At the time I wrote this post I had been doing Whole Brain Teaching for about 14 weeks. It was around the beginning of last May that I first discovered this gateway to teacher heaven. I implemented each component that I learned about as quickly as I could, but there were some things (Super Improvers' Wall, Three Star Homework) that, because it was so close to the end of the year, I didn't get to try out until this year. From the start I fell in love with Whole Brain Teaching. The ideas were fun, simple, and easy to implement. I can't tell you how many times I have said to myself, "I can't believe that I never thought of that." The results were also amazing! Some of them were expected, but I have to be honest. Some came as very big, but very pleasant, surprises.
This week I found myself reflecting upon those unexpected results. I would like to share some of my reflections with you. It is my hope that if you are new to WBT or are thinking about trying it out in your room for the first time, you will find my experiences inspiring and decide for yourself to take the plunge into Whole Brain Teaching.
1. I can not believe how hard students will work to earn a little star on a piece of paper. I do not think I have ever seen anything as motivating as the Super Improvers Wall. It is the buzz of the classroom. I am always hearing things like, "I only need two more stars to level up." The best part, however, is all I have to do is say to a student, "If you start writing neater (or whatever else the student needs to improve upon), you will earn a Super Improvers' Star." The results are instant. The student will start writing neater. It still amazes me.
2. Everyone does their homework! I think it is a combination of the choices that students are given with three star homework and the motivation of getting to play Mind Soccer on Fridays that produces these results. I have to be honest. I was very skeptical at first about giving kids a choice. I thought that many of them would take the easy way out and simply do one star homework. What I discovered, however, is that almost all of them are doing three star homework. They are choosing to do all of their homework neatly and correctly for the privilege of playing Mind Soccer. Which leads me to my next reflection.
3. Who would have ever thought that a review game would generate so much excitement. Mind Soccer, however, does just that. You can literally feel the buzz in the room on Friday afternoons. It is like a countdown until Mind Soccer begins. It is amazing that students will work so hard to earn the privilege of reviewing everything that they have been learning. Wow!
4. Getting kids to write in complete sentences with all of their periods in the right places has never been so easy. It is only the beginning of November and all of my students, including my special education students, punctuate properly. This is my twenty fifth year of teaching, and I have never seen this before. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that they are perfect and never leave out a period here or there, but overall they have got it! Right now I am thinking about one of my special ed students that I will call Dan. Dan did not use any periods in his writing. One day I sat with Dan and showed him how to find his periods by listening for the clicks. (The click goes along with the "Midnight Phone Call Test". This is the WBT way of teaching what a complete sentence is. The idea is that if someone calls you in the middle of the night and you pick up the phone to answer, is what the person on the other end of the line saying to you a complete message? If it is, then it is a sentence.) I have my kids hold an imaginary phone to their ears and pretend to hang up when they hear the click (the end of a complete message). The next day I noticed that Dan was still not using periods in his writing, so I challenged him to listen for the clicks himself and offered him a Super Improver Star if he could put all of his periods in the right places. Not only did Dan put them all in the right places, but he has been punctuating perfectly ever since. To what do I attribute this? I think it is a combination of all of the WBT writing techniques, but if I had to pick just a couple, I would say that oral writing and the Brainies have made the biggest difference.
5. Rule Two (Raise your hand for permission to speak.) really works! We all have blurters in our rooms, but rule two will put an end to the blurting. It still amazes me how well it works. If a student calls out, I simply say, "Rule Two". The class repeats the rule, the calling out stops, and I never have to address the one who did it. Soon those students learn to stop calling out. The key is consistency. I have been very careful to never address a student who calls out, but to always say "Rule Two". As a result, I rarely have blurters anymore. There have been a couple of times when I have gone two or three days without ever having to say, "Rule Two".
6. Not once this year have I heard the words "I don't know what I'm suppose to do". The use of "Mirrors" and "Teach Okay" keeps the students engaged, so that they actually focus upon and understand the directions being given. Wow!!!
7. My struggling readers love coming to group, are excited about reading, and believe in themselves. This is thanks to two wonderful WBT reading games that I use everyday with this group of students. They are Super Speed 100 and Super Speed Rhyme. What I like best about these games is that they provide my students with the multiple repetitions that they need in order to learn. What my kids like is that they can see their growth as they work to beat their scores and fill up a page of stars with smiley faces. (They get to put a smiley face in a star each time they beat their previous score. One page full of smiley faces earns a Super Improvers Star.) Both games are free downloads on the Whole Brain Teaching website.
