Lesson 0.4

Teamwork Under Pressure

Unit: Unit 0: Launch: Welcome to the FACS Room
Topic: Day 4 of the five-day launch
Grade: 6 to 8 (written at grade 7; see Differentiation for the grade 6 support and grade 8 stretch)
Days: 1 class period of 40 minutes
Room: Either (a table with water and rice is all it needs; the FACS lab is better because the stations become the teams' home base)

Lesson markdown PDF Word

For this lessonHandout Team Norms Contract Slides Teamwork Under Pressure

Standards

NYS module line

IGLR 3. Employability b)Show understanding of interpersonal dynamics
IGLR 3. Employability c)Demonstrate effective communication skills

CTE theme line

CTE CIR 3. Workplace Communication f)Demonstrate effective communication skills in a group setting to accomplish a task
CTE CCO 3. Employability Skills b)Describe characteristics and behaviors that enable individuals to contribute to the success of a group in a variety of community and work situations

NYS FACS learning standard

NYS FACS Learning Standard 2 (Intermediate)Key Idea: Students will know the basic principles of home and community safety. They can demonstrate the skills necessary to maintain their homes and workplaces in a safe and comfortable condition. They can provide a safe and nurturing environment for themselves and others.
Performance Indicator: none of the three Std 2 PIs fits team norms; the key idea's last sentence is the fit, as the crosswalk assigns for IGLR 3. b) and c).

CDOS

CDOS Standard 3aInterpersonal Skills (Students demonstrate the ability to work with others, present facts that support arguments, listen to dissenting points of view, and reach a shared decision.)

National FCS 3.0

National FCS 3.0 1.2.4Work productively on teams at school, at work, and in the community, including with people different from yourself.
National FCS 3.0 13.5.1Build a group climate where everyone's ideas, perspectives, and contributions are welcomed and respected.

Enduring understanding and essential question

Big idea: A team that cannot talk still has to get the job done, and the way it manages that shows what the team is made of. Good teams write down how they will treat each other before the pressure starts, not after.
Essential question: What does your team do when it cannot talk, and what does that tell you about what it needs when it can?

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

(Low) Given a role card, state their own role's job during the silent challenge and identify who on the team holds each of the four roles.
(Mid) Measure four amounts of water and rice as a team in silence, then analyze what the team did without words (pointing, showing, waiting, taking over) and which of those helped or hurt.
(High) Write a team norms contract of four norms, each stated as a behavior someone could see, agreed to by every member, and signed.

Vocabulary

Tier 2 (general academic): norm, behavior, contract, pressure
Tier 3 (FACS): role card, Station Manager, level off, liquid measure, dry measure, team norms. See the unit vocabulary list for Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Materials and setup

Per team of four: a dry measuring cup set, a liquid measuring cup, a set of measuring spoons, a bowl of uncooked white rice (about 2 cups), a pitcher of water, four paper cups labeled 1 to 4, a tray to catch spills, a paper towel, and a team card with the four targets (from Handout 00.04 - Team Norms Contract.md, Part 1)
Four role cards per team (Station Manager, Head Cook, Second Cook, Prep Cook) from Handout 01.08 - Role Cards Lab 1.md, with the day 4 note on the handout that says what each does today
A check station at the front: one dry cup set, one liquid cup, one spoon set, and, if the room has it, the gram scale (optional; the eye check works)
Handout, one per student: Handout 00.04 - Team Norms Contract.md
Slides: Slides 00.04 - Teamwork Under Pressure
Timer; the reset cue
Setup notes: no ingredients other than rice and water; no heat; no knives. Rice spills sweep up; put the rice bowls on the trays. The same rice bag is reused in Unit 1 Lesson 1.6. Allergy check: rice and water only; no allergy risk. Write the do now on the board.

Pre-assessment

Yesterday's clipboard note on who spoke and who did not at each table. Read it before class; today's silence removes talking as an advantage, and the students who did not speak yesterday often lead today. The do now asks what a team needs from each member; the answers are the raw material for the norms.

