I Love My Group!

Nudging groups toward becoming high-functioning teams.

We want our students to invest in their classroom relationships. Veteran teachers have often seen groups that “gel” in that special way to become a team that is highly functional and synergistic--and fun! Students leave these groups feeling fed by the social interaction, and the work that they produce is often much stronger than it would have been if the student were acting solo.


Positive Interdependence. The question remains, though, about how to get students (and adults, for that matter!) to invest in their groups and to have high expectations for the group. How do we get students to care? According to the research of David and Roger Johnson, there are at least 5-6 factors that can move a group toward synergy. The most overlooked, in my experience as a teacher and instructional coach, is that of Positive Interdependence. Some examples: 

• Positive Goal Interdependence 
• Positive Resource Interdependence 
• Positive Role Interdependence 
• Positive Identity Interdependence 

And while the Johnsons offer several methods for thinking about types of positive interdependence, it still proves elusive in practice and takes a ton of creativity and pluck for teachers to foster. I plan to address some of the nuances of establishing positive interdependence as well as offer some specific games and activities that can help students to do this in a fun way. I recommend that students get the opportunity to do one non-academic team builder per week, if time allows.


Sample Activities. Here are two examples of exciting games to get students to learn to lead and follow each other, trust and help each other:

• Second Look -- students compete in groups to see which group can find all 10 differences in a pair of photos that look remarkably similar. These images were popularized by People magazine (link) but other images from art, history, line drawings, etc., can also work. From an instructional standpoint, it’s good to offer a visual prompt that is challenging but do-able, so if students are getting frustrated, I might offer a hint or two. This activity focuses on positive goal and resource interdependence. Many thanks to my teacher friend, Natalie, for showing me this activity years ago.

• Photo Finish -- this is a physical game in which groups of three compete in a stroll across the classroom. The winning group has the more similar movements, even to the point of being totally in synch; they also can add style moves for additional points. I run this round-robin style, advancing students towards a winner’s circle. Groups that lose help out with judging and running the contest as remaining groups go head to head. Some students even select music to make their stroll/strut/routine more stylish. This is an example of positive identity interdependence because students often want to show off the moves of their group and of course want to win as a team. 

There are many more examples of activities that can build positive interdependence. Here are a few more that you can ask about if you post a question, and I’d be happy to expand on them. Basically, I scour teambuilding and youth group type books to get ideas and then tweak them for my students. I also try to hit different modalities so that varying students will be able to show their strengths.

• Lego structures and sculpture (yes, this works for high school students, too!) 
• Build a tower out of paper/tape. 
• Banagrams 
• Jumbles (word puzzles) 
• Humdinger 
• Scenarios, suvival and fantasy 
• Situation gaming 

After each of these activities, we do some Group Processing to help focus our learning on what social observations the students can make. They can be pretty observant, too! As time goes on, I will raise the level of complexity, offer fewer supports and hints and see if the group can genuinely push through frustrations that emerge.

Academics. The leverage of positive interdependence is meant to help students with challenging, even frustrating academic work. When reading a text with a high Lexile, the group will hopefully have the ability to help each other through it. When jigsawing a difficult problem, they will want to help their group members because they have learned the important lessons of trust and mutual support while playing and having fun. Furthermore, later, these types of interactions can be focused on finding meaning together on challenging topics that require give-and-take, as in the Academic Controversy structure, of which I have crafted this example related to a literature and history unit for grade 9 (link).

And Morals. Beyond these high-engagement activities is the hidden curriculum that we teachers wish to promote an inclusive classroom where all voices are valued. This highly moral commitment matters to students, and when they see that we care about their contributions to each other, they are ready to open up and to take intellectual risks. On a broader level, our school becomes a safer, more engaging place from the first bell to end of day.

Thanks! I hope you find this idea interesting. I intend this approach to be aimed at grades 9 or 10, but I have done them with students from grade 5 to 12. I would love to hear from you if you have ideas or questions.