Major Fun with Electronic SuperSpeed Grammar

I thought my class and I were having fun with Electronic SuperSpeed 1000.  Not nearly as much fun as we are having with Electronic SuperSpeed Grammar.  Not only does it drive each concept home (One of my students piped up and said, "OK Miss N, I think we know what a noun is by now!!!"), but it is a lot of fun to do.  So far we have covered nouns, verbs, sentences and adjectives.  I was the most excited about the Sentence lesson because it is always so difficult to get the concept of a sentence across to first graders. This lesson breaks it down and makes it very simple to follow.  Furthermore, A LOT of talking is required.  The sentences that we are coming up with are hilarious, too.  The laughter and smiles all around the room are so much fun for me and the kids.  Here are a few examples:

The delicate bird sang.
The enormous, angry teacher breathed fire.
The precious diamond sparkled.
The spicy pepperoni pizza burned my mouth.

At the end of the day, before my students are dismissed each of them must tell me a sentence following the adjective, noun, verb pattern.  This has really helped spice up their writing and vocabulary.  I give out Super Improver stickers for expecially excellent sentences.  I LOVE Electronic SuperSpeed Grammar.  The ecstatic, gleeful teacher danced with joy because her students were writing such amazing sentences!!

ESL Students and Whole Brain Teaching

This week I have been focused on supporting one of my students who has an assistant for various reasons.  His mother wrote me a long e-mail wondering about everything that we were doing in the classroom to support his learning and requesting other concepts, strategies or resources she and her husband could work with or use with him at home.  In her e-mail she described him as an ESL student.  As I was describing to her the various ways Whole Brain Teaching helped her son with his learning in the classroom, I began to think about how WBT and ESL are connected!  ESL students are enormously supported by the techniques in Whole Brain Teaching.

ESL (English as a Second Language) students are students who speak a different language at home and therefore require additional support at school in order to reach their full learning potential in a primarily English speaking school system.  ESL students are mainly challenged by speaking, reading, and writing (http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/esl/standards.pdf).

Whole Brain Teaching supports ESL students by encouraging a lot of communication between students and teacher, as well as student and student, during each lesson.  The Teach/OK! requires students to listen, repeat one another, help one another with language, etc.  Directions are given by teachers in short, succinct, usually one-word cues, that the students then repeat three times.  For example, the teacher may say, "Seats!" to which the students reply, "Seats, seats, seats!" Not only is this encouraging listening, it is providing English language practice three times!!!

Whole Brain Teaching programs such as Electronic Superspeed 100/1000 and Biffytoons support ESL learners by providing bright pictures and gestures along with sight words to helps students memorize new vocabulary.  The Crazy Professor Reading games requires students to read passages several times, ask one another questions regarding the text, and all in an entertaining manner.  This repetition and fun is excellent practice for ESL students.

The Whole Brain Teaching Genius Ladder encourages ESL students to speak orally in complete sentences while they build up their sentence complexity and eventually create their own Genius Paragraph.  Once this skill is mastered it can be translated into writing, providing added practice.

What makes Whole Brain Teaching different than other methods of support for ESL students?  Talking - WBT requires constant communication and repetition!!!!  Students not only listen, everyone is engaged and participating on a constant basis.  What could be better for an ESL student, then practicing the skill you need all the time?

When I first began teaching I remember my university professors and other teachers telling me the best thing to do for ESL learners was to sit them next to a student who loved to talk - students would pick up English in no time.  With WBT, think of all the extra talking that is encouraged throughout the day!!  Can I get an OOOOOhhhhhhh Yeahhhhh!!!!!!

Student Leadership Thoughts

So over the last couple of days I have had two student leaders.  When I first started using student leadership I felt like I needed to give everyone a turn at being a leader.  Then, I read Farrah Shipley's blog and saw that she had 4 or 5 main student leaders.  Each student leader was chosen based on true, quality leadership and not just because everyone should get a turn.  And why shouldn't those who exhibit strong leadership qualities be recognized and rewarded?  Not everyone has the skill and therefore until they prove worthy only those demonstrating said qualities will become student leaders.  That is not to say that I won't help students build those qualities of leadership within other students - still, only those who step up to the plate will lead.  Hopefully, this will boost the confidence of those leading, as well as provide a role model and an inspiration for the other students.  From now on, student leaders will be chosen because they deserve to lead and not just because it is their turn!

A Student Leader Arises

All year I have been waiting for a student leader to really shine and be confident when leading the class.  Students were either too meek or too silly.  It just wasn't meshing with the flow of the class so I had resorted to continuing to lead myself.... until yesterday! A brave, confident, commanding student leader arose from the masses of students below to lead my class.  He was clear and dynamic.  He inspired energy and enthusiasm from my often subdued (during a lesson) and passive class.  It was teacher heaven at first Class/Yes!  I retrieved my WBT button that had been patiently waiting to be used all year and fastened it to this young man's shirt.  He was so proud and continued to lead and inspire all day.  What an amazing Whole Brain Teaching moment...oooohhhhh yeaaaah!

