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!

The Victory Line

When Coach B. first introduced us all to the Scoreboard Version 2.0 back in the fall, I immediately began using it in my classroom.  Since then, I have been sharing with all of you my class's progression through the scoreboard game.  Each level has definitely brought with it a new degree of excitement, energy, and motivation.  A couple of weeks ago  my class finally reached the level that I have been anticipating the most - The Victory Line - and I have to say that it has been everything that I had hoped it would be.

Before I get into The Victory Line, I would first like to recap for those of you who are not familiar with it, how the Scoreboard Version 2.0 works.  It works very similar to the basic scoreboard, which is basically a two column grid drawn on your whiteboard.  A smilie face is drawn on one side and a frownie face is drawn on the other side.  When the class, or even a few students, performs well, the class is told what they did (ex. Great diamond eyes and folded hands.) and asked for a "mighty oh, yeah".  Students will quickly clap their hands together and say, "Oh, yeah!"  While they do this, they are given one tally mark on the smiley face side of the scoreboard.  On the other hand, if the class does not perform well, they are briefly told what they did (ex.  Too slow.) and asked for a "moaner groan".  Students will quickly shrug their shoulders and groan.  A tally mark is then placed on the frownie face side of the scoreboard.  It is important to note that children can be singled out for positive choices (smilies), but never should a student or group of students be singled out for negative choices (frownies).  When using the scoreboard the + - 3 rule should always be followed.  This means that smilies and frownies should always be within three of each other.  As coach B. says, "If you reward too much, the students become lackadaisical.  If you penalize too much, the students will become resentful."  This is why the +-3 rule is in place.

The main difference is that with the 2.0 version students progress through ten different levels, beginning with Base Camp.  Each level is slightly different.  When students have earned ten wins at one level, they then move on to the next level.  My students began at Base Camp in the fall, but they have now made it to level five, The Victory Line.  To understand the power of the Victory Line, I first need to back up one level and talk about level four, NO Traitors.

Level four is when the competition becomes between the boys and the girls.  It was a very exciting time in our classroom.  There was a lot of "funtricity" in the air, as students worked together to earn a victory for their team.  It came at the perfect time of the year.  Spring break was quickly approaching and it was time to shake things up a little.  No Traitors did just that.  The best part, however, was that a couple of my boys who are in special education began consistently making gestures.  This is something that we  had been working on all year.  They would do so sporadically, but not on a consistent basis.  It wasn't that they weren't paying attention to what we were doing, they just weren't comfortable with the gestures.  No Traitors changed all of this.  As soon as I told the students that I was going to be looking for who did the best gestures, the boys or the girls, these couple of boys stepped up to the plate and began gesturing beautifully.  I was amazed!  They were determined that their team was going to win and they were going to do their part.

The Victory Line took No Traitors to the next level.  As the students got closer to ten wins at the No Traitor level (A win is when the boys and girls combined get more smilies than frownies.), I began to really promote the next level.  I told students that the boys and girls would still be competing against each other, but there was a special prize to be won at this level.  The class could hardly wait to level up.  They worked hard, and when they did, I explained to them the prize.  The winners (boys or girls) would get to line up first all day.  So if the boys won on Monday, then on Tuesday they would get to line up first for the entire day.  They loved it!  This new level brought a newness to the boy girl competition, keeping it fresh and exciting for the students.

Next up is blue dubs.  At this level I will be giving blue tally marks for certain things, like making good gestures.  The secret is that the blue tally marks will count as double.  The competition will still be between the boys and the girls, and the winners will still get to line up first.  The Blue Dubs will just continue to build on what has already been a huge success.

If you have not tried using a scoreboard in your classroom, I would highly encourage you to do so.  It is very easy to implement, will not cost you any money, and will motivate your students and keep them motivated throughout the school year.

NEPF and WBT

This post is intended primarily for my fellow educators in Nevada, but it may be of use to others as well.

Nevada has adapted a new framework for teacher evaluation that was implemented during the 2014/2015 school year.  It is called the Nevada Educator Performance Framework (NEPF).  After reading through it I immediately realized that Whole Brain Teaching is in complete alignment with the framework.  So I decided to create a chart showing which components of WBT fit with which performance indicators for each standard.  Below is the chart:

NEPF and WBT

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but simply a starting point when looking at how components of Whole Brain Teaching fit into the Nevada Educator Performance Framework.