8. My students actually reread and edit their writing! I attribute this to red/green writing. (For more information about red/green writing see my post on this topic.) They do not want that red mark on their paper, so they are very diligent about the things that I am looking for. When they get a green mark they will often say, "Yes." I have also had students point out something to me that they want me to mark with my green pen. Of course, I am happy to oblige.
9. The Brainies are a hit, and many of my students will use them even when I have not asked them to. When Coach B. came out with the Brainies I knew that they would be motivating. I guess I just did not have any idea how motivating they would be. I also did not realize how much of an impact they would have on students learning.
10. Teaching is really fun! I enjoy coming to work everyday. Learning is really fun! The kids enjoy coming to school everyday. Our classroom is just a really fun place to be, and I love every minute of it.
For more information about any of the techniques that I mentioned within my reflections, please go to www.wholebrainteaching.com. There you will find a number of amazing free downloads, as well as a library full of webcasts by Coach B., the founder of Whole Brain Teaching.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Proper Nouns and the Complexor Game
Since I began teaching the WBT way, whenever I am thinking about how I am going to introduce a new concept to my students, there are two words that I always keep in mind: engaging and funtricity (a WBT buzz word). I know that these two things will always lead to student learning, so I want them to be at the heart of all of my lessons.
Last week my writing focus skill was proper nouns. In the past my introductory lesson for proper nouns included a lot of brainstorming. Whole class brainstorming did not seem to fit into my new WBT criteria for lesson planning, so I decided to think of another way to teach it. I wanted something that would make proper nouns exciting and keep all of the students engaged. After some thought, I decided that the Complexor Game would work great with proper nouns.
The Complexor Game is part of the Whole Brain Teaching Writing game, which can be downloaded from the WBT website. The Complexor game breaks down writing into very small skills. Each complexor focuses on a different skill. Examples of complexors are subject verb agreement, making a list with commas, using the word because correctly in a sentence ... And the list goes on. Teachers print off the Complexor that they want to use and give a copy to each of their students. The complexors provide a sample sentence frame and a sentence frame for the students to orally fill in. The best part, however, are the word lists at the bottom of each complexor. Students can no longer say that they can't think of anything, because a number of different options for filling in each sentence frame are already provided. Students simply need to choose from the list the ones that they like.
Every student works with a partner. In my class the partners are called Peanut Butters and Jellies. Peanut Butters always go first. Their job is to create as many sentences as they can in one minute using the sentence frame provided, while Jellies use their whiteboards to keep track of their partners' scores. Each correct sentence is one point, and in my class students can not earn that point unless they use the target Brainies. I choose the target Brainies based upon the Complexor we are doing. For example, if the Complexor is on the correct use of the word "and", then students are expected to use the "and" Brainie when they are creating their sentences. I always tell the scorekeepers to watch carefully, and to only award a point if the target Brainie is being used. After one minute their scores are tallied and they are given a second minute to try and beat their previous score. They love this! Of course, if they beat their previous score, their partner will give them a ten finger Wooh. Roles are then reversed, and the same process is repeated.
Although proper nouns is not a Complexor within the Writing Game, I decided to use the Complexor game format to teach it. I began by putting three posters on the board. One had days of the week, one had months of the year, and the third had holidays. I started my lesson on proper nouns with the Question/Answer format from the WBT five step lesson plan. I then showed my students the list of the days of the week and explained that days of the week are proper nouns and they must always be capitalized. Students were then asked to create sentences using the days of the week. I emphasized using the capital Brainie when they said the day of the week within their sentence, because it is a proper noun and must be capitalized. After a few examples, the students were ready to play. Students then used the format I described above for the complexor game with their days of the week sentences. For every correct sentence using capital Brainies, students received one point. Students were very good about watching for capital Brainies and correcting each other if they didn't use them. I then repeated the same process for months of the year and holidays. It was a lot of fun.
I also wanted to introduce students to names as a proper noun, but I decided that this was a little too broad for the Complexor game, so I had the students take out their "Yes/No cards". These are simply laminatd notecards. One side is colored green and has the word yes written on it. The other side is colored red and has the word no written on it. I introduced the name rule and then simply said a word, such as Target. If students thought the word should be capitalized, they held up the yes side when I said, "Show me." If they thought the word should not be capitalized, they held up the no side instead. This allowed me to see who had the idea and who needed extra help.
