In this post I am sharing the next big new thing that I learned at the National Conference. It is called Super Improver Writing. Super Improver Writing is a way to motivate students to revise and edit their own writing by linking their writing to the Super Improver Wall. It is very simple and easy to do. Here is how it works.
1. Ask students to write for 5-10 minutes, depending upon your grade level. The topic can be assigned or free choice.
2. Next, post for the students to see two or three skills that you would like them to include in their writing. This could be anything from making sure that all sentences start with capital letters to including an adjective in each sentence.
3. Give the students an additional five to ten minutes to write, challenging them to make sure that they are using these skills in their writing. They may also go back and revise or edit what they have already written.
4. Award Super Improver Stars to students who improved their writing by using the skills that you posted.
In looking ahead to next year I am considering using Super Improver Writing during my Red/Green Writing time. (Please see separate posts on this topic.) I am also considering individualizing it, based upon the writing levels of my students. I am still playing around with how I want to do this.
I am also going to use Super Improver Writing with my Genius Ladder. (Please see separate posts on this topic.) When students get to the Genius Paragraph level I will give them 10 minutes to write. I will then post skills based upon what we are working on in writing and give them 10 minutes to revise/edit.
I can also see myself using it at times during our regular writing block. I already know how motivated students are by the opportunity to earn Super Improver Stars, so my plan is to use this technique as often as possible to motivate them to revise and edit their own writing.
Showing posts with label Writing Program. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing Program. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Red/Green Writing Across the Curriculum
I have been using red/green writing since the first day of school. I love it! If you are not familiar with what it is, here is a brief overview: To get started all you need is a green and a red pen. Assign students a ten minute quick write. Make the topic open ended so that students can not claim to be finished. Announce the focus skill/s that you will be looking for. At the beginning of the year start with neatness. Then, every one or two weeks, add an additional skill that you will be looking for. Students are responsible for both the previous skills and the new one. As students are writing walk around with your pens. Place a green dot next to an example of something the student did right. For example, a word that is written very neatly, a capital at the beginning of a sentence, or an end mark used correctly. Place a red dot next to an error, but do not say anything. You want the student to correct the error on his/her own. I found that my students knew exactly what they had done wrong as soon as I made the mark, because they knew which focus skill/s I was checking for. My class hated getting red marks. As a result, they were much more careful when they wrote. They would get so excited when they had all green marks on their papers. If you want to know more about red/green writing you can go to the Whole Brain Teaching website and watch video 531.
My understanding and appreciation of red/green writing has definitely grown since I first started using it. At the beginning of the school year I was very good about making the topics that I assigned open-ended. However, I soon discovered that red/green writing was a perfect place for step five of the WBT five step lesson, critical thinking. (Please see separate posts for more detailed information on the five step lesson.) The critical thinking piece of the lesson generally involves writing, but it is hard to fit in during my regular reading and math blocks. So, on some days, I would provide students with an assigned topic that supported what we were learning in reading or math. Students still had plenty of time to write on topics of their choice, but now I was also asking them to write about what they had been learning.
I have also decided that red/green writing does not have to occur just at the end of the school day. I often use it during my regular writing block. Some days I will even allow my students to do their own red/green writing. They absolutely love this.
To demonstrate the power and versatility of red/green writing, I went through my students writing notebooks and selected samples of red/green writing that they have done during the school year. Underneath each photo I have written a brief description of the assignment.
In writing we were learning how to properly use the "but" Brainie. We were also working on adjectives. We had taken the Genius Ladder to the Extender level during writing time, but did not have time to write our Genius Paragraphs. So, I asked the students to write them during red/green writing. In our class we use a smilie face to show that a paper is correctly indented.
This piece of writing was from the early fall. We were beginning our unit on place value. I had created a math Power Pic through which the students learned that a place is a home for a number. After a few days of learning about places, I asked them this question during red/green writing time: What is a place? Students had also just learned what a "for example popper" was, so many had started using it in their writing.
This paragraph was written in the early spring. I had introduced students to even numbers with an even number Power Pic that I had created. After a week of studying what even numbers are and what their relationship is to doubles, I asked them the following question during red/green writing time: What are even numbers?
The Genius Ladder and red/green writing really do work well together. We did the ladder that this piece of writing stemmed from after a couple of weeks of addition with regrouping. the "Blah" sentence was: The student traded in a ten for ten ones. At the "Spicy" level my kids had to add an adjective to describe the noun student and at the extender level they were asked to use a "because clapper." They wrote their Genius Paragraphs during red/green writing time. I did ask them to use a "for example popper".
During writing we were learning how to write a triple whammy sentence with a because clapper. Students had orally practiced a number of sentences. I asked them to choose one and to write a five paragraph essay about it.
During phonics I taught students what we refer to in our classroom as the "Good-bye 'e' rule". It is our term for the "e" drop rule. At the end of the week, during red/green writing, I asked students what the "Good-bye 'e' rule was."
Sometimes I ask students to explain something to Biffy Bluebird, one of the WBT cartoon characters. We had been studying time, along with explanatory writing. I told the students that Biffy Bluebird knew nothing about how to tell time and it was their job to teach her how.
We were studying point of view. I had given the students a passage about a cat named Cupcake that had traveled 150 miles from a campground that he had run away from back to his home. The passage was written in third person. I asked the students to retell the story in first person, from the point of view of Cupcake.
My understanding and appreciation of red/green writing has definitely grown since I first started using it. At the beginning of the school year I was very good about making the topics that I assigned open-ended. However, I soon discovered that red/green writing was a perfect place for step five of the WBT five step lesson, critical thinking. (Please see separate posts for more detailed information on the five step lesson.) The critical thinking piece of the lesson generally involves writing, but it is hard to fit in during my regular reading and math blocks. So, on some days, I would provide students with an assigned topic that supported what we were learning in reading or math. Students still had plenty of time to write on topics of their choice, but now I was also asking them to write about what they had been learning.
I have also decided that red/green writing does not have to occur just at the end of the school day. I often use it during my regular writing block. Some days I will even allow my students to do their own red/green writing. They absolutely love this.
To demonstrate the power and versatility of red/green writing, I went through my students writing notebooks and selected samples of red/green writing that they have done during the school year. Underneath each photo I have written a brief description of the assignment.
In writing we were learning how to properly use the "but" Brainie. We were also working on adjectives. We had taken the Genius Ladder to the Extender level during writing time, but did not have time to write our Genius Paragraphs. So, I asked the students to write them during red/green writing. In our class we use a smilie face to show that a paper is correctly indented.
This piece of writing was from the early fall. We were beginning our unit on place value. I had created a math Power Pic through which the students learned that a place is a home for a number. After a few days of learning about places, I asked them this question during red/green writing time: What is a place? Students had also just learned what a "for example popper" was, so many had started using it in their writing.
This paragraph was written in the early spring. I had introduced students to even numbers with an even number Power Pic that I had created. After a week of studying what even numbers are and what their relationship is to doubles, I asked them the following question during red/green writing time: What are even numbers?
The Genius Ladder and red/green writing really do work well together. We did the ladder that this piece of writing stemmed from after a couple of weeks of addition with regrouping. the "Blah" sentence was: The student traded in a ten for ten ones. At the "Spicy" level my kids had to add an adjective to describe the noun student and at the extender level they were asked to use a "because clapper." They wrote their Genius Paragraphs during red/green writing time. I did ask them to use a "for example popper".
