Coach B (a.k.a Chris Biffle) wrote, “Every Whole Brain classroom is a writing lab.” This is the first sentence that starts Chapter 5 and I couldn’t wait to share it!
“Every Whole Brain classroom
is a writing lab.”–Coach B./Chris Biffle
45. Etheria–write to an Etherian to explain what you’ve learned. What’s Etheria? Didn’t you get your book yet?
46. The Triple Whammy–
Whole Brain Teaching is ______,_______ and _______.
Filling in the above sentence with whatever you know or believe the subject is IS a Triple Whammy! This is a beginning of a three-part essay, with students writing more in depth about each blank above. Coach say that by the end of kindergarten, those littles show have it down pat if you’ve worked with them in steps throughout the year. Start with a subject described with one blank. Later, add another blank for 2 descriptions. Finally, give them the Triple Whammy set-up! Below are kindergarten, 1st grade and 5th grade classes doing their Triple Whammy oral writings.
47. Triple Whammy Ka-Ching–this is the three-part sentence that really gets your attention showing what students are learning in class. I can see using this one for standards that are posted in your room! This would totally knock the socks off your administrator or evaluator!
48. The Golden Triple Whammy Ka-Ching–(can it get any better than the last two?!) For this one, the student must give an opinion, statement or declaration about something and back it up with, you guessed it, 3 reasons! Brilliant!
49. Stomp that Error!–I love showing students the right and wrong way of doing things. I think, sometimes, this is more powerful then just presenting the correct way. When students see and error they celebrate by stomping their foot twice. Gimme and “Oh yeah” for a quick and quiet celebration!
50. Sloppy-Neat–Again, to follow #49, allow the students to show that they can write sloppy and write neat. If you’ve requested sloppy handwriting, make sure to praise them for following directions! Sloppy fades and Neat becomes more pronounced.
51. Hawk and Gopher–this is Coach B.’s answer to grading essay papers…have the students do it! The teacher writes on the board what they are to be looking for and the students switch papers, look, mark errors. After many rounds of this, the paper gets back to the owner then the owner has tons of feedback. Allow the owner to challenge anything s/he believes is not an error, while starring every error agreed upon. The teacher makes the student accountable for recognizing her/her mistakes…yes, it is part of their grade! If they know this then it’s more valuable to them to look at their papers like a hawk!
52. Red/Green Dotty–Coach B. suggests all students write for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 more minutes in the afternoon. While writing, the teacher goes around looking for errors (marked with red) and proper use of a skill (marked green); all predetermined before the writing time and shared with the students.
53. Electronic SuperSpeed Grammar–Teach your students grammar the WBT way with interactive and fun cartoon graphics! These are slide shows that may be downloaded from the Whole Brain Teaching Website for this one. Click here, sign up/in for free and look in the “free ebooks” section to find and download. This also goes for the next two…
54. The Whole Brain Writing Game–Adapt this into your current writing program and watch your students become engaged with the learning of writing like never before! Go get your free download. Click here!
On page 101 of the book, Coach B. gives us a breather to think about all that we’ve learned thus far and tells you the problems teachers are constantly coming to him with and he has his troubleshooting answers! Check it out!
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