The next day I wanted to see how well my students could transfer what they had learned about proper nouns to their writing, so we had the "Proper Noun Challenge". I gave students fifteen minutes to write as many sentences as they could using proper nouns. I had the posters up from the day before, and I encouraged the class to think of the sentences that they had shared with their partners the previous day during the Complexor Game. Every time they used a proper noun, they had to underline it. I walked around with a red pen and green pen, circling in green any proper noun I saw that were underlined, and circling in red any word that was underlined/capitalized and shouldn't be, or any proper noun that was not capitalized. At the end of fifteen minutes, students counted up the number of proper nouns that they had. The person who used the most proper nouns in their writing got a 100 finger sizzling Wooh with firecrackers. It was very exciting!
Remember, any lesson can be made engaging and fun. It just takes a little thought and a little creativity. I am finding that the more I do it, the easier it becomes. Just remember, when you are planning your lessons, always think of engaging funtricity and you can never go wrong.
Last week my writing focus skill was proper nouns. In the past my introductory lesson for proper nouns included a lot of brainstorming. Whole class brainstorming did not seem to fit into my new WBT criteria for lesson planning, so I decided to think of another way to teach it. I wanted something that would make proper nouns exciting and keep all of the students engaged. After some thought, I decided that the Complexor Game would work great with proper nouns.
The Complexor Game is part of the Whole Brain Teaching Writing game, which can be downloaded from the WBT website. The Complexor game breaks down writing into very small skills. Each complexor focuses on a different skill. Examples of complexors are subject verb agreement, making a list with commas, using the word because correctly in a sentence ... And the list goes on. Teachers print off the Complexor that they want to use and give a copy to each of their students. The complexors provide a sample sentence frame and a sentence frame for the students to orally fill in. The best part, however, are the word lists at the bottom of each complexor. Students can no longer say that they can't think of anything, because a number of different options for filling in each sentence frame are already provided. Students simply need to choose from the list the ones that they like.
Every student works with a partner. In my class the partners are called Peanut Butters and Jellies. Peanut Butters always go first. Their job is to create as many sentences as they can in one minute using the sentence frame provided, while Jellies use their whiteboards to keep track of their partners' scores. Each correct sentence is one point, and in my class students can not earn that point unless they use the target Brainies. I choose the target Brainies based upon the Complexor we are doing. For example, if the Complexor is on the correct use of the word "and", then students are expected to use the "and" Brainie when they are creating their sentences. I always tell the scorekeepers to watch carefully, and to only award a point if the target Brainie is being used. After one minute their scores are tallied and they are given a second minute to try and beat their previous score. They love this! Of course, if they beat their previous score, their partner will give them a ten finger Wooh. Roles are then reversed, and the same process is repeated.
Although proper nouns is not a Complexor within the Writing Game, I decided to use the Complexor game format to teach it. I began by putting three posters on the board. One had days of the week, one had months of the year, and the third had holidays. I started my lesson on proper nouns with the Question/Answer format from the WBT five step lesson plan. I then showed my students the list of the days of the week and explained that days of the week are proper nouns and they must always be capitalized. Students were then asked to create sentences using the days of the week. I emphasized using the capital Brainie when they said the day of the week within their sentence, because it is a proper noun and must be capitalized. After a few examples, the students were ready to play. Students then used the format I described above for the complexor game with their days of the week sentences. For every correct sentence using capital Brainies, students received one point. Students were very good about watching for capital Brainies and correcting each other if they didn't use them. I then repeated the same process for months of the year and holidays. It was a lot of fun.
I also wanted to introduce students to names as a proper noun, but I decided that this was a little too broad for the Complexor game, so I had the students take out their "Yes/No cards". These are simply laminatd notecards. One side is colored green and has the word yes written on it. The other side is colored red and has the word no written on it. I introduced the name rule and then simply said a word, such as Target. If students thought the word should be capitalized, they held up the yes side when I said, "Show me." If they thought the word should not be capitalized, they held up the no side instead. This allowed me to see who had the idea and who needed extra help.
