Life Skills Arcade Middle school Family and Consumer Sciences, grades 6 to 8

Handout 0.4

Handout 0.4: Team Norms Contract

Unit
Unit 0: Launch: Welcome to the FACS Room
Lesson
Lesson 0.4: Teamwork Under Pressure
File
Handout 00.04 - Team Norms Contract.md

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Name: ______________________ Date: __________ Period: ______ Table number: ______

Part 1: The Silent Measurement preview

Your roles today (from the Unit 1 role cards; today's job is in the box):

RoleToday's job
Station ManagerReads the team card. Points to who does what. Does the final check of all four cups before the tray goes up. Does not measure.
Head CookMeasures items 1 and 3.
Second CookMeasures items 2 and 4.
Prep CookFills the cups, holds the tray, wipes spills. Carries the tray to the check station.

My role today: ______________________

Team card (the four targets). Measure each into the cup with the matching number. No talking, no writing, no mouthing words. Pointing and showing are allowed. The reset cue ends it.

CupTargetTechnique
11 cup waterLiquid: pour, set the cup on the table, read at eye level
21/2 cup riceDry: spoon it in, level off with a straight edge
32 tablespoons riceDry: spoon it in, level off
41/4 cup waterLiquid: pour, set down, read at eye level

Grade 6: cups 1, 2, and 4 only. Grade 8: add cup 5, 1 teaspoon rice, leveled.

Image for the team card: four cups in a row numbered 1 to 4, with a water drop drawn on cups 1 and 4 and a grain of rice on cups 2 and 3.

Check station result (the teacher fills this): Cup 1 ______ Cup 2 ______ Cup 3 ______ Cup 4 ______ (on the line / close / off)

Part 2: What we did without words

Directions: After the check, talk it over as a team and fill this in together.

QuestionOur answer
What did our team do without words? Circle all that we used: pointing / showing / waiting / taking over
What helped?
What hurt?
One thing we would do differently

Part 3: Our team norms

A norm is a behavior someone could see. "Be nice" is a feeling. "Ask the quiet person before we decide" is a norm. Test every norm with the question: "Could Mr. Prevosto see us doing this?" If not, rewrite it.

Examples of norms that pass the test:

  • We wait for the Station Manager's point before we start.
  • We say the amount out loud before we pour.
  • We clean our own spill.
  • Nobody leaves until the station check.
  • We ask the quiet person what they think before we decide.

Sentence starter: "We ___ before we ___."

Our four norms:

  1. ________________________________________________________________
  2. ________________________________________________________________
  3. ________________________________________________________________
  4. ________________________________________________________________

Grade 6: three norms. Grade 8 stretch: a fifth norm that says what the team does when someone breaks a norm: ________________________________________________

We agree to these norms for every team task this year. If we break one, we fix it at the table first.

Signatures (every team member):

______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________

Teacher: ______________________ Date: __________

Exit card

  1. My role today and one thing I did in it: ________________________________
  2. The norm from another team I wish we had written: ________________________________
  • * *

Teacher key

The check station: pour each cup into the matching measure at the front (or weigh it: 1 cup water is about 237 g; 1/2 cup uncooked white rice is about 90 to 100 g; 2 tablespoons rice is about 24 g; 1/4 cup water is about 59 g). On the line, close (within a marked line or about 10 percent), or off. Results are not scored. Announce them as a count per team ("three on, one close").

Part 2 is complete when all four boxes are filled in the team's own words.

Part 3 is scored complete, partial, or missing. Complete means four norms that each name a visible behavior, and four signatures. A norm that fails the "could I see it" test (respect, be nice, try hard, have a good attitude) does not count until it is rewritten. Common rewrites: "respect" becomes "we let one person finish before the next one talks"; "try hard" becomes "everyone measures at least one cup."

Keep the signed contracts. Reread them at the start of Lab 1 (Lesson 1.8) and before every project team task. The eight or so norms the class reads aloud in the closure go on chart paper and feed section 9 of the Room and Lab Agreement tomorrow.

Word bank [check with a native speaker]: norm (norm, takım kuralı / norma / norma); measure (ölçmek / medir / medir); level off (düzlemek / nivelar / nivelar); pour (dökmek / despejar / verter); point (işaret etmek / apontar / señalar); wait (beklemek / esperar / esperar).