Team Work and Varied Abilities

Are there any strategies that you use to encourage teamwork among your students?

 Currently, the students are seated in groups of four. They have been assigned this group as their team for a large board game we are playing as we read Lord of the Flies. Each student takes a reading quiz for each chapter and then their scores are averaged to make a team score. If a team scores 80% or higher, they receive a FATE card. The fate card tells them how/when they can move around the game board (which is a large poster on the back wall). Fate cards say things like, "There was a discussion on the island about what makes a good leader. If your team can list 5 qualities of a good leader, move forward one." Together teams have to discuss their fate task or make decisions together to determine how they move around the board. Some of the other assignments that we have worked on throughout the book have allowed the teams to work cooperatively to create an overview of the plot, act out a scene from the book, and talk more deeply about human nature. Simply having the seats arranged in this way has encouraged students to work together (sometime a good thing, and sometime a slight distraction). 

What ways are you adopting to instruct students who have varying abilities?

 I think differentiation is an area I really struggle with. I think I do really simple things, like walking around and asking students with special needs if they are understanding or how I can help them, but I don't have any major strategies for helping each and every one of the varied abilities in my classroom. I just try to interact with each individual as much as possible and check for understanding whenever I can.