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
No comments:
Post a Comment