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.

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!

The Perfect Fit Methodology

When someone asks me what Whole Brain Teaching is, one of the first things that I tell them is that Whole Brain Teaching is not a program, it is instead a methodology.  This is a very important distinction.  We have enough programs in education.  Programs demand a chunk of our precious teaching time, they tell us what to do, and they often tell us exactly how to do it by scripting out everything that we are to say.  In a nutshell, it is prescribed content.  A methodology, however, is not content.  It is the vehicle we use to deliver the content.  It is the collection of strategies and techniques we use to ensure that our students are learning the content.  A methodology is not something else that we have to do.  It is a better way of doing what we already have to do.  This, in a nutshell, is Whole Brain Teaching:  a better way of doing what we already have to do.

One of the reasons that I fell in love with Whole Brain Teaching is because it wasn't one more thing I had to do.  The strategies and techniques were so easy to implement and use that everything I was already doing became so much easier and so much more successful.  I could give you numerous examples of this, but in this post I would like to share with you the difference that Whole Brain Teaching made in my favorite contraction lesson.  When I was student teaching one of the cooperating teachers at the school I was at shared with me a lesson that she used to teach contractions to her students.  I fell in love with it and have been using it ever since.  It is called "Magic Door Contractions".  Below is a picture of a Magic Door".

In the past I always taught this lesson by telling students that I was going to do a magic trick for them.  I would then hold up the door with both flaps shut.  Making a big production out of it, I would tell my students that I was going to take two plain ordinary words, did and not, and by saying the magic words, "AbraCadabra Contraction Action," I would turn these two plain ordinary words into a contraction.  I would then open the doors with a flair and reveal the contraction did not.  I then would explain that magicians all have a secret to their tricks that only the magician knows.  I would ask my students if they wanted to become magicians and be able to do the magic door trick - which of course they all did.  What followed was my ten minute lecture on how to form a contraction.  Of course, I was very dramatic as I explained how I would say the contraction that the two words made; listen for the missing letters; and then squeeze the two words together, replacing the missing letters with an apostrophe.  What I did not realize was that I was talking far too long, and that no matter how dramatic I was being, most of my students had tuned me out after a couple of minutes.  I would always end the lesson by giving the students blank doors that they had to fill in with the two words and contraction of their choice.  They would try the trick one time with a partner, and then they would take their doors home to do the trick with their families.  I had always felt like this was a good way to introduce students to what contractions are.  It was fun and hands-on.  Students got a good introduction to contractions, which I built upon over a two week period in which I gave students many days of practicing how to make contractions.

This year I still wanted to use my Magic Doors, but I wanted to present them to my students using the Whole Brain Teaching vehicle of choice:  The Five Step Lesson Plan.  In this post I will not be defining common WBT terms used during a five step lesson such as "Mirror" and "Teach Okay".  If you are not familiar with the specifics of a five step lesson, please see my separate posts on this topic which will define these terms and take you more in-depth.  For the purposes of this post, I simply want to demonstrate how I was able to take a lesson that I have already done, and teach it the WBT way.  Below is what it looked like the WBT way:

* Please note that this lesson took place over a three day period.

Question:  (MW)  What is a contraction?  (T/O)

Answer:  (MW)  A contraction is a word with missing letters marked by an apostrophe, zeep.  (Zeep is the sound effect that accompanies the apostrophe, which is one of the Brainies.)  (T/O)

Explain:  I did my magic trick, and then I asked the students to explain the trick to their partners (T/O)
I then reminded my students that the apostrophe took the place of the missing letters.  So I asked them which letters were missing in the contraction didn't.  They had to tell there partners which letters were missing and how they knew, using a because clapper.  (T/0 followed by Call-Outs)
(MW)  Contractions come in families.  (T/0)  I then displayed a poster of contraction families and asked my students to determine how many contraction families there are.  (T/O followed by holding up fingers to show the answer)  Below is a picture of the poster I displayed:

I then went under my sign for Big Point.  Students who chose to become model mirrors stood.  (MW)  Every family has the same missing letters.  (T/O)  I then made a big deal out of the fact that if you can learn which letters are missing in each family, then you can make any contraction.  I also reminded them that they already knew the missing letter in the "not" family, so that meant they only had eight more to learn.
We then looked at one family at a time and using T/O followed by call-outs, students had to tell me the missing letters in each family.  They also had to prove which letters were missing using a because clapper.  Before we moved on to a new family, I would give students a list of the words that made up the contractions in that family and they had to tell their partner the contraction for those two words in a complete sentence and write the contraction on their air whiteboard.  (One of the Brain Toys).  We used High Five Switch for this.  Below are the sentence frames that the students used when sharing:

___________ is the contraction for __________ and ______________.  You write the contraction _____________ (Spell it on your air whiteboards.)

