First Day of School Plans

     Last year I posted my first day of school plans and heard from many that they found this helpful, so I decided to do the same thing this year.  Below you will find my first day of school plans for the 2015/2016 school year.  If you compare last year's plans to this year's plans, you will notice that the majority of it is the same.  The biggest changes were made at the end of the day during writing.  Since I will be piloting the WBT writing game, I structured what I am asking the kids to do around the game.  I hope that you find this helpful.  

Day One Lesson Plan

9:00-10:45 (Stop to pick up breakfast and eat when called down to the lunchroom.)

    *Class Yes

      Please look at me.  My name is Miss Ray, and I am so happy that you are here.  When I say class, you say       yes, fold your hands in a listening position, and look at me with laser eyes.  Practice.

    *Introduce and practice rule one

     Rule one is follow directions quickly.  When I say rule one, you say follow directions quickly.  Let's try that          again, but be fast.  Give rule one commands:  Look up.  Look down.  Raise one hand.  (Faster.)  Raise              both hands. We have rule one so that we will have a fun organized classroom.   

    *Introduce the Scoreboard

     We are going to play a very fun game called Scoreboard, and all you have to do to win is keep the                      scorekeeper happy.  I am the scorekeeper.  When I put a mark under the smiley face, that means that you        are following a rule and making the scorekeeper, me, happy.  When you see me making the mark, you will          clap your hands together quickly and say Oh yea.  Let's practice.  Practice.  When you are doing something        that makes me, the scorekeeper, unhappy, you will receive a mark under the frownie face.  When you see me      making the mark, you will quickly shrug your shoulders and groan.  Practice.  Next practice rule one using          the scoreboard.  Stand Up.  Too slow.  Groan.  Sit down.  Still to slow.  Groan.  Look at your partner.  Oh           yeah!  etc.

    *Play the Name Game

     1.  Emphasize how quickly everyone must respond.

     2. When I point at you, quickly say your name.
     3.  No matter how the child responds, say, "Louder please."

     4.  If a child is shy, skip him/her.

     5.  After pointing to a few kids, say to the class, "Repeat after me."  Point to these students one at a time.              Say each name and have the class repeat the name.  If you forget a name, simply say to the class, "Who          is this?"  They will tell you.

​     6.  Continue this pattern with the remainder of the class.One minute fun burst:  Practice Rule one using different voices.  Teacher leads.

    *Heavy Duty Practice of Rule One Using 3-peats:

• red folders
• ​folders away
• pencils out
• pencils up
• pencils away
• bodies and chairs
• seats
• line 

10:45-10:50  Take students on a bathroom break using the procedures for line just learned.

10:55-11:10  Introduce "Silent Mirrors" and "Mirrors Off" by having students copy teacher's movements using big gestures and stopping when the teacher says, "Mirrors Off".  One minute fun burst:  Students take turns mirroring each other.  Peanut butters begin.  (Students will learn who peanut butters are and who jellies are.)  Then use "Silent Mirror" to introduce procedures for bathroom, water, and tissue.  

11:10-11:20  Prepare for lunch  

11:20-12:00  Lunch  (Teacher goes to lunch duty at 11:50.)

12:00-12:35  Intro. "Teach Okay" to review rule one and introduce rules two and three.

Step One:  "When I clap twice, you clap twice;"  Do.

                 "When I clap twice and say teach, you clap twice and say okay."  Do.

*Repeat until all students follow smoothly and quickly.  Use scoreboard.

Step Two:  Repeat above, but add full body turn.  Practice until all students follow smoothly and quickly.  Use scoreboard.

Step Three:  "I want you when you turn to your neighbor to use big gestures and repeat rule one over and over, until I call you back with class.

* Do this step over and over until all students follow smoothly, use a full body turn, and big gestures.

Intro. rule two using non-examples:  Ask a student to blurt out while you are talking.  Congratulate him! Great blurting!  Then say, “Class, let’s do that again. But this time when Jack interrupts me, I’ll say Rule 2 and you exclaim, making the hand motion, ‘Raise your hand for permission to speak!” 

