I would just like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very happy holiday season. It is my prayer that your Christmas was a blessed time with family and friends and that your New Year celebrations be safe and full of joy.
I have really enjoyed this time of rest and relaxation. Over the break I have had the opportunity to spend time with family and friends, as well as relax and read a couple of good Christian fiction books. I even gave my house a good cleaning, something that it desperately needed. I think, however, my favorite part of this vacation was the time that I spent serving others at the Salvation Army. I was blessed to be able to hand out Christmas toys and turkeys on Christmas Eve, as well as serve at the food line the week after Christmas. My therapy dog, MaryAnn, joined me on all of these outings. Although she may not have understood all that we were doing, she has definitely enjoyed all of the time she got to spend with her mommy. I truly believe that there is no better way to spend out time than to serve others. There is definite truth in the saying that it is better to give than to receive.
I have also had some time during this vacation to reflect upon this school year. It is hard to believe that my first year as a Whole Brain Teaching instructor is almost half over. It has gone very quickly, but it has been so much fun! I have never enjoyed myself so much as a teacher. It is fun to watch my kids have fun learning. There are so many good things that I could say about Whole Brain Teaching. It has transformed my classroom in ways that I would have never thought possible. Engagement is up, discipline problems are almost non-existent, my students love school and are excited about learning, motivation is high (Thank you Super Improver Wall) and the list goes on. I am excited to see what the new year is going to bring.
Right now the thing I am most excited about is Coach B.'s trip to Las Vegas. I am referring to Chris Biffle, the founder of Whole Brain Teaching. He will be in Las Vegas January 23rd and 24th. My students and I are so excited, because he will be spending a portion of his day on Friday in our room. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas morning to arrive. On Saturday Coach B. will be giving an all day seminar from 8:00 to 3:00 at Mack Middle School. It is free and open to anyone who would like to attend, so if you are in or around the Las Vegas area, I would encourage you to take advantage of this awesome opportunity to come hear Coach B. in person.
If you are working on New Years' resolutions for the coming year, I would encourage you to make implementing Whole Brain Teaching in your classroom one of those resolutions. I promise you that the rewards will be well worth the work. If I can help you in anyway with making this resolution a reality, please let me know. I always love to hear from all of you. Have a very happy New Year!
Monday, December 29, 2014
Thursday, December 18, 2014
The Super Improver Wall Photo Level
In an earlier post I shared with you how much I love my Super Improver Wall and explained how to put one up. (If you are not familiar with the Super Improver Wall, I would encourage you to read my earlier post on the subject.) Nothing has changed. I still love my Super Improver Wall. It still never ceases to amaze me how hard a student will work for a little star colored in on a piece of paper. Just recently we had parent teacher conferences. Most of my students came with their parents to the conferences, and without fail, they all showed their parents where they were on the wall and talked about the number of stars that they needed to "level up". This is the term that we use in my classroom for moving up to the next level on the wall.
The current buzz in my classroom is making it to MVK (Most Valuable Kid). This is level five on our wall. What makes this level so special is that it is the "photograph level". (I will explain what I mean by this in a moment.) It is common practice to attach rewards to certain levels on the wall. Not every level has a reward attached to it, but the teacher chooses specific levels at which to reward students, as well as the rewards that go with these levels. I do not tell my students in advance which levels have rewards attached to them or what the rewards are. They find out when the first student reaches that level. There is, however, one exception to this practice. The MVK level has had a small picture of a camera next to it since the beginning of the year. I did not tell the students what the camera meant. I only told them that something special would happen when they reached this level. Just recently my first student did, and it has been so much fun.
Alright, it is time to reveal the secret of this level. When a student gets to this level he gets to choose two of his friends to take a silly picture with. When my first student reached this level I told her to choose two friends that she would like to do something special with, but I did not tell her what they would be doing. She picked them just as the students were heading out to lunch recess. The three of them came back to the classroom with me, still having no idea what was going to happen. When we got back to the room I revealed the surprise, and they took their silly picture together. I then swore them all to secrecy, which they thought was very cool. They liked knowing something that the rest of the class didn't know. That night I printed the picture and the next day I hung it face down on my Super Improver Wall. The rest of the class was very curious about this. I told them that when Dawn (not her real name) earned her ten stars, I would turn the paper over and they could all see what was on the back. Of course, Dawn and her two friends knew, but they were not about to tell anyone.