During writing we were learning how to write a triple whammy sentence with a because clapper. Students had orally practiced a number of sentences. I asked them to choose one and to write a five paragraph essay about it.
During phonics I taught students what we refer to in our classroom as the "Good-bye 'e' rule". It is our term for the "e" drop rule. At the end of the week, during red/green writing, I asked students what the "Good-bye 'e' rule was."
Sometimes I ask students to explain something to Biffy Bluebird, one of the WBT cartoon characters. We had been studying time, along with explanatory writing. I told the students that Biffy Bluebird knew nothing about how to tell time and it was their job to teach her how.
We were studying point of view. I had given the students a passage about a cat named Cupcake that had traveled 150 miles from a campground that he had run away from back to his home. The passage was written in third person. I asked the students to retell the story in first person, from the point of view of Cupcake.
This piece of writing was not done during red/green writing, but during our regular writing block. We have been working on writing informative text and have been doing a lot of comparing and contrasting in our writing. After reading a passage about Saturn and Earth, students were asked to write a paragraph telling how the two planets are different.
My purpose in writing this blog was to spark your imagination and help you to realize all of the possibilities that await both you and your students with red/green writing. Happy writing!
Thursday, March 26, 2015
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 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.
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!
Thursday, March 19, 2015
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.
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!
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Writing the WBT Way
Writing has never been so easy to teach. The results are almost effortless. I never imagined that my students could produce such great writing. There is nothing like the WBT writing program.
Whole Brain writing is like the perfect recipe. It takes the right combination of ingredients, in just the right amounts, mixed together on a daily basis to create a masterpiece that causes anyone who experiences it to say, "I must have that recipe!" In other blog posts I have talked about all of the ingredients in the WBT writing program. In this post I would like to show you how some of those ingredients came together over a two week period within my writing block to produce some very exciting results.
It was time for our class to begin informative writing. I gave a lot of thought as to how I wanted to start this unit, and I decided that I definitely wanted to incorporate the compare and contrast Brainies into whatever we did. We have already used them a lot this year, but I had never asked students to compare and contrast information taken directly from non-fiction informational text. This seemed like a logical next step.
I began by bringing in a short passage that compared lions and tigers. The first day we read the passage together using Mirror Words, Brainies, and story telling gestures. I then had the students take out their red and green pens, and we went through the passage one sentence at a time. Using Teach Okay, students had to decide if the sentence told about lions, tigers, or both lions and tigers. They also had to use a because clapper to explain why they made that choice. If the sentence referred just to lions, they underlined it in red pen. If it referred just to tigers, they underlined it in green pen. If it referred to both lions and tigers, then they underlined it in both colors. This took one full day,
On day two, we began writing. I was asking students to write two paragraphs. One paragraph would explain how the animals were the same, and the other would explain how they were different. Each paragraph had to have a topic sentence, detail adders, and a concluder. The details had to come from the text and had to be paraphrased. This one we worked on together. I wrote on the board, while students wrote in their journals. There were a lot of Teach Okays going on as students worked together to paraphrase the ways that the lions and tigers were similar and different. They shared their paraphrases with the class using Call Outs. A call Out is used when a student is going to share with the entire class. The purpose is to engage the entire class in the sharing. The student stands and says class, followed by Mirror Words. The student then shares using Brainies and gestures. The rest of the class repeats both the student's words and gestures. We spent one day writing our similar paragraph and one day writing our different paragraph.
I would like to spend a few minutes talking about paragraph number two - how lions and tigers are different. I wanted to use this opportunity to show students how to use the "but/however" Brainie to contrast. My students already were very familiar with the "but" Brainie. We had spend a lot of time previously working on it. We had played the "But Complexor Game" (See the WBT Writing Game for more information on this.) We had also done numerous Genius Ladders with "but" extenders. Therefore, it was very easy to model for them how to use the this Brainie to contrast two items. However, the "however" Brainie was new to them. I needed to spend some time teaching it in the context of contrasting, before I could expect them to use it in their writing. So, I decided to use the Genius Ladder for this. Below is the Genius Ladder that we used. Students quickly got the idea. That afternoon a few of them had already started using the "however" Brainie in their red/green writing. (If you are not familiar with red/green writing, please see my blog post on this topic.)
The next step was to have students work together. I gave students a new passage about Polar Bears and Brown Bears. The same process was repeated, except that students did everything with their partners. I circulated and assisted as needed. It was amazing listening to the dialogue and watching the Brainies that they were using as they worked together to write their two paragraphs.
The last step was for students to repeat the same process independently. I chose a passage about butterflies and moths. Before they began writing, I introduced them to a new writing rule that was added to our writing wall: Two sentences in a row never start with the same word. (You can read more about this wall in my post on red/green writing.) Below is a picture of the wall.
To assist students with this, I asked them to do a little of their own red/green writing. Using their green pens, they had to circle the first word of every sentence. Then it became very simple. No two circles in a row could be the same. They thought the rule was very grown-up, and they especially liked using their green pens.
I did not give students any assistance. I wanted to see what they could do on their own, after having gone through this process. I have to say that I was very pleased with the results. The students did a great job. They were able to write two indented paragraphs with topic sentences, paraphrased detail adders, and a concluder. Below is a sample of their writing. This was done by one of my average students. Notice that in paragraph two he used the words "however" and "but". This is something that all but a couple of my very lowest students were able to do. I would also like to point out that this student drew a smilie face each time he indented. This is something that I often do during red/green writing.
As you can see for yourself, Whole Brain writing really works! So what are you waiting for? Give it a try in your own classroom. I can promise you that you won't be sorry.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
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!
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!
Thursday, November 6, 2014
The Genius Ladder
The Genius Ladder is at the heart of the WBT writing program. At its core it is 10-15 minutes daily of oral writing practice, but in reality it is so much more! It teaches sentence structure, parts of speech, grammar, and what a paragraph is. It can also be a springboard to numerous writing assignments, as well as a way to reinforce content in areas like science and social studies. Finally, it engages your students by bringing "funtricity" to your writing program. Below is a picture of my Genius Ladder. Mine is a little on the large side. I have discovered that though not necessary, having a Genius Ladder this big definitely gets the kids attention, so I am okay with it. The traffic light transitions on the side are not a part of the Genius Ladder. The side of the ladder just seemed like a logical place to put them.
The Genius Ladder has four rungs to it. The first rung is called "Blah Sentence". Here you write a simple sentence with an article, noun, verb structure. An example would be, "My dog ran." For the first four or five weeks of the school year, my students would use "Teach Okay" to create new sentences, by first substituting the noun in the sentence with new nouns, and then substituting the verb in the sentence with new verbs. In the first round an example of a new sentence might be "The girl ran." In the next round they might say, "The dog barks." I found that doing this daily provides students with a really good grasp of nouns and verbs, as well as the structure of a simple sentence. At the end of "Teach Okay" I always ask two or three students to share their sentences with the class using "Giant Mirrors and Words." This sharing provides another opportunity for a whole class model. At this point in the year my students understand nouns and verbs, as well as the simple sentence structure, so we just read the Blah sentence. When we are done, the kids love to say, "Blah, boring." This allows us more time to spend on the higher levels of the ladder.
