Context
To keep students on pace, teachers create a class competition that runs daily and by “unit” (a period of time of their choosing, typically two weeks). This practice was adapted from research on cooperative learning at John Hopkins University, and iterated upon to work within the class and school culture.
Teams earn points in two ways: task completion at or above the mastery mark of 70% and demonstrating teamwork practices like active listening, helping others, and explaining ideas. The teacher recognizes the practices in action and awards points to the team. Scoring is tracked on a spreadsheet shared with the class throughout the entire unit period.
A concurrent daily competition is also tracked in a similar manner, but with a different color. This ensures that teams that may be too far behind in the longer term competition can still “win the day.” Teams are also reshuffled throughout the year, creating more opportunities for everyone to win.
Screenshot of Team Data on Gooru
Student Does
- Completes learning goals to help their team earn points in daily and periodic class competitions.
- Demonstrates teamwork practices to help their team earn points in daily and periodic class competitions.
- Reviews competition tracker to see how well their team is doing in the daily and periodic competitions.
Teacher Does
- Sets timeline for periodic competitions.
- Awards points to teams for demonstrating mastery and teamwork practices.
- Provides progress updates to teams each day (ex. who is winning, who is close).
- Celebrate the team that “wins” each day by completing the most goals.
- Provides small prizes (ex. pens, pencil set, etc.) for teams that win the periodic competition.
Technology Does
- Tracks each team’s progress, instantly updating each time a student completes a goal.
- Provides easily-shared data so teams can see how they compare to the rest of the class each day.
Displayed Leaderboard
Student Goals Template (See Student Dashboard Strategy Resource for Closer Look)
Student View of Dashboard (See Student Dashboard Strategy Resource for Closer Look)
Teacher View of Teams (See Teacher Dashboard Strategy Resource for Closer Look)
Strategy Resources
Visual Dashboards for Class Competitions at LPS Richmond
Sophia Thomas, teacher, explains how the class developed visual dashboards to show individual and team... Learn More
LPS Sample Teacher Google Dashboard
This is a sample teacher Google dashboard used for LPS's Navigate Math course. (LPS has... Learn More
LPS Sample Student Google Dashboard
This is a sample student Google dashboard used for LPS's Navigate Math course. (LPS has... Learn More
LPS Richmond California is part of the Leadership Public Schools (LPS) network of public charter high schools. It has developed a personalized academic numeracy program called Navigate Math.
See School