"Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much." - Helen Keller

Not only is it common to work with other people in a job or career, but especially in a STEM field. Since working with the CPM curriculum I have come to believe that teamwork and learning to work as a team is almost more important than learning the mathematics.

Teamwork Strategies

Encouraging

Team Roles

I prefer to sit students in teams of 4, where each student has a team role. In the picture you can see the 4 roles I use and their duties in the team. Throughout the year, we reflect on which roles are strong and which need more practice. I encourage my students to try different roles. Focusing on roles encourages students to learn more about themselves and how they work with other people.

Tracking

Team Points

Team points are an integral part of my classroom management. I use Team points to encourage the use of team roles. If teams earn the goal points for the chapter, there are perks for the assessments. A popular assessment perk is being able to use notes during assessments. Negative points discourage behavior I do not want to see, such as misuse of electronics or off-task talking. Team points encourages teams to work together and stay on task.

Participation Quizes

At least once during each chapter I have a participation quiz. These are 30 minutes quizzes in which students are assigned a handful of problems to complete as a team. As they work, I tally the different ways they work as a team. This includes the same categories as I use for the team points paper. Teams can earn negative points for doing undesirable actions. To get a top score, teams must get 15 tallies. They are meant to be practice for the team test at the end of the chapter and the same system is used during team tests.