This created quite a stir, because now everyone wants to make it to MVK and find out what all of the excitement is about. Students are really stepping up. What amazes me is how students will look for ways that they can personally improve, knowing that when I see this, they will earn a star. Here is one example. We have been talking for quite some time about "answering the question that is being asked". My kids are real good about using complete sentences, but with many of them being ELL, they often struggle with understanding what the question is really asking. They will give a great answer, but it often does not match the question. Recently we took a reading test on reading diagrams. The questions were a little tricky, and I assumed that many of my students would have the same struggle. To my surprise a majority of my students actually answered the questions being asked. A few of them had the wrong answers, but at least they showed that they understood the questions. It was a huge breakthrough and very exciting. In the past I had given out stars for improvements on reading tests, and the students knew that this would be a definite improvement and would earn them a star. I did not disappoint them. As soon as I had graded the test, I handed out the stars, emphasizing how proud I was of them for answering the questions being asked.
I can't wait to see the students' reactions when Dawn gets her card turned over. Here is how that works. I simply draw her next ten stars on the back of her photograph. As soon as she earns all ten, the photograph gets turned over for all of the class to see. The photo will hang by the Super Improver Wall until the end of the year. Then Dawn will get to take it home.
Below is a picture of what the wall currently looks like. You will notice Dawn's card on the left side. She currently has one star drawn on the back of it. If you look carefully, you will also see the camera next to the MVK level.
If you have not yet started a Super Improver Wall in your room, I would encourage you to do so. It would be an awesome thing to set up over Christmas break and start when the students return to school in January. It is very easy to do, and I promise you that the payoff is well worth the effort.
Friday, December 12, 2014
The Wacky Star Fun Button
This post is all about true confessions. Below is a picture of my Wacky Star Fun Button. It has been hanging on my board since the first day of school. I learned about this button over the summer as I was trying to learn everything I could about WBT. As soon as I saw it and read about it, I fell in love with it. The premise is pretty simple. This button is designed to build student engagement during oral writing. There are many different ways that the button can be used to accomplish this, but I am going to share with you step by step instructions for the way that I decided to use the Wacky Star Fun Button in my room:
1. Draw the students' attention to the button. Keep referring to it as the Wacky Star Fun Button and really hype it up.
2. Tell the students that something special happens when you push the button, but to find out what that is, they have to build their own star. Explain that the star is built during oral writing. (By oral writing, I mean anytime that the students are talking with their partners or to the whole class, using Brainies and Gestures. In my room this happens all day, not just during writing time.)
3. Every time students do an exceptional job with their oral writing, give them one side of a star. I just draw the star as they earn it on the board next to the Wacky Star Fun Button.
4. When students have earned all five sides (made their own star) tell them that when you push the button something very magical is going to happen. For as long as your hand is on the button, they will all receive magical powers that will allow them to become any animal that they won't. However, as soon as your hand leaves the star, the powers go away and the students must immediately become themselves again. The only rule is that they may not yell.
Keep in mind that at the beginning of this post I said that this is what I had decided to do. Up until a couple of weeks ago I never did it. I meant to. I even had the button written in my lesson plans for the first week of school to remind myself. However, I kept forgetting. I would usually remember long after the students had finished their oral writing. For awhile I kept saying, "I will remember next time." That, however, never happened. Eventually I just forgot about it completely. I guess I was so busy learning so many other WBT things, not to mention the normal beginning of the year stuff, that it just never became a priority.
Fast forward to the beginning of December. One day as I was looking at my board, my eyes stopped on my Wacky Star Fun Button, and I made up my mind that I was introducing it to my kids on that day. I have to be honest. I did not realize how engaging it would really be. My class has been working really hard at using Brainies and gestures at the same time when they are doing their oral writing. This is really hard for them. Almost a third of my class is special education, and it is not easy for them to use Brainies and gestures consistently. However, when I told them about the button, it was like watching a whole new class. Suddenly I was seeing big gestures and the Brainies from almost everybody. It took them less than one day to earn all five parts of their star.
They actually finished their star during math. I didn't want to stop the flow of the lesson, so I told them that when math was over we would do the Fun Button. However, by the end of math I had forgotten about this. My students hadn't. When the lesson was over, I said to my class, "Do you know what time it is?" In my mind it was time for red/green writing. (If you are curious about what red/green writing is, check out my blog post on this topic.) My students, however, knew the correct answer. They all said in unison, "It is time for the Wacky Star Fun Button!" It took a total of 20 seconds of class time, (That is how long I left my hand on the button.) but the payoff was huge! The Wacky Star Fun Button has now become a regular part of our day, and I promise you that I no longer forget about it.
