To get started you need ten different levels. The name of each level should be in a different color. It doesn't matter what you name your levels. Many people will give them names that match their classroom theme. For example, a good friend of mine who teaches at my school has an eighties them in her room. Her levels have names like "Rock Star" and "Producer". All students will start on the first level, which should be in white. In my room it is the beginner level. Students' names are written on cards that match the color of the level that they are on. The cards are placed on the board.
Now here comes the fun part! You start looking for improvements in your students. When you see one, you or the student colors in a star on the student's card. The improvements could be in any area. Below I have listed some examples of some of the things that my students have earned stars for:
1. Making smarter choices
2. Beginning to use the Brainies
3. Better or more consistent gestures
4. Improvements in writing
5. Improvements in Super Speed Math
6. Folded hands and laser eyes
7. Being a better partner
8. Growth in reading
The point is that the improvements can be in anything! The students are not competing against each other, but against themselves. It is often your lower students that have more stars, because they have more room for improvement.
When a student has received ten stars, he moves up to the next level on the board, and his new card is the color associated with that level. I will sign the back of the old card and send it home with the student, along with a certificate for moving to the next level. I tell my class when a student reaches level four, I will take his picture with two of his friends. They will be asked to pose for a silly picture. This picture will go face down on the board and the stars the student earns will be colored on the back of the picture. When a student has earned ten stars, the picture will be turned over and revealed for the first time. We haven't got there yet, but I am very excited. I can see how motivating this will be.
I would like to share with you my favorite story so far this year about our Super Improver Wall. I have a little boy in my class who I will call Johnny. (This is not his real name.) Johnny is in special education and one of the lowest students I have ever had. Johnny entered my room three days into the school year, not knowing how to read or write anything. When he did write a letter or two, there was no letter/sound correspondence at all. I had been working with Johnny, showing him how to sound out words and write down the sounds that he hears. He was beginning to get the idea and would do this when myself or another teacher was sitting with him and giving him a lot of support, but he would not do any writing independently. So one day, about the middle of the third week of school, it was the end of the day and we were doing red/green writing. I had given Johnny a very simple sentence frame: I like ________. The day before I had helped Johnny write "I like video games." The next day, however, I wanted Johnny to fill in the frame on his own. He had sat for the first five minutes of red/green writing and done nothing. So I walked up to him and whispered, "If you can write an "I like" sentence before we clean-up, you will get a super improver star." I have to be honest. I did not expect him to do it, but I figured that it was worth a try. A couple of minutes later I looked over and he had his journal in the air shaking it. He looked very excited. I went over and saw that he had written: "I like fit video games." I was so excited! He had sounded out the word fight, and copied video games from the day before. I did not care that it wasn't spelled right. What mattered was that he had written that sentence in under two minutes, along with his very first word that had letter/sound correspondence. Not only did he get a super improver star, but I had the class give him a hundred finger Wooh. (Okay, maybe I did get a little carried away with the hundred finger Wooh, but it was a very exciting moment.) This is the power of The Super Improver Wall. It is amazing!
I also have a card on the wall. I decided to put it up after my mentor, Nancy Stoltenberg, suggested it. Having my own card up has brought another layer of fun to the wall and has shown my students that everyone has something that they can improve in. Right now there are two things that I am working on. In the morning I always hand the bag that had our breakfast cards to a student to hold while we are going through the line. However, I always forget to take the bag back after I've passed out the cards, and the student has to remind me. I was told that if I remember on my own I might even get two stars! I am working very hard on this. The other area in which the students have told me that I can earn a star is our "Beat the Clock" section of the scoreboard. I am constantly writing our seconds for "papers out" next to "line" by accident. My students have promised me a star if I quit doing that.
As you can see, the scoreboard is very motivating and a lot of fun. Coach B., the founder of Whole Brain Teaching, has done a great webcast on the scoreboard. You can view it by going to www.wholebrainteaching.com. Under "Goodies" click on the first link entitled "wbt tv". There you will find a library of webcasts that Coach B. has done. The Super Improver Wall is number 503. You can also find many examples of walls that other teachers have done by simply going to Google and typing in "Whole Brain Teaching Super Improver Wall".
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