The purpose of this activity is to provide a quick reminder at the beginning of class about the importance of having every team member contribute to the team's work, and of what is involved in good mathematics work. Examples of what the list of strengths may include are: Looking for patterns, Asking questions, Understanding vocabulary, Making a drawing or model, Acting out the problem, Helping others, Explaining my thinking and justifying answers, Noticing details, Organizing, Predicting, Writing equations from patterns, Looking at things in different ways, Reading aloud, Keeping people on task, Following directions, Learning from our mistakes, Remembering a similar problem, Encouraging your team members to persevere.
Teacher posts a list of strengths.
Each student selects and writes down three strengths they can contribute to their team.
Students take turns sharing their strengths with their team.
Students use strengths as they work on the lesson.