The next day I wanted to see how well my students could transfer what they had learned about proper nouns to their writing, so we had the "Proper Noun Challenge". I gave students fifteen minutes to write as many sentences as they could using proper nouns. I had the posters up from the day before, and I encouraged the class to think of the sentences that they had shared with their partners the previous day during the Complexor Game. Every time they used a proper noun, they had to underline it. I walked around with a red pen and green pen, circling in green any proper noun I saw that were underlined, and circling in red any word that was underlined/capitalized and shouldn't be, or any proper noun that was not capitalized. At the end of fifteen minutes, students counted up the number of proper nouns that they had. The person who used the most proper nouns in their writing got a 100 finger sizzling Wooh with firecrackers. It was very exciting!
Remember, any lesson can be made engaging and fun. It just takes a little thought and a little creativity. I am finding that the more I do it, the easier it becomes. Just remember, when you are planning your lessons, always think of engaging funtricity and you can never go wrong.
Friday, October 17, 2014
The Super Improver Wall
If you do not already have a Super Improver Wall in you classroom, I have just three words for you: Put one up! In twenty-five years of teaching I have tried just about every management system and method for motivating students that you can think of. Never have I found anything that is so effective and so easy to implement as the Super Improver Wall. Below is a picture of what my wall currently looks like.
To get started you need ten different levels. The name of each level should be in a different color. It doesn't matter what you name your levels. Many people will give them names that match their classroom theme. For example, a good friend of mine who teaches at my school has an eighties them in her room. Her levels have names like "Rock Star" and "Producer". All students will start on the first level, which should be in white. In my room it is the beginner level. Students' names are written on cards that match the color of the level that they are on. The cards are placed on the board.
Now here comes the fun part! You start looking for improvements in your students. When you see one, you or the student colors in a star on the student's card. The improvements could be in any area. Below I have listed some examples of some of the things that my students have earned stars for:
1. Making smarter choices
2. Beginning to use the Brainies
3. Better or more consistent gestures
4. Improvements in writing
5. Improvements in Super Speed Math
6. Folded hands and laser eyes
7. Being a better partner
8. Growth in reading
The point is that the improvements can be in anything! The students are not competing against each other, but against themselves. It is often your lower students that have more stars, because they have more room for improvement.
When a student has received ten stars, he moves up to the next level on the board, and his new card is the color associated with that level. I will sign the back of the old card and send it home with the student, along with a certificate for moving to the next level. I tell my class when a student reaches level four, I will take his picture with two of his friends. They will be asked to pose for a silly picture. This picture will go face down on the board and the stars the student earns will be colored on the back of the picture. When a student has earned ten stars, the picture will be turned over and revealed for the first time. We haven't got there yet, but I am very excited. I can see how motivating this will be.
I would like to share with you my favorite story so far this year about our Super Improver Wall. I have a little boy in my class who I will call Johnny. (This is not his real name.) Johnny is in special education and one of the lowest students I have ever had. Johnny entered my room three days into the school year, not knowing how to read or write anything. When he did write a letter or two, there was no letter/sound correspondence at all. I had been working with Johnny, showing him how to sound out words and write down the sounds that he hears. He was beginning to get the idea and would do this when myself or another teacher was sitting with him and giving him a lot of support, but he would not do any writing independently. So one day, about the middle of the third week of school, it was the end of the day and we were doing red/green writing. I had given Johnny a very simple sentence frame: I like ________. The day before I had helped Johnny write "I like video games." The next day, however, I wanted Johnny to fill in the frame on his own. He had sat for the first five minutes of red/green writing and done nothing. So I walked up to him and whispered, "If you can write an "I like" sentence before we clean-up, you will get a super improver star." I have to be honest. I did not expect him to do it, but I figured that it was worth a try. A couple of minutes later I looked over and he had his journal in the air shaking it. He looked very excited. I went over and saw that he had written: "I like fit video games." I was so excited! He had sounded out the word fight, and copied video games from the day before. I did not care that it wasn't spelled right. What mattered was that he had written that sentence in under two minutes, along with his very first word that had letter/sound correspondence. Not only did he get a super improver star, but I had the class give him a hundred finger Wooh. (Okay, maybe I did get a little carried away with the hundred finger Wooh, but it was a very exciting moment.) This is the power of The Super Improver Wall. It is amazing!