Students practice rule two using "Teach Okay".

Intro. rule three using non examples:  Ask a student to leave his seat without permission.  Great job of breaking the rule. Jack leaves his seat again, you call out Rule 3, and the kids exclaim, “Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat!’ 

Students practice rule three using "Teach Okay".

One minute fun burst:  Students practice rules one, two, and three with partner using silly voices.

12:35-1:25  Specials:  

1:25-1:55  Introduce students to Super Speed Math.  

One minute fun burst:  Use "Teach Okay" to practice the first three rules with your partner, using the silliest voices that you can.

1:55-2:55  Show Oral Writing posters (Question, Answer), Capital, Period, and "Because" Brainies, Slides from persuasive writing writing game one.  Explain to students that everything we do in our classroom is part of a very special kind of teaching called “Whole Brain Teaching.  Ask students the following question:  Why do you like Whole Brain Teaching?  Emphasize that questions must be answered in complete sentences. Introduce the gesture for complete sentences.  Place the following slide on the board:  “I like Whole Brain Teaching because ___________.  Students use "Teach Okay" to answer.  Tell students to take turns answering (Peanut Butters always begin) and fill in the sentence frame as many times as they can.  Show students the Improver slide, explaining how they are going to improve their writing by using capitals, periods, and the because clapper.  Students take out writing notebooks.  Students write their sentence in their notebooks with a focus on capitals, periods, and the because clapper.  (Point out the writing board where the label sentences must start with a capital and end with a period are displayed.)  Teacher walks around and does red/green writing, focusing only on capitals, periods, and the because clapper

One minute fun burst:  Using magic mirrors teacher calls out a gesture or Brainie learned today, and students must show that gesture/Brainie.  (Mirror, Tag Team Switch, capital, period, complete sentence please, rules one-three)

2:55-3:16  End of day procedures:  Introduce "Circle Walk" for students to pick up their backpacks.  Collect any supplies at that time that students have in backpacks.  Explain green folders (anything inside green folders goes home).  Teach procedure for stacking chairs.  Assign students their permanent number.  When they line up to go home, they are to line up in number order.  Explain to students that from now on, they will always line up in this order.

Diamond Rule Update

Today's post will be short and sweet.  I simply wanted to share with all of you a change to the Diamond Rule that Coach B. unveiled at the National Conference.

Many of you will remember that the Diamond Rule first came out last fall:  Look at the one who is teaching.  This was a very important rule because in Whole Brain Teaching it is often the students who teach each other.  If you would like to know more about this rule, please see the separate post that I have written on this topic.

After almost a year of implementation, we all began to realize that there was something missing and this rule could be made even better.  The problem with the old Diamond Rule is that we don't always want our students' focus to be on the teacher or another student.  Sometimes we want them looking at a chart, a book, or a power point.  This is what led to the new and improved Diamond Rule:

Keep your eyes on the target.

Now when we ask or gesture for the Diamond Rule, our students will know that their eyes are expected to be on the target, whatever that target might be at the time.  I am excited to begin the school year with the new and improved Diamond Rule.  I hope that you will be too.

Super Improver Writing

In this post I am sharing the next big new thing that I learned at the National Conference.  It is called Super Improver Writing.  Super Improver Writing is a way to motivate students to revise and edit their own writing by linking their writing to the Super Improver Wall.  It is very simple and easy to do.  Here is how it works.

1.  Ask students to write for 5-10 minutes, depending upon your grade level.  The topic can be assigned or free choice.

2.  Next, post for the students to see two or three skills that you would like them to include in their writing.  This could be anything from making sure that all sentences start with capital letters to including an adjective in each sentence.

3.  Give the students an additional five to ten minutes to write, challenging them to make sure that they are using these skills in their writing.  They may also go back and revise or edit what they have already written.

4.  Award Super Improver Stars to students who improved their writing by using the skills that you posted.

In looking ahead to next year I am considering using Super Improver Writing during my Red/Green Writing time.  (Please see separate posts on this topic.)  I am also considering individualizing it, based upon the writing levels of my students.  I am still playing around with how I want to do this.

