WBT Writing

I chose to write this post in red because red is a color that grabs the attention of others, and it is my hope that this post will grab your attention.  Let me just begin by saying, WBT writing rocks!  We are five weeks into the school year, and I am loving what I am seeing.  If you are considering using some or all of the Whole Brain writing techniques, but are still a little unsure, let me encourage you.  You will be amazed at the results!

It is not easy to let go of what we know and have always believed in.  When I decided to do full WBT implementation this year, that meant letting go of some things that I had always believed in very strongly, like Writers' Workshop.  For 24 years I had either been using or training other teachers in how to use a Writers' Workshop approach.  It was not an easy thing to let go of, but now that we are five weeks into the school year, I can tell you that I do not regret that decision at all.  The truth is that I have never gotten such good results in such a short amount of time.  Since I am no longer doing Writers' Workshop, I can only attribute this success to teaching writing the WBT way!

It is hard to pinpoint one component of the program that makes it so successful.  I see it as a synergistic effect that is achieved when all of the different components are mixed together.  Having said this, however, I do think it starts with a combination of oral writing and the Brainies.  There is such truth in the statement, "If a child can say it, he can write it."  Oral writing teaches kids how to write before they have even picked up a pencil.  The teacher provides students with a framework for oral writing through the use of sentence frames. Sentence frames benefit all students, but with a class composed mostly of ELL students, a third of which are in special education, I find that the sentence frames are especially beneficial.  The Brainies are gestures that accompanies students oral writing.  These gestures remind them to do things like punctuate correctly or indent.

I also love the WBT philosophy that writing should be broken down into its smallest components and these components should be taught individually.  Coach B. uses the analogy of a tennis game.  Before anyone can pick up a racquet and play, he must first learn a backhand, forehand, volley, serve, overhead shot etc.  Writing works the same way, but many times we expect students to write without teaching them the individual components or giving them the structure that they need to become strong writers.  WBT uses complexors and puzzlers to teach these skills and frameworks in a fun game-like format.  You can read more about complexors and puzzlers by going to the Whole Brain Teaching website and downloading the Writing Game.

I also believe that another thing which makes Whole Brain writing so successful is the immediate feedback that students receive through red/green writing.  I am able to provide feedback to all of my class everyday through red/green writing, as opposed to just three or four students each day when I was using a Writers' Workshop model and conferencing with my students individually.  If you would like to know more about what red/green writing is and how to implement it, please see the post that I have written on this subject.

I would like to end by sharing with you the comment that actually inspired this blog post.  I have a student in my class who I will call Tommy.  Tommy is one of my special education students.  He entered my room as a total non-reader and a non-writer.  At the beginning of the year Tommy struggled with writing even a few words.  He felt successful, however, through oral writing.  He could verbalize what he wanted to say and share it with others.  As he has slowly started to read, he has also slowly started to write.  Last Monday for red/green writing I asked students the following question:  What did you do over the weekend?  Their answers became their topic sentences.  Tommy then asked me the question that I will never forget:  "Can we do one of those three zoop (the sound effect for comma) sentences?"  I answered, "You mean a triple whammy sentence.  Of course, you can."  I came back by a few minutes later and he had written the perfect triple whammy sentence, sharing three things that he did over the weekend, and it was punctuated perfectly.  I could share many other stories, but I think that Tommy's does the best job of emphasizing the point that Whole Brain writing truly does work.

My goal in writing this post was not to teach you how to do Whole Brain writing (Which, by the way, would be impossible to do in one post.), but it was to inspire you to consider learning more about it and using some or all of its components in your classroom.  I hope that I have achieved this goal.  Happy writing!

Oral Writing Essay

Our class has been working on oral writing since the first day of school.  However, up until this point, it has just been individual students sharing individual sentences.  I decided that this week it was time to take the plunge and do our first oral writing essay as a class.  I have to be honest.  I was not sure how my class would do with it.  Out of my 18 students, 14 are well below grade level, with 6 of those in special education.  However, I decided that the only way for both my students and myself to learn was to just do it, so we did.

