WBT Freebies

If you are just getting started in WBT, I would like to share would you a wealth of free teaching resources that you may have not yet discovered.  I am speaking about all of the wonderfully amazing free downloads that are available on the WBT website.  They will make you ask yourself how you had ever taught without them and why you had not found them sooner.  At least those were the questions that I asked myself when I stumbled across these goodies.

Let's begin with where to find them.  First, you need to go to the WBT website.  The address for this site is www.wholebrainteaching.com.  The next step is to register on the site.  The good new is that it doesn't cost anything to register.  You just need to create a user name and password.  Once you've done this, log into the site and all of the downloads are yours.  There is just one small caveat to this.  The only thing that Christ Biffle (the founder of WBT) and the board members ask is that you share these resources with at least ten of your colleagues.  WBT is a grass roots educational reform movement, and by you sharing what you have found, you will be sharing a little bit of teacher heaven with others.  To get to the freee downloads, scroll down the right side of your screen.  Directly beneath WBT certification, you will find the tab for free downloads.  Click on it, and three pages of unbelievable downloads are waiting for you to access them.

When I first started learning about Whole Brain Teaching, the downloads were one of the very first things that I discovered.  The problem was that there were so many of them, and I had no idea what any of the names meant.  Whole Brain Teaching definitely has a language of its own, so to me it was like reading Greek.  Therefore, I spent a lot of time downloading and reading, trying to find the ones most applicable to me and the ones that I wanted to implement in my classroom right away.  It was very time consuming, and it would have been nice to have had someone to guide me through the process, suggesting which downloads would be most appropriate for my grade level and which ones I would want to look at right away.

I am hoping that in this blog post I can be that guide for you.  I'd like to begin with my top three picks for you, regardless of your grade level.  These three downloads all involve writing and will work in synergy with one another to make your writing program a complete success.

1.  The Brainy Game:  I love the Brainy Game because it will teach you how to do all of the oral writing gestures that are used all day long in a WBT classroom.  It will also provide you with beautiful color pictures that you can print and display in your classroom.  You will find that the Bainies will quickly become a favorite of both you and your students.

2.  The Writing Game:  I love the writing game!  What it does is take writing and break it down into its smallest components.  These components are then taught to the students one at a time in a game format known as complexors.  The concept behind it is really simple.  You wouldn't take someone new to tennis and put them on the court to play by simply demonstrating each shot.  A good tennis coach would break each shot down and teach his student one step at a time how to make that shot.  Practice alone does not make one a better tennis player.  You have to practice the correct way.  Writing is no different.  As educators we are good about giving students plenty of opportunities to practice their writing.  Unfortunately, what they are practicing is often incorrect.  By using complexors, you are providing your students with a fun way to practice the smallest components of writing correctly.  The complexors are then used by the students within writing puzzles.  the puzzles provide a structure for writing.  It is without a doubt the best way that I have ever found to teach writing.

3.The Genius Ladder:  I love the Genius Ladder.  It has made a huge difference in helping my students understand how to write a complex sentence correctly, as well as how to write a paragraph with a topic sentence, detail adders, and a concluder.  To learn more about the genius ladder, please see my separate post on the subject,

Next I would recommend taking a look at all of the Super Speed Games.  These games are so much fun for the students, because they are all about beating previous scores and previous times.  This is something that as teachers we know all students love to do.  They are learning, and they don't even realize it.  I have divided the Super Speed Games into two groups.  The first are games that are appropriate for all grade levels.  The second are for beginning readers/learners.

All Levels

1.  Electronic Super Speed Grammar:  Hands down you will find no better way to teach students the parts of speech, as well as to work on what a complete sentence is.  It is one of my favorite downloads.

2.  Electronic Super Speed 1,000:  This is a reading game designed to help students learn the 1,000 most frequently used words in the English Language.

3.  Electronic Super Speed Math:  The most successful way I have ever found to help students master there basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts.

4.Smooth Bumpy Planet:  I have to be honest.  This is a game that I have not used yet with the whole class.  I remember reading about it last summer and thinking how awesome it would be to use when teaching number concepts like skip counting, place value, and even basic addition and subtraction facts.  Until recently, however, I had forgotten about it.  Just recently I was looking at it again and kicking myself for not using it this year when I taught my students skip counting, place value, and how to count to 1,000.  I will be definitely be using it on a regular basis next year.  I have already laminated the number charts.

For Beginning Readers

1.  Electronic Super Speed Rhyme:  The focus of this game is word families.

2.  Electronic Super Speed 100:  In this game students learn the first 100 sight words.  Let me just point out that this game is great for special education students who need many, many repetitions of a word before they can own it.