The next level is the "Spicy Sentence". At this level you add an adjective to your "Blah" sentence. Just like the first level, students use "Teach Okay" to share their new sentences. An example of a "Spicy Sentence" would be, "The large dog ran." As students take turns sharing their sentences, they are constantly thinking of different adjectives. Right now I have students that will create "Spicy Sentences" with two or three adjectives. After "Teach Okay" I choose two or three students to share using "Giant Mirrors and Words."
I love this level, because students really begin to understand what adjectives are and how to use them properly in sentences.
The next level is the "Extender Sentence". At this level the "Spicy Sentence" can be extended in any number of ways. I decided to start my year by having my students extend their sentences using the "Connect 5 W + H" Brainie. This Brainie is simply teaching students "who, what, when, where, why. and how." I began by teaching my kids how to extend their sentences by answering the question "why". We did this using the "because clapper". We then answered the question "when" by extending our sentence with phrases like "in the morning" or "After dinner". Finally, we answered the question "where" and students extended their sentences with phrases like "outside" or "at the "park". Most recently we used both "when" and "where" to extend our sentences. Next on the agenda is compound sentences. Later in the year we will do prepositional phrases. The same procedures are followed at this level as the previous two.
The last rung of the ladder is called the "Genius Paragraph". We started working at this level about four or five weeks into the school year. Here the extender sentence becomes the topic sentence, and students then add details, which are referred to as detail adders. They also add a closing sentence, which is called a concluder. At this level I have students share with their partners, and then I usually ask one student to share his/her "Genius Paragraph" with the class. Often I will use the oral writing practice as a springboard to my writing lesson and have my students write down their "Genius Paragraphs".
Just recently I tried my own innovation of the Genius Ladder which the kids totally loved. I told them that they were each going to create their own ladder. I provided them with a paper which had all four rungs on it. On our class Genuis Ladder I posted the structure for each level. For example, at the "Blah" level I had written "The/A/My noun verb." I then guided students through each level of the ladder, which they wrote out on their paper. At the extender level students chose how they wanted to extend their sentence. Along the way students shared with their partners and with the class, just like we normally do. The last step was to have the students write out their "Genius Paragraphs." I was really impressed with the job that they did. Even my special education students were successful. To me this assignment was simply a testament to the power of the Genius Ladder.
If you would like more information on the Genius Ladder, you will find some great resources at the Whole Brain Teaching website. Just go to www.wholebrain teaching.com. Under Goodies on the drop down menu, go to wbt tv. There you will find an archive of webcasts. Number 504 is on the Genius Ladder. Coach B. will explain to you everything that you ever wanted to know about it. Also, if you register at the site, you will have access to the free downloads. There is a great Power Point on the Genius Ladder, which will provide you with tons of sentences to get started.
The Genius Ladder has four rungs to it. The first rung is called "Blah Sentence". Here you write a simple sentence with an article, noun, verb structure. An example would be, "My dog ran." For the first four or five weeks of the school year, my students would use "Teach Okay" to create new sentences, by first substituting the noun in the sentence with new nouns, and then substituting the verb in the sentence with new verbs. In the first round an example of a new sentence might be "The girl ran." In the next round they might say, "The dog barks." I found that doing this daily provides students with a really good grasp of nouns and verbs, as well as the structure of a simple sentence. At the end of "Teach Okay" I always ask two or three students to share their sentences with the class using "Giant Mirrors and Words." This sharing provides another opportunity for a whole class model. At this point in the year my students understand nouns and verbs, as well as the simple sentence structure, so we just read the Blah sentence. When we are done, the kids love to say, "Blah, boring." This allows us more time to spend on the higher levels of the ladder.
The next level is the "Spicy Sentence". At this level you add an adjective to your "Blah" sentence. Just like the first level, students use "Teach Okay" to share their new sentences. An example of a "Spicy Sentence" would be, "The large dog ran." As students take turns sharing their sentences, they are constantly thinking of different adjectives. Right now I have students that will create "Spicy Sentences" with two or three adjectives. After "Teach Okay" I choose two or three students to share using "Giant Mirrors and Words."
I love this level, because students really begin to understand what adjectives are and how to use them properly in sentences.
The next level is the "Extender Sentence". At this level the "Spicy Sentence" can be extended in any number of ways. I decided to start my year by having my students extend their sentences using the "Connect 5 W + H" Brainie. This Brainie is simply teaching students "who, what, when, where, why. and how." I began by teaching my kids how to extend their sentences by answering the question "why". We did this using the "because clapper". We then answered the question "when" by extending our sentence with phrases like "in the morning" or "After dinner". Finally, we answered the question "where" and students extended their sentences with phrases like "outside" or "at the "park". Most recently we used both "when" and "where" to extend our sentences. Next on the agenda is compound sentences. Later in the year we will do prepositional phrases. The same procedures are followed at this level as the previous two.
The last rung of the ladder is called the "Genius Paragraph". We started working at this level about four or five weeks into the school year. Here the extender sentence becomes the topic sentence, and students then add details, which are referred to as detail adders. They also add a closing sentence, which is called a concluder. At this level I have students share with their partners, and then I usually ask one student to share his/her "Genius Paragraph" with the class. Often I will use the oral writing practice as a springboard to my writing lesson and have my students write down their "Genius Paragraphs".
Just recently I tried my own innovation of the Genius Ladder which the kids totally loved. I told them that they were each going to create their own ladder. I provided them with a paper which had all four rungs on it. On our class Genuis Ladder I posted the structure for each level. For example, at the "Blah" level I had written "The/A/My noun verb." I then guided students through each level of the ladder, which they wrote out on their paper. At the extender level students chose how they wanted to extend their sentence. Along the way students shared with their partners and with the class, just like we normally do. The last step was to have the students write out their "Genius Paragraphs." I was really impressed with the job that they did. Even my special education students were successful. To me this assignment was simply a testament to the power of the Genius Ladder.
If you would like more information on the Genius Ladder, you will find some great resources at the Whole Brain Teaching website. Just go to www.wholebrain teaching.com. Under Goodies on the drop down menu, go to wbt tv. There you will find an archive of webcasts. Number 504 is on the Genius Ladder. Coach B. will explain to you everything that you ever wanted to know about it. Also, if you register at the site, you will have access to the free downloads. There is a great Power Point on the Genius Ladder, which will provide you with tons of sentences to get started.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Reflections
At the time I wrote this post I had been doing Whole Brain Teaching for about 14 weeks. It was around the beginning of last May that I first discovered this gateway to teacher heaven. I implemented each component that I learned about as quickly as I could, but there were some things (Super Improvers' Wall, Three Star Homework) that, because it was so close to the end of the year, I didn't get to try out until this year. From the start I fell in love with Whole Brain Teaching. The ideas were fun, simple, and easy to implement. I can't tell you how many times I have said to myself, "I can't believe that I never thought of that." The results were also amazing! Some of them were expected, but I have to be honest. Some came as very big, but very pleasant, surprises.
This week I found myself reflecting upon those unexpected results. I would like to share some of my reflections with you. It is my hope that if you are new to WBT or are thinking about trying it out in your room for the first time, you will find my experiences inspiring and decide for yourself to take the plunge into Whole Brain Teaching.
