Week 1 · Teamwork

CATME: how we form teams, and how you'll evaluate them

Two tools, one system. You'll use both this semester, starting in September.

Fall 2026 · Teams of three · Four evaluations

Dates to write down

Teams form in September and stay put

SEP 9
Team-forming survey opens
CATME emails you a link. Schedule, background, working preferences.
SEP [__]
Survey closes, 11:59pm
I can't build teams until everyone has answered.
SEP 14
Teams announced
Teams of three. Same team for the whole semester.
×4
Peer evaluation, after each presentation
Dates on Blackboard. The first three are feedback only; the fourth affects your grade.

Team-forming survey · September 9

The one mistake almost everyone makes

The schedule grid asks when you are busy and unavailable. It is not a when-are-you-free poll. Check the blocks you cannot meet.

Everyone should mark our class block as busy: Monday and Wednesday, [class time]. Also mark standing commitments: lab, TA duties, seminars, care responsibilities, standing meetings.

The survey also asks your program, year, programming and writing experience, hours you plan to spend outside class, and how you prefer to lead or follow. Answer honestly. The algorithm can only build workable teams from accurate input, and schedule compatibility is weighted most heavily.

The instrument

Five dimensions

C
Contributing to the Team's WorkDoes the share of work, on time, at usable quality.
I
Interacting with TeammatesCommunicates, listens, keeps everyone informed, handles conflict.
K
Keeping the Team on TrackTracks progress, notices when things slip, gives teammates feedback.
E
Expecting QualityHolds the team to a high standard and says so out loud.
H
Having Relevant Knowledge, Skills, and AbilitiesBrings the ability the task needs, and picks up what's missing.

Before you rate anyone

Three is the expectation, not a disappointment

The middle description is what a perfectly functioning team looks like. Save the top description for someone who genuinely stood out. Use the bottom one when expectations were genuinely not met.

Inflating everyone to 5 makes the whole instrument useless. It also makes it impossible to tell your team anything they can act on. A 3 says the work got done well; that is a good outcome.

Rate in private. Don't compare answers with your team beforehand.

Practice · Madison Lewis

Assign a dimension, then a rating

Writes down a checklist of what the team needs to get done for meetings.K · 5
Completes any math required as part of the team's assignments.C · 3
Fails to give status reports to other team members.I · 1

Practice · Madison Lewis

Keep going

Encourages the team to achieve its highest potential.E · 5
Communicates high expectations with regard to the quality of assignments.E · 5
Generates novel ideas that help the team.C · 5

Practice · Madison Lewis

Last four

Figures out how to do the math for assigned problems.H · 3
Listens to everyone's opinions.I · 3
Able to use base knowledge of computers in some assignments.H · 3
Gives constructive feedback.K · 5

Practice · Overall ratings

What Madison gets

Contributing to the Team's Work4
Interacting with Teammates2
Keeping the Team on Track5
Expecting Quality5
Having Relevant KSAs3

Each overall rating follows from the behaviors in that dimension. Madison is a strong teammate with one real problem: she doesn't keep people informed. That is exactly the kind of thing peer evaluation is for.

Two distinctions worth remembering

Where people disagree

Doing the work is not the same as having the ability.
"Completes the math required" is contributing. "Figures out how to do the math" is knowledge and skill. One is effort, the other is capability.

Giving feedback is keeping the team on track, not interacting.
Interacting covers communication and listening. Noticing that something needs to change, and saying so, is track-keeping.

Peer-to-peer comments

Write something they can act on

Address the person directly. "They were often late to meetings." → "Arriving with your section drafted would give us more time to revise."

Respectful and actionable. Name a behavior and a change, not a trait. "Disorganized" is not usable; "post the draft the night before so we can read it" is.

On a team of three, assume your comments are attributable. Two teammates, two sets of comments. Write only what you would say to their face, because functionally you are.

There is a separate box for confidential comments to me. Use it for anything you don't want your team to see.

Grading

Three rounds of feedback, one that counts

Evaluations 1, 2, and 3 are formative. Only the fourth affects your grade.

That is deliberate. Early low ratings are useful information, not a penalty, and you have the rest of the semester to respond to them. Someone who takes the feedback and changes should not be carrying the first-round score in December.

Completing each evaluation is required, including the ones that don't affect your grade. I can't return results to your team until everyone has submitted.