I knew that it would be important for my students to have a model to follow for putting together this essay, so I used the model that I had been teaching my students in writing.  Below is a picture of it that is now hanging up in our writing area.
                                                                         

The go sign was an answer to a question.  This became our topic sentence.  When I introduced this model to my students I placed a rock in each of their pencil boxes and asked the question, "What did Miss Ray give you?"  I then instructed them to look in their pencil boxes for the answer:  Miss Ray gave me a rock.  They now had their topic sentence.  Each star represents an adder.  (This is what Whole Brain Teaching calls a detail.)  Before each adder they had to use a "traffic light" transition word.  They needed a green light transition word before their first adder, a yellow light transition word before their second adder, and a red light transition word before their last adder.  Below is a picture of my traffic light transitions.

The stop sign after the stars represents the students' concluder.  (This is what Whole Brain Teaching calls the concluding sentence.)

This model worked really well and resulted in some great writing!  Since the students knew it so well, I decided that it would provide a great framework for their first oral writing essay.  The topic I chose was the retelling of a passage that we had been working on all week in reading.  It was about a mom and her daughter who made cupcakes together.  The students had read this passage numerous times and had used the "Connect 5W+H" Brainie to both write and answer who, what, when, where, why, and how questions about the passage.

Since it was their first time doing an oral writing essay, they needed some guidance, but I was amazed at how well they did.  The first student was able to tell the topic sentence.  Then it was time for the adders (details).  I wasn't sure how my students would do with remembering in order the important details, but they did really good.  I did not even have to remind them to use transition words.  Each student who shared remembered to use the correct transition word with the comma (zoop), when it was his/her turn.  The funnest part, however, was watching them ask for help.  If a student was not sure what to say next, he would say "help me".  The class would then gather around and give suggestions.  This part was a little shaky.  The kids did not quite understand that they each needed to give their own suggestions, instead of chiming in together and following each other.  I think this happened because my lower students are unsure of themselves, so they followed the lead of my few stronger ones. Since I have so many low students, it sounded like one big chorus.  Come to think of it, that is probably a good thing.  When the student sharing heard an idea that he wanted to use, he used "Class Yes" to have the rest of the class return to their seats, or in this case their spots on the floor. After the third adder, the next student knew that he was to give the concluder (closing sentence).  Once again, I did not have to remind this student, because the model was there for him to follow.

I have to admit that it was a pretty awesome thing to see.  I am looking forward to doing more oral writing essays on a variety of topics.  As my students' writing improves and they get more practice at doing oral writing essays, we should be able to move away from such a strict model.  I am very excited to see the progression.

Ready to Listen

This post is going to be short and sweet.  I just wanted to quickly share with you a trick that I tried that has really helped ensure that all of my students are ready to listen.  When I use "Class Yes" with my students, the attention getting signal used in Whole Brain Teaching, I expect all of my students to look at me and fold their hands.  This works well most of the time, especially if the students are not writing or working with something at their desk.  However, it doesn't work as well when they are writing or working with manipulatives or their white boards.  I have found that even when they answer "yes" and look at me, some will try to finish what they are doing, rather than follow directions quickly (rule one), by immediately stopping what they are doing and folding their hands.

We talked about this, practiced this, and even made it a team goal on the Super Improvers Wall, but there was still that group of students who did not immediately stop what they were doing and fold their hands.  My solution was "the hot potato".  I told them that when I say "class" anything that they are holding in their hands instantly becomes a hot potato, and they must drop it.  It worked like a charm.  Now they instantly stop what they are doing, fold their hands, and look at me.  We are now earning our team improver stars in this area easily.

To sum up, (Yes, we have been working on concluders this week.) if you are having trouble getting your students to instantly stop what they are doing and fold their hands, try the hot potato technique.  As I have learned, it truly works!

Blends

For years I have introduced blends to my students by having them make chocolate milk.  This year we are still making chocolate milk, but we are doing it as part of the WBT five step lesson plan.  Below is the lesson that I created for introducing my students to blends.  I also created a language arts Power Pic to go with the lesson.  I have attached it at the end of the lesson for you to download.