Do now and hook (Time: 4 min)

On the board: "Yesterday your team ranked ten items. Finish this sentence: 'The one thing my team needed more of yesterday was ___.' One line. Then: 'The one thing I did well for my team was ___.'"

Debrief: four first lines on the board (usually: listening, letting everyone talk, staying on task, not arguing). Leave them up; they come back in Step 4. Then the hook: "In a real lab, four of you share one station, one stove, and twelve minutes. Today you get water, rice, and four measurements. And nobody may say a word."

Procedure

Step	Teacher will	Students will	Time
1. Direct instruction: the four roles today	Hand each team the four role cards and point to the day 4 box on the handout: Station Manager reads the team card and points to who does what and does the final check; Head Cook measures items 1 and 3; Second Cook measures items 2 and 4; Prep Cook fills the cups, holds the tray, wipes spills. Show the two techniques on one slide: dry (spoon rice in, level off with a straight edge); liquid (pour, set the cup on the table, read at eye level). Say the rules: no talking, no writing, no mouthing words; pointing and showing are allowed; the reset cue ends it.	Take a role card. Read the day 4 box. Watch the two techniques.	4 min
2. Learning activity: the Silent Measurement preview	Start the timer. Say nothing except the time calls at 5 and 8 minutes. Watch for: the person who takes over, the person who waits to be told, the pointing that works, the team that stops to show each other the technique. Note one thing per team. At 10 minutes, use the reset cue. Then walk the trays to the check station and check each cup by pouring it into the matching measure (or weighing it): on the line, close, or off.	In silence: the Station Manager assigns by pointing; the cooks measure the four targets into cups 1 to 4 (for example, 1 cup water; 1/2 cup rice, leveled; 2 tablespoons rice; 1/4 cup water); the Prep Cook fills and wipes. Carry the tray to the check station when done and stand behind it.	10 min
3. Debrief: what worked without words	Say the results for each team (four on, three on, and so on). Then the debrief question: "What did your team do without words? What helped? What hurt?" Give the four choices on the slide: pointing, showing, waiting, taking over. Share the one thing you noted per team, without names.	Talk (finally). Each team fills Part 2 of the handout: what we did without words, what helped, what hurt, and one thing we would do differently.	5 min
4. Learning activity: write the team norms	Show the norms rule: a norm is a behavior someone could see, not a feeling. "Be nice" is a feeling. "Ask the quiet person before we decide" is a norm. Show the four do now lines from the board and three examples from the slide (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). Teams write four norms and every member signs.	Write four norms in Part 3. Test each one aloud: "Could Mr. Prevosto see us doing this?" If not, rewrite it. All four sign.	12 min

Questions to ask

Monitor understanding:

What does the Station Manager do that nobody else does today?
Cup 2 was half a cup of rice. What is the one technique word for getting it right?
Which of the four (pointing, showing, waiting, taking over) did your team use most?

Deepen learning:

Somebody at your table took over. Did the team measure better or worse because of it? How do you know?
What would you write on a norm to fix the thing your team needed more of yesterday?
In a real lab, what happens to the team norms at minute 11 when the eggs are burning? What norm would survive that?

Check for understanding

Two checks. During Step 2, the clipboard note per team: "Station Manager assigns before anyone measures," "nobody talks," "someone shows a technique instead of grabbing." During Step 4, walk and read the norms; a norm that is a feeling ("respect each other") gets the question "what would I see?" and a rewrite. A "got it" contract has four norms that all name a visible behavior.

Closure (Time: 5 min)

Each team reads one norm aloud. Write the eight or so norms on chart paper and leave it up; tomorrow's Room and Lab Agreement pulls from it. Exit card, two lines: my role today and one thing I did in it; the norm from another team I wish we had written. Collect the signed team norms contracts. Sort exit cards: "got it" names a role and an action; "needs more" names a role only, and those students get a role card reread at the start of Lab 1.

