Planning

It is really hard to believe that next week is spring break and that I am right at a couple of months short of completing my first full year as a Whole Brain Teacher.  It has been an amazing year!  I have learned so much as an WBT intern.  I am so grateful to Nancy, my mentor, and to Coach B. for all of their help and encouragement.  Over the course of this school year I have written about a variety of techniques, skills, and strategies that you would find in a WBT classroom.  For this blog I have decided to answer a question that a lot of people have asked me this year:  Do you find that planning is easier or harder when you are doing Whole Brain Teaching?

The answer to that question is simple.  It is so much easier!  O.k, to be honest, it was harder in the beginning, but that was because everything was so new to me and I had so much to learn.  It took time to figure out how all of the pieces fit together.  Now, I can honestly say that I spend a lot less time planning than I used to.  I think that this is mainly due to the fact that the structures (The five step lesson, Power pics, The Genius Ladder, Teach/Okay, Mirrors, Red/Green Writing, Brainies,  the use of Sentence Frames etc.) are already there.   I just have to plug my lessons into them.  I have found that with so many tools, I can easily weave instruction of a new concept into multiple parts of my day.

A perfect example of this is a unit that we just completed last week.  Our class spent two weeks learning about Point of View and Dialogue.  The first week I focused on point of view.  The five step lesson format made planning very easy.  I began by creating a Power Pic for point of view.  Deciding on my question and answer was very important, because I knew that it was these two things that would guide my instruction.  Below is my Power Pic:

                                                               

Question:  What is point of view?
Answer:  Point of view is who is telling the story:  first person, a character; second or third person, the author.
Gestures:  Shrugging shoulders and then holding up one finger at a time for each of the three persons.

I knew that each day that week I would begin with my question and answer.  When thinking about how to expand my lesson, my first step was to create a sentence frame.  I use sentence frames on a regular basis.  They provide a support and structure for my students, especially my ELL students, as they share during Teach Okays and Call-Outs.  I chose the following frame:  This story is being told from ________________.  I know this because ________________.  When planning any lesson I automatically include opportunities for students to prove their answers using a "because clapper".

This led to the question, "What do I expect my students to use for proof?"  I quickly decided to use the WBT concept of "Power Words".  I created an anchor chart with a tree map.  On the tree map I placed my power words for first second and third person, along with my sentence frame.  Below is a picture of it.  This anchor chart stayed in the front of my room and became a reference for my students during the entire unit.  Below is a picture of it.

                   

Once this was done, the rest was very easy.  The main way that I taught the concept was to read short paragraphs and using Teach/Okay ask the students to share from what point of view the text was being told and how they knew.  I would remind them to use the sentence frames on the anchor chart.  For proof they would say things like, "I know this because I heard the Power Words he, she, and their.  For a couple of days I read the same scenarios, but from different points of view.  Students would use these same sentence frames to discover the point of view that the books they were reading were being written from.  At the end of independent reading time, students would first share with their partners using Teach/Okay and then with the class using Call-outs.

The last step of the five step lesson plan is critical thinking.  This is usually done through writing.  During Red/Green writing I gave my students a short story about a cat named Cupcake who ran away from a campground and walked 150 miles to get back home.  The story was told from third person.  I asked my students to rewrite it from first person, the point of view of Cupcake.  We did some oral writing practice first, and then they began.  The students did a really nice job.  Below is one of their stories.

During this first week, something happened that I was hoping for.  I shared a text with quotation marks.  The character speaking used the word "I'.  Some of my students immediately thought that this had to be first person.  This led to the introduction of quotation marks.  It was a perfect lead-in.  In the past I had always struggled with the best way to teach quotes to second graders, but this year it was easy.  I began with the Quotation Mark Brainie.  My students were familiar with it, because I had previously pointed quotes out to them in text and they had used the Braine, but they really did not understand this Brainie.  I decided that the Brainie would serve in a way as my Power Pic.  This led to me deciding upon the following question and answer:

Question:  What are quotation marks?
Answer:  Quotation marks are talking marks.  They go around the exact words that come out of a character's mouth.
Gesture:  The gesture for the quotation mark Brainie.

Over the course of the week I gave students short stories with lots of quotation marks.  We would do what I called the one minute drill.  They had one minute to underline all of the quotes.  (Of course, I first demonstrated how to do this.)  They then had to read the passage with their partner using their gestures and Brainies, with an emphasis on making sure that the quotes were done properly.  (This had also been modeled numerous times.)  I then asked students to tell their partners (Teach/Okay) the point of view that the story was being told from (Students used the sentence frames on the anchor chart.) and then called on a student to share using a Call-Out.  We then focused on the quotes.  Using High Five Switch, the students had to take turns reading the quotes in order and telling who said it and how they knew.  As they shared, they were expected to use their Brainies, especially quotation marks.  I emphasized the comma and using a capital Brainie for the first word at the beginning of a sentence inside of the quotation marks.  Of course I provide them with the following sentence frame:  ______________ said __________________.  I know this because ___________________.  For their proof they usually said something like, "I know this because it said _______ said after the quotation marks."