After all of this, I told them that it was now their turn to do the magic trick.  We went through the same process we did at the beginning of the lesson with me doing a trick and the students explaining the trick to their partners using T/O.  I then passed out doors already made.  (This was a switch from what I had done in the past when the students made the doors, but I felt that this way they would have the opportunity to do more tricks.)  Using Uh/Oh Switch students did the trick for their partner.  Students then traded doors and did the trick with their new door, once again using Uh/Oh Switch.  We continued doing this until students had had the opportunity to perform the trick several times.  When done I allowed all of the students to take one door home so that they could perform this trick with their parents.

Test:  I used QT and made statements such as:  In the not family, the missing letter is the "o".

Critical Thinking:  Students had to write a paragraph that answered the question, "What is a contraction?"  They were encouraged to use the "For Example Popper".  (This is another one of the Brain Toys.)

*I was also giving out Super Improver Stars all week to students who had begun to use contractions in their writing.

Following this lesson, students had an additional one day of practice making and writing contractions before they were tested.

How did the WBT way compare to what I used to do?  In past years I spent two weeks on contractions and spent a lot of time working with students in small groups to make sure they understood what a contraction was and how to write one.  It was a lot of work.  When test day came I would get a few hundreds from my high students, and the rest of my class would mostly get B's.  Generally I would get a few C's, as well as a couple of D's or F's, usually from my special education students.  I would then go back and meet with the students in small groups or individually to discuss what they had trouble with on the test.  It was an exhausting process.

This year I spent one week on contractions.  I spent no time working with students in small groups prior to the test.  Sixteen out of seventeen students got an "A", including my two lowest.  One student got an "F".  I only had one student to go over the test with, and the entire week of teaching contractions was fun and easy!

If you have not yet tried Whole Brain Teaching, my question to you is "What are you waiting for?"  It is not more work.  It is a methodology that is fun, easy, and a perfect fit for anything that you are already doing.

Coach B.'s Visit to Las Vegas

Coach B.'s visit to Las Vegas was awesome!  I can't tell you how great it was to meet him in person and watch him in action.  This post is dedicated to all of the "fine tuning", ah ha moments, and new ideas that I walked away with at the end of Coach's visit.  Numbers one and two were my biggest ah ha moments.  After that, they are listed in no particular order.

1.  My biggest ah ha moment was in regards to Mirror Words.  The first thing that I noticed was that in both my classroom and during both training days, Coach B. used Mirror Words even when he did not go right into a Teach Okay.  This was huge for me, because for some reason, I had always connected Mirror Words with the Teach Okay.  As a result, I only used it right before I did a Teach Okay.  To explain why I thought this this way, I need to go back to the beginning.  If you have been following my blog for awhile, you know that I was a self-taught Wibbiteer (slang for a Whole Brain teacher).  I watched videos and everything that I could find on line about WBT.  Most everything I learned about I felt like I understood pretty well, but Mirrors were confusing to me from the beginning.  When I first started, I thought that the students had to repeat exactly what you said, along with your gestures.  (I guess I thought of a mirror and it brought to my mind the idea of mimicking the other person.)  Thankfully, through the intern program, I quickly learned that my understanding of Mirror Words was incorrect.  The goal is for students to paraphrase what you are teaching them.  This was very eye-opening to me, because since students didn't need to copy my exact words, I could give them more than a simple sentence to teach.  I could actually say things like, "Explain to your partner ____________."  It changed my lessons.  They became so much easier to chunk.  My teaching changed completely.  Now I feel like I have the final piece of the puzzle.  I feel like a free woman.  I can use Mirror Words anytime I want to, not just before a Teach Okay!  Thinking about it now, I realize that I probably should have known that.  After all, I never felt like Silent Mirrors or Magic Mirrors were tied to my Teach Okay.  However, the past is the past, and I am just happy that thanks to the modeling of Coach B., the light bulb has finally come all the way on.