Differentiation and supports

ELL: the challenge is silent by design, so language is not the barrier; the two techniques are on a picture slide; the team card has pictures of the four targets next to the words; the norm examples are in Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish on the handout (see Vocabulary 00.md, [check with a native speaker]); the norm sentence starter is "We ___ before we ___."
IEP and 504 (general): a student who cannot measure holds the Prep Cook role (fills, wipes, carries the tray) and signs the norms; a student who finds silence stressful may be the Station Manager, who points and does not measure; the norms may be dictated to the recorder; extra time by writing norm four as tomorrow's do now.
Grade 6 support: three targets instead of four (drop the 2 tablespoons); three norms.
Grade 8 stretch: a fifth target, 1 teaspoon rice, with the spoon leveled; the team writes a fifth norm that says what the team does when someone breaks a norm; the student writes two sentences comparing this team to the survival team yesterday.
UDL checkpoint used: multiple means of engagement (a timed team challenge with a check that is not a grade) and multiple means of action and expression (a student contributes by pointing, showing, measuring, wiping, or writing).
No-kitchen alternative: this lesson needs only a table, water, rice, and cups. It runs in any classroom; put the trays on desks pushed together.

Assessment

Objective	Standards met	Learning task	Assessment (formative or summative; tool)
1. State the role's job and identify each role holder	IGLR 3. c); CCO 3. b)	Step 1 role cards; exit card line one	Formative; exit card
2. Measure four amounts in silence and analyze what worked	IGLR 3. b); CIR 3. f); National FCS 1.2.4	Silent Measurement preview, Step 2; debrief, Step 3	Formative; check station result (on, close, off) and handout Part 2; clipboard note
3. Write and sign a four-norm team contract	IGLR 3. b); CDOS 3a Interpersonal Skills; National FCS 13.5.1	Norms, Step 4	Formative; signed contract collected; scored complete (four visible behaviors, four signatures), partial, or missing

Measuring technique is assessed summatively in Unit 1 (Assessment 01.2, the Tools and Measuring Performance Check). Today's measurements are not scored.

Homework

None. Optional: measure one thing at home the way you measured today (a cup of rice, a cup of water) and ask someone to check it.

Connections

Inside the building: the PE teacher, who writes team rules with every class in September; FACS gives PE the "behavior someone could see" test, and PE gives FACS the same norms language so students hear it twice. Math: reading a liquid measure at eye level and leveling a dry cup are the first two measurement skills Unit 1 builds on. Community: none needed.

Sources

NYS Middle Level CTE FACS Content Module 01, Individual Growth and Life Readiness (nyctecenter.org, June 2018), lines 3. b) and 3. c). Copy in 02 Standards/NYS Module PDFs/.
NYS Middle Level CTE Theme Module 02, Communication and Interpersonal Relationships, line 3. f), and Theme Module 01, Career and Community Opportunities, line 3. b). Same folder.
NYS Learning Standards for Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences (1996), Standard 2, Intermediate, FACS strand, and NYS CDOS Standard 3a, Intermediate, Interpersonal Skills. Wording per 02 Standards/STANDARDS SOURCES - web research.md.
National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education 3.0 (LEAD FCS Education, 2018), competencies 1.2.4 and 13.5.1.
Sal's own materials: the Silent Measurement Challenge (Brentwood, written out in full in Lesson 01.06 - Measuring and the Silent Measurement Challenge.md); this lesson is the water-and-rice preview of it. Role cards from Handout 01.08 - Role Cards Lab 1.md. Team norms and role cards as described in 01 Source Analysis/Brentwood Work and Simulations.md.

Teacher notes

If the period runs short, cut Step 3 to two minutes (results and one observation) and protect Step 4. The norms are tomorrow's raw material.
Common mistake: a team talks in the first thirty seconds. Do not stop the clock; note it, and use it in the debrief ("one team broke the silence at second twenty; what did that cost them?").
Common mistake two: the norms are feelings. Every team writes "respect" first. The test question ("what would I see?") fixes it. Ask it at every table.
The check station is not a grade. Say that before the timer starts, or the challenge turns into a test and the quiet students freeze.
The rice goes back in the bag and comes out again on day 13 for Lesson 1.6. Label the bag.
[Sal: the Silent Measurement Challenge at Brentwood was your ELL-friendly design on purpose. Say that to the class after the debrief if it fits: "I built this one so that language could not be the thing that made a team lose."]