Work Together
9th Grade
Skills Needed for Post-Secondary
Success
Review
• Discuss:
– What resources did you find in our school that
help prepare students for college?
– Share your experiences with active listening this
week.
• What went well?
• What was the impact of using active listening
strategies?
• What could have gone better?
• What could you do differently?
Activity
• In your group of 4,
work together to
build the tallest
card castle you can
in 5 minutes.
Microsoft, 2011
5 Minutes!
• http://www.onlinestopwatch.com/fullscreen-stopwatch/
Times Up!
• Time to measure!
Microsoft, 2011
Discussion
• What was easy about creating your castle?
• What was difficult about creating your
castle?
• How did you communicate with your group
members?
• What could you have done differently?
• Why are we building a card castle in the middle of
a unit about skills for high school and
postsecondary success?
Objectives
• Today’s lesson objective: to learn the
importance of working together.
– In high school and in college, not only will you be
required to work together on projects, but you
may choose to do so because of the benefits of
working together.
– College Success Tip 9 – Work together
• The activity also called to mind the
importance of Tip 10, persist, which will be
discussed in future lessons
Study Groups
• “Studying in groups…refreshes my memory on course material, makes me
aware of information I missed during class or didn’t quite understand, and
gives me new ideas and perspectives on class topics.”
—Fall 2005 undergraduate at Berkeley
• “Throughout my three years in Berkeley, I have found that student-tostudent support is the most academically and socially rewarding.”
—SLC Study Strategies Peer Mentor
• “Those of us who lived in the dorms were first year freshman. We were all
anxious about doing well, so we created a late night study group with
people from different majors. We shared food, tested each other, and
studied throughout the night. It really helped to have a supportive group of
people who all wanted to do well.”
—Social Welfare, African American Studies major
University of California, Berkeley, 2011
Working Together Helps Everyone
• Studying with others in
a small group is helpful
because you:
– Think out loud.
– Share ideas.
– Learn from one another.
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Benefits
•
•
•
•
Reinforce note-taking
Share talents
Cover more ground
Benefit from a support
system
• Socialize
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Guidelines
• How many?
– 4-6 people
• Who?
– Students who will
contribute to the group
• Where?
– A place with few
distractions and room
to spread out supplies
• How long?
– 2-3 hours at a time
• When?
– Regularly. Set up a
schedule to meet at the
same day and time each
week.
Getting the Most Out of Session
• Decide what you’re going
to do in advance.
• Prepare for the session,
so you can make the most
of your time together.
• Take turns teaching, to
reinforce your own
knowledge.
• Stick to the session topic.
Microsoft, 2011
Activity
• 3 Students will work together in a group in the
hall while the rest of the class will work
independently.
• You will have 3 minutes to complete the
assigned task.
Activity
• Brainstorm singers/bands whose
name begins with an “S.”
–List as many as you can in 3
minutes
How Many Did You Get?
• Count the number of singers/bands you came
up with.
• What was the highest number of
singers/bands that students came up with
independently?
• How many did the group come up with?
Discussion
• Why did the group do better than most
students?
• Imagine the impact on studying when a group
of students works together!
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Review
• Today we talked
about the
importance of
working together
now and in college.
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– What are the
benefits of working
together?
– How many people
should be in a study
group?
– When should study
groups meet?
Assignment
• Consider forming a study group. Complete the
Study Groups survey in Family Connection.
– For which class would the study group be most
appropriate?
– Who would you include in the study group?
– When and where could you meet?
– What would you study?
– What would be the benefits of studying together?
– What would keep you from forming the study
group?
References
• College Board. (2011). The Power of Study Groups.
Retrieved from
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/highschool/50432.html
• Microsoft Office Images. (2011). Retrieved from
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/
• University of California, Berkeley. (2011). Student
Learning Center. Retrieved from
http://slc.berkeley.edu/studystrategies/