The Genius Ladder

The Genius Ladder is at the heart of the WBT writing program.  At its core it is 10-15 minutes daily of oral writing practice, but in reality it is so much more!  It teaches sentence structure, parts of speech, grammar, and what a paragraph is.  It can also be a springboard to numerous writing assignments, as well as a way to reinforce content in areas like science and social studies.  Finally, it engages your students by bringing "funtricity" to your writing program.  Below is a picture of my Genius Ladder.  Mine is a little on the large side.  I have discovered that though not necessary, having a Genius Ladder this big definitely gets the kids attention, so I am okay with it.  The traffic light transitions on the side are not a part of the Genius Ladder.  The side of the ladder just seemed like a logical place to put them.

The Genius Ladder has four rungs to it.  The first rung is called "Blah Sentence".  Here you write a simple sentence with an article, noun, verb structure.  An example would be, "My dog ran."  For the first four or five weeks of the school year, my students would use "Teach Okay" to create new sentences, by first substituting the noun in the sentence with new nouns, and then substituting the verb in the sentence with new verbs.  In the first round an example of a new sentence might be "The girl ran."  In the next round they might say, "The dog barks."  I found that doing this daily provides students with a really good grasp of nouns and verbs, as well as the structure of a simple sentence.  At the end of "Teach Okay" I always ask two or three students to share their sentences with the class using "Giant Mirrors and Words."  This sharing provides another opportunity for a whole class model.  At this point in the year my students understand nouns and verbs, as well as the simple sentence structure, so we just read the Blah sentence.  When we are done, the kids love to say, "Blah, boring."  This allows us more time to spend on the higher levels of the ladder.

The next level is the "Spicy Sentence".  At this level you add an adjective to your "Blah" sentence.  Just like the first level, students use "Teach Okay" to share their new sentences.  An example of a "Spicy Sentence" would be, "The large dog ran."  As students take turns sharing their sentences, they are constantly thinking of different adjectives.  Right now I have students that will create "Spicy Sentences" with two or three adjectives.  After "Teach Okay" I choose two or three students to share using "Giant Mirrors and Words."
I love this level, because students really begin to understand what adjectives are and how to use them properly in sentences.

The next level is the "Extender Sentence".  At this level the "Spicy Sentence" can be extended in any number of ways.  I decided to start my year by having my students extend their sentences using the "Connect 5 W + H" Brainie.  This Brainie is simply teaching students "who, what, when, where, why. and how."  I began by teaching my kids how to extend their sentences by answering the question "why".  We did this using the "because clapper".  We then answered the question "when" by extending our sentence with phrases like "in the morning" or "After dinner".  Finally, we answered the question "where" and students extended their sentences with phrases like "outside" or "at the "park".  Most recently we used both "when" and "where" to extend our sentences.  Next on the agenda is compound sentences.  Later in the year we will do prepositional phrases.  The same procedures are followed at this level as the previous two.

The last rung of the ladder is called the "Genius Paragraph".  We started working at this level about four or five weeks into the school year.  Here the extender sentence becomes the topic sentence, and students then add details, which are referred to as detail adders.  They also add a closing sentence, which is called a concluder. At this level I have students share with their partners, and then I usually ask one student to share his/her "Genius Paragraph" with the class.  Often I will use the oral writing practice as a springboard to my writing lesson and have my students write down their "Genius Paragraphs".

Just recently I tried my own innovation of the Genius Ladder which the kids totally loved.  I told them that they were each going to create their own ladder.  I provided them with a paper which had all four rungs on it.  On our class Genuis Ladder I posted the structure for each level.  For example, at the "Blah" level I had written "The/A/My noun verb."  I then guided students through each level of the ladder, which they wrote out on their paper.  At the extender level students chose how they wanted to extend their sentence.  Along the way students shared with their partners and with the class, just like we normally do.  The last step was to have the students write out their "Genius Paragraphs."  I was really impressed with the job that they did.  Even my special education students were successful.  To me this assignment was simply a testament to the power of the Genius Ladder.

If you would like more information on the Genius Ladder, you will find some great resources at the Whole Brain Teaching website.  Just go to www.wholebrain teaching.com.  Under Goodies on the drop down menu, go to wbt tv.  There you will find an archive of webcasts.  Number 504 is on the Genius Ladder.  Coach B. will explain to you everything that you ever wanted to know about it.  Also, if you register at the site, you will have access to the free downloads.  There is a great Power Point on the Genius Ladder, which will provide you with tons of sentences to get started.