EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 11 page 239

successfully. These activities promote positive interconnections because students need to work together to
succeed. An example of each kind of activity is presented in Figure 11.4.

Figure 11.4: Two community building activities

After community-building activities, teachers should hold a follow-up discussion with students,
encouraging them to reflect on what they have learned. A teacher might simply ask, “Who learned
something new about someone today?” This question serves two purposes. First, it holds the students
accountable for paying attention during the activity. Second, it allows other students to learn what only a
few students learned about particular classmates, thus enabling other students to form their own
connections with that particular student.

Collaborative academic tasks. Teachers can also build community through academic tasks that
require students to work collaboratively to produce a team product. For example, history students working
in groups could develop presentations on the civil rights movement to present to the class; students will
need to work as a team to succeed in this activity. The process of working well as a team to produce the
presentation can foster positive feelings among group members.
To ensure that students have a good experience working together in teams, teachers may need to
teach students effective strategies for working well together to create team products. Students may not yet
be proficient at critical teamwork tasks such as listening to other group members and making sure that
everyone contributes to the group product.
An example of an activity to provide training in teamwork skills is the four-stage rocket activity,
which is designed to train students to use four effective group interaction skills: being concise, listening to
others, reflecting, and making sure everyone contributes (Epstein, 1972; Cohen, 1993). To start the

An Ice-Breaking Activity: Human Treasure Hunt

Students are given a sheet with a list of 25 to 30 various personal characteristics and

traits on it (e.g., has a pet, likes rock music, plays a sport, is outgoing). The objective is

to find a person in the class who fits one of the descriptions and get that person’s

signature next to the trait. Students mill around asking each other questions to fill in

their signature sheets. When making up the list of items, be creative, but include traits

pertinent to the group. Each person may sign a classmate’s sheet only once. If this

activity is used in a foreign language class (or in an ESL class), students can gain

practice by using the new language to ask and answer questions.

A Team-Building Activity: Master Designer

Students working in groups of 4 or 5 are given envelopes with geometric shapes in

them, together with a cardboard enclosure. Students arrange their geometric shapes

into a design. Students sit so that they cannot see each other’s designs behind the

cardboard. One student is arbitrarily chosen as the “master designer.” This student

tries to explain using words and gestures, but without touching or showing any of her

pieces. The other students try to reproduce the master designer’s design. The other

students may ask questions of the designer and also discuss what to do among

themselves.