I also have a card on the wall. I decided to put it up after my mentor, Nancy Stoltenberg, suggested it. Having my own card up has brought another layer of fun to the wall and has shown my students that everyone has something that they can improve in. Right now there are two things that I am working on. In the morning I always hand the bag that had our breakfast cards to a student to hold while we are going through the line. However, I always forget to take the bag back after I've passed out the cards, and the student has to remind me. I was told that if I remember on my own I might even get two stars! I am working very hard on this. The other area in which the students have told me that I can earn a star is our "Beat the Clock" section of the scoreboard. I am constantly writing our seconds for "papers out" next to "line" by accident. My students have promised me a star if I quit doing that.
As you can see, the scoreboard is very motivating and a lot of fun. Coach B., the founder of Whole Brain Teaching, has done a great webcast on the scoreboard. You can view it by going to www.wholebrainteaching.com. Under "Goodies" click on the first link entitled "wbt tv". There you will find a library of webcasts that Coach B. has done. The Super Improver Wall is number 503. You can also find many examples of walls that other teachers have done by simply going to Google and typing in "Whole Brain Teaching Super Improver Wall".
To get started you need ten different levels. The name of each level should be in a different color. It doesn't matter what you name your levels. Many people will give them names that match their classroom theme. For example, a good friend of mine who teaches at my school has an eighties them in her room. Her levels have names like "Rock Star" and "Producer". All students will start on the first level, which should be in white. In my room it is the beginner level. Students' names are written on cards that match the color of the level that they are on. The cards are placed on the board.
Now here comes the fun part! You start looking for improvements in your students. When you see one, you or the student colors in a star on the student's card. The improvements could be in any area. Below I have listed some examples of some of the things that my students have earned stars for:
1. Making smarter choices
2. Beginning to use the Brainies
3. Better or more consistent gestures
4. Improvements in writing
5. Improvements in Super Speed Math
6. Folded hands and laser eyes
7. Being a better partner
8. Growth in reading
The point is that the improvements can be in anything! The students are not competing against each other, but against themselves. It is often your lower students that have more stars, because they have more room for improvement.
When a student has received ten stars, he moves up to the next level on the board, and his new card is the color associated with that level. I will sign the back of the old card and send it home with the student, along with a certificate for moving to the next level. I tell my class when a student reaches level four, I will take his picture with two of his friends. They will be asked to pose for a silly picture. This picture will go face down on the board and the stars the student earns will be colored on the back of the picture. When a student has earned ten stars, the picture will be turned over and revealed for the first time. We haven't got there yet, but I am very excited. I can see how motivating this will be.
I would like to share with you my favorite story so far this year about our Super Improver Wall. I have a little boy in my class who I will call Johnny. (This is not his real name.) Johnny is in special education and one of the lowest students I have ever had. Johnny entered my room three days into the school year, not knowing how to read or write anything. When he did write a letter or two, there was no letter/sound correspondence at all. I had been working with Johnny, showing him how to sound out words and write down the sounds that he hears. He was beginning to get the idea and would do this when myself or another teacher was sitting with him and giving him a lot of support, but he would not do any writing independently. So one day, about the middle of the third week of school, it was the end of the day and we were doing red/green writing. I had given Johnny a very simple sentence frame: I like ________. The day before I had helped Johnny write "I like video games." The next day, however, I wanted Johnny to fill in the frame on his own. He had sat for the first five minutes of red/green writing and done nothing. So I walked up to him and whispered, "If you can write an "I like" sentence before we clean-up, you will get a super improver star." I have to be honest. I did not expect him to do it, but I figured that it was worth a try. A couple of minutes later I looked over and he had his journal in the air shaking it. He looked very excited. I went over and saw that he had written: "I like fit video games." I was so excited! He had sounded out the word fight, and copied video games from the day before. I did not care that it wasn't spelled right. What mattered was that he had written that sentence in under two minutes, along with his very first word that had letter/sound correspondence. Not only did he get a super improver star, but I had the class give him a hundred finger Wooh. (Okay, maybe I did get a little carried away with the hundred finger Wooh, but it was a very exciting moment.) This is the power of The Super Improver Wall. It is amazing!