1. I can not believe how hard students will work to earn a little star on a piece of paper. I do not think I have ever seen anything as motivating as the Super Improvers Wall. It is the buzz of the classroom. I am always hearing things like, "I only need two more stars to level up." The best part, however, is all I have to do is say to a student, "If you start writing neater (or whatever else the student needs to improve upon), you will earn a Super Improvers' Star." The results are instant. The student will start writing neater. It still amazes me.
2. Everyone does their homework! I think it is a combination of the choices that students are given with three star homework and the motivation of getting to play Mind Soccer on Fridays that produces these results. I have to be honest. I was very skeptical at first about giving kids a choice. I thought that many of them would take the easy way out and simply do one star homework. What I discovered, however, is that almost all of them are doing three star homework. They are choosing to do all of their homework neatly and correctly for the privilege of playing Mind Soccer. Which leads me to my next reflection.
3. Who would have ever thought that a review game would generate so much excitement. Mind Soccer, however, does just that. You can literally feel the buzz in the room on Friday afternoons. It is like a countdown until Mind Soccer begins. It is amazing that students will work so hard to earn the privilege of reviewing everything that they have been learning. Wow!
4. Getting kids to write in complete sentences with all of their periods in the right places has never been so easy. It is only the beginning of November and all of my students, including my special education students, punctuate properly. This is my twenty fifth year of teaching, and I have never seen this before. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that they are perfect and never leave out a period here or there, but overall they have got it! Right now I am thinking about one of my special ed students that I will call Dan. Dan did not use any periods in his writing. One day I sat with Dan and showed him how to find his periods by listening for the clicks. (The click goes along with the "Midnight Phone Call Test". This is the WBT way of teaching what a complete sentence is. The idea is that if someone calls you in the middle of the night and you pick up the phone to answer, is what the person on the other end of the line saying to you a complete message? If it is, then it is a sentence.) I have my kids hold an imaginary phone to their ears and pretend to hang up when they hear the click (the end of a complete message). The next day I noticed that Dan was still not using periods in his writing, so I challenged him to listen for the clicks himself and offered him a Super Improver Star if he could put all of his periods in the right places. Not only did Dan put them all in the right places, but he has been punctuating perfectly ever since. To what do I attribute this? I think it is a combination of all of the WBT writing techniques, but if I had to pick just a couple, I would say that oral writing and the Brainies have made the biggest difference.
5. Rule Two (Raise your hand for permission to speak.) really works! We all have blurters in our rooms, but rule two will put an end to the blurting. It still amazes me how well it works. If a student calls out, I simply say, "Rule Two". The class repeats the rule, the calling out stops, and I never have to address the one who did it. Soon those students learn to stop calling out. The key is consistency. I have been very careful to never address a student who calls out, but to always say "Rule Two". As a result, I rarely have blurters anymore. There have been a couple of times when I have gone two or three days without ever having to say, "Rule Two".
6. Not once this year have I heard the words "I don't know what I'm suppose to do". The use of "Mirrors" and "Teach Okay" keeps the students engaged, so that they actually focus upon and understand the directions being given. Wow!!!
7. My struggling readers love coming to group, are excited about reading, and believe in themselves. This is thanks to two wonderful WBT reading games that I use everyday with this group of students. They are Super Speed 100 and Super Speed Rhyme. What I like best about these games is that they provide my students with the multiple repetitions that they need in order to learn. What my kids like is that they can see their growth as they work to beat their scores and fill up a page of stars with smiley faces. (They get to put a smiley face in a star each time they beat their previous score. One page full of smiley faces earns a Super Improvers Star.) Both games are free downloads on the Whole Brain Teaching website.
8. My students actually reread and edit their writing! I attribute this to red/green writing. (For more information about red/green writing see my post on this topic.) They do not want that red mark on their paper, so they are very diligent about the things that I am looking for. When they get a green mark they will often say, "Yes." I have also had students point out something to me that they want me to mark with my green pen. Of course, I am happy to oblige.
9. The Brainies are a hit, and many of my students will use them even when I have not asked them to. When Coach B. came out with the Brainies I knew that they would be motivating. I guess I just did not have any idea how motivating they would be. I also did not realize how much of an impact they would have on students learning.
10. Teaching is really fun! I enjoy coming to work everyday. Learning is really fun! The kids enjoy coming to school everyday. Our classroom is just a really fun place to be, and I love every minute of it.
For more information about any of the techniques that I mentioned within my reflections, please go to www.wholebrainteaching.com. There you will find a number of amazing free downloads, as well as a library full of webcasts by Coach B., the founder of Whole Brain Teaching.
This week I found myself reflecting upon those unexpected results. I would like to share some of my reflections with you. It is my hope that if you are new to WBT or are thinking about trying it out in your room for the first time, you will find my experiences inspiring and decide for yourself to take the plunge into Whole Brain Teaching.
1. I can not believe how hard students will work to earn a little star on a piece of paper. I do not think I have ever seen anything as motivating as the Super Improvers Wall. It is the buzz of the classroom. I am always hearing things like, "I only need two more stars to level up." The best part, however, is all I have to do is say to a student, "If you start writing neater (or whatever else the student needs to improve upon), you will earn a Super Improvers' Star." The results are instant. The student will start writing neater. It still amazes me.
2. Everyone does their homework! I think it is a combination of the choices that students are given with three star homework and the motivation of getting to play Mind Soccer on Fridays that produces these results. I have to be honest. I was very skeptical at first about giving kids a choice. I thought that many of them would take the easy way out and simply do one star homework. What I discovered, however, is that almost all of them are doing three star homework. They are choosing to do all of their homework neatly and correctly for the privilege of playing Mind Soccer. Which leads me to my next reflection.
3. Who would have ever thought that a review game would generate so much excitement. Mind Soccer, however, does just that. You can literally feel the buzz in the room on Friday afternoons. It is like a countdown until Mind Soccer begins. It is amazing that students will work so hard to earn the privilege of reviewing everything that they have been learning. Wow!
4. Getting kids to write in complete sentences with all of their periods in the right places has never been so easy. It is only the beginning of November and all of my students, including my special education students, punctuate properly. This is my twenty fifth year of teaching, and I have never seen this before. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that they are perfect and never leave out a period here or there, but overall they have got it! Right now I am thinking about one of my special ed students that I will call Dan. Dan did not use any periods in his writing. One day I sat with Dan and showed him how to find his periods by listening for the clicks. (The click goes along with the "Midnight Phone Call Test". This is the WBT way of teaching what a complete sentence is. The idea is that if someone calls you in the middle of the night and you pick up the phone to answer, is what the person on the other end of the line saying to you a complete message? If it is, then it is a sentence.) I have my kids hold an imaginary phone to their ears and pretend to hang up when they hear the click (the end of a complete message). The next day I noticed that Dan was still not using periods in his writing, so I challenged him to listen for the clicks himself and offered him a Super Improver Star if he could put all of his periods in the right places. Not only did Dan put them all in the right places, but he has been punctuating perfectly ever since. To what do I attribute this? I think it is a combination of all of the WBT writing techniques, but if I had to pick just a couple, I would say that oral writing and the Brainies have made the biggest difference.
