Student Contributor: B. Buchanan
The team poster is an activity that is designed to build relationships between students.For this poster making activity you have two students hold a marker and have them try to make a picture between the pair, while being completely silent to allow imagination and creativity.
Building a team poster is cheap, only costing for markers and paper, and builds opportunity for creativity and imagination. Students work together during this process and are completely silent, while working together to draw a picture. My personal favorite part on this activity is how each student has one hand on the marker because you get to see how each individual works in order for a picture to be made. I did this preventative phase project in Gus’s class and found myself taking on the following position, letting my partner choose the foundation for our picture. Then we worked together silently while letting our creative minds draw our picture.
I placed the team poster in the preventative phase because it can be used as a conflict resolution before the conflict even takes place. If you see tensions rising in students, you can pair them off and have them work together on this project to see even if there is a problem they can still work together and mutually respect each other to get a job done, as well as build a relationship between them. The team poster is community building so apart of the supportive phase, but I would argue and say that most preventative strategies are also supportive. The team poster could be corrective, a strategy used if students were to get into an altercation, though I would recommend this activity specifically before too much conflict arises. I would put the team poster in the Student Directed and the Collaborative theories, because the students are working without teacher help in order to get the task done (Student Directed), while listening and respecting the teacher to receive instruction (Collaborative).
More Information –
Tool Source: This idea of the Team Poster came from Gus. My Classroom Management class participated in this activity and after completing the poster I knew I wanted this to be apart of my classroom.
