3 Steps For Setting Up Teams In Your Middle School Classroom

 

Recently I had a class that really seemed to struggle with knowing how to work well with others.  Then I realized - it needed to be explicitly taught!  As I began my research, I found something pretty amazing - competitive teams based on the work of Jon Davis from The Courageous Classroom.

These teams are formed in the classroom and they are awarded points for demonstrating the "Traits of Excellence" - things like dependability, integrity, kindness, and so on.  It sounded like just what I needed so I implemented my own version of it and the results were amazing!  

But now you probably want to know how I did it, right?  Here's how to use Teams in your classroom:

1.  Set up your room for success.

This is achieved by moving furniture into physical teams, explaining the concept to students, and choosing the first round of leaders.

I arranged my room into 6 pairs of desks per team like this:

Each bank of 6 desks was a team.  Next, I explained to the students that we would be working in teams, which is different from groups, because each team would be competing for points.  And the winning team would get a coupon book to "hack the class" as well as become the leaders for the next cycle.  Then we talked about what it meant to be a good leader.  I write these things down on an anchor chart to be saved for the rest of the year.

Next, I called out my leaders and asked them to meet me on the side of the room.  There I had prepared slips of paper with each student's name on it. Only the team leaders could see the names.  I explained their role and referred to the anchor chart we created moments ago. They took turns choosing their members.  When they were done, I walked to the first bank of desks and indicate that this would be where [Team leader's Name] Team would sit and call out the names on the slips of paper.  I repeated this until everyone knew where they they were going to be sitting.

Team leaders choose seats for their members.  Then they begin the task of choosing a name.

I ask each team what their name is and type it in on our points spreadsheet. Once all teams have been named, I review the names with the class.

Now the class is set up for success!

2.  Teaching the Traits of Excellence

In order to do this, you must first identify which traits are the ones your class needs.  I chose:

Unselfishness (another way to look at kindness)

Dependability

Integrity

Judgement

Endurance

Knowledge

Initiative

I taught them one at a time with a discussion that was added into a foldable, role-playing, and sometimes a demonstration.

I taught them over many weeks - no more than one trait per week - so that students would have a chance to practice what they learned before moving on to a new trait.

As each one was taught, it was added to a "Traits of Excellence" anchor chart so that everyone could be reminded of what we were working to show.

Now as I saw team members exhibiting a trait that was written on the anchor chart, I would add points to that team.  If I saw a team member displaying the opposite, I would deduct points from that team.   Then I would allow the team leader to coach that student.  However, if the issue became a habit or was breaking the Student Code of Conduct, I would intervene with our school discipline policy.  

3. Teaching with Competitive Teams

The last step probably seems obvious.  You need to teach your content - the traits teaching might be once a week or once every 2 weeks and only take about 15 minutes.  So that means the rest of the time is devoted to content.

But what does that look like with Teams?  First of all - always have your points spreadsheet open in a tab on your computer that displays on your board.  Then...

It can look like me asking a question during the lesson and awarding knowledge points to the student who volunteered to answer.

It can look like me monitoring the student's practice time and awarding dependability points to the team that is truly working together with no one left out.

It can look like me taking away endurance points from the team that is just hanging out when they are supposed to be on task.

Working in these Teams should also have a definite stopping point.  By this, I mean that Teams should know when the winners will be declared.  Last year, I changed Teams monthly.  Students looked forward to the first of the month and it made it easy for them to see what would be necessary to win.   However, you could change teams based on the unit if you are sure of the end date and that your students could handle longer competitions. 

_______________________

Setting up competitive teams in your middle school classroom is a great strategy for engagement as well as learning important 21st Century skills!

Thanks for stopping by!

Pin This Post for Later:

Don’t spend hours searching for that great idea you found.  Just pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily come back when you are ready.  You’ll be glad you did!