A fundamental part of Whole Brain Teaching is the five step lesson plan. I love the five step lesson plan. Mastering this lesson plan design will move you one step closer to teacher heaven. What makes it so great is that it is easy to follow and can be used with any lesson or program that you currently use. All you need to do is tweak the lesson to make it fit into the five step lesson plan. Soon it becomes habit, and you are automatically writing up every lesson that you teach in this format.
Step One: Ask a question. This sets the stage for learning, because it causes your students to start thinking about what they will be learning about. Recently, I was teaching a math lesson on more than/less than; so I asked my students the question, "What is more than less than?" This is done using Teach Okay. Below is an explanation of Teach Okay.
Teach Okay is all about student engagement. Its structure is designed to create 100% participation in a lesson. The way it works is simple. After sharing a brief chunk of information with the class (in this case the question), the teacher claps her hands twice and says, "Teach." The students clap their hands twice and say, "Okay." They then make a full body turn to their partner and teach the information that the teacher just shared. At the beginning of the lesson, they simply restate the question.
When the teacher wants the classes attention, she calls them back with a class yes. The class is expected to immediately turn, look at the teacher, and fold their hands. The teacher then continues with the next part of the lesson.
Step Two: Answer the Question. Give the students the answer to the question that you asked. This often means providing them with a definition. In my more than/less than lesson I defined more than less than using gestures and Mirror Words. Sometimes I will use Silent Mirrors or Magic Mirrors Below is an explanation of Mirrors.
Mirrors is another student engagement strategy. Students are expected to copy the words and/or gestures of the person teaching. The teacher begins by stating the type of Mirror that he/she will be using and using the gesture for that Mirror type. The students then repeat the name of the mirror and copy the gesture for it. Mirrors stay on until the teacher says, "Mirrors off." Here are the three types of mirrors:
Mirror Words: Students are to repeat your words and copy your gestures.
Silent Mirrors: Students only copy your gestures.
Magic Mirrors: You put your hands behind your back, and students create gestures for what you are saying.
Teach Okay generally follows Mirrors. This allows students the opportunity to teach each other, with the use of gestures, the information that you just taught them.
Step Three: Expand. This is where the actual teaching of content occurs. It involves the use of Mirrors and Teach Okay. It involves chunking the information being taught into small segments and having the students teach that information to each other. The rule of thumb is that a teacher should never talk more than 30- 45 seconds at a time. Any longer and we go into lecture mode. This is when we start losing our students. It takes a little bit of practice at first, but after a while it becomes habit. My more than/less than lesson came from a program that our grade level is using called Engage New York. I simply took the material that I needed to cover in the concept development portion of the lesson and put it in the Mirror/Teach Okay format. Here is one example of this. The lesson called for students to draw on a form that was provided three similar numbers using base ten blocks. They then were to created their own problems using these three numbers and the more than/less than symbols. Here is what I did. After the students drew the base ten blocks for each number I revealed the following sentence frame: _________is more than/less than __________ because __________________. Then, using Teach Okay and Tag Team Switch (In Tag Team Switch students take turns sharing. Teachers have a set procedure on who always go first. In my class my students are labeled Peanut Butters and Jellies, and Peanut Butters always go first. After taking their turns, the Peanut Butters will high five the Jellies and Jellies will take their turn. This continues until the teacher calls the students back together using Class Yes.) the students create their own problems using the sentence frame that I provided. Using the word because (WBT calls this a because clapper) is very important, because it asks students to give a reason (proof) for their answer. As I walked around and listened to the students I heard lots of amazing proof. They would say things like, "549 is more than 149, because it has more hundreds." A couple of my higher students actually stated how many more hundreds: "It has four more hundreds." When I called the students back together I wanted them to hear each other's thinking. I especially wanted the whole class to hear what my high students had to say. So I asked those students to share. They do not, however, share in the normal way. They stand and using Class Yes and Mirror Words, they actually teach the class. The class will repeat their words and gestures, just like they do mine when I am teaching. This is the beauty of Whole Brain Teaching. When one student shares, the whole class is still engaged!
Step Four: Test. This is where you check for understanding. There are two ways to do this. This first is with Yes/No Way. The teacher makes a statement. For example, 335 is greater than 353. The students respond with "Yes!" (and a fist pump) or "No Way!" (hands on forehead and then quickly pulled off) The other way to test is called QT (question time). When you say QT to your students, they should say, "Cutie." They then put their heads down and lay their hands flat beside their hands. The teacher then makes the same type of statements that were used in Yes/No Way, but this time students keep their heads down and respond with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. The teacher uses a clip board to note which students need additional help. Based on the results, you can choose to either move on to step four or go back to step three and reteach. Please note that Yes/No Way is optional, but QT should be used in all of your lessons.
Step Five: Critical Thinking. This step asks students to engage in higher order thinking skills. It is a critical component and should not be left out. Often it will involve writing. In my more than/less than lesson, this was the question that I asked my students: Noah's number was 353. Manuel had 35 tens and five ones. Who had more? How do you know? Students had to write out their answer and show their proof.
It is important to note that you do not have to do all five components in one day. Depending on the subject, the time, and the material to be covered; I will often do steps one through three the first day. The next day I will spend some more time on step three, and then go on to steps four and five.
I have found this format to be extremely successful. The students are engaged throughout the entire lesson; this means few, if any, behavior problems, the students are excited about learning; they retain more information; and they have not asked me once this year, "How do I _____________." They got it through the lesson format, because they were engaged! If you have not yet tried the five step lesson format, I would highly encourage you to do so. I can promise you that you won't be sorry.
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