I also have a card on the wall. I decided to put it up after my mentor, Nancy Stoltenberg, suggested it. Having my own card up has brought another layer of fun to the wall and has shown my students that everyone has something that they can improve in. Right now there are two things that I am working on. In the morning I always hand the bag that had our breakfast cards to a student to hold while we are going through the line. However, I always forget to take the bag back after I've passed out the cards, and the student has to remind me. I was told that if I remember on my own I might even get two stars! I am working very hard on this. The other area in which the students have told me that I can earn a star is our "Beat the Clock" section of the scoreboard. I am constantly writing our seconds for "papers out" next to "line" by accident. My students have promised me a star if I quit doing that.
As you can see, the scoreboard is very motivating and a lot of fun. Coach B., the founder of Whole Brain Teaching, has done a great webcast on the scoreboard. You can view it by going to www.wholebrainteaching.com. Under "Goodies" click on the first link entitled "wbt tv". There you will find a library of webcasts that Coach B. has done. The Super Improver Wall is number 503. You can also find many examples of walls that other teachers have done by simply going to Google and typing in "Whole Brain Teaching Super Improver Wall".
Friday, October 10, 2014
The Diamond Rule and Solo Yes
You gotta love Coach B. As the founder of Whole Brain Teaching, he is always hard at work thinking up more ways to keep us in teacher heaven. This week, on his Monday night webcast, he did it again. He introduced us to two new ideas, which I implemented the very next day. They are both awesome!
The first is a new rule. You heard me right. Whole Brain Teaching now has six rules, instead of five. The new rule is called the Diamond Rule. Coach B. created it to help solve a problem that all of us as as teachers face: How do we get our students to look at the person who is teaching, whether it be us or another student? As Coach B. explained, this is so important because when students are looking at the person speaking, their visual cortex is engaged. By looking somewhere else, they are disengaging an entire portion of their brains. This is not acceptable. After all, this is Whole Brain Teaching, and we want the students' whole brains engaged at all times.
This is where the Diamond Rule comes in. It very simply says this: Look at the person who is teaching. The gesture that accompanies it is to point your first two fingers towards your eyes, and then point those same two fingers towards others. As Coach was sharing about this rule, someone on line came up with a great saying: "Diamond Eyes". I could not wait to introduce both the rule and the catchy saying to my students.
Since this was a new rule, literally hot off the presses, there were no signs for it. So as soon as the webcast was over, I got to work creating mine. I have attached it below. If you like it, please feel free to use it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/tlp9og8s2qdwj51/diamond%20rule.pub?dl=0
I introduced the rule to my students using Mirror Words and Teach Okay. In Mirror Words, students copied my words and my gestures. Then, during Teach Okay, they taught their partners the words and gestures. This was immediately followed by "Wrong Way Right Way" practice. This is a staple of WBT. Students are asked to practice the rule both the wrong way, and the right way. By doing this, students know exactly what the rule should and should not look like. It leaves no doubt as to what is expected of them. My kids loved the rule, and I saw an immediate improvement. Suddenly all of my students - even the easily distracted ones - had their eyes on the person speaking. It was awesome! One of the nice things about this being a rule is that if I have a student who is having trouble following it, I can invite the student in at recess for two minutes of rule practice. So far it doesn't look like I will need to do this, but it is nice to have that option if needed.
This rule has really helped during oral writing, when the students are sharing with Mirror Words. Now, when I call on a student to share, instead of just saying the students name, I will say, "Diamond Eyes on ________." This reminds the students of the expectation and focuses their attention on the person who is speaking. I love it! It has also helped my students earned more tallies for fourth grade mirrors (See last week's post.) After all, if students are looking at the person who is doing the mirrors, it is a lot easier to mirror them.
Finally, I would like to share with you another great new idea from Coach B. It is called Solo Yes. Solo Yes is just like Class Yes, but instead of doing a call out with the entire class, you call one student's name, and that student is expected to answer yes, fold his hands, and look at the teacher. Nothing else is said, and the lesson continues without interruption. This is a great strategy to address the behavior of that child who, during a lesson, is playing with his eraser, looking in his desk, tying his shoe etc. It quickly reminds the student to focus on the lesson, without disrupting the lesson's flow. It has been a great help. I used it a lot the first day, but since then I have not needed to use it as frequently.
I spoke at the beginning of this blog about teacher heaven, and I have to tell you that these two strategies have definitely helped to get me there. Like so many things in WBT, they are so simple and easy to implement, but the payoff is huge. I would strongly recommend giving them a try. If you do, please leave a comment on this page letting me know how they are working in your room. I would love to hear from you!
