Team Competition in the Classroom

Team competitions can help make learning fun, engage all class members, and increase enthusiasm level in the classroom. There are so many ways to play such a team game. For example, this article suggests having a scoring chart on the board. A better way, though, is to have team representatives hold up their answer cards simultaneously when the time comes. That way, no one can switch to a different answer because they have seen others'.

I have seen my colleague Terri using a team relay game where two teams line up and send one of their members to their side of the white board at the same time to write a response to her questions/requests, which are displayed in the center portion of the board (either written or projected). The relay baton in this case is the marker. I've since tried this method in my own classroom with much success.