2.  I really enjoyed watching Coach B.as he taught step two of the five step lesson plan: the question.  My biggest take away was that during Mirror Words we can do more than just simply state the question.  We can say things like, "I have a question.  A really big question.  It's a ginormous question.  Here is our question for today."  We would then go on to state the question two different ways.  It just made step two a lot more fun.  Then, right before calling for a Teach Okay, we can either say "Mirrors Off" and ask students to share the question with their partner, or simply go right into the Teach Okay.  I loved it, because it really brings that element of funtricity to what had not previously been a very exciting part of the lesson.

3.  Coach B. talked about something that I think is super important.  It will not change what I am doing, but it gave me more insight into why I am doing it, which will help me better explain WBT to others.  He said that when we teach our students, we are really teaching them a foreign language.  Words like numerator, denominator, hexagon, preposition etc.  they have never heard before.  When learning a foreign language, we can't just hear the language.  The way that we learn it is through speaking it.  After modeling the first two steps of a fraction lesson, Coach B. stopped and talked about how many times we had used the words numerator and denominator in the past few minutes.  Repetition is key to learning a foreign language, and it is the repetition created by the first two steps of the five step plan that makes those two steps so powerful.  That was a great take away for me.

4.  My next insight was in regards to think time.  He said that when we give kids think time, we don't know what they are thinking about.  I had not thought of this before, but it made sense.  However, I was not sure that this would work with my ELL students, who I feel often need a few moments to think about what they want to say, particularly right before oral writing.  So I talked to Coach B. about this.  I shared with him what I currently do:  Right before asking students to think of a triple whammy sentence I have them put their heads down and hold up one finger for each whammy they think of.  When three fingers are up, I know they have their triple whammy sentences.  He thought that  this was interesting and suggested that I try it both ways and see what the differences are in the students' responses.  That is exactly what I am going to do.  I am anxious to find out if my students can come up with triple whammy sentences without the think time.  If they can, I am considering saying good-bye to my think time.

5.  Coach B. talked about one of the most powerful things that you can teach your students:  No two sentences start with the same word.  If you are familiar with the Writing Game, this is actually found on the paper clip editing checklist.  I have it typed out and ready to go on my wall, but I had not yet taught it to my students.  I was going to, I just hadn't given much thought yet to when.  I am happy to report that the wait is now over.  Last Monday I began to teach my students this very important rule, and it is now hanging on my red/green writing wall.

6.  Coach used a half finger Wooh with my students.  It was awesome!  He would say, "Give me an eleven and a half finger Wooh".  For the half finger students bent one finger and very quickly and in a high voice said, "Woop".  It was awesome!  I use them all the time now.  My kids say that Coach B. has really got me hooked on the half finger Woohs.  I told them that they were right.  I love them!

7.  I learned a fun option for three-peats.  As soon as students have followed a direction, such as blue folders, they raise both hands in the air and either cheer out loud or silently until you signal for them to stop.  Another idea would be for them to snap their fingers.  This keeps the students busy if you need a moment to help a student who can't find what you have asked for.  I love it!  I implemented it this week with my class - I chose the silent cheer - and I am happy to report that it is a success.

8.  Coach also officially introduced as a strategy something that he has always done:  Give me a _________.  For example, "Give me an oooh!" or "Give me an aaah!"  We practiced inserting these statements into our lessons, and it just added a little more funtricity to them.

9.  It was a lot of fun when Coach B. came and played Mind Soccer with my students.  He modeled a component of Mind Soccer that I remembered seeing on videos, but until he modeled it, I had forgotten all about it.  When a team got a question right he would point to them and say cheer, and then he would quickly point to the other team and say moan.  It made the game a lot more fun.  I will definitely be doing that from now on.

10.  My last big take away was to amp up the funtricity.  I feel like we have a lot already, but watching Coach B., and the way that he was able to make everything fun, was contagious.  The limbic system in the brain is so important to learning.  If we can't engage our students emotions, they will not retain the information, which is truly what learning is all about.

I am so happy that I had the opportunity last weekend to work with Coach B.  There are not enough positive adjectives to describe him.  I, for one, am just very thankful for Coach B.'s passion for helping others.  It is truly one of the things that make him so special.  Happy Whole Brain Teaching!

