Teams+Games+Tournaments


 * Teams-Games-Tournaments**



** Class Presentations ** The teacher initially introduces the material in a class presentation. In most cases, this is a lecture/discussion, but it can include an audiovisual presentation. Class presentations in TGT differ from usual teaching only in that they must clearly focus on the TGT unit. Thus, students realize that they must pay careful attention during the presentation, because doing so will help them to do well on the quizzes, and their quiz scores determine their team scores.

** Teams ** Teams are composed of four or five students who represent a cross-section of the class in academic performance, sex, and race or ethnicity. The major function of the team is to prepare its members to do well on the quizzes. After the teacher presents the material, the team meets to study worksheets or other material. The worksheets may be materials obtained from the Johns Hopkins Team Learning Project, or they may be teacher-made. Most often, the study takes the form of students quizzing one another to be sure that they understand the content, or working problems together and correcting any misconceptions if teammates make mistakes.

The team is the most important feature of TGT. At every point, the emphasis is on the members doing their best for the team, and on the team doing its best for its members. The team provides the peer support for academic performance that is important for effects on learning: it also provides the mutual concern and respect that are important for effects on such outcomes as intergroup relations, self-esteem, and acceptance of mainstreamed students.

**Games** The games are composed of simple, course content-relevant questions that students must answer, and are designed to test the knowledge students gain from class presentations and team practice. Games are played at tables of three students, each of whom represents a different team. Most games are simply numbered questions on a ditto sheet. A student picks a number card and attempts to answer the question corresponding to the number. A challenge rule permits players to challenge each other’s answers.

** Tournaments ** The tournament is the structure in which the games take place. It is usually held at the end of the week, after the teacher has made a class presentation and the teams have had time to practice with the worksheets. For the first tournaments, the teacher assigns students to tournament tables – assigning the top three students in past performance to Table1, the next three to Table 2, and so on. This equal competition makes it possible for students of all levels of past performance to contribute maximally to their team scores if they do their best. Figure 7 illustrates the relationship between heterogeneous teams and homogeneous tournament tables. After the first week, however, students change tables depending on their own performance in the most recent tournament. The winner at each table is “bumped up” to the next higher table (e.g., from Table 6 to Table 5), the second scorer stays at the same table, and the low scorer is “bumped down.” In this way, if students have been misassigned at first, they will eventually be moved up or down until they reach their true level of performance.

** TOURNAMENTS ** Time: One class period Main Idea: Students compete at three-member, ability-homogeneous tournament tables Materials Needed:
 * Tournament Table Assignment Sheet, with tournament table assignments filled in
 * One copy of Game Sheet and Game Answers (same as the quiz and quiz answers) for each tournament table
 * One Game Score Sheet for each tournament table
 * One deck of number cards for each tournament table

At the beginning of the tournament period, announce students’ tournament table assignments and have them move desks together or go to tables serving as tournament tables. Have selected students help distribute one game sheet, one answer sheet, and one game score sheet to each table. Then begin the game. Figure 8 describes the game rules and procedures.

To start the game, the students draw cards to determine the first reader – the student drawing the highest number. Play proceeds in a clockwise direction from the first reader.