Title – Be Yourself within Your Team

By – Nicky Leon

Primary Subject – Other

Secondary Subject – Language Arts

Grade Level – Multiple

Be Yourself within Your Team

This is a team-building exercise that may be applied to English classes with great success. It follows several steps:

1. Students are divided in a few groups and asked to choose a name and a symbol (flowers, birds, etc.) for their team.
2. Each team is given a number of tasks and the same time limit.

1. there should be always given a bigger number of tasks than the number of the members of the team.

2. all the teams are given the same tasks so that the checking and the evaluation be simplified and equal for all of them.

3. the given TASKS:

• one may be related to grammar
• one may be related to vocabulary
• one may ask for writing a composition on a certain topic
• one may ask for preparing a 3 minute speech on a given topic
• one may ask for preparing a riddle, a song, a story, a poem, etc..

4. the given time should be short enough for them to have to split the responsibilities among themselves.

3. The tasks are divided within the group so that each member has something to work on (let them negotiate what task/s they’ll do). At this moment, each member starts solving his/her part.

Obs.:

it’s good for the teacher to check that all the tasks are taken. Also, he/she should give them the piece of advice that they should help those who may encounter problems in solving their task. They are a team after all!

4. Stop game! All the written papers from the first group are given to the second group whose papers are given to the third group and so on and so forth.
5. All the tasks are read aloud so that they be checked. Each exercise is marked according to a scale. The evaluation is done by all the members of the team after each exercise is assessed by the checking team. The teacher only writes the results on the blackboard.

Obs.:

1. for younger students you may count their points in terms of their symbol. (eg. they may have 9 flowers out of 10, 8 birds out of 10, etc.)

2. the speeches may be evaluated after they are all held, so that the checkers may compare the discourses. All the speakers should be applauded at the end of their speech.

6. The winning team is established and all the teams are given a prize.

Advantages:

• they will learn to be a team:
• how to negotiate in order to do the task that they like most or that they think it represents them (for instance the one who likes to speak in public, who wants fame will take the discourse part)
• how to negotiate the points they give to the other team
• how to appreciate each member for his/her special abilities
• they will learn how to evaluate others (it’s amazing how wise they may prove. If not, encourage them to be fair)
• those who come in front to deliver their speech have a chance to become more popular (this task may be followed by a discussion about how to deliver the best speech)
• all the exercises will be done by everybody so, even those who do not like grammar will find it fun as long as they have to correct others’ mistakes!

Possible disadvantages:

• the team that has the lowest average may be disappointed. This is why it’s good to have an evaluation based on symbols. It’s easier, psychologically speaking, to accept that you have less flowers than others have birds. Anyway, the teacher should encourage them, too. It’s important to learn and feel good while learning.
• the same problem may appear when it comes about speeches. The encouraging applauds will be of great help.

E-Mail

Nicky Leon

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