1.  Question
                        T:  What is a blend?  Ask your partner what a blend is.  (Students ask their partners.)

2.  Answer
                         T:  Mirror Words.  (Pretend to hold an imaginary cup in one hand and with the other hand                                 make a stirring motion over the cup.)  A blend is a combination of two or three letters                                   whose sounds blend together.   (Students repeat the definition and the gesture.)  Clap,                                   clap Teach.

                        S:  Clap, clap Okay.  (Students make a full body turn and teach their partners what a blend
                              is.)
                        T:  Class class class.
                        S:  Yes yes yes.

3.  Explain:       T:  Mirror Words.
                        S:  Mirror Words.
                        T:  (Use gestures to accompany your words.)   The word blend means to
                             mix two or more things together.  Clap, clap Teach.
                        S:  Clap, clap Okay.  (Students teach their partners using gestures that the word blend                                      means to mix two or more things together.)
                        T:  Classity, class class.
                        S:  Yessity, yes yes.
                        T:  (Use gestures to accompany your words.)  When we cook we often blend
                             foods together.  Tell your partner that today we are going to blend chocolate and milk
                             together to make chocolate milk.  (Students tell their partners.)

Pass out spoons and cups with milk and chocolate already squirted into the milk, but not yet stirred.  Guide the students through blending the chocolate and the milk together by stirring it with their spoons.  Students may drink the chocolate milk now or at the end of the lesson.

                        T:   Did you know that just like we can blend chocolate and milk together to make chocolate

                              milk, we can also blend letters together.  Tell your neighbor how amazing it is that we 

                              can also blend letters together.  (Students tell their neighbors.)  There is a secret to 

                              blending letters.  Ask your partner if he knows the secret.  (Students ask their partners.)                               Mirror Words.  

                        S:  Mirror Words.

                        T:  (Use gestures to accompany your words.)  You can't just blend together any letters that

                             you want. 

                        S:  You can't just blend together any letters that you want.

                        T:  Blends come in families.

                        S:  Blends come in families.

                        T:  Today we are going to be reading blends in the "l" family.

                        S:  Today we are going to be reading blends in the "l" family.

Place a magnetic letter "b" and a magnetic letter "l" on the board.  Model how to blend the two letters together.  Repeat with the magnetic letters "cl" and "fl".  Pass out a blend strip to each student containing the blends in the "l" family.

                       T:  You are going to take turns reading the blends on your blend strip.  Peanut butters will go 

                            first.  (I call my partners Peanut Butter and Jelly.  Peanut Butter always sits closest to the

                           door and Jelly sits closest to my Brainy board.)  Peanut Butters, you will read the blends 

                           on your blend strip as many times as you can until I call "Uh Oh Switch".  (This is the  

                           signal for the partners to switch roles.)  Jellies, your job is to follow along.  Remember, 

                           Peanut Butters, if you are stuck on a blend, you can always say, "Help me!"  Clap, clap 

                           Teach.

                      S:  Clap, clap Okay.  (Peanut Butters read blends on strips while Jellies follow along and help

                           if needed.  After a couple of minutes the teacher calls "Uh Oh Switch" and the partners 

                           trade roles.)

                      T:  Oh my classy.

                      S:  Oh my yessy.

4.  Test:         T:  It is time for "Yes, No Way".  (The teacher will make a statement, and the students will

                          respond with the word yes, and a fist pump, or the words no way, touching fingertips of

                          both hands to forehead and moving hands outward away from forehead.)

Teacher Statements for students to respond to:

                                                                             "gl" says ____  (T. may pronounce correctly or

                                                                              incorrectly.  Repeat with other blends.

                                                                              "wl" is a blend.  (Repeat with both true and false

                                                                              blends.)

                     T:  It is now time for QT.  (This stands for question time.  Students will place their heads on

                          their desks with their eyes covered.  The teacher will make a statement and if the students

                          agree, they will give a thumbs up.  If they disagree, a thumbs down.  If less than 90% of

                          your students answer correctly during QT, go back and give more examples and then

                          repeat the QT time.)