3.  Super Speed Letters and Phonics:  This game will teach students their letters and sounds.

4.  Super Speed Numbers:  This game will help students learn how to count to 100.

5.  Biffytoons:  This is a great way to introduce beginning readers to basic sight words.

In addition to the above downloads, I would also highly recommend for kindergarten through third grade teachers the language arts and math power pics.  These can be downloaded by subject and grade level.  They are visuals with gestures and definitions that accompany math and language arts standards.  They are used as part of the WBT five step lesson.  (Please see my posts on the five step lesson.)

Finally, I would recommend Mind Soccer for everyone.  Mind Soccer is the WBT review game that is usually played on Friday afternoons.  It is a lot of fun, and the students look forward to playing it every week.

There are many other downloads available that you will also want to check out, but what I have given you is a good place to start.  I hope that you have found me to be a good guide through the world of WBT free downloads.  Happy teaching WBT style!

Red/Green Writing Across the Curriculum

I have been using red/green writing since the first day of school.  I love it!  If you are not familiar with what it is, here is a brief overview:   To get started all you need is a green and a red pen.  Assign students a ten minute quick write.  Make the topic open ended so that students can not claim to be finished.  Announce the focus skill/s that you will be looking for.  At the beginning of the year start with neatness.  Then, every one or two weeks, add an additional skill that you will be looking for.  Students are responsible for both the previous skills and the new one.  As students are writing walk around with your pens.  Place a green dot next to an example of something the student did right.  For example, a word that is written very neatly, a capital at the beginning of a sentence, or an end mark used correctly.  Place a red dot next to an error, but do not say anything.  You want the student to correct the error on his/her own.  I found that my students knew exactly what they had done wrong as soon as I made the mark, because they knew which focus skill/s I was checking for.  My class hated getting red marks.  As a result, they were much more careful when they wrote.  They would get so excited when they had all green marks on their papers.  If you want to know more about red/green writing you can go to the Whole Brain Teaching website and watch video 531.

My understanding and appreciation of red/green writing has definitely grown since I first started using it.  At the beginning of the school year I was very good about making the topics that I assigned open-ended.  However, I soon discovered that red/green writing was a perfect place for step five of the WBT five step lesson, critical thinking.  (Please see separate posts for more detailed information on the five step lesson.)  The critical thinking piece of the lesson generally involves writing, but it is hard to fit in during my regular reading and math blocks.  So, on some days, I would provide students with an assigned topic that supported what we were learning in reading or math.  Students still had plenty of time to write on topics of their choice, but now I was also asking them to write about what they had been learning.

I have also decided that red/green writing does not have to occur just at the end of the school day.  I often use it during my regular writing block.  Some days I will even allow my students to do their own red/green writing.  They absolutely love this.

To demonstrate the power and versatility of red/green writing, I went through my students writing notebooks and selected samples of red/green writing that they have done during the school year.  Underneath each photo I have written a brief description of the assignment.

In writing we were learning how to properly use the "but" Brainie.  We were also working on adjectives.  We had taken the Genius Ladder to the Extender level during writing time, but did not have time to write our Genius Paragraphs.  So, I asked the students to write them during red/green writing.  In our class we use a smilie face to show that a paper is correctly indented.

This piece of writing was from the early fall.  We were beginning our unit on place value.  I had created a math Power Pic through which the students learned that a place is a home for a number.  After a few days of learning about places, I asked them this question during red/green writing time:  What is a place?  Students had also just learned what a "for example popper" was, so many had started using it in their writing.

This paragraph was written in the early spring.  I had introduced students to even numbers with an even number Power Pic that I had created.  After a week of studying what even numbers are and what their relationship is to doubles, I asked them the following question during red/green writing time:  What are even numbers?

The Genius Ladder and red/green writing really do work well together.   We did the ladder that this piece of writing stemmed from after a couple of weeks of addition with regrouping.  the "Blah" sentence was:  The student traded in a ten for ten ones.  At the "Spicy" level my kids had to add an adjective to describe the noun student and at the extender level they were asked to use a "because clapper."  They wrote their Genius Paragraphs during red/green writing time.  I did ask them to use a "for example popper".

During writing we were learning how to write a triple whammy sentence with a because clapper.  Students had orally practiced a number of sentences.  I asked them to choose one and to write a five paragraph essay about it.

During phonics I taught students what we refer to in our classroom as the "Good-bye 'e' rule".  It is our term for the "e" drop rule.  At the end of the week, during red/green writing, I asked students what the "Good-bye 'e' rule was."

Sometimes I ask students to explain something to Biffy Bluebird, one of the WBT cartoon characters.  We had been studying time, along with explanatory writing.  I told the students that Biffy Bluebird knew nothing about how to tell time and it was their job to teach her how.

