Team: “A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable”
Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, The Wisdom of Teams, HarperBusiness, New York, 1993
Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, The Wisdom of Teams, HarperBusiness, New York, 1993
I know what you're thinking.
You're thinking, "I've worked in a group before and it sucked! I did all the work and we all got the same grade."
Or, you might be thinking, "Yeah, it sucked because the other people were so bossy that I never felt like I was being taken seriously, and then I got blamed for not doing any work!"
I know that group work can be frustrating. That's why we're not doing group work. We're doing a team project. I know that doesn't sound like much of a change. But consider the difference between your experiences with group work and your experience playing a sport as a member of a team, or being on debate team, or performing in the school play. For many people, the latter kinds of experience are much more positive.
One difference between group work in a class and these other experiences is that in the latter, you were working together toward a common goal. Another factor is that you were genuinely invested and interested in that goal, and that gave you a greater sense of purpose and control even if you didn't choose or control all the elements of the project (eg. on debate team students don't usually choose the topic, and in a school play students don't usually choose the play).
As you saw from other pages of this site, you will have a great deal of flexibility in the goal you set for yourself as a team. I want you to choose a work or works of literature that you genuinely like and are interested in from a long list of works I have deemed appropriate for our project (ie. they have enough critical articles for you to choose from). And this will, I believe, help to make your experience more positive.
But interest in the topic cannot be enough to make a teaming experience succeed. You also need a well-designed and tested structure to assist you in dealing with the problems that will crop up. Yes, there will probably be problems and conflicts in your team; they are a normal part of the process and learning how to handle them effectively and maturely is one of the most valuable things you can take from this experience.
Well, you happen to be in luck. I have such a well-designed and tested structure that I have been using and refining with student teams for years. I can't take all the credit for it, since I was taught by some of the best, who in turn drew on excellent resources. But I can offer it to you, along with the adjustments I have made along the way. And, while I cannot promise you that your teaming experience will not have any bumps along the way (they are, as I said, to be expected), I can promise you that you will have a genuine opportunity for a positive and enriching learning and teaching experience with your peers.
To be honest, every time I set up a team learning project like ours I feel incredibly excited to see exactly how much students will grow and learn, how much more confident and happy (and ready to compete in the job market) they will be when they succeed, and what incredible products will result. I feel that kind of excitement as I set up this teaming experience for you, and I hope that you are starting to feel it too.
To get started on creating a productive and functional team, go to the sub-pages of this page, titled "Getting to Know You" and "Team Contract."
You're thinking, "I've worked in a group before and it sucked! I did all the work and we all got the same grade."
Or, you might be thinking, "Yeah, it sucked because the other people were so bossy that I never felt like I was being taken seriously, and then I got blamed for not doing any work!"
I know that group work can be frustrating. That's why we're not doing group work. We're doing a team project. I know that doesn't sound like much of a change. But consider the difference between your experiences with group work and your experience playing a sport as a member of a team, or being on debate team, or performing in the school play. For many people, the latter kinds of experience are much more positive.
One difference between group work in a class and these other experiences is that in the latter, you were working together toward a common goal. Another factor is that you were genuinely invested and interested in that goal, and that gave you a greater sense of purpose and control even if you didn't choose or control all the elements of the project (eg. on debate team students don't usually choose the topic, and in a school play students don't usually choose the play).
As you saw from other pages of this site, you will have a great deal of flexibility in the goal you set for yourself as a team. I want you to choose a work or works of literature that you genuinely like and are interested in from a long list of works I have deemed appropriate for our project (ie. they have enough critical articles for you to choose from). And this will, I believe, help to make your experience more positive.
But interest in the topic cannot be enough to make a teaming experience succeed. You also need a well-designed and tested structure to assist you in dealing with the problems that will crop up. Yes, there will probably be problems and conflicts in your team; they are a normal part of the process and learning how to handle them effectively and maturely is one of the most valuable things you can take from this experience.
Well, you happen to be in luck. I have such a well-designed and tested structure that I have been using and refining with student teams for years. I can't take all the credit for it, since I was taught by some of the best, who in turn drew on excellent resources. But I can offer it to you, along with the adjustments I have made along the way. And, while I cannot promise you that your teaming experience will not have any bumps along the way (they are, as I said, to be expected), I can promise you that you will have a genuine opportunity for a positive and enriching learning and teaching experience with your peers.
To be honest, every time I set up a team learning project like ours I feel incredibly excited to see exactly how much students will grow and learn, how much more confident and happy (and ready to compete in the job market) they will be when they succeed, and what incredible products will result. I feel that kind of excitement as I set up this teaming experience for you, and I hope that you are starting to feel it too.
To get started on creating a productive and functional team, go to the sub-pages of this page, titled "Getting to Know You" and "Team Contract."
