Thirty Seconds or Less

Thirty seconds or less would be a great model for Whole Brain Teachers.  This is because thirty seconds is the longest amount of time that a teacher should talk at once before engaging students, preferably with Mirrors and/or Teach Okay.  Sound impossible?  It's not!  Yes, it does take some practice.  You really have to be aware of how long you are talking.  You also have to learn how to chunk your lessons.  I decided to write this post because many teachers have asked me how I chunk my lessons.  The question I keep getting is, "How is it possible to talk for only 30 seconds at a time and still communicate everything that you need to."  In this post I would like to give you an example of how it is done.

To demonstrate how this is done I chose a lesson that I did recently with my students.  It was on the second grade standard "Author's Purpose".  I will be sharing the first day of the unit.  Since the purpose of this post is to show the ratio of talk between myself and the students, all of my dialogue will be in black.  My students' participation/dialogue will be in green.  I will not be including "hands and eyes", "Class Yes", or where I used gestures,  You can find information about these things in other posts.  Here, I would like you to focus specifically on how the lesson is chunked.

We know that authors write book, but I have a question for you.  Why do you think that authors choose to write books.  Tell your partner in a complete sentence and be sure to use a because clapper.

Using Teach Okay students talk with their partners and create sentences that answer my question.  One example of a sentence I heard was, "Authors write books because they want us to learn something and get smarter."  Three students shared their answers using call outs.

Mirror Words.  Mirror Words.  What is Author's Purpose? What is Author's Purpose?  (repeat sequence twice) Teach.

Okay,  What is Author's Purpose?  What is Author's Purpose.

Mirror Words.  Mirror Words.  Author's Purpose is why the author wrote the text:   to persuade, inform, or entertain.

Author's Purpose is why the author wrote the text:  to persuade, inform, or entertain.  (repeat sequence three times)  Teach.  Okay.  Students tell their partners the definition approximately three times.

Take a look at out Power Pic.  There is a picture of a pie on it.  The pie is to remind us of the three purposes.  The first letter in pie, the "p", stands for persuade.  The second letter, the "i", stands for inform.  The third letter, the "e", stands for entertain.  Explain to your partner why there is a picture of a pie on our power pic.

Using Teach Okay students take turns explaining to their partners why there is a pie on the power pic.

Today we are going to focus on persuade.  Mirror Words.  What does persuade mean.  What does persuade mean?  (repeat twice)  Teach.  Okay.  Students repeat the question two times.

Mirror Words.  Mirror Words.  The author is trying to convince us to think like him because he wants us to do something.    The author is trying to convince us to think like him because he wants us to do something.  (repeat sequence three times)  Teach.  Okay.  Students tell their partners the definition approximately three times.

Commercials are good examples of what it means to persuade.  Companies make commercials because they want to persuade us to buy their products.  I am going to show you a commercial.  As you are watching, I want you to think about what the company wants us to do and how you know it.  Tell your partner what I want you to do.

Using Teach Okay the students paraphrase the directions that I just gave them.

Students watch a 30 second commercial about Doritos.

I would like you to tell your partner what the company wants you to do.  

Using Teach Okay students share what the company wants them to do.  An example of a sentence I heard is "The company wants us to buy Doritos.  One student shared using a call out.

I would now like you to tell me how you know this.  What did you see in the commercial that made you know that the company wanted you to buy Doritos.  Please use the following sentence frame:  I know this because ______________________.

Using Teach Okay students fill in the sentence frame.  I then asked a couple of students to share using call outs.  Here is what one student shared:  I know this because the commercial said that they tasted good.

I am now going to read a letter to you.  I would like you to listen very carefully and think about who is doing the persuading.  Who are they trying to persuade, and what do they want to persuade them to do.  I also want you to think about how you know this.  You will be using the sentence frames on the board:  ______________ wants _____________ to _________________.  I know this because ______________.  Tell your partner what I would like you to do.

Using Teach Okay students paraphrase the directions that the teacher gave.

Teacher reads the letter.
using Teach Okay students orally fill in the sentence frames on the board.  I then asked a couple of students to share using call outs.  

The above process was repeated with two other letters.

This was the end of the expand part of my lesson.  Immediately following this was QT (step four of the five step lesson plan).  Critical thinking (step five) occurred later in the week after we had spent time on inform and entertain.

I hope that you found this example helpful.  Remember, it is all about practice.  When you first start, don't try to chunk everything that you teach.  This will be too overwhelming.  Instead, choose one lesson and plan where your Teach Okays are going to go.  Make it a goal to not talk more than 30 seconds.  Once you are comfortable with the lesson format, you will find that you are using it more and more.  Before you know it, you will find that you are teaching this way for the whole day.  Happy chunking!