5. Rule Two (Raise your hand for permission to speak.) really works! We all have blurters in our rooms, but rule two will put an end to the blurting. It still amazes me how well it works. If a student calls out, I simply say, "Rule Two". The class repeats the rule, the calling out stops, and I never have to address the one who did it. Soon those students learn to stop calling out. The key is consistency. I have been very careful to never address a student who calls out, but to always say "Rule Two". As a result, I rarely have blurters anymore. There have been a couple of times when I have gone two or three days without ever having to say, "Rule Two".
6. Not once this year have I heard the words "I don't know what I'm suppose to do". The use of "Mirrors" and "Teach Okay" keeps the students engaged, so that they actually focus upon and understand the directions being given. Wow!!!
7. My struggling readers love coming to group, are excited about reading, and believe in themselves. This is thanks to two wonderful WBT reading games that I use everyday with this group of students. They are Super Speed 100 and Super Speed Rhyme. What I like best about these games is that they provide my students with the multiple repetitions that they need in order to learn. What my kids like is that they can see their growth as they work to beat their scores and fill up a page of stars with smiley faces. (They get to put a smiley face in a star each time they beat their previous score. One page full of smiley faces earns a Super Improvers Star.) Both games are free downloads on the Whole Brain Teaching website.
8. My students actually reread and edit their writing! I attribute this to red/green writing. (For more information about red/green writing see my post on this topic.) They do not want that red mark on their paper, so they are very diligent about the things that I am looking for. When they get a green mark they will often say, "Yes." I have also had students point out something to me that they want me to mark with my green pen. Of course, I am happy to oblige.
9. The Brainies are a hit, and many of my students will use them even when I have not asked them to. When Coach B. came out with the Brainies I knew that they would be motivating. I guess I just did not have any idea how motivating they would be. I also did not realize how much of an impact they would have on students learning.
10. Teaching is really fun! I enjoy coming to work everyday. Learning is really fun! The kids enjoy coming to school everyday. Our classroom is just a really fun place to be, and I love every minute of it.
For more information about any of the techniques that I mentioned within my reflections, please go to www.wholebrainteaching.com. There you will find a number of amazing free downloads, as well as a library full of webcasts by Coach B., the founder of Whole Brain Teaching.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Proper Nouns and the Complexor Game
Since I began teaching the WBT way, whenever I am thinking about how I am going to introduce a new concept to my students, there are two words that I always keep in mind: engaging and funtricity (a WBT buzz word). I know that these two things will always lead to student learning, so I want them to be at the heart of all of my lessons.
Last week my writing focus skill was proper nouns. In the past my introductory lesson for proper nouns included a lot of brainstorming. Whole class brainstorming did not seem to fit into my new WBT criteria for lesson planning, so I decided to think of another way to teach it. I wanted something that would make proper nouns exciting and keep all of the students engaged. After some thought, I decided that the Complexor Game would work great with proper nouns.
The Complexor Game is part of the Whole Brain Teaching Writing game, which can be downloaded from the WBT website. The Complexor game breaks down writing into very small skills. Each complexor focuses on a different skill. Examples of complexors are subject verb agreement, making a list with commas, using the word because correctly in a sentence ... And the list goes on. Teachers print off the Complexor that they want to use and give a copy to each of their students. The complexors provide a sample sentence frame and a sentence frame for the students to orally fill in. The best part, however, are the word lists at the bottom of each complexor. Students can no longer say that they can't think of anything, because a number of different options for filling in each sentence frame are already provided. Students simply need to choose from the list the ones that they like.
Every student works with a partner. In my class the partners are called Peanut Butters and Jellies. Peanut Butters always go first. Their job is to create as many sentences as they can in one minute using the sentence frame provided, while Jellies use their whiteboards to keep track of their partners' scores. Each correct sentence is one point, and in my class students can not earn that point unless they use the target Brainies. I choose the target Brainies based upon the Complexor we are doing. For example, if the Complexor is on the correct use of the word "and", then students are expected to use the "and" Brainie when they are creating their sentences. I always tell the scorekeepers to watch carefully, and to only award a point if the target Brainie is being used. After one minute their scores are tallied and they are given a second minute to try and beat their previous score. They love this! Of course, if they beat their previous score, their partner will give them a ten finger Wooh. Roles are then reversed, and the same process is repeated.
Although proper nouns is not a Complexor within the Writing Game, I decided to use the Complexor game format to teach it. I began by putting three posters on the board. One had days of the week, one had months of the year, and the third had holidays. I started my lesson on proper nouns with the Question/Answer format from the WBT five step lesson plan. I then showed my students the list of the days of the week and explained that days of the week are proper nouns and they must always be capitalized. Students were then asked to create sentences using the days of the week. I emphasized using the capital Brainie when they said the day of the week within their sentence, because it is a proper noun and must be capitalized. After a few examples, the students were ready to play. Students then used the format I described above for the complexor game with their days of the week sentences. For every correct sentence using capital Brainies, students received one point. Students were very good about watching for capital Brainies and correcting each other if they didn't use them. I then repeated the same process for months of the year and holidays. It was a lot of fun.
I also wanted to introduce students to names as a proper noun, but I decided that this was a little too broad for the Complexor game, so I had the students take out their "Yes/No cards". These are simply laminatd notecards. One side is colored green and has the word yes written on it. The other side is colored red and has the word no written on it. I introduced the name rule and then simply said a word, such as Target. If students thought the word should be capitalized, they held up the yes side when I said, "Show me." If they thought the word should not be capitalized, they held up the no side instead. This allowed me to see who had the idea and who needed extra help.
The next day I wanted to see how well my students could transfer what they had learned about proper nouns to their writing, so we had the "Proper Noun Challenge". I gave students fifteen minutes to write as many sentences as they could using proper nouns. I had the posters up from the day before, and I encouraged the class to think of the sentences that they had shared with their partners the previous day during the Complexor Game. Every time they used a proper noun, they had to underline it. I walked around with a red pen and green pen, circling in green any proper noun I saw that were underlined, and circling in red any word that was underlined/capitalized and shouldn't be, or any proper noun that was not capitalized. At the end of fifteen minutes, students counted up the number of proper nouns that they had. The person who used the most proper nouns in their writing got a 100 finger sizzling Wooh with firecrackers. It was very exciting!
Remember, any lesson can be made engaging and fun. It just takes a little thought and a little creativity. I am finding that the more I do it, the easier it becomes. Just remember, when you are planning your lessons, always think of engaging funtricity and you can never go wrong.
Last week my writing focus skill was proper nouns. In the past my introductory lesson for proper nouns included a lot of brainstorming. Whole class brainstorming did not seem to fit into my new WBT criteria for lesson planning, so I decided to think of another way to teach it. I wanted something that would make proper nouns exciting and keep all of the students engaged. After some thought, I decided that the Complexor Game would work great with proper nouns.
The Complexor Game is part of the Whole Brain Teaching Writing game, which can be downloaded from the WBT website. The Complexor game breaks down writing into very small skills. Each complexor focuses on a different skill. Examples of complexors are subject verb agreement, making a list with commas, using the word because correctly in a sentence ... And the list goes on. Teachers print off the Complexor that they want to use and give a copy to each of their students. The complexors provide a sample sentence frame and a sentence frame for the students to orally fill in. The best part, however, are the word lists at the bottom of each complexor. Students can no longer say that they can't think of anything, because a number of different options for filling in each sentence frame are already provided. Students simply need to choose from the list the ones that they like.
