Lesson Information
Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes
Students will...
- learn what teamwork is and share their experiences with it.
- experience positive feelings in discussing the experiences of teamwork.
Language Learning Outcomes
Students will...
- connect content to background knowledge.
- connect context to meaning.
- narrate/describe in present tense across a variety of familiar and general topics.
- create language based on memorized phrases and formulaic speech.
Materials Needed
Overview
Explain to students that they will be able to define what teamwork is and improve on teamwork skills by communicating within a group.
Activate Background Knowledge
Introduce teamwork by asking students what the word means.
- Write a list of answers on the whiteboard.
Ask students why teamwork is important. In what contexts is it important to have good teamwork?
Activity 1: Listening/Speaking
Before showing the following video, explain that students should look for examples of teamwork and what happens when teams do not work together: Good Teamwork and Bad Teamwork.
https://youtu.be/fUXdrl9ch_Q
- Watch the “this is an example of bad teamwork” part of the video, [pausing at 2:15] before the “this is an example of good teamwork” video starts.
- Discuss the video with a partner.
- Answers could include: though most of the birds worked together, they didn’t include one of their teammates, which caused all of them to fall off the wire. They also made fun of one of their teammates. They also didn’t communicate well, which is why it was too late to stop the bird from falling.
- Why didn’t the birds work well together?
- What could they do instead to be better teammates?
- Watch the rest of the video showing two examples of good teamwork.
- How did the crabs and bears work together?
- Discuss as a class: what else can be done to work well with others in a group?
Activity 2: Speaking
Divide into partnerships, and answer the following questions. Review questions with students beforehand.
- What are some groups you are a part of where you use teamwork?
- What does teamwork mean to you?
- What are examples of groups that need to work well together to succeed?
- When you are stressed, how does having teammates help you?
- What makes teamwork hard sometimes?
- What makes a good teammate? How can you be a good teammate?
- Have students share what they talked about with the class.
Activity 3: Listening/Speaking
Picture activity
Note: The teacher must print and cut these pictures into pieces before class and gather them so they will be ready to give to the teams.
Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/-YWfa and : https://edtechbooks.org/-GtSv
Two variations of this activity:
- For a quicker activity split the class into teams and give them each a cut up picture that they need to put together as a team.
OR
- Take the pieces of the cut up pictures and give the students some pieces from either picture. The students then must find the others with the same picture as them and put it together. The provided pictures have very different colors so it should be simple to find which picture is which.
Activity 4: Speaking
Have students think of the picture activity and answer the questions in their group.
- How did you use teamwork to make the pictures?
- Were people in your group ever talking over each other? Why was it harder if more than one person talked at once?
- How does showing respect to your teammates help the team work together?
- Explain to a partner what you learned about teamwork and how you can show respect to others while working in a group.
Activity 5: Speaking/Grammar
Have students practice using affirmations.
- Explain that an affirmation is a positive and encouraging statement to themself, to another person, or to a group. Affirmations usually use descriptive words such as adjectives to make the statements.
- For example:
- I am beautiful/handsome.
- You are a good writer.
- We are ready to learn.
- Have each student come up with affirmations beginning with I, you, and we.
- Split the class into small groups and have students present the affirmations they came up with.
- Encourage students to write down the positive affirmations others came up with that they liked.
Homework
Compliment three classmates this week using a positive affirmation. For example, “You are a good listener.”
Follow-Up
Tuesday:
Have students brainstorm accomplishments they have made that required them to work in a team or get help from others. Write their answers on the whiteboard.
- How does working with others make you feel?
Wednesday:
Share with the class the following quote:
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”
--Helen Keller
- Helen Keller was a speaker and writer. She was both blind and deaf, but she made a difference by working with others. There are times we need the help of others to accomplish what we cannot do on our own.
- When have you used teamwork with someone whose abilities were different from yours?
Thursday:
Go over these questions with students in a class discussion or have the students work in partnerships:
- What experiences did you have this week with the homework when you complimented your classmates?
- Did you notice you were a better teammate when you used positive language with your classmates?