I am also going to use Super Improver Writing with my Genius Ladder.  (Please see separate posts on this topic.)  When students get to the Genius Paragraph level I will give them 10 minutes to write.  I will then post skills based upon what we are working on in writing and give them 10 minutes to revise/edit.

I can also see myself using it at times during our regular writing block.  I already know how motivated students are by the opportunity to earn Super Improver Stars, so my plan is to use this technique as often as possible to motivate them to revise and edit their own writing.

The New and Improved Five Step Lesson Plan

This has been an amazing week!  I just got back from the National Whole Brain Teaching Conference in Pineville, Louisiana.  The conference itself was soooo much fun and I learned soooo many new things.  If I tried to include them all in this one blog, it would take way too long.  Instead, I have decided to share them with you one at a time, beginning with my favorite - The New and Improved Five Step Lesson Plan.

For anyone who is not familiar with the original five step plan, you can find many in-depth posts on my blog that cover this topic.  Below are the names of the original five steps:

1.  Question
2.  Answer
3.  Expand
4.  Test with QT
5.  Critical Thinking

The changes to this plan have happened in steps three and five, with the biggest change being in step three.  It is now all about ramping up the critical thinking skills in every lesson.  Instead of waiting to focus on critical thinking in step five, it now takes place during step three.  This occurs with the assistance of critical thinking sentence frames.  After teaching the concept and providing the students with examples using the Mirror Words and Teach Okay format that we have always used, we then introduce students to critical thinking sentence frames.  Below is an example of a critical thinking sentence frame that could be used when introducing students to the denominator of a fraction:

I see a group of ______________.  The denominator is ______ because ____________________.

The frames above ask students to take what they have learned about fractions and create their own denominators with things/people in the classroom.  The key to all critical thinking sentence frames is to include a "because clapper" in every set of sentence frames because it requires students to give a reason for what they believe.

Next year I will be using these frames with every lesson.  My plan is to create a data base of critical thinking sentence frames for second grade that can be used year after year.

Since critical thinking was introduced in step three, step five is now called "Advanced Critical Thinking".  This step almost always involves writing.  In the spirit of funtricity, a WBT buzz word, I have my students write to Biffy Bluebird.  She is a fun WBT cartoon character.  I explain to my students that she knows nothing about __________ (whatever we are studying).  Their job is to teach her what it is and explain to her how to do it.  The kids really enjoy doing this.  Occasionally, time permitting, I will choose a few pieces of writing at random and tell the kids that I am going to pretend that I am Biffy Bluebird and try to follow their instructions.  This can be a lot of fun and very educational for the students as they watch, usually with much laughter, the results.

So there you have it.  The changes to the five step lesson plan.  I would just like to end with one very important reminder.  Remember, all five steps can, but do not usually, occur on the same day.  It usually takes me between three and five days to cover all five steps.

I hope that you find this information to be helpful as you begin to think ahead and plan for the upcoming school year.

Good-byes

I love teaching, but I hate having to say good-bye to my students on the last day of school.  Every year was tough, but this year was particularly tough.  I had this amazing group of students - my inaugural WBT class - whom I did not want to leave.  We went through the year together and they were my willing guinea pigs.  We laughed together, learned together, and had so much fun together.  I am not sure who loved Whole Brain Teaching the most - my students or myself.

As I reflect back on this school year, there are so many things that I learned.  I can't even begin to tell you how many ah, ha moments I had.  It was a journey that was a lot of hard work, but I will never regret taking it.  I have grown so much as a teacher this past year.  The highlight of the year was becoming a certified Whole Brain instructor.  I am looking forward to the future and am excited about being able to share what I have learned with others.

Over the summer I will begin looking ahead to next year.  I am looking forward to next year in a whole different way.  Last year there was the excitement of beginning something new and the fun of trying to learn and figure everything - and I do mean everything - out.  This upcoming year I am excited about knowing what I am doing and not having to figure everything out.  