Standard 1:  New Learning is Connected to Prior Learning and Experience

Indicator 1:  The teacher activates all students’ initial understandings of new concepts and skills	·        The essential question and answer (Steps one and two of five step lesson plan) ·
Indicator 2:  The teacher makes connections explicit between previous concepts and new concepts and skills for all students	·        Teach Okay ·        Electronic Super Speed Grammar ·        The Writing Game ·        Red/Green Writing Focus Skills ·        Smooth Bumpy Planet ·        Super Speed Rhyme ·        The Genius Ladder
Indicator 3:  The teacher makes clear the purpose and relevance of new learning for all students	·        Mirrors ·        Teach Okay
Indicator 4:  The teacher provides all students opportunities to build on or challenge initial understandings	·        Teach Okay ·        Yes/No Way (Step four of five step lesson plan)

Standard 2:  Learning Tasks have High Cognitive Demand for Diverse Learners

Indicator 1:  The teacher assigns tasks that purposefully employ all students’ cognitive abilities and skills	·        Teach Okay ·        Critical Thinking (Step five of five step lesson plan) ·        Oral Writing ·        Brainies/The Brainy Game ·        Magic Mirror ·        Crazy Professor Game
Indicator 2:  The teacher assigns tasks that place appropriate demands on each student	·        Super Speed Reader 100 ·        Super Speed Reader 1,000 ·        Super Speed Math ·        “Help me!” Brainy
Indicator 3:  The teacher assigns tasks that progressively develop all students’ cognitive abilities and skills	·        The Genius Ladder ·        Electronic Super Speed Grammar ·        Red/Green Writing ·        Super Speed Reader 100 and 1,000 ·        Super Speed Math ·        Super Speed Rhyme ·        Electronic Biffytoons ·        The Writing Game
Indicator 4:  The teacher operates with the deep belief that all children can achieve regardless of race, perceived ability and socio-economic status	·        Super Improvers Team ·        Scoreboard

Standard 3:  Students Engage in Meaning-Making through Discourse and Other Strategies

Indicator 1:  The teacher provides opportunities for extended, productive discourse between the teacher and student(s) and among students	·        Teach Okay ·        Uh Oh Switch ·        Oral Writing ·        The Writing Game ·        The Brainy Game ·        Prove It ·        The Bullseye Game ·        The Agreement Bridge
Indicator 2:  The teacher provides opportunities for all students to create and interpret multiple representations	·        Critical Thinking (Step five of five step lesson) ·        Brain Toys ·        The Crazy Professor Game ·        Prove It
Indicator 3:  The teacher assists all students to use existing knowledge and prior experience to make connections and recognize relationships	·        Critical Thinking (Step five of five step lesson) ·        The Genius Ladder ·        The Writing Game ·        Electronic Super Speed Grammar ·        Red/Green Writing
Indicator 4:  The teacher structures the classroom environment to enable collaboration, participation, and a positive affective experience for all students	This indicator in many ways defines WBT; therefore, all components of WBT could fit under this indicator

Standard 4:  Students Engage in Metacognitive Activity to Increase Understanding of and Responsibility for Their Own Learning

Indicator 1:  The teacher and all students understand what students are learning, why they are learning it, and how they will know if they have learned it	·        Language Arts and Math Pics ·        Super Improver Board ·        Super Speed Math ·        Super Speed Reading 100 and 1,000 ·        Red/Green Writing ·        Paperclip Proofreading
Indicator 2:  The teacher structures opportunities for self-monitored learning for all students	·        Super Speed Reading 100 and 1,000 ·        Super Speed Math ·        The Writing Game ·        The Brainy Game ·        Paperclip Proofreading ·        Super Improvers Board ·        Universal Homework Model
Indicator 3:  The teacher supports all students to take actions based on the students’ own self-monitoring processes	·        Super Speed Reading 100 and 1,000 ·        Super Speed Math ·        The Writing Game ·        The Brainy Game ·        Paperclip Proofreading ·        Universal Homework Model

Standard 5:  Assessment is Integrated into Instruction

Indicator 1:  The teacher plans on-going learning opportunities based on evidence of all students’ current learning status	·        The Five Step Lesson Plan ·        Super Speed Reading 100 and 1,000 ·        Super Speed Math ·        Red/Green Writing ·        The Genius Ladder ·        Oral Writing
Indicator 2:  The teacher aligns assessment opportunities with learning goals and performance criteria	·        Question Time (Step four of five step lesson plan) ·        Paperclip Proofreading in combination with red/green writing focus
Indicator 3:  The teacher structures opportunities to generate evidence of learning during the lesson of all students	·        Question Time (Step four of five step lesson plan) ·        Smart Cards

Indicator 4:  The teacher adapts actions based on evidence generated in the lesson for all students

·        Steps three and four of five step lesson plan ·        Mirrors