Working Effectively In Groups

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• Share with your students that this year, there will be a number of times when they will work in groups so it is important to learn how to work together.
• Introduce the concept of teamwork through sharing about your favorite sports team and how each member of the team contributes in different ways. If you don't have a favorite sports team talk about a play or orchestra—go over how each person plays a unique role and has a specific responsibility to the team.
• Pair students off and have each pair brainstorm 3–5 words that connect with teamwork.
• Have pairs share out and chart student answers.
• Have each pair join another pair and, using the words generated in the brainstorm, each group of four will come up with a definition for teamwork.
• Chart group definitions.
• As a class, come up with 3–4 guidelines for working as a team.

Guided Practice

• Share that students will be testing out their teamwork guidelines through the human knot activity.
• Have students stand up in a circle. If you have a large class, create 2–3 smaller circles so circles are no larger than 10.
• Have everyone raise their right hand and grab the hand of someone across the circle from them. No one should hold the hand of the person standing next to them.
• Have everyone put their left hand up in the air and grab the hand of a different person.
• Ensure that everyone is holding the hands of two different people and double-check that they are not holding hands with someone directly next to them. The group should be all knotted up.
• Instruct students that their goal is to untangle themselves without breaking the chain. If the chain is broken they need to start over.
• Give students 6–8 minutes to untangle themselves.
• Stop students after 10 minutes, even if they didn’t end up in a circle from untangling their human knot, to debrief the process and reflect on how they worked as a team.
• Ask: Would you add any additional teamwork guidelines to the ones they generated before the human knot?
• Add additional guidelines if necessary.

Independent working time

• Have the students remain in a circle and complete the Teamwork Reflection Questions worksheet.
• Support any students that need help.