Every student works with a partner. In my class the partners are called Peanut Butters and Jellies. Peanut Butters always go first. Their job is to create as many sentences as they can in one minute using the sentence frame provided, while Jellies use their whiteboards to keep track of their partners' scores. Each correct sentence is one point, and in my class students can not earn that point unless they use the target Brainies. I choose the target Brainies based upon the Complexor we are doing. For example, if the Complexor is on the correct use of the word "and", then students are expected to use the "and" Brainie when they are creating their sentences. I always tell the scorekeepers to watch carefully, and to only award a point if the target Brainie is being used. After one minute their scores are tallied and they are given a second minute to try and beat their previous score. They love this! Of course, if they beat their previous score, their partner will give them a ten finger Wooh. Roles are then reversed, and the same process is repeated.
Although proper nouns is not a Complexor within the Writing Game, I decided to use the Complexor game format to teach it. I began by putting three posters on the board. One had days of the week, one had months of the year, and the third had holidays. I started my lesson on proper nouns with the Question/Answer format from the WBT five step lesson plan. I then showed my students the list of the days of the week and explained that days of the week are proper nouns and they must always be capitalized. Students were then asked to create sentences using the days of the week. I emphasized using the capital Brainie when they said the day of the week within their sentence, because it is a proper noun and must be capitalized. After a few examples, the students were ready to play. Students then used the format I described above for the complexor game with their days of the week sentences. For every correct sentence using capital Brainies, students received one point. Students were very good about watching for capital Brainies and correcting each other if they didn't use them. I then repeated the same process for months of the year and holidays. It was a lot of fun.
I also wanted to introduce students to names as a proper noun, but I decided that this was a little too broad for the Complexor game, so I had the students take out their "Yes/No cards". These are simply laminatd notecards. One side is colored green and has the word yes written on it. The other side is colored red and has the word no written on it. I introduced the name rule and then simply said a word, such as Target. If students thought the word should be capitalized, they held up the yes side when I said, "Show me." If they thought the word should not be capitalized, they held up the no side instead. This allowed me to see who had the idea and who needed extra help.
The next day I wanted to see how well my students could transfer what they had learned about proper nouns to their writing, so we had the "Proper Noun Challenge". I gave students fifteen minutes to write as many sentences as they could using proper nouns. I had the posters up from the day before, and I encouraged the class to think of the sentences that they had shared with their partners the previous day during the Complexor Game. Every time they used a proper noun, they had to underline it. I walked around with a red pen and green pen, circling in green any proper noun I saw that were underlined, and circling in red any word that was underlined/capitalized and shouldn't be, or any proper noun that was not capitalized. At the end of fifteen minutes, students counted up the number of proper nouns that they had. The person who used the most proper nouns in their writing got a 100 finger sizzling Wooh with firecrackers. It was very exciting!
Remember, any lesson can be made engaging and fun. It just takes a little thought and a little creativity. I am finding that the more I do it, the easier it becomes. Just remember, when you are planning your lessons, always think of engaging funtricity and you can never go wrong.
Friday, September 26, 2014
WBT Writing
I chose to write this post in red because red is a color that grabs the attention of others, and it is my hope that this post will grab your attention. Let me just begin by saying, WBT writing rocks! We are five weeks into the school year, and I am loving what I am seeing. If you are considering using some or all of the Whole Brain writing techniques, but are still a little unsure, let me encourage you. You will be amazed at the results!
It is not easy to let go of what we know and have always believed in. When I decided to do full WBT implementation this year, that meant letting go of some things that I had always believed in very strongly, like Writers' Workshop. For 24 years I had either been using or training other teachers in how to use a Writers' Workshop approach. It was not an easy thing to let go of, but now that we are five weeks into the school year, I can tell you that I do not regret that decision at all. The truth is that I have never gotten such good results in such a short amount of time. Since I am no longer doing Writers' Workshop, I can only attribute this success to teaching writing the WBT way!
It is hard to pinpoint one component of the program that makes it so successful. I see it as a synergistic effect that is achieved when all of the different components are mixed together. Having said this, however, I do think it starts with a combination of oral writing and the Brainies. There is such truth in the statement, "If a child can say it, he can write it." Oral writing teaches kids how to write before they have even picked up a pencil. The teacher provides students with a framework for oral writing through the use of sentence frames. Sentence frames benefit all students, but with a class composed mostly of ELL students, a third of which are in special education, I find that the sentence frames are especially beneficial. The Brainies are gestures that accompanies students oral writing. These gestures remind them to do things like punctuate correctly or indent.
I also love the WBT philosophy that writing should be broken down into its smallest components and these components should be taught individually. Coach B. uses the analogy of a tennis game. Before anyone can pick up a racquet and play, he must first learn a backhand, forehand, volley, serve, overhead shot etc. Writing works the same way, but many times we expect students to write without teaching them the individual components or giving them the structure that they need to become strong writers. WBT uses complexors and puzzlers to teach these skills and frameworks in a fun game-like format. You can read more about complexors and puzzlers by going to the Whole Brain Teaching website and downloading the Writing Game.
I also believe that another thing which makes Whole Brain writing so successful is the immediate feedback that students receive through red/green writing. I am able to provide feedback to all of my class everyday through red/green writing, as opposed to just three or four students each day when I was using a Writers' Workshop model and conferencing with my students individually. If you would like to know more about what red/green writing is and how to implement it, please see the post that I have written on this subject.
I would like to end by sharing with you the comment that actually inspired this blog post. I have a student in my class who I will call Tommy. Tommy is one of my special education students. He entered my room as a total non-reader and a non-writer. At the beginning of the year Tommy struggled with writing even a few words. He felt successful, however, through oral writing. He could verbalize what he wanted to say and share it with others. As he has slowly started to read, he has also slowly started to write. Last Monday for red/green writing I asked students the following question: What did you do over the weekend? Their answers became their topic sentences. Tommy then asked me the question that I will never forget: "Can we do one of those three zoop (the sound effect for comma) sentences?" I answered, "You mean a triple whammy sentence. Of course, you can." I came back by a few minutes later and he had written the perfect triple whammy sentence, sharing three things that he did over the weekend, and it was punctuated perfectly. I could share many other stories, but I think that Tommy's does the best job of emphasizing the point that Whole Brain writing truly does work.
My goal in writing this post was not to teach you how to do Whole Brain writing (Which, by the way, would be impossible to do in one post.), but it was to inspire you to consider learning more about it and using some or all of its components in your classroom. I hope that I have achieved this goal. Happy writing!
It is not easy to let go of what we know and have always believed in. When I decided to do full WBT implementation this year, that meant letting go of some things that I had always believed in very strongly, like Writers' Workshop. For 24 years I had either been using or training other teachers in how to use a Writers' Workshop approach. It was not an easy thing to let go of, but now that we are five weeks into the school year, I can tell you that I do not regret that decision at all. The truth is that I have never gotten such good results in such a short amount of time. Since I am no longer doing Writers' Workshop, I can only attribute this success to teaching writing the WBT way!