I am considering changing up the reward a bit, because we all know that we need to keep what we are doing in the classroom fresh, in order to keep the students interested. Instead of just changing into animals, I have been thinking about other things that my students can change into for 20 seconds, like musical instruments or vehicles. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them. Please leave a comment after this post.
Remember, there is no one set way to use this button. Although originally designed to be used with oral writing, I know that teachers have chosen to use it with other things as well. It is all about what will work best in your classroom with your students. I am attaching the download of the button that I got over the summer. There are instructions attached that are a little different than what I shared with you. Use these, use my ideas, or come up with your own. I just challenge you to give the Wacky Star Fun Button a try. Like me, I promise that you will not be sorry. https://www.dropbox.com/s/2p5r4sp5a9i2ir1/WackyStarFunButtonWholeBrainTeaching.pdf?dl=0
1. Draw the students' attention to the button. Keep referring to it as the Wacky Star Fun Button and really hype it up.
2. Tell the students that something special happens when you push the button, but to find out what that is, they have to build their own star. Explain that the star is built during oral writing. (By oral writing, I mean anytime that the students are talking with their partners or to the whole class, using Brainies and Gestures. In my room this happens all day, not just during writing time.)
3. Every time students do an exceptional job with their oral writing, give them one side of a star. I just draw the star as they earn it on the board next to the Wacky Star Fun Button.
4. When students have earned all five sides (made their own star) tell them that when you push the button something very magical is going to happen. For as long as your hand is on the button, they will all receive magical powers that will allow them to become any animal that they won't. However, as soon as your hand leaves the star, the powers go away and the students must immediately become themselves again. The only rule is that they may not yell.
Keep in mind that at the beginning of this post I said that this is what I had decided to do. Up until a couple of weeks ago I never did it. I meant to. I even had the button written in my lesson plans for the first week of school to remind myself. However, I kept forgetting. I would usually remember long after the students had finished their oral writing. For awhile I kept saying, "I will remember next time." That, however, never happened. Eventually I just forgot about it completely. I guess I was so busy learning so many other WBT things, not to mention the normal beginning of the year stuff, that it just never became a priority.
Fast forward to the beginning of December. One day as I was looking at my board, my eyes stopped on my Wacky Star Fun Button, and I made up my mind that I was introducing it to my kids on that day. I have to be honest. I did not realize how engaging it would really be. My class has been working really hard at using Brainies and gestures at the same time when they are doing their oral writing. This is really hard for them. Almost a third of my class is special education, and it is not easy for them to use Brainies and gestures consistently. However, when I told them about the button, it was like watching a whole new class. Suddenly I was seeing big gestures and the Brainies from almost everybody. It took them less than one day to earn all five parts of their star.
They actually finished their star during math. I didn't want to stop the flow of the lesson, so I told them that when math was over we would do the Fun Button. However, by the end of math I had forgotten about this. My students hadn't. When the lesson was over, I said to my class, "Do you know what time it is?" In my mind it was time for red/green writing. (If you are curious about what red/green writing is, check out my blog post on this topic.) My students, however, knew the correct answer. They all said in unison, "It is time for the Wacky Star Fun Button!" It took a total of 20 seconds of class time, (That is how long I left my hand on the button.) but the payoff was huge! The Wacky Star Fun Button has now become a regular part of our day, and I promise you that I no longer forget about it.
I am considering changing up the reward a bit, because we all know that we need to keep what we are doing in the classroom fresh, in order to keep the students interested. Instead of just changing into animals, I have been thinking about other things that my students can change into for 20 seconds, like musical instruments or vehicles. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them. Please leave a comment after this post.
Remember, there is no one set way to use this button. Although originally designed to be used with oral writing, I know that teachers have chosen to use it with other things as well. It is all about what will work best in your classroom with your students. I am attaching the download of the button that I got over the summer. There are instructions attached that are a little different than what I shared with you. Use these, use my ideas, or come up with your own. I just challenge you to give the Wacky Star Fun Button a try. Like me, I promise that you will not be sorry. https://www.dropbox.com/s/2p5r4sp5a9i2ir1/WackyStarFunButtonWholeBrainTeaching.pdf?dl=0
Thursday, December 4, 2014
A Closer Look at a Writing Lesson
One of the things that I love the best about Whole Brain Teaching is the way that writing is taught. Over the years I have seen and have used so many writing programs and methodologies in which students are given a lot of time to practice writing, but what they are practicing is the wrong way to write. This revelation did not occur to me until I started teaching writing the Whole Brain way. In Whole Brain Teaching writing is broken down into its smallest components and taught to the students in such a way that what they are practicing is the correct way to write. I would like to demonstrate this by sharing with you a lesson that I recently taught on compound sentences and the joining word "but". I used the WBT 5 step lesson plan and taught this lesson over a period of three days.