The first is a new rule. You heard me right. Whole Brain Teaching now has six rules, instead of five. The new rule is called the Diamond Rule. Coach B. created it to help solve a problem that all of us as as teachers face: How do we get our students to look at the person who is teaching, whether it be us or another student? As Coach B. explained, this is so important because when students are looking at the person speaking, their visual cortex is engaged. By looking somewhere else, they are disengaging an entire portion of their brains. This is not acceptable. After all, this is Whole Brain Teaching, and we want the students' whole brains engaged at all times.
This is where the Diamond Rule comes in. It very simply says this: Look at the person who is teaching. The gesture that accompanies it is to point your first two fingers towards your eyes, and then point those same two fingers towards others. As Coach was sharing about this rule, someone on line came up with a great saying: "Diamond Eyes". I could not wait to introduce both the rule and the catchy saying to my students.
Since this was a new rule, literally hot off the presses, there were no signs for it. So as soon as the webcast was over, I got to work creating mine. I have attached it below. If you like it, please feel free to use it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/tlp9og8s2qdwj51/diamond%20rule.pub?dl=0
I introduced the rule to my students using Mirror Words and Teach Okay. In Mirror Words, students copied my words and my gestures. Then, during Teach Okay, they taught their partners the words and gestures. This was immediately followed by "Wrong Way Right Way" practice. This is a staple of WBT. Students are asked to practice the rule both the wrong way, and the right way. By doing this, students know exactly what the rule should and should not look like. It leaves no doubt as to what is expected of them. My kids loved the rule, and I saw an immediate improvement. Suddenly all of my students - even the easily distracted ones - had their eyes on the person speaking. It was awesome! One of the nice things about this being a rule is that if I have a student who is having trouble following it, I can invite the student in at recess for two minutes of rule practice. So far it doesn't look like I will need to do this, but it is nice to have that option if needed.
This rule has really helped during oral writing, when the students are sharing with Mirror Words. Now, when I call on a student to share, instead of just saying the students name, I will say, "Diamond Eyes on ________." This reminds the students of the expectation and focuses their attention on the person who is speaking. I love it! It has also helped my students earned more tallies for fourth grade mirrors (See last week's post.) After all, if students are looking at the person who is doing the mirrors, it is a lot easier to mirror them.
Finally, I would like to share with you another great new idea from Coach B. It is called Solo Yes. Solo Yes is just like Class Yes, but instead of doing a call out with the entire class, you call one student's name, and that student is expected to answer yes, fold his hands, and look at the teacher. Nothing else is said, and the lesson continues without interruption. This is a great strategy to address the behavior of that child who, during a lesson, is playing with his eraser, looking in his desk, tying his shoe etc. It quickly reminds the student to focus on the lesson, without disrupting the lesson's flow. It has been a great help. I used it a lot the first day, but since then I have not needed to use it as frequently.
I spoke at the beginning of this blog about teacher heaven, and I have to tell you that these two strategies have definitely helped to get me there. Like so many things in WBT, they are so simple and easy to implement, but the payoff is huge. I would strongly recommend giving them a try. If you do, please leave a comment on this page letting me know how they are working in your room. I would love to hear from you!
Friday, October 3, 2014
Student Engagement
I love mirrors. Mirrors is a WBT engagement technique that is used with every lesson. The idea behind it is that kids mirror your words and/or gestures, thus engaging their whole brains in learning. I have found it to be extremely effective. However, I have a handful of students who do not consistently do mirrors with us. This has been very frustrating. I was ready for a solution. I found that solution thanks to Coach B. and his Monday night webcast on the Whole Brain Teaching website. The topic was 100% student engagement, and I have to tell you that he had some awesome ideas! If you have the opportunity, I would strongly suggest going to www.wholebrainteaching.com and viewing his webcast. You can find it under wbt tv on the goodies menu. It is number 582.
I would like to share with you two ideas from the webcast that I implemented the next day. The first was adding mirrors to my scoreboard. At the bottom of my scoreboard I created a section entitled mirrors. On one side I wrote kindergarten mirrors and on the other side I wrote fourth grade mirrors. I chose kindergarten and fourth grade, because they are two grade levels below and above where my students are at.
