| Team Formation Basics General
Information
Forming effective teams is an important first step in cooperative learning. In most
cases, teachers should form heterogeneous teams of four students. A four-person team
allows for many different kinds of interactions. The group can work as a team or can be
broken down into two sets of pairs. Each team should be as heterogeneous as possible so
that kids can learn to work with all different kinds of people.
Guidelines for Team Formation:
Each team should consist of one high student, two average students, and one low-ability
student.
Teams should generally include both boys and girls.
Each team should reflect the ethnic diversity of your classroom.
CL teams generally stay together for about six weeks.
After forming your teams, provide opportunities for them to get to know each other.
These icebreaker activities are called "team builders" in the structural
approach.
How to Form Teams:
Quick and Easy Method
- Write each student's name on an index card.
- Deal the cards into 4 equal piles according to student ability (High, Medium High,
Medium Low, and Low)
- Choose one card from each pile. Be sure to include a mix of students (according to
gender, race, and personality). Set this stack aside as Team 1.
- Form the remaining teams in the same way. Assign a team number to each stack of cards.
- On a separate sheet of paper, record the name of each team and its team members. That
way you'll have something to refer to the next time you form teams. You don't want kids to
end up on the same teams over and over.
Team Formation Card Method
Note: This method really isn't much harder than the "quick and easy" method,
but it has more steps. You will also need to download a copy of the Team Formation Cards. I have provided a sample card so that
you can follow along with the explanation.
Sample Team Formation Card:
Steps:
Duplicate enough Team Formation cards so that you have one card for each student in the
class. Never show these cards to your students!
Write each students' name on a card, circle "boy" or "girl," and
fill out the section on race.
For ability, decided if the student is High (H), Medium High (MH), Medium Low (ML), or
Low(L). The numbers of students for each category need to be roughly the same. This
judgement is very subjective and can include areas such as leadership ability, willingness
to work hard and complete homework, organization skills, ability to follow directions, and
so on.
In the Notes section, write down any miscellaneous information such as learning
disabilities, personalities, special needs, etc.
After you fill out the cards, spread them out in rows on a table. For this example we
will assume you have 28 students in your class, which means you will have 7 students in
each category.
Start by placing your 7 highest students in one COLUMN. Your Highs can be thought of as
the leaders in your class; these are the kids you can count on to lead the group in a
positive direction. Next, place your 7 Medium High students in a column beside the Highs.
Continue with a column for the Medium Lows and the Lows.
When you finish, you will have an array of cards that is 4 columns wide and 7 rows high.
As you look over the array of cards, picture each ROW as a team. Look across each row and
decide if you need to switch some cards to make the team more balanced. Do you have two
boys and two girls? Do you have one High, one Medium High, one Medium Low, and one Low
student? Does each team accurately represent the ethnic composition of your class? Will
the students get along with each other? Look at all the teams and continue switching cards
in each column until you have teams that are as heterogeneous as possible.
It's important to have a way of keeping track of who has been on which team. The Team
Number boxes will help you remember who has been on each team throughout the year. After
forming teams, record each student's team number in the box on the bottom of his or her
card. To assign team numbers, start with the top row and call it Team 1. Write a 1 in the
first box on every team member's card. The next team becomes Team 2, so write the number 2
in the first box on their cards. Continue with all 7 teams. After six weeks have passed
and you form new teams, you will be able to see at a glance who was on each team. That way
you can make sure that most students are placed with new team members each time.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What if the number of students in my class isn't divisible by four?
You can have teams of three or teams of five also, but any more than five students
seems to be a problem. I prefer teams of three if I have extras. This is because I notice
that in a team of five, one student seems to be left out. Other teachers prefer to have a
few teams of five because they have students who are frequently absent. They place these
students on five-member teams so that any time that student is absent, the team has four
members. However, sometimes I wonder if these students might be less likely to be absent
if they perceived themselves to be important members of small teams. If they are seated at
the end of a five-person team, they may feel that they are not needed.
2. My school operates on a Nine Week schedule. Is it okay to keep teams together for
nine weeks instead of six?
If students stay together all day, six weeks is still the optimal number of weeks to
keep teams together. I have learned this through my own experience. After this amount of
time, I spend too much time dealing with social skills. If they are looking at each other
ALL DAY every day, maybe they don't need to be together more than six weeks!
However, if you teach in a middle school or high school setting and you have the
students for just one period a day, you can keep them together for nine weeks without any
problem. Most of the middle school teachers I know do exactly that.
3. What about that student who can't get along with anyone?
I place all my students on a team, but if I have someone who is extremely rude and hard
to get along with, I provide another seat in the class also. I let the class know that
working on a team is fun, but it comes with certain responsibilities. You have to respect
the members on your team and treat them as you would like to be treated. If someone can't
seem to do that, I remove them from the team for that day and give them an alternate
assignment that's not nearly so fun. In fact, I make sure the assignment is very
challenging and involves lots of paperwork. If they ask for help, I say that if they were
on a team they could get help. I let them know that if they complete the assignment and
come in the next day with a better attitude, they may rejoin their team. I have had very
difficult students who would start every day with their team and by lunch time they were
on their own. Gradually, though, they were able learn how to treat the other students with
respect and stay in the team all the time. Just be clear about your expectations for
behavior.
4. What if my school tracks students into ability groups and I have all
low-ability students?
Even within a group of students who are similar in ability, some students stand out
above the others as leaders. Spread those students out among the teams, and use the other
factors such as race, gender, and personality to form heterogeneous groups. But above all,
please use cooperative learning with these kids! They need it more than any other group!
Team
Management Ideas:
- Team Tubs
- Team Tubs are plastic containers (about the size of a shoebox) that
I keep in the center of each team. Each team tub has 4 scissors, 1 bottle of glue, 4
calculators, 4 rulers, 1 box of crayons, 1 film canister of dried beans (for
manipulatives), and small erasers and chalk for the individual chalkboards. If you don't
have room in the middle of each team, you can number the Team Tubs and store them on a
shelf. It really keeps you from having to pass materials out all day long. You can number
the items with the number of the team tub.
- Team Captains
- It's nice to have a Team Captain designated each day. This
person is in charge of the materials in the Team Tub, gets materials for activities,
cleans desks after messy activities, collects papers, etc. Since I have the students
numbered off anyway, I just have a certain captain for each day of the week. Person #1 is
always captain on Monday, Person #2 on Tuesday, and so on. If we have a full 5-day week, I
just spin a spinner to see who will be captain on Friday. The Team Captain also has to
write down assignments for students who are absent.
- Team Incentive Stickers
- I put a small incentive chart in the middle of each
Team Tub lid. When the team is especially cooperative, I put a sticker on the chart. When
they earn all 16 stickers they each get a coupon that they can cash in for a special
privilege (take home the class pet, go help out with our first grade buddy class, have
extra computer time, etc.) You can use the stickers to reward anything like attendance,
getting homework done, having good behavior all week, etc.
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