It is now time for true confessions. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I had completely ignored these two Brainies. I knew that I needed to introduce them to my students. I also knew how important these two critical thinking skills are; however, I just never got around to them. This was partly due to the fact that I was so busy with so many other components of Whole Brain Teaching, that these very important Brainies kept getting pushed to the back burner. I would look at them hanging there and feel guilty. I kept telling myself that I would introduce them to my students when it was time to teach comparing and contrasting. That, however, was very wrong thinking. These two Brainies are not meant to be taught as part of a week long unit and only occasionally referred back to. They are at the heart of critical thinking and should be used on a regular basis.
Once I realized this very important truth, I got to work. My goal was to incorporate these Brainies into as many different lessons as I could. Last week we were studying long "u" patterns, so I asked students to look at words with different patterns and share with me how they were the same and how they were different. I also decided to try them in a grammar lesson. We were studying past tense verbs, so I gave students a list of regular and irregular verbs and asked them to look for similarities and differences. I even created a Genius Ladder around the Comparing Brainie. Students were asked to compare ways that dogs and cats are similar.
However, my favorite lesson so far took place over two days. I decided that I would ask my students to compare and contrast apples and oranges. On the first day we focused on ways that they are similar. I brought in an apple and an orange. We began with a brief vocabulary lesson. Since I have so many ELL students, many of them were not familiar with the words wedges, peel, or core. I then placed a chart on the board. At the top I wrote: Apples are similar to oranges because ___________. Underneath this sentence frame I created a T-Chart. One side was for "Pitty Patter" proof. (This is the WBT term for weak proof.) The other side was for strong proof. After providing my students with some think time, I asked them to share ways that apples and oranges were similar with their partners, using the sentence frame on the chart and the Compare Brainie. (When saying "are similar to" students must lace their fingers together, which is the gesture for comparing.) We used "High Five Teach", which means that students take turns teaching each other their sentences. Peanut Butters (I call my partners Peanut Butters and Jellies.) went first. I have recently started having my students stand when they are teaching their partners, and it has been very effective. Peanut Butters shared their comparing sentence using the Brainies, and Jellies repeated their partners words and gestures. They then gave each other a high five and Jellies shared. This process repeated until I called the class back together with a "Class Yes". I walked around listening, encouraging, and assisting as needed. When we came back together as a class, I asked for students to share their sentences, There is a very specific procedure for this. I have listed it below:
Teacher: "Diamond Eyes" on (students' name).
Student: (Stands) Class.
Class: Yes.
Student: Giant Mirrors and Words please. (with gesture)
Class: Giant Mirrors and Words please. (with gesture)
Student: Apples are similar to oranges because ___________________. (with Brainies)
Class: Apples are similar to oranges because _____________________. (with Branies)
Teacher: Give (student's name) a ten finger wooh! (Class gives Wooh.)
Every time a student shared the class would vote with a thumbs up or thumbs down on whether they thought the proof was strong proof or "Pitty Patter" proof. I would then write it on the appropriate side of the T-chart. The class really surprised me at some of the strong proof that they came up with. Here are a few examples: they both grow on trees, they are both healthy, they both have juice.
We immediately followed this with a round of Prove It. Prove It is a game that helps students prepare for standardized tests in a fun way. (Please see my post which explains how to play.) I gave my students a short passage that compared lions to leopards. There were two questions, both in a testing format. The students knew exactly what they needed to do to find the answer and were able to underline their proof with their red pens. It was great to see how well they truly understood what it meant to compare two items.
The real fun, however, came during red/green writing. (For an explanation of red/green writing, please see my post on the topic) I asked students to write a paragraph that would answer the following question: In what ways are apples and oranges similar. The chart from the morning was on the board and the students got busy. We have been talking about attaching "detail adders" to our "detail adders" and the students did a really nice job of this. I took a picture of a piece of their writing so that you could see what I mean by this.
The next day we went through the exact same process, but this time we looked at ways that apples and oranges are different. It went equally well. I'd like to share with you a couple of my favorite strong proofs for ways that apples and oranges are different: apples have black seeds and oranges have white seeds, oranges have wedges and apples don't.
The more I use the Comparing and Contrasting Brainies, the more that I see their power. After Thanksgiving break we are going to look at how Thanksgiving and Christmas are similar and how they are different. We are also going to be comparing and contrasting compound words with multisyllabic words. I can't wait to see how my students do with both of these.
If you have not tried using the Compare and Contrast Brainies, I would encourage you to do so. If you are not familiar with the Brainies and would like to know more about them, go to www.wholebrainteaching.com. Register on the site. (Registration is free.) You will then be able to access the Braine Game, which is one of the many free downloads. Just scroll down the right side of your scree and you will see a bar labeled downloads. The Brainie game will be the first download that you see.
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