teambuilding activity

Back in October, many of us attended Kagan's 2-day workshop that dealt with both cooperative learning in general and brain-friendly instruction. He had us do a teambuilding activity and explained to us how the brain's chemistry changes when these activities are used when kids work in new teams. I began 2 classes today with the exact activity he did with us:

1. Students are in teams and number off
2. Students each receive a handout that describes and has pictures of 8 different superpowers
3. Students are given time to select a power and determine why they chose that power (no discussion yet)
4. Students have 3-step interview explained to them and teacher provides examples of questions that could be used during the interview. Students are told their interviews must last one minute and then they get time to create 3-4 questions on their own.
5. Students conduct the interviews (works for groups of 3 and 4) and teacher works the room to eavesdrop and provide intervention when necessary
6. Teacher provides time cues and after each step in the interviews, asks how many filled the minute.
7. Teacher debriefs exercise by conducting a poll to see how many students chose each power and how many of them said they would use it for good instead of evil.

Observations: Lots of laughter and smiles, very easy-going discussion, open-ended questions being used, increase in team cohesion, increased chance of productive discussion later in class, no student is left out of the process at any time

Teambuilding takes time, but if you use groups, it's essential.