Movie: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Theme: Taking the Lead
Teaser Question: What inspires people to join others?
Going Deeper: Have you ever had to take a risk to accomplish a group goal?
Making Choices: Your teammates constantly bicker and are not playing well. You have recently joined the team and you are its youngest member. How can you help your team?
Movie: Apollo 13
Theme: Teamwork Pays Off
Teaser Question: When the going gets tough, how important is trust in the group?
Going Deeper: Have you been in a situation where teamwork was
essential to succeed? Describe the situation. What enabled your team to
succeed? What stood in the way? How can a team build trust?
Making Choices: You are the captain of your team. You need your
teammates’ support in order to be an effective leader. One of your
teammates has a very negative attitude. How do you handle this?
Movie: Antz
Theme: Doing Your Part
Teaser Question: What happens when someone does not fully join in the group’s task?
Going Deeper: When is it a good thing not to cooperate with a group? … Or even join a group?
Making Choices: Your best friend is an outsider. You invite
him/her to join a group you belong to. Your friend agrees but only
participates half-heartedly. What do you do?
Movie: Ice Age
Theme: When Trust is Gone
Teaser Question: How do you cooperate with someone who has broken your trust?
Going Deeper: How do you go about trusting someone who has let you down?
Making Choices: Your sister promised to take you to your all-star
soccer competition but she forgot. You missed the game because you had
no other ride. Now the tables have turned and she desperately needs you
to take her somewhere. What do you do?
Activities
Keeping a Journal
As a homework assignment or in a class activity, the students will
write two entries into their journal under the heading of Cooperation
answering the following questions:
Of all the examples of cooperation demonstrated in the clips, which was your favorite? Why?
Tell of a time when you showed cooperation in your life.
Tell of a time when you were uncooperative. What were the consequences?
Activity 1: “Give One-Get One”
Performance Objective: The learner will be able to identify
examples of cooperation in history and present these examples in written
or oral form.
Materials Needed: Paper, pencil
Instructions:
The teacher asks each student to get out a sheet of paper and
brainstorm a list of characters in a story, in a history lesson, or in
current events that clearly demonstrates cooperation.
Students will be given 3-5 minutes to complete their lists.
Once students have completed their individual lists, they will be
allowed to get up and move around the room to at least five of their
fellow students to get ideas from their lists.
The student may only get an idea from another student if the student gives the other student an idea of his/her own.
Students return to their seats.
The teacher leads a discussion about how the students learned
through cooperation by asking several individuals to give an example of
what they learned from another student and to name the student who was
helpful to them.
The teacher will write these examples on the board.
Activity 2: Cooperation Games
Performance Objective: The students will learn to work together for a common goal with limited resources.
Materials Needed: Paper plates (about 1/3 as many as persons in the group).
Instructions:
The students move half the desks to one side of the room, the other
half to the other side of the room, creating a clear wide lane in the
middle of the room.
The teacher gathers all the students to one side of the room and
says, “Imagine that the group is being chased and needs to get across a
field of hot lava.”
The teacher hands out the plates and says, “if you step on these
plates you will not sink into the lava. Only one person can be on the
plate at a time. The plates can be picked up and moved. The key to the
game is that only part of the group will be able to cross the field at a
time and one person will need to work their way back across the field
to help the rest of the team across.
A time limit can be placed on this game.
(From, So, You Wanna be a Playa? The Freechild Project Guide to
Cooperative Games for Social Change, by Adam Fletcher Sasse with Kari
Kunst, www.freechild.org/gamesguide.pdf).
After the game the teacher will lead a whole group discussion
that helps the students understand the role of cooperation in reaching
group goals.
Activity 3: Cooperation Games Part 2
Performance Objective: The students will learn to work together for a common goal.
Materials Needed: None.
Instructions:
The teacher clears a space in the classroom big enough for the class to make an unobstructed circle.
Gathering the students in a tight circle, the teacher instructs
the students to reach into the middle of the circle with their right
hand and grasp someone’s hand (larger classrooms will probably want to
make two groups).
The teacher then tells the students to do the same with their
left hand. They must be holding the left hand of a different person than
the right hand. (No student can hold both the right and the left hand
of another person).
The teacher then asks the group to unravel the “knot” without letting go of each other.
The circle of hands is to remain unbroken. However, it may be necessary to change grips due to the angle of arms and bodies.
After the game, the teacher will lead a whole group discussion
that helps the students understand their role of cooperation in reaching
group goals.
* This game can very easily become one or two people yelling
directions at everyone else, which is no fun if you fall into the
“everyone else” group. I like to give the rule that each person gets to
give a direction, then when it has been completed, someone else gets to
give the next direction.
Activity 4: Role Play
Performance Objective: The learner will be able to express his/her own opinion on a topic through written or oral expression.
Materials Needed: Paper, pencil, props for skits.
Instructions:
The teacher divides the class into groups of five.
The teacher will instruct the groups to come up with a situation
where cooperation makes things go better (or where uncooperativeness
makes things go worse), then develop a short role play or “skit” to
demonstrate these points.
Each group will present their skit to the whole class.
After all the role plays have been performed the teacher will
lead a whole class discussion on the ideas contained in the skits
regarding cooperation.
Optional Teaching Strategies
Go on “faith walks” – one student is blindfolded and has to completely trust the person who is leading her.
Engage in team-building activities outdoors, such as “hide and go
seek,” in which the person who finds the one who is “it” has to hide
with that person until the last person finds the whole group.
Students work together to create an audio/visual presentation
showing examples of how their classmates have cooperated to get a task
done.
Students re-enact the scene of one of the clips, but with a different ending.
Involve students in peer mediation to solve classroom conflicts.