Many people have asked me what I am going to change for next year, and my answer is not really a lot.  Yes, I will make a few minor tweaks, and because I know what I am doing, my timeline for some things will change.  However, all of the strategies, techniques, and games that I have used this year will remain.  My motto is "Why mess with perfection?"  After all, in my book WBT is about as close to teaching perfection as you can get.

Another question that I have been asked is what my favorite parts of WBT are.  That is a tough one, because the real answer is everything.  However, as a challenge, I posed the following question to myself:  If you could only implement ten components of WBT, what would those ten components be?  This led to my list of ten WBT must haves.  Here it is:

1.  The Super Improver Wall

2.  Mirror Words

3.  Teach Okay

4.  The Brainies

5.  The Genius Ladder

6.  Red/Green Writing

7.  Puzzlers and Complexors

8.  The Scoreboard

9.  Class Yes

10.  The Rules

I am just thankful that I am not actually limited to only ten. If, however, you are just starting out in WBT and are looking for a place to begin without getting too overwhelmed, these are the ten that I would definitely start with.  My suggestion would be to  master these ten, and then branch out and continue to explore the wonderful world of WBT.  You can find more information on all of these topics right here on my blog, or you can go to WholeBrainTeaching.com for free downloads and webcasts on each of these topics.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful and restful summer.  Maybe I will see you at the National Conference in Louisiana.  Have a great vacation!!! 

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.

Habituation

It is spring time. 
It's getting close to the end of the year.
It's just that time of year.

This is my twenty-fifth year of teaching.  It is also the very first time that one of the above three sentences has not been a part of my vocabulary.  You only have to teach for one year to know that your students never behave the same at the end of the school year as they do at the beginning of the year.  Usually it is around Christmas when the students' behavior begins to change.  We attribute that to Christmas fever.  Then the new year comes.  We start seeing behaviors that we didn't see earlier in the year.  The things that worked so well at the beginning of the year do not seem to be working as well now.  Pretty soon we are calling it spring fever and counting the days until spring break.  Then it is summer fever and we are counting the days until school is out.  Some years are better and some are worse, depending upon our class at the time, but the same pattern always seems to hold true.  After a few years we just accept it.  After all, it is what it is.

What if it didn't have to be this way?  What if our kids responded the same way in May as they did in September?  Impossible!!  Very possible!!!  Read on to find out how.

To understand why students' behavior changes from fall to spring, you have to understand the principal of habituation.  This is a word that I had never heard of before until Coach B. came to town and explained it.  Then the light bulbs all began to come on.  Habituation is a response of the brain's nervous system.  To help explain, please allow me to share with you the example that Coach B. used.  If you turn a slug over and touch it with a probe, the slug will pull away from the probe.  The slug will continue to pull away until about the tenth time that you touch it.  Then it will not respond to the probe at all.  This is known as habituation.  A stimuli that previously caused a reaction within our brains' nervous systems, no longer causes a reaction.

Let's now apply this to the classroom.  At the beginning of the school year everything is new to our students.  They are working hard to earn the rewards of our management system, our attention getting signals are new and fun, so are all of our classroom procedures and routines.  Over time, however, habituation will occur.  Students will become used to these systems, signals, and routines.  It has nothing to do with how good or effective they are.  The best management system in the world will not work as well in May as it did in August.  It won't even work as well in December as it did in August.  We continue using it because we know how well it works.  We have seen how effective it can be.  We tell ourselves that it must just be the students and the time of year that it is.  The truth is that it is not our management system, our students, or the time of year that is at fault.  It is simply a matter of habituation.

The solution is very simple.  If we change the stimulus, we will get a different response.  This doesn't mean that we have to completely change our management system, attention getting signals, or routines.  Keep the same structures.  Just spice up some of the components, so that it new and fresh for the students.  Whole Brain Teaching is great at that.  Below I have listed some of the ways that WBT keeps things fresh and avoids habituation.

1.  Class Yes is the attention getting signal in WBT.  There are so many variations of it, that the only limit is your creativity.

2.  The scoreboard (see separate blog posts on this topic) has ten different levels to it.  Each level has its own rewards and challenges, so that students are always looking ahead and excited about what comes next.