                     S:  Cutie

                     T:  Heads down, eyes covered, and ready for the first statement.

Teacher Statements for students to respond to:

                                                                             To blend means to mix two or more things together.

                                                                             The gesture for blend is making a stirring motion

                                                                             over a cup.

                                                                             You can blend together any letters that you want to.

                                                                             "pl" says ____  (T. may pronounce correctly or

                                                                              incorrectly.  Repeat with other blends.
                                                                              "tl" is a blend.  (Repeat with both true and false
                                                                              blends.)

5.  Critical Thinking:  Pass out a list of words containing words with "l" blends.
                  T:  It is now time for everyone to take out their sockless hand puppets.  (Sockless hand puppets
                       are one of the WBT's Brain Toys.  For more information on the Brain Toys, go to the WBT
                       website and under free downloads you will find "Whole Brain Teaching Seminar 3:  State
                       Standards and Critical Thinking".  On page 33 their is a description of all of the Brain Toys.)
                       You are going to take turns reading the words on your list, using your sockless hand                                       puppets.  Peanut butters will go first.  Peanut Butters, you will use your sockless hand
                        puppet to read the words on your list.  Jellies, your job is to follow along with your hand
                        puppet.  Remember, Peanut Butters, if you are stuck on a blend, you can always say, "Help                           me!" When you are done do "Tag Team Switch" (Partners high five each other and switch                             roles.)  Clap, clap Teach.
                   S:  Clap clap Okay.  (Students take turns reading words with their sockless hand puppets,
                        using tag team switch.
Ask students to write silly sentences containing blends from their lists.

                      Clink on the link below to access the  language arts Power Pic which accompanies this lesson.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pqo0yyne8wehlq0/language%20art%20pic%20for%20blends.pub

                            

                         

                       

                        

                              

                      

The Power of Power Pics

I am in love with Power Pics.  Power Pics are pictures that correspond to content standards in both math and language arts.  Each Power Pic contains a question, an answer, a gesture, and a picture that the students can associate with the gesture.  Here is an example of a question and an answer taken from the Setting Power Pic:  What is a setting?  A setting is where the story takes place.  While students are answering the question, they are making the gesture associated with the concept and looking at the picture.  They then use "Teach Okay" to share the answer and the gesture with their partner.  This process activates all areas of the students' brains, because they are seeing, saying, hearing, and doing.  After the concept is taught, the Power Pic is placed on either the math or the language arts Power Pic wall and reviewed frequently using the answer and the gesture.  The result is better comprehension and recall of content, which I have witnessed first hand since school has started.  Below you will find a picture of what my Power Pics Walls, after eight days of school, looks like.  As you can see, we have covered a lot of content since the beginning of the school year.

When I first heard about the Power Pics wall, I associated it with my old "Words to Know" wall.  On it I would place key vocabulary words.  Although I usually included a picture with the vocabulary words, the kids were only seeing and hearing the content.  There was not much saying involved, unless you count repeating the definition after me, and there was definitely no doing.  The Power Pics wall is so much better.

One of my favorite Power Pic lessons so far this year has been open and closed syllables.  For these I created my own Power Pics.  I wanted the students to get the idea that in an open syllable the vowel hangs out and in a closed syllable it is sandwiched between two consonants.  So, I decided to use a sandwich for my picture.  For my open syllable pic I was unable to find a picture of a sandwich with one slice of bread missing, so after I printed the Power Pic, I just used a black marker to cross out one of the slices of bread.  To further bring home this concept I brought in a sandwich that I had made at home.  I associated the meat with the vowel and the two slices of bread with the consonants on each side.  When discussing open syllables I took off one slice of bread to demonstrate that the vowel was hanging out.  After two days 100% of my students were able to identify open and closed syllables and explain the difference between the two.  Of course, the gestures that they had learned were usually involved in their explanations.  I have created a link for both of the Power Pics if you would like to use them.  Just remember to use a jumbo black marker to cross out the top slice of bread in the open syllable pic.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eixzkozfbz84ia2/closed%20syllable%20language%20art%20pic%20template%20-%20Shortcut.lnk?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vwxpchqm4iktxn3/open%20syllable%20language%20art%20pic%20template.pub?dl=0