     

 
We were studying point of view.  I had given the students a passage about a cat named Cupcake that had traveled 150 miles from a campground that he had run away from back to his home.  The passage was written in third person.  I asked the students to retell the story in first person, from the point of view of Cupcake.

This piece of writing was not done during red/green writing, but during our regular writing block.  We have been working on writing informative text and have been doing a lot of comparing and contrasting in our writing.  After reading a passage about Saturn and Earth, students were asked to write a paragraph telling how the two planets are different.

My purpose in writing this blog was to spark your imagination and help you to realize all of the possibilities that await both you and your students with red/green writing.  Happy writing!

New Super Speed Games

If you have reluctant readers and writers in your classroom and are searching for a way to help them, then this is the post for you!

I have two reluctant readers and writers in my class.  They began the year not able to read or write anything.  Since then they have made huge progress.  They are both now able to read text at a mid-first grade level, and they can write independently.  However, both reading and writing are still a lot of work for them, and as a result, they do not always try as hard as they could.  When they came to a word that they did not know in reading, they would often stare at it and not try.  They were capable of sounding the word out, but they didn't.  They were also capable of writing a paragraph independently, but they would not do it unless I was there to coach them.

I was searching for a way to motivate and engage them in both reading and writing.  At the time I was playing both Super Speed 100 and Super Speed Rhyme with them every day during reading group.  (You can find more information on these games at the WBT web site under free downloads.)  When we played these games there was no lack of motivation.  They both were fully engaged and learning.  These games helped them learn their basic sight words and many word families.  The problem occurred after we would finish the Super Speed games and I would bring out a passage for them to read.  Suddenly their motivation dropped and I would find myself playing cheerleader as I would coach them through unknown words.  I truly believed that it was partly a confidence issue.  They were now capable of decoding unknown words, but they didn't yet believe in themselves.  I offered Super Improver Stars for "not putting on the brakes and driving through their words", but this was not enough.  I had to find another way to motivate them.  Then, one day, I had an inspiration.

We had just finished playing Super Speed 100 and Super Speed Rhyme.  I had brought out a new passage to read, and, as usual, their motivation plummeted and they were struggling to get through the passage.  That is when I stopped everything and told them that we were going to play a new game.  It was like our other Super Speed games, but this one was called Super Speed Fluency.  I immediately had their attention as I went on to explain the rules.  They would each have one minute to read as far as they could.  The other would play the role of teacher and provide help with a word if the reader asked for help.  Any "reading gnarlies" (I borrowed the term gnarlies from Super Speed Math.) I would underline.  A "reading gnarlie" is simply a word that the reader is unable to figure out or remember from day to day.  At the end of a minute the reader places a slash after the last word read and then has a second minute to break his previous record.  If he did, he would give himself a smilie face on a page of stars.  When the page is full, the student earns a Super Improver Star.  (If you download any of the Super Improver Games, you will find this star page as part of the download.  I decided that students needed to fill a page before getting a Super Improver Star, do to the frequency and number of Super Speed games that we were playing.)  Players would then switch roles and repeat this process.  The same passage is used for five days.  The goal is for students to break the previous day's record and complete the entire passage by day five.  (I carefully selected passages that would be the right length for students to do this.)  If students can finish reading the entire passage in a minute or less, they earn double stars.  They also earn an extra smilie for mastering their gnarlies.

The game has been a complete success!  It amazes me how hard these two students will now work at sounding out unknown words.  They are constantly saying things like, "I'm going to beat it."  The difference in attitude was so dramatic.  It was like turning a light switch on.  In fact, the results were so amazing that I was inspired to create Super Speed Writing.  

The game is very simple.  I give both of my students three minutes to write as much as they can.  At the end of three minutes I score in front of them what they have written.  Every word is worth one point.  However, they receive penalties in the form of one point deductions for every capital, period, or space between words that they forget.  I write their score above their writing.  I then give them a second three minutes to continue with what they are writing and try and beat their score.  If they beat their score, they earn a smilie on their star page.

My two reluctant writers love this game!  I have never seen them write so much in such a short amount of time.  They can't wait to play it everyday and are very upset if, for some reason, we have to miss a day.

Now, when these two students join me in group, we play Super Speed 1,000 (my students just finished Super Speed 100!  Yeah!), Super Speed Rhyme, Super Speed Fluency, and Super Speed Writing.  It takes almost 20 minutes to complete all four games, but the payoff has been incredible.  It took a little time, but after about a month, I began to see a transfer between Super Speed Fluency and Super Speed Writing to the students' reading and writing at other times during the day.  They are now more confident.  They are able to "drive" through unknown words much more quickly, and they are doing a lot more writing.