As I did with point of view, I asked the students to find quotes in the books that they were reading and to share at the end of independent reading time, using the sentence frames that I had provided.

They were doing so well with all of this, that I decided to take quotation marks to a Genius Ladder and see how well they did at it.  Below is the Genius Ladder that I used.

The students had a really good time with the simple sentence that I chose.  At the Genius level students were asked to write a conversation with themselves and their mom.  Most of my students were correctly using quotes, not forgetting the comma before or after the quote, and were capitalizing the first word inside the quotation marks.  This can be attributed to all of the oral writing that they had been doing with quotation marks.  I was really impressed with how well many of them did at changing paragraphs when they changed speakers.  My students were already very familiar with paragraph form and the indent Brainie, so this wasn't that difficult for them.  You may have noticed that at the extender level I introduced my students to the dependent clause.  This is another Brainie that we had not previously talked about.  Prior to this time, they were not ready for it.  They still needed more work on it.  It will definitely be the focus of our next few Genius Ladders, but they are beginning to catch on.  It just amazes me the caliber of writing that you can get from second graders and what they are actually capable of understanding.  Prior to finding a Whole Brain Teaching I would have never imagined that my students would be writing conversations so effortlessly with quotation marks and in paragraph form, nor would I have believed that they would be able to correctly write complex sentences with dependent clauses.

As a side note I wanted to point out that towards the end of this time we began an explanatory text unit in writing.  Right away one of my students raised her hand and said, "We are going to be writing from second person."  It was one of those moments when all I could do was say a quick prayer in my head, thinking God for Whole Brain Teaching.

I hope that you have found this look into my planning process helpful.  Happy teaching!

The Appositive Brainie and the Genius Ladder

I love the Genius Ladder.  It is absolutely one of my favorite parts of the WBT writing program.  It teaches students parts of speech and sentence structure in an engaging and meaningful way.  There is nothing else quite like it.  If you are unfamiliar with what the Genius Ladder is, please see my post on the Genius Ladder.  In that post I explain all of the levels of the ladder and exactly how to use it in the classroom.

In this post I would like to focus on the Extender Level.  At the Extender Level students are shown how to extend simple sentences.  I personally believe that it is all of the practice that my students have had at this level of the Genius Ladder that has helped them to punctuate their sentences properly.  In previous years a very common writing error made by my students looked something like this:  I was playing ball with my friends.  At the park.  This year I have not seen any errors like this, and I mainly credit the Extender Level of the Genius Ladder for this.  My students now not only understand what it means to extend a sentence, but they know all of the different ways that it can be done, and they get practice with this on a regular basis.  As a result, the majority of the time my students' writing is punctuated properly.  To be honest, it has never been so easy or effortless to get kids to put periods in the proper places in their writing.  (As a side note, let me just say that other components of the WBT writing program play a role in this as well, especially the Brainies.  There is definitely a synergistic effect in WBT writing.  However, it is the Genius Ladder that really helps students understand and apply sentence structure.)

Through January of this year, I had taught my students the following extenders:  because, telling when, telling where, prepositions, a dependent clause starting with if, and the conjunction but.  They were doing quite well with all of these, so I began to think about where I wanted to go next.  Looking through the Brainies I saw that I had not yet taught my students appositives.  Some of you may be thinking that second grade is a little to young to learn appostives, but in reality it is not.  Students come across them all the time when they are reading non-fiction text.  Here is an example of an appositive found in non-fiction text:  Owls, nocturnal animals, sleep during the day and are active at night.  Students do not automatically know how to read the appositive ", nocturnal animals,".  This is something that they must be taught.  Since we were doing informative/explanatory writing and were also reading a lot of informational text in reading, it seemed like the perfect time to introduce students to the Appositive Brainie.  Not only would they learn a new extender, but they would be better able to comprehend non-fiction text, because they would better understand its structure.  Of course, appositives can be found in any type of text, so I knew that learning this Brainie would help my students with any type of reading they were doing.

Although, I wanted to focus on non-fiction text, I decided that it would be easier for my students to understand what appositives were if I began with narrative text.  I began by telling my students that they were going to be learning a new Brainie.  This statement alone was enough to get them excited.  They immediately began trying to guess which Brainie it was.  After telling them that they would be learning the appositive Brainie, I showed them the gesture associated with this Brainie.  I then used the Genius Ladder to introduce it.  The extender level sentence that I used was the following:  My little sister, who is always bugging me, broke my new game.  Since this was the first time that we had looked at an appositive, when we reached the extender level, I spent some time defining it through the use of Mirror Words and Teach Okays.  I told my students that it was like a Post-It note that you put on a sentence.  You don't have to have it.  You can take it away anytime that you want, but it makes your writing more interesting by giving the reader more details.  I then used the sentence at the extender level, but provided the students with additional examples using Mirror Words and Teach Okay.  One of my examples was the following:  My little sister, Sharon, broke my new game.  This example was very important because my lowest students, who could not think of anything else, were able to insert a name.

After a few days of this, I felt like my students were ready to try it with non-fiction text.  We were reading a passage at the time on tree rings, so I put up the Genius Ladder that you see below.  The appositive at the extender level was added with the help of the students.