A Closer Look at a Writing Lesson

One of the things that I love the best about Whole Brain Teaching is the way that writing is taught. Over the years I have seen and have used so many writing programs and methodologies in which students are given a lot of time to practice writing, but what they are practicing is the wrong way to write.  This revelation did not occur to me until I started teaching writing the Whole Brain way.  In Whole Brain Teaching writing is broken down into its smallest components and taught to the students in such a way that what they are practicing is the correct way to write.  I would like to demonstrate this by sharing with you a lesson that I recently taught on compound sentences and the joining word "but".  I used the WBT 5 step lesson plan and taught this lesson over a period of three days.

If you are not familiar with this format, please see my blog post entitled, "The Five Step Lesson Plan."  Before sharing with you my lesson, there is one thing that I would like to point out.  During the explanation portion of the lesson it is so important that you chunk the information that you are sharing with your students into very small parts.  The longest you should be talking at any one time before asking the students to share with their partners (Teach Okay) is around 30 seconds.  The general rule is that you share information with the students using "Mirror Words" (students repeat your words and copy your gestures) and immediately follow this with "Teach Okay".  (You say, "Teach."  The students respond "Okay."  They then turn quickly to their partners and share what you have just taught them.)  This is not an easy thing to do.  As teachers we are used to talking.  Getting into the habit of chunking your lessons takes time and practice.  This is something that I have recently really been working on.  I found that the best way to make sure you are doing this is to decide in advance at what places in your lesson you are going to have your students do "Teach Okays".  Honestly, when I started teaching this way there were times where I thought that this was impossible.  What I discovered, however, is that when I forced myself to plan a lesson around the idea that I was going to chunk it, my lessons turned out better, and my kids did a much better job of understanding and retaining the information.

In the lesson below I have written all of my "Teach Okays" in red, so that you can more easily see how many small chunks I broke my lesson into.

Question:  "Our question for today is, what is a compound sentence?"  Teach Okay

Answer:  "A compound sentence is two sentences (hold up to fingers) put together to make one sentence (with other hand grasp two fingers and pull them together)."  Teach Okay

Explain:  (Have a compound sentence with the word "but" written on the board.)  "Today they are going to learn how to form a compound sentence using the conjunction "but.  Tell your partner what you are going to be learning today."  Teach Okay  Remind students that "but" is one of our Brainies.  Using "Mirror Words" and "Brainies" read the sentence on the board.  Teach Okay  "Mirror Words.  (use Brainies)  The first sentence is ..."   Teach Okay  "Mirror Words.  (use Brainies)  The second sentence is ..."   Teach Okay  "Mirror Words.  But joins the two sentences together."  Teach Okay


Explain to students that you use the word "but" when you are comparing.  Using the sentence that you have already read, point out to students what you are comparing.  (For example, if your sentence was "Johnny can run fast, but Mark can run faster," you would be comparing how fast Johnny and Mark could run.)  "We are going to read some more sentences together.  It is going to be your job to decide what we are comparing.  Mirror Words.  (Read Sentence using Brainies.)  Teach Okay
Repeat with two to three other sentences.

"This time I am going to give you the first sentence.  It will be the job of you and your partner to finish the compound sentence.  Don't forget your comma and your joining word.  We will be using High Five Teach (In High Five Teach students take turns sharing.  I have taught my students that the person sharing stands up, and the other student must repeat his words and copy his gestures.  This increases student engagement.  When one student is done sharing he high fives his partner and sits down.  His partner then stands up and begins sharing.)  Mirror Words.  (Read sentence using Brainies.)  Teach Okay
Repeat with three to five other sentences.

Next, play the "but" complexor game.  Directions for this game can be found in "The Writing Game".  This is a free download that is available at www.wholebrainteaching.com.  All you have to do to receive the downloads is register on the site.  Once you do they will be available to you on the right side of the screen.  Click on downloads.  Scroll through until you find "The Writing Game".

Please note the number of "Teach Okays" in the explain portion of the lesson.  Depending on how many sentences you choose to do with your students, you could be doing anywhere between eleven and fifteen "Teach Okays".

Test:  It is in this portion of the lesson that we check students' understanding.  "It is time for QT."  (This stands for question time.  The kids will respond "Cutie".  They then put their heads down and lay their hand flat on their desks.)  Ask students the following question:  "Is this sentence correct?"  Have ready a list of sentences to read to the students, all using the word "but".  Make sure that some of the sentences are using "but" correctly, and some are using "but incorrectly.  Students listen to the sentence and respond with either a thumbs up or thumbs down.  This tells you as the classroom teacher who is getting it and who isn't.  This allows you to either go back and reteach or move on.  It also lets you know which of your students you might want to pull for further instruction at a different time.

