Team building activities help the students to work together- sometimes with pupils of similar interests and sometimes with pupils of different interests. The first step for a teacher or an instructor is to divide the whole class into teams. Then give them a task to complete in the given time.
Team building activities give autonomy to all the students to enhance their creativity and presentation skills. For a speaking task, the teams think of a plot of interest, and choose a setting, characters, and dialogues accordingly. They are given a few days for preparation as well as for presentation in front of other teams. Such activities will encourage them to prepare well and compete with others.
Such activities make the students responsible. They set the setting for their performance, think of the costumes, and are encouraged to show the best performance to their peers. Teachers must grade their performance since it will build up a heathy competition in them.
The team members get freedom to divide the given task among themselves according to their interest. For instance, if someone is good at writing, will write and if someone is good at reading, will read. When they are interested in the assigned task or an open task, they produce a quality work.
During open discussions, the team members learn better. Even if there is an introvert in the team, he would feel comfortable. While he is mute, he listens and learns better when his team members are busy discussing things about the given project.
Teachers can also give the teams a small task to complete. It is always helpful to execute small tasks with some variation such as asking students to sit on the carpet and unscramble the given sentences as a team.
For achieving good grades, all the team members will put an individual effort to make the team win. Such activities will provide them a chance to show their individual talent by working for the same cause. All the teams will show creativity by putting some unique ideas into work for getting the best grades. It will also build up their confidence. No matter how big the team is, having a team leader along with a target to achieve- makes them work in an organized way. Putting responsibility on the weak shoulders of the students will turn out to be their strength. There is a possibility that working in teams could highlight their strengths and conceal their weaknesses.
Working in teams also broadens the horizon and make the team members think of all the possibilities that could uplift their performance. Team building activities develop an ‘out of the box thinking’ in the students. The classroom is not a place to learn- only from teachers but also from peers.
