Whole Brain Wednesday: Complete Sentences!

Hey everyone! Sorry for missing Whole Brain Wednesday last week... all of a sudden it was Friday, the week totally got away with me!

Today I'm going to expand on my last WBT Wednesday on Brainies. Check it out here if you haven't yet!

In my Brainy post, I talked about some of the awesome gestures I've already used and plan to use this year. Here's a cool graphic of ALL the brainies.

One of the brianies I said I plan on using is "complete sentence please." I'm going to talk about why that brainy is SO important and why you should use it in your class (along with loads of other WBT stuff too of course!)

The gesture is super simple, just a hand cupped behind the ear... but its importance is HUGE!

Think about it, how many times a day do you ask a student (either aloud or in your brain) to use a complete sentence? I taught my kiddos to use T.A.P. (Turn it around, answer it, prove it) when they are answering a question aloud and in writing, but despite the acronym and the simple gestures Mrs. R. taught me (remember her? Yes I steal borrow a lot from her) to go along with T.A.P. I still constantly have kiddos who start an answer with "because" or give me a one word answer to questions... using my 3-part gesture for T.A.P. was not something I had time to do to get a kiddo to quickly realize they were not speaking in a complete sentence... so... the "complete sentence please!" gesture emerges to save the day!

Think of how important it is for kiddos to learn to speak and write in complete sentences... and this gesture (if used diligently) is going to be the repetition, motion, visual cue to get students from one word answers or "because" sentences starters to complete and meaningful sentences.

Okay, so you might be saying, well great, but students might still give a weak answer in a complete sentence... so really how much will this help? To those of you, I introduce: detail adder. It's exactly what it sounds like... a gesture to encourage students to add a detail!

Then students continue their sentence by adding a detail. The simplest way for them to do this is by using "because."

This might seem a little confusing to someone who has never been in a WBT class or hasn't watched any WBT videos... so let me give you an example...

Teacher: Who is the villain in The Three Little Pigs?
Student: The Wolf.
Teacher:

Student: The Wolf is the villain in The Three Little Pigs.
Teacher:

Student: The Wolf is the villain in The Three Little Pigs

because he blows down the first 2 pigs' houses.

"The wolf" vs. "The wolf is the villain in The Three Little Pigs because he blows down the first 2 pigs' houses."
You'd pick the 2nd one right? Me too!

Now I'm not saying this will happen overnight... your kiddos will DEFINITELY need practice practice practice with these gestures, but, let's be honest, you probably spend just as much time reminding students to use complete sentences (or wishing they would!) so why not try a few of these brainies to help your students speak and write in complete & detailed sentences!

Can you see why Chris Biffle says WBT leads to teacher heaven!?
Have a wonderful Wednesday & tune in next week for another Whole Brain Wednesday.

Whole Brain Wednesday: Brainies!

Today I'll be talking about Brainies!

What are brainies? Well, they used to be called Brain Toys but are now referred to by the Whole Brain Teaching founder Chris Biffle as Brainies.

The Brainies cover 3 categories: critical thinking, grammar, punctuation & specials.
Each brainy is a gesture that stands for something under one of these categories.

Here's a graphic with ALL the brainies. You can find it & 196 additional pages of information about brainies FOR free at www.wholebrainteaching.com the download is called The Brainy Game.

There are so many brainies! I'm going to talk about some that I used this past year in my class and how we used them. I plan on using many more this year and more often. I tend to refer to the use of these as "Oral Writing." I'm sure I didn't come up with it, but it's what I've adopted because it really is a wonderful way for students to practice skills aloud/in gestures that they will use when writing.

Here are some ways we used Brainies last year...

When we said the date:

The student who was picked to do the calendar would use the Brainies to share the date with the class. Then, while the student was flipping over the calendar number card, the class would say the date aloud while using Brainy gestures.

When we talked about our reading:

 We used the because clapper a lot when discussing literature to prove our thought, opinion, answer. This gesture will be included in my T.A.P. rubric next year which is used for answering questions about reading and stands for: Turn it Around (gesture*hold one hand flat, with pointer finger make a circle above hand), Answer it (gesture*hold one hand flat, pretend to write on flat hand), Prove it (old gesture*hold one hand flat, stamp down with other hand... new Brainy gesture*because clapper). I think using the because clapper will reinforce that when students use a because clapper they are further explaining or proving their answer.

We also used Brainies when comparing and contrasting:

We do a lot of comparing and contrasting, and using these gestures, helped my kiddos remember that compare meant they were alike and contrast meant they were different.

Some of the brainies I'd like to use this year are...

For example:

 

And:

Connection:

But/However:

Quotation Marks:

Detail Adder (this gesture asks students to add more details to their answer):

Topic Sentence:

Adjective:

Help Me (this gesture gives students a simple way to ask for help when they need it especially when answering a question aloud or working with a partner):

Complete Sentence Please (this gives the teacher a gesture to remind students to speak in a complete sentence):

 

I am excited to use all of these Brainies this year with my students. I have found over the last year and a half using WBT that when there is a gesture associated with learning, students retain the knowledge much more easily and have more fun! I think using a lot of these brainies will be a great way for students to practice their writing orally. If they can use gestures, speak in complete sentences, add details to answers aloud they can do the same in writing.

I hope you enjoyed this week's Whole Brain Wednesday and will consider using some Brainies in your classroom this year!