Building Success with Team Tasks

INTRODUCING A QUICK AND EASY WAY TO OPTIMIZE TEAM COLLABORATION WITH TEAM TASKS

Have you ever been part of a team or committee where one person does all the work?  Or conversely, one person doesn’t contribute.  The same holds true for our students.  

Have you ever tried moving desks into team formation… and then reverting back to rows because it was so painful?  Yep.  We know the feeling.  

Once students are in teams we start by teaching the social skills needed for collaboration to take place. What does collaboration look like?  Sound like? (See T-Graph for Social Skills in Acceleration 101: Setting the Stage). 

Once you have teams and the T-Graph for Social Skills in place, it’s time to assign team projects or “tasks.”  

Setting up those team task for success is our insider tip for today! 

Spencer Kagan is a researcher we refer to for ideas to support cooperative learning. His cooperative learning structures revolve around four key principles to increase engagement during team assignments.

Kagan’s acronym for successful cooperative learning is mouthwatering!

Each principle is naturally embedded into Project GLAD®’s approach to collaborative learning.

Positive Interdependence

• In Project GLAD®, team task assignments require each person’s contribution to be completed. The success and strength of each person in the team benefits the entire team.

Individual Accountability

• How do we know each person is contributing? Project GLAD® adds a visible accountability element to each team task that shows the degree to which each person has individually contributed.

Equal Participation

• At Next Steps with Project GLAD®, we refer to this principle as “equitable participation.” How much of each task or project is required of each student? What does that look like? Where modifications are needed, we make those expectations clear to the entire team before they begin their task.

Simultaneous Interaction

• An underlying objective of all team tasks is building the skills for communication and collaboration. Which means, students are working on, making decisions and talking about their team’s tasks at the same time.

The secret to success with each of these principles is Project GLAD®’s TEAM TASK KEY!

Each member of the team starts by selecting a colored pencil or other writing utensil. A team of four will have four different colors. Teams don’t need to have the same colors. Avoid using colors that are too light to easily see (yellow, beige, pastels).

Students record their name and chosen color on the Team Task Key.

You can choose any writing tool that works best for your students. We like to use Twistables. But you can use colored pencils, crayons, whatever!

During team tasks, students add their portion to each team task using their color, and ONLY their color. No regular pencils to sketch first. No “helping” each other by adding information with another team member’s color.

GLAD®'s Team Task Key give you a simple tool for integrating each of Kagan’s cooperative learning principles.

Mind blowing!

Positive Interdependence and Individual Accountability

• Each team task requires all 4 colors to be completed.   

Equal Participation

• Each color must be equally (or equitably) represented.  For example, in a team of 4, each student’s color will be reflected in 25% of the assignment, or whatever modification you provide to strengthen equitability.  
• At any point, the team members and teacher can see how the collaborative process is going by looking at the colors on the task.  This is a helpful tool for self-evaluations, team evaluations and team conferences. 

Simultaneous Interaction

• During a designated team task time, all present members of the team are working on team assignments.   

• Simultaneous interaction doesn’t necessarily mean all four students are hovering over the same paper and adding their contributions at the same time.  Two students may be working on one paper while another is compiling team data and another is verifying the team’s facts. 
• The point is that all members are contributing and communicating toward the end product(s) at the same time.     

You can turn any assignment into a team task simply by using the Team Task Key. 

Consider adding opportunities for collaboration by enlarging math worksheets onto 11”x17” paper.  Have teams complete them using the team task process and colors.  Imagine this same process with science labs, ELA assignments and more.  

What about assignments where students are collaborating through Google Docs?  The same principles apply.  Each student contributes their portion with text in their color.  

Why not make it a goal this month to try the Team Task Key?  

We’re rooting for you!

Sara & Jody

Dr. Sara Martinez & Jody Bader

Next Steps with Project GLAD®