Day 1: What Does Good Group Work Look Like?

Quote of the Day: “I’ve noticed an interesting thing. When some star players are interviewed after a game, they say we. They are part of the team and think of themselves that way. When others are interviewed, they say say I and they refer to their teammates as something apart from themselves - as people who are privileged to participate in their greatness.” - Carol Dweck

Question of the Day: What does good group work look and sound like?

Lesson Sequence: Full credit to this lesson really goes to Sara VanDerWerf (definitely worth a follow on Twitter). Here was Sara's original post about what good group work looks and sounds like, which has had some great tweaks put in by other teachers. Here's what I did:

1. I introduced myself. It was the first day of school after all.
2. Discussed the importance of me saying less in order for us to learn more. 
3. Read the quote of the day.
4. Read the question of the day. 
5. Told students to all take out a pencil.
6. Told students to number themselves from 1 to 4. For groups that had three people, I was kind of disappointed because the pattern was harder to find. If possible keep groups in only 2 or 4. That could mean the teacher participates in odd number classes. 
7. I passed out the sheets that are numbered from 1 to 100 (see the linked post above) face down. 
8. I explained the rules for the 1 to 100 sheets. I always stopped in my directions and asked so when we get to number five who will circle that? 
9. The students had three minutes to circle numbers. The engagement could be summed up by many photos that I took. 

1. They discussed their strategy for a couple minutes and I collected and threw out their sheets from round 1. As I took their sheets I made sure they knew what number they had to beat in Round 2. I then passed out the sheets for Round 2 as well as a set of crayons.
2. I instructed students that Round 2 would be the same as Round 1 except now they would be using colored pencils and got each group focused on beating their record from the previous round. 
3. After Round 2, students again discussed strategies and I asked them to look at their sheets as part of this strategy. If groups correctly followed the directions, the pattern could not be missed. Although they did not use the word quadrant so I had to make them swallow that. 
4. We did one more round and students set their records across all classes. 
5. Students wrote an exit ticket that answered our question of the day.  

As the students were circling numbers, I took pictures the first round and then wrote down what I heard in the second round verbatim. The students really enjoyed hearing their exact phrases after the round. 

Regrets: Initially I had students write one thing that demonstrated what good group work looked or sounded like. That led to one word answers. My last two classes I asked for three after I consulted my colleauge about this during lunch. While I still only ended up with three words in some cases, I could also call it a 200% increase. 

Glass Half-Full: This is the first time I have not gone over the procedures and rules in my room on the first day of school. It's also my first day ever teaching eighth grade. I felt as though I needed to change up from the norm because the kids would be bored out of their minds from procedures and protocols all day. In sixth grade they need that sort of thing because the building is brand new, but in eighth grade I thought it was a little harder to do that. 

Despite my "dangerous plunge" we still invested in the future of the classroom and kept the students engaged. We have established norms for group work. The words I kept reading again and again on exit tickets were everyone, help, and teamwork. I also got deeper thoughts such as "Nobody is left out." "No one saying negative things to each other." "Using new ideas learned from our past mistakes."