom management skills are, some classes won’t make the cut and that is okay! If at any point I feel like the education of the students is being compromised for the teams, I move my students back into columns for a period of time and re-evaluate what can be done in that class.
On assessment days the desks are moved back into columns and students have assigned test day seats that they sit in for every assessment. This seating chart is posted in the room so students can check in on test day.
What do you do for teams?
Ms. Pi 4 Ever 