I have also had a lot of fun with the Power Pic for a sentence.  Students are taught that a sentence is a complete message.  The picture is a phone ringing, and the gesture is pretending to hold a phone to one's ear.  Students are taught the "midnight phone call test":  Imagine that you are sound asleep and wake up to the phone ringing.  You pick it up and listen.  Then you ask yourself, "Was what I just heard a complete message?"  We had been working on this concept daily, and the students were getting very good at distinguishing between fragments and complete sentences. That's when I decided to put them to the test.  I wanted to see if they could tell where to place the periods in a piece of writing, by reading it and listening for complete messages.  So, I typed up a short passage for the students to proofread.  I left out both periods and capitals at the beginning of some sentences.  I chose to leave out the capitals, because we had also been using another Power pic to help us learn that every sentence must begin with a capital letter.  Right before the students began proofreading, I had a brainstorm.  I told the students to hold the phone to their ear, and when  they got to the end of a complete message, to hang up the phone and say "click".  It seemed like a natural extension to the sentence Power Pic, and I have to say that it worked beautifully.  Not only could most of them proofread a piece for periods, but when they wrote multiple sentences, most of them were doing a good job of knowing where their periods went.  Teaching kids what a sentence is and how to write in complete sentences has never been so easy.  Thank you Coach B. for the Power Pics.  They are amazing!

If you do not already have a Power Pic wall  up in your room, it is not too late to get started.  Create one space with a blue border for your language arts pics and one with a red border for your math pics.  You will also want to put letters and numbers along one side and on either the top or bottom of each wall.  This creates a grid system that makes it easy to find each Power Pic when you are doing review.  It also teaches kids how to read a grid.  Don't you just love those added bonuses?  You can find the pics themselves at the Whole Brain Teaching website.  The address is www.wholebrainteaching.com.  Be sure to register.  Once you do, you can go to downloads on the right hand side.  Within the download section you will find Power Pics for both math and language arts through the third grade.  They are yours to download and print.  By the way, did I mention that all of the downloads are free?

Week One in the Life of the Brainies

The Brainies were very excited.  The first day of school was here, and in a few minutes the students would be entering the room.  All of the Brainies were in their designated spot on the board in front of the room, so that all of the students could easily see them.  Below is the selfie that they took:

                                    

As the first day got underway, the Brainies each waited patiently for their turn.  The moment finally came in the afternoon.  Miss Ray introduced "Capital", "End Mark", and "Because Clapper" to help the students share orally about their first day of school.  The three Brainies were all so proud and were hoping that the students would eagerly use them.  It was awkward at first, but soon the students were beginning to catch on, and you could tell by their smiles that they all thought the Brainies were a lot of fun.

Day two was very exciting!  In the morning the students received their book bags, and Miss Ray taught them how to read using the "Capital" and "End Mark" Brainies.  It was a great sight seeing all of those little hands moving while they were reading.  A few students still hadn't caught on, but as Miss Ray walked around watching, modeling, and encouraging, they began to get the idea.  It was amazing how engaged all of the students were.  They were so focused on making the Brainies, that there were no off task behaviors.

By the time red/green writing arrived, the students had the idea.  They were having fun making the Brainies, as they wrote about the best part of their day, using a "Because Clapper".  One little girl wrote:  The best part about today was the Brainies, because they are fun.  All of the Brainies had huge smiles on their faces when they heard that.

Day three was a big day for "And".  He had been waiting all week for his turn, and he was very excited!  First Miss Ray showed the students how to play Puzzle 1 from the writing game.  The moment came when students had to make lists of two items.  Over and over "And" was being used as students said things like, "dogs and cats" or "footballs and baseballs".  The "Comma" Brainie even got a turn when students had to make lists of three items.  You could hear zoop (comma's sound effect) all over the room as students said things like, "mom, dad and sister" or "apples, oranges and bananas".  When they were done, the students were all asking if they were going to play again tomorrow.  Of course, Miss Ray was happy to oblige.