If you have reluctant readers or writers in your room, I would urge you to give these games a try.  Since I have the inclusion room, I tend to have at least two or three reluctant readers and writers every year.  These are games that will now be a permanent part of my teacher bag of tricks.  I hope that you are able to add them to yours as well.  Happy teaching!

Growth Talk

One of the newest WBT innovations is the use of growth talk on a daily basis in the classroom.  Growth talk comes as a result of research by Stanford's Carol Dweck and others, which demonstrates that when we use phrases such as "you're great... wonderful... fantastic" the effect on our students is often the opposite of what we are looking for.  Instead of increasing student performance, they will often avoid academic challenges for fear that it will make them less than "great".  This is known as a Fixed Mindset classroom (praising for ability).

In a Growth Mindset classroom students are praised for improvement, effort, and determination.  The language used in these classrooms is referred to as Growth Talk  We want our students to understand that growth comes as a result of effort and determination. It is all about very specific praise:  You beat your previous score by 10 words, you never indented your paragraphs before, but now you do it all of the time.  Your gestures are very large.  Everyone can see them.  You are showing me hands and eyes just like a fourth grader would (two grade levels above your own.).  The Super Improver Team is a perfect use of the growth mindset because students are rewarded for effort and not ability.

One of the best ways to teach a growth mindset is with examples of this mindset from our own lives.  I recently had the opportunity to share one such example with my students. This spring I was taking a Chalk Talk class for professional development credit.  This might sound like a fun and easy class, but it terrified me.  I only took it because it was the only class available at times I could attend.  To say that it terrified me is not an exaggeration.  Art is a definite weakness for me.  The combination of no natural talent, no desire to learn, and a number of very bad and embarrassing experiences with art have led me to avoid it at all costs.  I was the teacher who, before so much could be made on the computer, would pay someone to decorate my classroom.  And let's just say that bulletin boards have always been my nemesis.  I would rather speak in front of a group of 1,000 people with five minutes notice or write a 20 page paper than make a bulletin board.  So, as you can probably tell, I did not enter the class feeling very good about it.

After the first night I had a new appreciation for how many of our lowest students must feel when they sit in our classrooms and try, but know that they can not do what everyone else can.  The second night of class was even worse.  We were asked to give a very short five sentence chalk talk introducing ourselves.  Writing the chalk talk was not a problem, but no matter how hard I tried I could not figure out anything to draw that looked even close to what I wanted it to be.  My goal was to draw a dog's face, since I am the owner of three beautiful Papillons, but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't do it.  As people started sharing I became more and more panicky.  I kept trying to draw a dog, but I just couldn't do it.  I found myself beginning to shake and tears started to well up in my eyes.  Fortunately, the instructor noticed, and she quietly skipped over me.  I was very thankful, but I was also very humiliated.

I did a lot of self-reflecting over the next few days.  It was just a few short weeks prior that I had read all that Coach B. had sent us on Growth Talk, and I began to realize that maybe part of my problem was that I did not have a Growth Mindset when it came to art.  I had spent so many years telling myself how bad I was at it, that I was getting exactly what I was expecting.  So, I decided that I would go to the next class with a Growth Mindset.

The next class I came to with a different attitude.  I told myself that my drawing may not look like the instructor's or the other students, but it could be better than what it is now.  With this new attitude I really payed attention and did my best to follow the instructor's instructions as she taught us how to draw people, animals' faces, and even cubes.  This class was the first time that I had ever received any instruction in how to draw anything.  After a little practice I discovered that I could draw legs and arms on people.  I knew how to make a simple animal's face, and with a ruler, I could draw a pretty decent cube.  For the first time ever, I wasn't embarrassed by what I had drawn.  I found that I was actually having fun, something that I never thought I would say about drawing.  The last thirty minutes we were given art paper, black markers, and chalk, and asked to draw anything that we wanted.  I was pleased with the end result, and I will confess to you that it was the first time that I ever saved a piece of art.  Usually, when forced to do anything artistic, my work went straight in the garbage can when I was done.

This piece I not only took home with me, but realizing what a powerful example it could be for my students, I took it to class that day and shared it with them.  I also shared with them the same story that I just shared with you, and I let my students know that this was the first time that I had ever shared anything that I had drawn with anyone.  The story had a powerful impact upon the students.  We talked about the importance of not only using Growth Talk with each other, but speaking Growth Talk to ourselves.  As part of this discussion I asked students to identify any negative thinking that they had,  anything that began with the words, "I'm not good at,,," and replace that with Growth Talk instead.

I am now very thankful that I took the Chalk Talk Class.  It taught both myself and my students a very powerful lesson in Growth Talk.  I hope that you are able to share similar experiences with your own students.