If you are not familiar with this format, please see my blog post entitled, "The Five Step Lesson Plan." Before sharing with you my lesson, there is one thing that I would like to point out. During the explanation portion of the lesson it is so important that you chunk the information that you are sharing with your students into very small parts. The longest you should be talking at any one time before asking the students to share with their partners (Teach Okay) is around 30 seconds. The general rule is that you share information with the students using "Mirror Words" (students repeat your words and copy your gestures) and immediately follow this with "Teach Okay". (You say, "Teach." The students respond "Okay." They then turn quickly to their partners and share what you have just taught them.) This is not an easy thing to do. As teachers we are used to talking. Getting into the habit of chunking your lessons takes time and practice. This is something that I have recently really been working on. I found that the best way to make sure you are doing this is to decide in advance at what places in your lesson you are going to have your students do "Teach Okays". Honestly, when I started teaching this way there were times where I thought that this was impossible. What I discovered, however, is that when I forced myself to plan a lesson around the idea that I was going to chunk it, my lessons turned out better, and my kids did a much better job of understanding and retaining the information.
In the lesson below I have written all of my "Teach Okays" in red, so that you can more easily see how many small chunks I broke my lesson into.
In the lesson below I have written all of my "Teach Okays" in red, so that you can more easily see how many small chunks I broke my lesson into.
Question: "Our question for today is, what is a compound sentence?" Teach Okay
Answer: "A compound sentence is two sentences (hold up to fingers) put together to make one sentence (with other hand grasp two fingers and pull them together)." Teach Okay
Explain: (Have a compound sentence with the word "but" written on the board.) "Today they are going to learn how to form a compound sentence using the conjunction "but. Tell your partner what you are going to be learning today." Teach Okay Remind students that "but" is one of our Brainies. Using "Mirror Words" and "Brainies" read the sentence on the board. Teach Okay "Mirror Words. (use Brainies) The first sentence is ..." Teach Okay "Mirror Words. (use Brainies) The second sentence is ..." Teach Okay "Mirror Words. But joins the two sentences together." Teach Okay
Explain to students that you use the word "but" when you are comparing. Using the sentence that you have already read, point out to students what you are comparing. (For example, if your sentence was "Johnny can run fast, but Mark can run faster," you would be comparing how fast Johnny and Mark could run.) "We are going to read some more sentences together. It is going to be your job to decide what we are comparing. Mirror Words. (Read Sentence using Brainies.) Teach Okay
Repeat with two to three other sentences.
"This time I am going to give you the first sentence. It will be the job of you and your partner to finish the compound sentence. Don't forget your comma and your joining word. We will be using High Five Teach (In High Five Teach students take turns sharing. I have taught my students that the person sharing stands up, and the other student must repeat his words and copy his gestures. This increases student engagement. When one student is done sharing he high fives his partner and sits down. His partner then stands up and begins sharing.) Mirror Words. (Read sentence using Brainies.) Teach Okay
Repeat with three to five other sentences.
Next, play the "but" complexor game. Directions for this game can be found in "The Writing Game". This is a free download that is available at www.wholebrainteaching.com. All you have to do to receive the downloads is register on the site. Once you do they will be available to you on the right side of the screen. Click on downloads. Scroll through until you find "The Writing Game".
Please note the number of "Teach Okays" in the explain portion of the lesson. Depending on how many sentences you choose to do with your students, you could be doing anywhere between eleven and fifteen "Teach Okays".
Test: It is in this portion of the lesson that we check students' understanding. "It is time for QT." (This stands for question time. The kids will respond "Cutie". They then put their heads down and lay their hand flat on their desks.) Ask students the following question: "Is this sentence correct?" Have ready a list of sentences to read to the students, all using the word "but". Make sure that some of the sentences are using "but" correctly, and some are using "but incorrectly. Students listen to the sentence and respond with either a thumbs up or thumbs down. This tells you as the classroom teacher who is getting it and who isn't. This allows you to either go back and reteach or move on. It also lets you know which of your students you might want to pull for further instruction at a different time.