3.  The Super Improver Wall (see separate blog posts on this topic) also has ten different levels.  Students never know what might happen as they move from level to level.

4.  Mind Soccer, Whole Brain Teachings review game, has a number of different rules and variations which are introduced one at a time over the course of the school year.  This way the game always stays fresh and exciting, and kids are always begging to play it.

5.  Class leaders are used a lot.  Students never know who will be chosen or what they will be chosen for.  This keeps things fresh and exciting.

I have been following this advice all year, and I can tell you that it totally works.  At the first signs of habituation, I just change things up a bit.  It is like having a new class.  It is now May, and the school year is almost over.  The best news is that in twenty-five years of teaching, this is the first time I can honestly say that my students were just as well behaved at the end of the year as they were at the beginning of the year.  I wish that I had know about this principle of habituation years ago.  It sure would have saved me a lot of stress.  Please share this principle widely with others.  It has the power the transform classrooms.

The Big Seven: Learning the Lingo

The posting of this week's blog will mark the one year anniversary of me finding Whole Brain Teaching.  It has been an incredible year.  I have learned so much and grown so much as a Whole Brain teacher.  I will never forget the first time I came across the WBT website.  Although it looked intriguing, I had no idea what Whole Brain Teaching was.  1st Steps looked like a good place to start, so I clicked on that tab and started reading what sounded to me like a foreign language.  I wrote this blog in remembrance of that first trip to the WBT website.  I decided to share with you what I am referring to as a mini-dictionary, defining some of WBT's most common lingo.  You will often hear these terms referred to as "The Big 7", because they provide the foundation upon which Whole Brain Teaching is built.  If you are newbie to Whole Brain Teaching I hope that you will find these definitions helpful to you.

The Big 7 of Whole Brain Teaching

Class Yes:  This is the whole class attention getter.  When the teacher says “Class!” the students respond by saying “Yes!”  Once students have mastered the basic “Class/Yes”, they are taught its many variations.  

The Five Rules:  All WBT classrooms have the same five rules:

            Rule One:  Follow directions quickly.

            Rule Two:  Raise your hand for permission to speak.

            Rule Three:  Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat.

            Rule Four:  Make smart choices.

            Rule Five:  Keep your dear teacher happy.

The Diamond Rule:  Look at the one who is teaching.

These rules are not just posted on the wall and forgotten about.  They are practiced and referred to on a daily basis.  

Hands and Eyes:  Whenever the teacher says, “Hands and eyes!” the students respond “Hands and eyes!”, fold their hands, and stare intently at the teacher.  “Hands and Eyes” is used whenever the teacher has a really big point to make.

The Scoreboard Game:  This is often referred to as the class motivator.  It is a reward system that students buy into and participate in.  There are many levels and variations to the Scoreboard.  This ensures that the students never get bored.  The latest version of the Scoreboard is the scoreboard version 2.0, which is patterned after a video game.  There are ten levels for the students to work their way through.

Teach Okay:  “Teach/Okay” is at the heart of all WBT lessons.  It provides a well -organized structure in which students can dialogue with each other about what they are learning.  It is similar to a "Pair Share", except that it provides students with very clear procedures for sharing with and teaching each other.  It is often used in conjunction with “Mirrors” and “Switch”.  

Mirrors:  Mirrors are key to involving the whole brain in learning.  Mirrors provide students with the opportunity to learn, create, and practice gestures that accompany what they are learning.  Gestures are at the heart of WBT teaching.  

Switch:  This is a strategy that students use during “Teach/Okay”.  It lets students know when it is their turn to share.  There are two types of switches.  The first is "High Five Switch".  This allows the students to take turns at their own pace.  When one student is done sharing he simply high fives his partner.  The other switch is "Uh Oh Switch".  This switch happens on a signal by the teacher.  She says, "Uh Oh Switch" and makes a motion as if pulling down a light switch.  The students repeat her words and motion, and then make the switch.