Critical Thinking:    Guide students orally through the first three rungs of the Genius Ladder (For more information on the Genius Ladder, see my Blog Post on this topic.) using the following sentences:
Blah:  my brother's favorite food is pizza.
Spicy:  My brother's favorite food is hot, cheesy pizza.
Extender:  My brother's favorite food is hot, cheesy pizza, but my favorite food is cold ice cream.
Genius Paragraph:  Students create their own paragraph using the structure of the extender sentence as their topic sentence, but changing the foods and people as they want to.  They must give detail adders and a concluder (concluding sentence).  This is done orally at first, but then the students are asked to put their paragraph into writing.

It is important to note that at every level of the Genius Ladder students are sharing using Teach Okay and Tag Team.  While the students are writing their paragraphs, I walk around the room with my red and green pens to do red/green writing.  If you are unfamiliar with what red/green writing is, please see my blog post on this topic.

I hope that you have found this lesson helpful and that it inspires you to take a closer look at your writing program.

Student Engagement

I love mirrors.  Mirrors is a WBT engagement technique that is used with every lesson.  The idea behind it is that kids mirror your words and/or gestures, thus engaging their whole brains in learning.  I have found it to be extremely effective.  However, I have a handful of students who do not consistently do mirrors with us.  This has been very frustrating.  I was ready for a solution.  I found that solution thanks to Coach B. and his Monday night webcast on the Whole Brain Teaching website.  The topic was 100% student engagement, and I have to tell you that he had some awesome ideas!  If you have the opportunity, I would strongly suggest going to www.wholebrainteaching.com and viewing his webcast.  You can find it under wbt tv on the goodies menu.  It is number 582.

I would like to share with you two ideas from the webcast that I implemented the next day.  The first was adding mirrors to my scoreboard.  At the bottom of my scoreboard I created a section entitled mirrors.  On one side I wrote kindergarten mirrors and on the other side I wrote fourth grade mirrors.  I chose kindergarten and fourth grade, because they are two grade levels below and above where my students are at.

I began by modeling for my students what kindergarten mirrors look like, and I had the kids try using kindergarten mirrors.  We then did the same thing for fourth grade mirrors.  I emphasized that when fourth graders use mirrors they use crisp big gestures and have lots of energy.  We talked about whether or not we wanted to be like kindergartners or fourth graders, and of course, the class all wanted to be like fourth graders.  I began giving points in both columns as the students earned them.  It just so happens that our team goal on our Super Improvers Wall is "mirrors" and "big gestures", so I told the kids that at the end of every day if they had more points on the fourth grade side than the kindergarten side, they would receive a team improver star.  They loved this idea!  I have seen a big improvement in mirrors this week.

I saved my favorite new Coach B. engagement strategy for last.  In my room we call it "Model Mirrors".  As per Coach B.'s instructions, I made a big arrow and hung it up on the wall in my room.  I told the kids that whenever I have a really big point to make, I will go and stand under that arrow.  Students know that I am then going to do one of the three different types of mirrors.  Below is a list of what they are:

          Mirror Words:  Students mirror your gestures and repeat  your words.
          Silent Mirror:  Students mirror your gestures, but not your words.
          Magic Mirror:  You speak, but do no gestures.  The students must create the gestures themselves.

Students may choose to be a "Mirror Model".  A mirror model is someone who does mirror so well, that they can model for others what it should look like.  They make the choice to be a model by standing up.  I tell the students that they do not have to stand up and be a model, but if they do, I expect to see fourth grade mirrors.  The first time I used this strategy, I was amazed.  Everyone in my class stood up, and everyone was doing fourth grade mirrors.  This included a few special education students whom I have been working with since the beginning of the year on using gestures.  Amazed and elated are the two best adjectives that I can use to describe the results.

I wish I could tell you that all of my students now use fourth grade mirrors 100% of the time.  Unfortunately, they don't.  At least not yet.  I can tell you, however, that student engagement during mirrors has increased dramatically in my classroom in the three days since I have implemented these two new strategies.  I am looking forward to trying some of the other engagement strategies that Coach B. introduced us to.  Remember, for more on all of the new engagement strategies, check at webcast 582 on the Whole Brain Teaching website.