Autism and Whole Brain Teaching

Wednesday and Friday of this week I had the pleasure of having a lovely lady from POPARD (Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders) visit my classroom to observe one of my students.  She was so helpful and knowledgeable.  I appreciated her feedback.

When she heard me talk about Whole Brain Teaching to a parent, she was intrigued and asked me for more information.  She became interested in the program as she watched my student teacher teach the class using some of the WBT techniques.

In the staff room at lunch, she found and read my article - she was very complimentary to me and wanted to know more.

At the end of the day she mentioned how wonderful she thought WBT was for children with autism.  She loved how students taught their neighbour during the Teach/OK, as well as the gestures and visuals that went along with concepts.  She expressed that she was so happy to have learned so much.  I was inspired so I did a little refresher research on autism.

Autism is known as a spectrum disorder; autistic characteristics are expressed differently in each child.  Children with autism have difficulties with social and language skills; they learn a lot less from their environment and, therefore, benefit from a structured learning environment (http://www.yourguidetoautism.com).

Whole Brain Teaching provides a variety of different teaching techniques that focus on using all different learning styles and multiple intelligences, thus meeting the learning needs of all the possible variances on the spectrum.  Currently, I have taught three children with different variations of autism.  Parents and teachers have commented on how well these students have benefited from WBT.

The Teach/OK! encourages social interaction and the development of language skills.  Speaking clearly and in complete sentences is encouraged.  Voice tone and inflection is practiced and utilized daily.  Students question each other, providing practice with reflective questioning and comprehension.

The repetition that WBT techniques suggest, such as Seats, Seats, Seats and Bodies Up! provides focused, clear directions for students who struggle with language.

Repetition and revisitation of key curricular concepts using WBT Power Pix and the WBT Power Pix wall ensure many opportunities for learning and review, as well as a rich visual environment.

A WBT model classroom encourages structure and thrives on routine - although there are many variations in style (Class! Yes!  Classity Class!), these changes are also consistent.

To all teachers: Whole Brain Teaching will change your life, and will benefit all your students, including your students with autism!  Check out the following posts on the Whole Brain Teaching forum from other teachers and their experience with WBT and children with autism/asperger's:

http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/Fifth-Grade/7625-Autism-and-WBT.html

http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/General-Education/7264-WBT-and-autism.html

http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/Elementary-School/3617-Asperger-s-and-Autistic-Syndrome.html

Electronic Superspeed 1000

Well hello Electronic Superspeed 1000!!!  My students LOVED this!  They couldn't wait to get faster and faster.   They managed up to the end of 300 words.  Then I pitted the boys against the girls.  My favourite part was pretending to dress up as a super hero at the beginning and the silly words at the end of each 100 words.  Can I get a Shazoinga-Boinga!!

Swap Day

Today was swap day at our school - yes!  All the primary teachers drew an intermediate classroom to teach for the day and vice versa.  I drew the Grade 5 classroom and the Grade 6 teacher taught my Grade 1's.  It is amazing how many little details go into planning for a sub - especially for a teacher that you work with - I kind of wanted to impress her with my skills:)  Luckily, I had the WBT Sub guide created by the lovely Deb Weigel.

I have to admit I was a bit of a nervous wreck.  However, I was confident Whole Brain Teaching would save me and....of course...it did!!!  This particular class had already done a little bit of WBT.  They knew the Class/Yes!, the five rules, the Teach/OK! already.    I taught the Scoreboard (the incentive was 1 minute early to lunch) and reviewed five rules within minutes.  We recited the rules.  I talked a little bit about how the brain works and the importance of keeping the entire brain active through gestures, visuals, speaking and fun.   Then I taught Bodies Up!  and Seats!  Finally, I added the Woo! and the It's Cool, Hand and Eyes, Mirror and Switch!.  The kids were really into it.  They kept on getting faster and more in sync with one another.  It was really cool.  I did have to ping pong a bit and practice a few times but it was still super exciting.

The first lesson was on Sentence Fluency from 6+1 Writing Traits.  I taught it like a Power Pix with gestures.  Then I had them teach their neighbour using the Teach/OK.  We did a really neat sentence building activity and I used Papers! and the count down to hand out and collect everything.

After recess, two students came up to the front and lead the class in the rules.  One even did it using a silly voice.  In Math, I had a few students teach the class.  There was some really cool teachable moments and I even threw in a quick mini-lesson on the equal sign with gestures.

In Social Studies, I taught the four requirements needed to vote in an election.  As a class we came up with gestures to match and the students taught their neighbour.  I even still remember them - lol!  Alas, they lost the Scoreboard before lunch so we had to try again in the afternoon.

In Science, I taught about the circulatory system using an analogy about cars and highways to describe arteries and veins, gestures included.  One students had the definition down so she taught the class.  At the end of the period there was a little time so I taught them my version of Mind Soccer and I used the material from the previous chapter on respiration for the questions.

The rest of the day was pretty zen.  They did win the Scoreboard for the end of the day so they got some D.P.A. (Daily Physical Activity) time out on the playground.  I really made them work for it - no calling out and staying in their seats was big!  All in all, WBT and the day was brilliant.