Students were asked to use an appositive to define tree rings.  I have to be honest.  This was not easy for them.  They worked with a partner to read their passage and come up with a definition.  With some guidance, they did it.  I wanted them to go through this process so that they could see how appositives are used to define vocabulary in non-fiction texts.  We have done similar Ladders with appositives on different non-fiction topics since finishing this first one.  Each one has gotten a little bit easier for them to do.

The real breakthrough came when students began noticing appositives in their reading and pointing them out to me.  I have a few students who have also begun to use them in their writing, which is what I was hoping for.  These students have all received Super Improver Stars, which is motivating the rest of my class to try using them.  

Although this has probably been the hardest Brainie that we have learned so far this year, it has definitely been rewarding and a lot of fun.  I am very thankful for both the Brainies and the Genius Ladder.  They are definitely the rock stars of WBT writing.  I would love to hear how you are using the Genius Ladder and Brainies together in your room.  Please share by leaving a comment.  Happy writing!

Super Speed Reading Games

As an inclusion teacher I have students who enter my room as non-readers or reading significantly below grade level.  Part of the challenge that these students have with reading is the number of repetitions that they need of a word or a phonic's pattern before they "own" that word or pattern. Finding a way to provide students with the needed number of repetitions has always been a challenge, and I had never been able to find that "just right" solution.  That all changed, however, when I discovered Whole Brain Teaching.  In the free downloads section of the Whole Brain Teaching web site, there are two games that were literally a answer to prayer for my low readers. They are Super Speed 100 and Super Speed Rhyme.  In this post I would like to share with you my experiences with these two games.

The first game I would like to talk about is Super Speed 100.  This game is designed to teach beginning readers of any age the 100 most commonly used sight words in the English Language. These are the words that make up approximately 50% of what we read.  The words are arranged in order of frequency.  “The” is the most common word in English, so it is the first word
learned.  “To” is the next most common word in English and is the second word learned, and so on. The game has 100 levels.  One new word is added in each level from 1-100; previously learned words are frequently repeated.  Every 10 levels, there is a Challenge.  The Challenge contains all the
words from previous levels.  In order to continue, students must be able to read all of the words in the Challenge.

I play this game every day during my low students' reading group time.  You can choose to play solo or partner Super Speed.  I have my students play with partners. At the beginning of the year I tested my struggling readers on these 100 words to determine their starting level for the game.  I paired up students who tested close to each other.  Partners are given one minute to alternately read the words.  At the end of one minute they mark where they left off.  I then time them for a second minute, and students try to get farther than they did the first minute.  If they beat their previous number of words, they draw a smiley face in a star on a sheet of stars that come with the game.  When partners are able to read all of the words in a level, I cross that level off, and the next day they start on the next level.  In my room when students fill up one page of stars, they earn a star on the Super Improvers Board.  (For more information on the Super Improvers' Board, see my post on the subject.)  This just provides students with added incentive.  They are always counting to see how many more stars they need to fill up their page of stars.

Immediately following Super Speed 100, we play Super Speed Rhyme.  Super Speed Rhyme is actually a power point designed to teach beginning readers some of the most common word families.  Included in the Power Point are a number of suggestions on how it can be used in the classroom.  One of the suggestions is to play a game using the words from the Power Point.  Last summer, in preparation for the game, I typed all of the words from the Power Point out and grouped them by word families.  Since Super Speed Rhyme was designed with kindergartners and first graders in mind, I added additional word families that I would expect my second graders to know.  The game is played very much like Super Speed 100.  Once again, you have the choice of having your students play solo or with a partner.  For this game I chose to have my students play solo.  They still have a partner, but their partner's job is to follow along and be prepared to provide help reading a word if it is asked for, and correct their partner if he/she reads a word incorrectly.  All partner A's reads first. After one minute they mark where they left off.  They are then given a second minute to try and beat their score.  If they do, they give themselves a smiley face and I cross off one line of words on their paper.  This process is then repeated with all of the partner B's.  I have attached the word list that I use with my students.  Please feel free to use it as is, or revise it to match the levels of your students.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kgav55nrzbcwj3f/speed%20rhyme%20words.docx?dl=0

I have seen so much growth in my struggling readers, and I truly believe that these two games have played a big part in this growth.  I think that they are successful for two reasons.  The first is student engagement.  I have never seen kids so excited about coming to a reading group, and I have never seen struggling readers have so much fun reading.  The kids love the game format, and they love to see their daily improvements.  The second reason is the number of repetitions that these games provide.  The repetitions are built into the format of the game.  My lowest student played the game for over two weeks, before he could remember the first ten sight words.  Since then he has progressed more quickly, since only one new word is added at each level.

When students graduate from Super Speed 100, there is another game that I would highly recommend called Super Speed 1,000.  This game is appropriate for all students who can read the first 100 sight words.  My kids love it!  It can also be found on the Whole Brain Teaching web site under free downloads.

No matter what grade level you teach, if you have struggling readers in your classroom, I promise you that you will find success with these games.  I hope that you will give them a try.

Thirty Seconds or Less

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Students watch a 30 second commercial about Doritos.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The above process was repeated with two other letters.

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

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