Day four was even more exciting for "And".  In the morning Miss Ray introduced students to Super Speed Grammar to help them learn about nouns.  As they shared with their partners the nouns that they saw in each slide, they were asked to used Brainies and the following sentence frame:  I see __________ and __________.  It was another workout for "And", along with "Capital" and "End Mark".

Later in the morning students not only played Puzzle 1 again, but they also learned how to play Complexor: And, which is also a part of the writing game.  By this time the students had the hang of  "And" and were able to use him in complete sentences, which they then wrote in their writing journals.  There was even more work for "And" at the end of the day, when students had two write a sentence sharing two things that they had learned that day.

Another Brainie also made his debut on day four. It was "5 W+H".  In preparation for the Crazy Professor Game, students learned how to ask each other questions about their phonics' story.  It was great to hear all of the who, what, when, where, why, and how questions that were flying around the classroom.  "5 W+H" felt very proud.

The highlight, however, for all of the Brainies was when students began to use them during "Teach Okay", without Miss Ray even asking them to.  There were a few students who received Super Improver Stars for this.

On day five the students were using the Brainies more and more.  Today "Comma" got a real workout, as Miss Ray taught the students the Complexor:  Comma List.  Students also learned a new Brainie: "Triple Whammy Sentence".  "Triple Whammy" was so excited.  He had been waiting all week for his moment.  He worked as a team with "And" as students created "Triple Whammy" sentences during the Complexor game.  Students then wrote "Triple Whammy" sentences in their writing journals, using one of three sentence frames that Miss Ray provided.  Students could choose from the following three sentence frames, which Miss Ray explained were in three levels like a video game:

The "Easy Peasy Lemon Squeazy" sentence frame:  I like __________, __________ and __________.

The "Challenge" sentence frame:  My favorite __________ are __________, __________, and __________.

The "Super Duper Challenge" sentence frame:  My three favorite nouns are _________, __________, and __________.

Some students even asked if they could do all three!  Miss Ray's response:  Well, if you really want to.

The Brainies were loving life, but then the moment came when "If Then" was glowing.  He wasn't expecting to be used this week, so he was just kicking back, watching many of his other Brainie friends at work.  Then, it happened.  At the end of reading (Remember, students have been reading books all week using the Brainies.), one of the students raised her hand and said, "I found a new Brainie in my book.  She the pointed to "If _____, then _____" and made the gesture.  Miss Ray had never even mentioned this Brainie.  The student just saw it on the board.  It was a glorious moment for the Brainies, and for Miss Ray as well.

Another highlight came on day five.  Sadly, however, the Brainies did not get to hear it.  It was the end of the day and the students were in line and on their way outside to meet their parents.  On the way, one student raised her hand and said, "I have been using the Brainies when I read at night.  Is that okay?"  It was one of those "Miss Ray would like to jump up and down and shout at the top of her lungs how excited she was, but instead she contained herself and very calmly told the student that she thought it was a great idea" moments.  Miss Ray then stopped the line and, out of curiosity, asked her students if anyone else had tried reading with the Brainies at home or had shown the Brainies to their parents.  To Miss Ray's surprise and delight, almost everyone raised a hand.  It was just too bad that the Brainies missed all of this.

It had been a great first week of school in the life of the Brainies.  They are resting this weekend, but they are all very excited for week two of school.

I hope that you all have enjoyed my story of the Brainies.  If you are not familiar with the Brainies or the Writing Game, you can access them both by going to www.wholebrainteaching.com.  Register on the site. (Registration is free.)  Then you can access all of the free downloads.  After you have registered, just scroll down the right side of your screen and you will see a bar labeled downloads.  Click on it, and and not only will you find the Brainies and the Writing game, but you will also find a number of other great Whole Brain resources.