Teambuilding
Teambuilding does for the team, what classbuilding does for the class. The majority of cooperative learning interactions are with teammates, so it is important to build relationships among teams.
Student teams are a defining characteristic of a cooperative learning classroom. Teams promote bonds between students, facilitate interaction, and encourage active participation.
Students stand up, put their hands up, and quickly find a partner with whom to share or discuss. This structure can be used to discuss open-ended questions or to give a small assignment.
In teams, students take turns responding orally.
There are many variations to this structure, like Single RoundRobin and Continuous RoundRobin.
In pairs, students take turns responding orally to a question posed by the teacher. Typically, this question has multiple, short answers.
Students quiz a partner, get quizzed by a partner and then trade cards to repeat the process with new partners. This structure can be done with or without music as the students move around to find partners, and different levels of questions can be used by using different colors of paper for the cards
Fan N Pick is a quick quiz/question structure that requires engagement from all team members. This structure can be used for Teambuilding by asking “Get to know you” questions, as a lesson preview with Prior Knowledge questions, or as a lesson review with questions about content learned.
A thoughtful classroom layout and table mats for team roles are important first steps in implementing engagement in your classroom.
Classbuilding is the process that moves a room of individuals to a caring community of active learners. Classbuilding provides mutual support among all of the students in a class and creates a positive environment for learning.