Please note that the Big 7 are at the heart of Whole Brain Teaching, but they are not all of Whole Brain Teaching.  They are intended to be a starting point.  Once mastered, teachers can dive into the world of WBT writing, the Super Improvers’ Wall, 3 star homework, Mind Soccer, The 5 step lesson plan, Super Speed Reading and Math, Prove It, The Crazy Professor Game… and the list goes on.

Remember, just like learning a foreign language, you cannot learn all of Whole Brain Teaching at once.  Don't get overwhelmed by the lingo.  Start with the Big 7, and then build upon that foundation as you are ready.  Before you know it, you will be fluent in Whole Brain Teaching.

Reflections on an Awesome Week!

Last week was an awesome week!  If you were to ask me why, I don't think that I could name just one thing.  Instead, I would have to say that it was a combination of many things, all of which were WBT related.  I would like to share with you my list of what made last week one of my favorite teaching weeks of the year.

1.  Our focus skill this week in both reading and writing was possessive nouns.  In the past this has always been a challenge to teach and not something that I looked forward to.  This year, however, was very different.  Not only was it a lot of fun to teach, but my students all quickly and easily caught on to how to use apostrophes to make nouns plural.  I firmly believe that this was mainly due to the WBT way of introducing possessive nouns:  splitters and jammers.  

A splitter is the WBT name for an apostrophe "s" that is used with a singular noun or an irregular plural noun, such as children.  I explained to the class that the splitter (the apostrophe) splits the owner from the "s".  I called the "s" the "badge of ownership" and used the gesture of pointing a thumb on each hand to the front of my shirt.  I would box the noun to show the owner and then talk about how the splitter split the owner and the badge of ownership.  During writing we played the complexor Game. (More information on the Complexor game can be found in other blog posts or on the WBT website under free downloads/The Writing Game.)This gave students many opportunities to orally write sentences with apostrophe s's.  They then wrote the sentences that they had created in their writing notebooks.

A jammer is an apostrophe that follows a plural noun which ends in "s".  I explained to my students that the jammer jams the "s" into the noun, making it plural.  The jammer becomes the "badge of ownership".  The concept of the "badge of ownership really helped my kids to remember to write the apostrophe after the "s".  The kids simply learned that there is always an apostrophe after a jammer, because that is how you show ownership.  We also played the Complexor game with plural possessives and wrote the sentences created in our writing notebooks.

After studying splitters and jammers separately, we combined them together and students had to determine when to use a splitter and when to use a jammer.  This is what the board looked like for that lesson:

                                                             

You will notice the apostrophe Brainie at the top of the board.  We obviously focused on this Brainie for the entire week.  Under that you will see two anchor charts that I created, one for singular possessives and one for plural possessives.  On the day of this lesson I added the list of owners and possessions, as well as the sentence frames.  Using Teach Okay and High Five Switch, students took turns sharing with their partners whether or not the owner was singular or plural and whether they needed to use a splitter or a jammer.  They then had to create a sentence using the owner and the possession, in which they used the apostrophe Brainie.  After students had time to work on this with their partners, they shared with the class using High Five Teach.  I was amazed at how well they had caught on.  Even my lowest students were able to explain when to use a splitter and when to use a jammer.  I will never teach possessive nouns any other way,

2.  Our phonics skill for the week was creating plurals with nouns that end in "s".  In the past I have always taught this in the form of a year.  This fit perfectly with WBT.  Students still learned the cheer, but they learned it using Mirror Words and Practiced it using Teach Okay.  We call it the "Five Finger Rule" cheer.  The cheer goes like this:  If a word ends in s, x, z, sh, ch (hold up one finger for each), you gotta (bend left arm in front of chest with had in a fist.) add (Do the same with right arm.) "es" (Very slightly raise fists on both hands.), yes!  (Jump in the air and bring bent arms out straight.)  The kids have so much fun doing this cheer, and by the end of the week everyone knows when to use an "es" to make a word plural.

3.  We did two Genius Ladders last week that were both very challenging, but the students did a great job on them.  They both focused on possessive nouns, but on one there was an apostrophe "s", and on the other there was an "s" apostrophe.  On both I included a dependent clause telling when.  This is our newest extender.  We have been working on it for about three weeks.  Both ladders were very challenging.  The sentences were quite long and there were a lot of Brainies in them, but the kids did a great job!  I was very proud of them.

