Community Goals for Classroom Team Building

Community Goals for Classroom Team Building

Hey, y'all! If you've been with me for awhile, you'll know I've done extensive research on what works well in education in other countries. 'Cause, let's face it, our system needs help. I mean, the Secretary of Education said students should be fluent in A1 sauce for Pete's sake. 🤦🏼

Anyway, in some other countries (think Denmark), the classrooms and schools focus on collaborative learning and group goals. Rather than trying to determine who's the best student in the class (read: who is the expert at working the system and is the best test-taker), they create an environment of teamwork and camaraderie. This takes the stress off the individual student and focuses more on how we can help everyone be successful so that the group (think: society) can also be successful. 

This isn't to say that individual goals don't matter. Merely, they enhance the collective goal. 

For example, say we want to focus on our weekly spelling test results. Instead of saying that the kids who get 100% get to go to the treasure box or get some other tangible reward, we focus on a group goal. Maybe if the class gets an average score of 80%, then the whole class gets a five minute dance party. 

This way, the end goal is still the same--everyone does well on their spelling test--but the pressure that goes on that handful of kids that will struggle to get 100% on their test is eased. That feeling of "I'll never make it" goes away and the feeling of "my classmates are here to help me" takes its place. 

As time goes on, the ones who recognize the spelling patterns and find the words easy will start to help those that need a boost. It's not exactly like pairing your high kids with your low kids, it's more like students recognizing their own strengths and working as a team to help those that need it. This creates a sense of empathy among students and promotes caring for the success of everyone. You could do the same with weekly math tests, projects, etc.

I don't ever make my high kids teach my low kids. But I do encourage teamwork. When we all have a collective goal, teamwork naturally comes into play. 

The same could be done for district level assessments. We test our kids three times a year for reading and math and track growth. I hate when I give them their score from the last test and their goal for the next one and they don't make it. Especially because these goals are computer generated and don't take into account the struggles my students are going through in their home lives. It's literally a one day snapshot. 

So, an alternative could be, if we as a class grow a TOTAL of X points, we can have an extra 5 minutes of recess, or some extra play time, or a dance party, or pajama party, or whatever. This way the kids don't know who met their individual growth goal and who didn't, the kids that didn't, for whatever reason, aren't left out, and a sense of community pride kicks in as we celebrate together. 

We can do this with class group work, too. Upper elementary grades have a lot group projects. Rather than giving a public grade or voting on whose work is the best, the conversation could be about strengths of each team's project and areas for growth. Bonus points for discussions on how well the team worked together towards their common goal and how they could improve. 90% of the time, any issues they do have is due to communication or the lack thereof. 

Another option is shared learning. There are lots of ways to do this. With spelling, a word is called out and one partner has to spell it out loud while the other writes the letters, then they switch. 

Or one student reads the sentence and the other has to write it without being able to see it. The reader can't tell their partner how to spell the words, but they can coach them on the sounds and spelling rules. 

Upper grades could do a jigsaw reading and teach each other the material. Before doing this, though, make sure students are able to recognize the important parts of what they're reading so they teach the right things. 

Now, personally, I'd advise against whole class behavior goals reaching 100%. Especially if you have that one little kiddo who will consistently throw everyone off. If we know little Suzy struggles to line up correctly 9/10 times, creating a collaborative goal that 100% off us will line up nicely 5/6 times today, you're just setting your class up for failure. And it creates animosity towards little Suzy and the rest of the class will end up ganging up on her. Sometimes the peer pressure to behave works, but sometimes it leads to further behavioral problems. 

One way we're working towards developing better behavioral choices and building that sense of community is through our mindfulness work and our classroom meetings. You can find out more about that here. Our Fika Fridays are a favorite in our classroom and I really wish I would have started these earlier in my career. It makes such a difference with relationships, team building, and classroom community. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list for community building, but it's a start. And I'll add to it as more things come up. I'm curious to hear your thoughts and how you use community goals and team building in your classroom. Feel free to comment and tell me more. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope this helps you in your classroom this year. Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon. 

Stay cozy,