I began by modeling for my students what kindergarten mirrors look like, and I had the kids try using kindergarten mirrors. We then did the same thing for fourth grade mirrors. I emphasized that when fourth graders use mirrors they use crisp big gestures and have lots of energy. We talked about whether or not we wanted to be like kindergartners or fourth graders, and of course, the class all wanted to be like fourth graders. I began giving points in both columns as the students earned them. It just so happens that our team goal on our Super Improvers Wall is "mirrors" and "big gestures", so I told the kids that at the end of every day if they had more points on the fourth grade side than the kindergarten side, they would receive a team improver star. They loved this idea! I have seen a big improvement in mirrors this week.
I saved my favorite new Coach B. engagement strategy for last. In my room we call it "Model Mirrors". As per Coach B.'s instructions, I made a big arrow and hung it up on the wall in my room. I told the kids that whenever I have a really big point to make, I will go and stand under that arrow. Students know that I am then going to do one of the three different types of mirrors. Below is a list of what they are:
Mirror Words: Students mirror your gestures and repeat your words.
Silent Mirror: Students mirror your gestures, but not your words.
Magic Mirror: You speak, but do no gestures. The students must create the gestures themselves.
Students may choose to be a "Mirror Model". A mirror model is someone who does mirror so well, that they can model for others what it should look like. They make the choice to be a model by standing up. I tell the students that they do not have to stand up and be a model, but if they do, I expect to see fourth grade mirrors. The first time I used this strategy, I was amazed. Everyone in my class stood up, and everyone was doing fourth grade mirrors. This included a few special education students whom I have been working with since the beginning of the year on using gestures. Amazed and elated are the two best adjectives that I can use to describe the results.
I wish I could tell you that all of my students now use fourth grade mirrors 100% of the time. Unfortunately, they don't. At least not yet. I can tell you, however, that student engagement during mirrors has increased dramatically in my classroom in the three days since I have implemented these two new strategies. I am looking forward to trying some of the other engagement strategies that Coach B. introduced us to. Remember, for more on all of the new engagement strategies, check at webcast 582 on the Whole Brain Teaching website.
I would like to share with you two ideas from the webcast that I implemented the next day. The first was adding mirrors to my scoreboard. At the bottom of my scoreboard I created a section entitled mirrors. On one side I wrote kindergarten mirrors and on the other side I wrote fourth grade mirrors. I chose kindergarten and fourth grade, because they are two grade levels below and above where my students are at.
I began by modeling for my students what kindergarten mirrors look like, and I had the kids try using kindergarten mirrors. We then did the same thing for fourth grade mirrors. I emphasized that when fourth graders use mirrors they use crisp big gestures and have lots of energy. We talked about whether or not we wanted to be like kindergartners or fourth graders, and of course, the class all wanted to be like fourth graders. I began giving points in both columns as the students earned them. It just so happens that our team goal on our Super Improvers Wall is "mirrors" and "big gestures", so I told the kids that at the end of every day if they had more points on the fourth grade side than the kindergarten side, they would receive a team improver star. They loved this idea! I have seen a big improvement in mirrors this week.
I saved my favorite new Coach B. engagement strategy for last. In my room we call it "Model Mirrors". As per Coach B.'s instructions, I made a big arrow and hung it up on the wall in my room. I told the kids that whenever I have a really big point to make, I will go and stand under that arrow. Students know that I am then going to do one of the three different types of mirrors. Below is a list of what they are:
Mirror Words: Students mirror your gestures and repeat your words.
Silent Mirror: Students mirror your gestures, but not your words.
Magic Mirror: You speak, but do no gestures. The students must create the gestures themselves.
Students may choose to be a "Mirror Model". A mirror model is someone who does mirror so well, that they can model for others what it should look like. They make the choice to be a model by standing up. I tell the students that they do not have to stand up and be a model, but if they do, I expect to see fourth grade mirrors. The first time I used this strategy, I was amazed. Everyone in my class stood up, and everyone was doing fourth grade mirrors. This included a few special education students whom I have been working with since the beginning of the year on using gestures. Amazed and elated are the two best adjectives that I can use to describe the results.
I wish I could tell you that all of my students now use fourth grade mirrors 100% of the time. Unfortunately, they don't. At least not yet. I can tell you, however, that student engagement during mirrors has increased dramatically in my classroom in the three days since I have implemented these two new strategies. I am looking forward to trying some of the other engagement strategies that Coach B. introduced us to. Remember, for more on all of the new engagement strategies, check at webcast 582 on the Whole Brain Teaching website.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)