Critical Thinking: Guide students orally through the first three rungs of the Genius Ladder (For more information on the Genius Ladder, see my Blog Post on this topic.) using the following sentences:
Blah: my brother's favorite food is pizza.
Spicy: My brother's favorite food is hot, cheesy pizza.
Extender: My brother's favorite food is hot, cheesy pizza, but my favorite food is cold ice cream.
Genius Paragraph: Students create their own paragraph using the structure of the extender sentence as their topic sentence, but changing the foods and people as they want to. They must give detail adders and a concluder (concluding sentence). This is done orally at first, but then the students are asked to put their paragraph into writing.
It is important to note that at every level of the Genius Ladder students are sharing using Teach Okay and Tag Team. While the students are writing their paragraphs, I walk around the room with my red and green pens to do red/green writing. If you are unfamiliar with what red/green writing is, please see my blog post on this topic.
I hope that you have found this lesson helpful and that it inspires you to take a closer look at your writing program.
Answer: "A compound sentence is two sentences (hold up to fingers) put together to make one sentence (with other hand grasp two fingers and pull them together)." Teach Okay
Explain: (Have a compound sentence with the word "but" written on the board.) "Today they are going to learn how to form a compound sentence using the conjunction "but. Tell your partner what you are going to be learning today." Teach Okay Remind students that "but" is one of our Brainies. Using "Mirror Words" and "Brainies" read the sentence on the board. Teach Okay "Mirror Words. (use Brainies) The first sentence is ..." Teach Okay "Mirror Words. (use Brainies) The second sentence is ..." Teach Okay "Mirror Words. But joins the two sentences together." Teach Okay
Explain to students that you use the word "but" when you are comparing. Using the sentence that you have already read, point out to students what you are comparing. (For example, if your sentence was "Johnny can run fast, but Mark can run faster," you would be comparing how fast Johnny and Mark could run.) "We are going to read some more sentences together. It is going to be your job to decide what we are comparing. Mirror Words. (Read Sentence using Brainies.) Teach Okay
Repeat with two to three other sentences.
"This time I am going to give you the first sentence. It will be the job of you and your partner to finish the compound sentence. Don't forget your comma and your joining word. We will be using High Five Teach (In High Five Teach students take turns sharing. I have taught my students that the person sharing stands up, and the other student must repeat his words and copy his gestures. This increases student engagement. When one student is done sharing he high fives his partner and sits down. His partner then stands up and begins sharing.) Mirror Words. (Read sentence using Brainies.) Teach Okay
Repeat with three to five other sentences.
Next, play the "but" complexor game. Directions for this game can be found in "The Writing Game". This is a free download that is available at www.wholebrainteaching.com. All you have to do to receive the downloads is register on the site. Once you do they will be available to you on the right side of the screen. Click on downloads. Scroll through until you find "The Writing Game".
Please note the number of "Teach Okays" in the explain portion of the lesson. Depending on how many sentences you choose to do with your students, you could be doing anywhere between eleven and fifteen "Teach Okays".
Test: It is in this portion of the lesson that we check students' understanding. "It is time for QT." (This stands for question time. The kids will respond "Cutie". They then put their heads down and lay their hand flat on their desks.) Ask students the following question: "Is this sentence correct?" Have ready a list of sentences to read to the students, all using the word "but". Make sure that some of the sentences are using "but" correctly, and some are using "but incorrectly. Students listen to the sentence and respond with either a thumbs up or thumbs down. This tells you as the classroom teacher who is getting it and who isn't. This allows you to either go back and reteach or move on. It also lets you know which of your students you might want to pull for further instruction at a different time.
Critical Thinking: Guide students orally through the first three rungs of the Genius Ladder (For more information on the Genius Ladder, see my Blog Post on this topic.) using the following sentences:
Blah: my brother's favorite food is pizza.
Spicy: My brother's favorite food is hot, cheesy pizza.
Extender: My brother's favorite food is hot, cheesy pizza, but my favorite food is cold ice cream.
Genius Paragraph: Students create their own paragraph using the structure of the extender sentence as their topic sentence, but changing the foods and people as they want to. They must give detail adders and a concluder (concluding sentence). This is done orally at first, but then the students are asked to put their paragraph into writing.
It is important to note that at every level of the Genius Ladder students are sharing using Teach Okay and Tag Team. While the students are writing their paragraphs, I walk around the room with my red and green pens to do red/green writing. If you are unfamiliar with what red/green writing is, please see my blog post on this topic.
I hope that you have found this lesson helpful and that it inspires you to take a closer look at your writing program.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)