4.  For red/green writing I asked the students to write a five paragraph essay on what they did over spring break.  I am happy to report that fifteen out of my seventeen students can now successfully write  a five paragraph essay.  My biggest celebration is that one of my two lowest students, a special ed. child who began the year as a non-reader, was able to write for the very first time (with a little assistance) his very first five paragraph essay.  The class celebrated with him as he earned a Super Improver Star.  I also had a number of students use possessive nouns correctly in their writing.  They were all quick to point this out to me, because they were all looking for a Super Improver Star.  I am happy to say that they each earned one.

5.  This week I introduced students to the Brain Tree.  If you are unfamiliar with the Brain Tree, that is because it is the newest WBT technique, hot off the presses just a few weeks ago.  The concept is simple.  Students score themselves from a 1-5 on different WBT techniques that they are using in the classroom.  An analogy is made to an Oak tree.  A one is an acorn, all the way up to a five, which is a mighty towering oak tree with many acorns.  Points are considered leaves, and each week scores are added together to get a total number of leaves for the week.  The goal is for students to beat their previous week's score.  At our school we are having a little friendly competition among participating classes.  Everyone who is doing the Brain Tree has placed one on their door, with their scores.  This will allow other classes to see these scores and try to beat them.  

This was our first week using the Brain Tree, so I wasn't sure how my students would respond to it or how they would do with scoring themselves.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  They caught on to the concept very quickly, and when it came time to give themselves a score, I was amazed at how honest and accurate they were.  The Brain Tree is definitely a great tool  to motivate students.  I am excited to see how they progress each week.  They have set a goal for themselves to have a perfect score (a five in each area) by the end of the year.  That sounds like teacher heaven to me.  We'll see how it goes.  

If you are interested in using the Brain Tree in your room, I have inserted a link with directions and the chart.  I blew my chart up using the poster maker and added pictures of the five different stages in an Oak Tree's development.  Here is the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wgmakik4o93jwgp/Brain%20Tree.docx?dl=0

6.  One of my students came up with an idea that we tried, and it has really worked well.  Whenever I ask my students to share with each other using either High Five Teach or Uh/Oh Switch, the student who is sharing stands.  This works really well when the students are at their seats, but when they are seated on the floor in the meeting area, I have told my students not to stand.  One day during the week we were in the meeting area about to use High Five Teach, when one of my students raised her hand and suggested that the student sharing do so while on his/her knees.  I wasn't sure how this would work, but I said that we would give it a try.  It has been great.  The students love it, and it allows them to move a little, even if it is just a change of position, while they are on the floor.

7.  We have been working really hard in reading on two things:  paraphrasing and remembering detail adders.  I have spoken to my students about the need to stick the detail adders in their minds and have used the analogy of velcro to help students get that visual image.  We have also talked about the importance of sticking the first and the last detail adder because if we do that, the ones in the middle are easier for our brains to remember.  This lends itself to paraphrasing because if students are able to stick the details in their brains, they will easily be able to paraphrase what they are reading.  We have been practicing this in reading groups, but I decided to see how it would work as part of the Crazy Professor Game.  (This is another WBT game that can be found on the WBT website under free downloads.)  I gave students a fiction passage entitled The Difficult Assignment.  We read the first paragraph using Mirror Words.  I then asked the students to read the paragraph on their own using their Brainies and their gestures, but I also gave them the goal of making sure that they stuck the first and the last detail adders in their minds, to help them with the middle ones.  We even started calling this a detail adder sandwich.  Students then used Uh Oh Switch to paraphrase that first paragraph with their partners.  We repeated this process with each paragraph.  I am happy to report that even my lowest students were able to paraphrase.  Next time we are going to try this with a non-fiction text.

So, there you have it.  Those are the highlights of the week.  I hope that the ideas and experiences that I have shared in this blog will inspire you.  Here's to more week's just like this one!