It is hard to pinpoint one component of the program that makes it so successful. I see it as a synergistic effect that is achieved when all of the different components are mixed together. Having said this, however, I do think it starts with a combination of oral writing and the Brainies. There is such truth in the statement, "If a child can say it, he can write it." Oral writing teaches kids how to write before they have even picked up a pencil. The teacher provides students with a framework for oral writing through the use of sentence frames. Sentence frames benefit all students, but with a class composed mostly of ELL students, a third of which are in special education, I find that the sentence frames are especially beneficial. The Brainies are gestures that accompanies students oral writing. These gestures remind them to do things like punctuate correctly or indent.
I also love the WBT philosophy that writing should be broken down into its smallest components and these components should be taught individually. Coach B. uses the analogy of a tennis game. Before anyone can pick up a racquet and play, he must first learn a backhand, forehand, volley, serve, overhead shot etc. Writing works the same way, but many times we expect students to write without teaching them the individual components or giving them the structure that they need to become strong writers. WBT uses complexors and puzzlers to teach these skills and frameworks in a fun game-like format. You can read more about complexors and puzzlers by going to the Whole Brain Teaching website and downloading the Writing Game.
I also believe that another thing which makes Whole Brain writing so successful is the immediate feedback that students receive through red/green writing. I am able to provide feedback to all of my class everyday through red/green writing, as opposed to just three or four students each day when I was using a Writers' Workshop model and conferencing with my students individually. If you would like to know more about what red/green writing is and how to implement it, please see the post that I have written on this subject.
I would like to end by sharing with you the comment that actually inspired this blog post. I have a student in my class who I will call Tommy. Tommy is one of my special education students. He entered my room as a total non-reader and a non-writer. At the beginning of the year Tommy struggled with writing even a few words. He felt successful, however, through oral writing. He could verbalize what he wanted to say and share it with others. As he has slowly started to read, he has also slowly started to write. Last Monday for red/green writing I asked students the following question: What did you do over the weekend? Their answers became their topic sentences. Tommy then asked me the question that I will never forget: "Can we do one of those three zoop (the sound effect for comma) sentences?" I answered, "You mean a triple whammy sentence. Of course, you can." I came back by a few minutes later and he had written the perfect triple whammy sentence, sharing three things that he did over the weekend, and it was punctuated perfectly. I could share many other stories, but I think that Tommy's does the best job of emphasizing the point that Whole Brain writing truly does work.
My goal in writing this post was not to teach you how to do Whole Brain writing (Which, by the way, would be impossible to do in one post.), but it was to inspire you to consider learning more about it and using some or all of its components in your classroom. I hope that I have achieved this goal. Happy writing!
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
My Writing Program
I love all the components of the WBT writing program. The more I studied each component, the more excited I became about teaching writing next year. The question, however, that I kept struggling with was, "How do I put all of these various components together?" I had the general idea, but I was interested in the nuts and bolts of what writing would look like in my classroom on a day to day basis. Since I knew that my mind would not rest until I figured it all out, I got to work. I decided to map out exactly what my first ten days would look like, so that I could get some practice in "putting it all together". After that I just wanted a general idea of what I would be doing the rest of the year. You might have already noticed that I am a list maker, so I put these plans in my favorite form: a list. Please know that these plans are very tentative and sketchy. I just feel better having something down on paper. I would appreciate feedback, especially from any second grade teachers who have already taught WBT writing for a year.
Day One: Introduce students to oral writing. (Question, Answer, Adders, Concluder will be posted on board.) Question: What was the best part about today? At the end of oral writing students will engage in 10 minute writing. Teacher will introduce focus skill of neatness and do red/green writing.
Note to self: At the end of oral writing pique the students' interest in the Wacky Star Fun Button by drawing the first line of a star on the board.
Note: Oral writing will continue on a daily basis as part of writing lessons or lessons in other subject areas.
Day Two: Use five step lesson plan to introduce students to what a sentence is. Have LA pic to display. Emphasize that from now on we will be answering all questions in complete sentences. During step three read-aloud short vowel phonic's story. Ask students to retell the story to their partner using the Two-Finger All-terrain Action Figure with Anti-gravity Boots Brain Toy. (Poster for each Brain Toy will be displayed in room.) For step five of the lesson, post the following sentence frame: The best thing about me is that I am ______________. (Students are encouraged to add several Adders.)
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: Today I learned _____________.
Day Three: Do Coach B's lesson on what a sentence is. Stop at the end of level one. (This lesson can be downloaded from the WBT website. It is under free e-books/common core.) Also play the Writing Game: Puzzle one and Complexor "and".
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: Today I learned ____________ and ____________________.
Day Four: Using LA Pic, review what a sentence is. Continue with Coach B's lesson on what a sentence is. Stop after level two. Play Writing game using the same puzzle and complexor as yesterday.
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: The best parts about today were ________________ and ______________. Students may also choose to use yesterday's sentence frame.
Day Five: Using LA Pic, review what a sentence is. Continue with Coach B's lesson through level three. Teacher will guide students through using each of the following Brain Toys to share with their partner what a sentence is: Hand Puppets, Air Blackboard, and Props. Play the Writing Game. Do Puzzle 3, Subject/Verb Agreement
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: See yesterday.
Day Six: Introduce students to the Genius Ladder (first two levels) using the following Blah sentence: My mom ran. (There is a free download about the Genius Ladder on the WBT website under free downloads.)
Do Five step lesson on capitalizing the beginning of a sentence. Display LA Pic.
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: After school today I am going to ____________ and ______________.
Day Seven: Begin with the Genius Ladder (first two levels) using the following sentence: A fireman burped.
Do five step lesson on end marks. Display the LA Pic.
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: Students may choose between any of the sentence frames learned with the word "and".
Day Eight: Play the Writing Game using the Complexor because. Be sue to teach the "because clapper". (See the Brainy Game for more information.)
Guide students through level three of the Genius Ladder, using the extender "because". Students will write as many sentences as they can think of at level three of the Genius Ladder.
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: See yesterday.
Day Nine: Begin with the Genius Ladder, orally doing the first three levels with the following sentence: My sister cried. Use the extender "because".
Use LA Pics posted on Power Pics Wall to quickly review sentence, capitalizing the first word of a sentence, and end marks. From Coach B's Common Core Free e-book on what a sentence is, put up the "Cartoon Writing" slide of a cat that says, "In the morning, I _____________." Guide students through an oral writing lesson with the question being, "What does the cat say that he does in the morning?" Introduce students to "adders" and the gesture for "adders" (See the Brainy Game.) Students follow up the answer to the question with "adders".
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: Over the weekend I __________ and _________________. (Today is the first day that students will be required to use adders. Teacher will not be doing red/green writing today.)
Day Ten: Look back at the Genius Ladder began yesterday: My sister cried. Review what students learned yesterday about adders, and guide students through orally completing the Genius Ladder. Students write an extender sentence, followed by as many adders as they can.
Note: During the first ten days of school, I also plan on introducing students to nouns, by playing Electronic Super Speed Grammar daily.
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: Teacher will give students red and green pens and they will do their own red/green writing on writing done yesterday.
During the remainder of September and the first week of October, my goal is to focus on teaching different extenders, through the use of the Genius Ladder. I will use the Writing Game to assist me with this. During oral writing I want to introduce students to Concluders, and teach the the Brainstorming Puzzles in the Writing Game. I would also like to spend some time on verbs, using Coach B's free Common Core e-book download and Electronic Super Speed Grammar.
Note: If I feel my students are ready, around the end of September or beginning of October, I would like to introduce students to the "Triple Whammy" sentence. As the year progresses, I can teach students how to add a detail sentence for each part of the "Whammy" and a Concluder. This would take place during red/green writing time. I will create sentence frames to post on the wall that students can use to guide them in how to do "Triple Whammy" writing.
For the remainder of October I will work on explanatory writing. I do a unit every year in which students write a book on "How to Make an Ice Cream Sundae". For our Halloween party, I make each student's sundae, according to the directions in each of their books. I am very literal, so it can be quite hilarious, especially when a student writes something like, "Put one scoop of ice cream on the bowl." During this month I will also focus on transition words.
For November and the first week of December my focus will be topic sentence paragraphs and simple essays, using the Puzzles in the Writing Game as a guide.
For the remainder of December I will work on letter writing, using the Letter Writing Puzzle in the Writing Game. This unit will culminate in letters to Santa.
In January and February my focus will be on narrative writing. Within the writing game I will use "adjective noun" and "descriptive sentence" complexors, as well as the Narrative Puzzle to work on writing narrative pieces.We will also spend time on "College Talk" verbs, and I will introduce students to conjunctions and compound sentences.
In March my focus will be research writing. I will introduce students to the "Paraphrase Complexor".
In April my focus will be Opinion Writing. I will consider using the "Argumentative Puzzler".
For the remainder of the year I will focus on more advanced essay puzzlers. I will also teach compound complex and mega complex sentences.
Day One: Introduce students to oral writing. (Question, Answer, Adders, Concluder will be posted on board.) Question: What was the best part about today? At the end of oral writing students will engage in 10 minute writing. Teacher will introduce focus skill of neatness and do red/green writing.
Note to self: At the end of oral writing pique the students' interest in the Wacky Star Fun Button by drawing the first line of a star on the board.
Note: Oral writing will continue on a daily basis as part of writing lessons or lessons in other subject areas.
Day Two: Use five step lesson plan to introduce students to what a sentence is. Have LA pic to display. Emphasize that from now on we will be answering all questions in complete sentences. During step three read-aloud short vowel phonic's story. Ask students to retell the story to their partner using the Two-Finger All-terrain Action Figure with Anti-gravity Boots Brain Toy. (Poster for each Brain Toy will be displayed in room.) For step five of the lesson, post the following sentence frame: The best thing about me is that I am ______________. (Students are encouraged to add several Adders.)
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: Today I learned _____________.
Day Three: Do Coach B's lesson on what a sentence is. Stop at the end of level one. (This lesson can be downloaded from the WBT website. It is under free e-books/common core.) Also play the Writing Game: Puzzle one and Complexor "and".
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: Today I learned ____________ and ____________________.
Day Four: Using LA Pic, review what a sentence is. Continue with Coach B's lesson on what a sentence is. Stop after level two. Play Writing game using the same puzzle and complexor as yesterday.
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: The best parts about today were ________________ and ______________. Students may also choose to use yesterday's sentence frame.
Day Five: Using LA Pic, review what a sentence is. Continue with Coach B's lesson through level three. Teacher will guide students through using each of the following Brain Toys to share with their partner what a sentence is: Hand Puppets, Air Blackboard, and Props. Play the Writing Game. Do Puzzle 3, Subject/Verb Agreement
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: See yesterday.
Day Six: Introduce students to the Genius Ladder (first two levels) using the following Blah sentence: My mom ran. (There is a free download about the Genius Ladder on the WBT website under free downloads.)
Do Five step lesson on capitalizing the beginning of a sentence. Display LA Pic.
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: After school today I am going to ____________ and ______________.
Day Seven: Begin with the Genius Ladder (first two levels) using the following sentence: A fireman burped.
Do five step lesson on end marks. Display the LA Pic.
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: Students may choose between any of the sentence frames learned with the word "and".
Day Eight: Play the Writing Game using the Complexor because. Be sue to teach the "because clapper". (See the Brainy Game for more information.)
Guide students through level three of the Genius Ladder, using the extender "because". Students will write as many sentences as they can think of at level three of the Genius Ladder.
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: See yesterday.
Day Nine: Begin with the Genius Ladder, orally doing the first three levels with the following sentence: My sister cried. Use the extender "because".
Use LA Pics posted on Power Pics Wall to quickly review sentence, capitalizing the first word of a sentence, and end marks. From Coach B's Common Core Free e-book on what a sentence is, put up the "Cartoon Writing" slide of a cat that says, "In the morning, I _____________." Guide students through an oral writing lesson with the question being, "What does the cat say that he does in the morning?" Introduce students to "adders" and the gesture for "adders" (See the Brainy Game.) Students follow up the answer to the question with "adders".
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: Over the weekend I __________ and _________________. (Today is the first day that students will be required to use adders. Teacher will not be doing red/green writing today.)
Day Ten: Look back at the Genius Ladder began yesterday: My sister cried. Review what students learned yesterday about adders, and guide students through orally completing the Genius Ladder. Students write an extender sentence, followed by as many adders as they can.
Note: During the first ten days of school, I also plan on introducing students to nouns, by playing Electronic Super Speed Grammar daily.
Oral Writing Sentence Frame: Teacher will give students red and green pens and they will do their own red/green writing on writing done yesterday.
During the remainder of September and the first week of October, my goal is to focus on teaching different extenders, through the use of the Genius Ladder. I will use the Writing Game to assist me with this. During oral writing I want to introduce students to Concluders, and teach the the Brainstorming Puzzles in the Writing Game. I would also like to spend some time on verbs, using Coach B's free Common Core e-book download and Electronic Super Speed Grammar.
Note: If I feel my students are ready, around the end of September or beginning of October, I would like to introduce students to the "Triple Whammy" sentence. As the year progresses, I can teach students how to add a detail sentence for each part of the "Whammy" and a Concluder. This would take place during red/green writing time. I will create sentence frames to post on the wall that students can use to guide them in how to do "Triple Whammy" writing.
For the remainder of October I will work on explanatory writing. I do a unit every year in which students write a book on "How to Make an Ice Cream Sundae". For our Halloween party, I make each student's sundae, according to the directions in each of their books. I am very literal, so it can be quite hilarious, especially when a student writes something like, "Put one scoop of ice cream on the bowl." During this month I will also focus on transition words.
For November and the first week of December my focus will be topic sentence paragraphs and simple essays, using the Puzzles in the Writing Game as a guide.
For the remainder of December I will work on letter writing, using the Letter Writing Puzzle in the Writing Game. This unit will culminate in letters to Santa.
In January and February my focus will be on narrative writing. Within the writing game I will use "adjective noun" and "descriptive sentence" complexors, as well as the Narrative Puzzle to work on writing narrative pieces.We will also spend time on "College Talk" verbs, and I will introduce students to conjunctions and compound sentences.
In March my focus will be research writing. I will introduce students to the "Paraphrase Complexor".
In April my focus will be Opinion Writing. I will consider using the "Argumentative Puzzler".
For the remainder of the year I will focus on more advanced essay puzzlers. I will also teach compound complex and mega complex sentences.
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