What Is This Thing Called Whole Brain Teaching?

I was on pinterest looking through the education pins as a typical teacher and pinterest addict would do, when I came across a video in which the pinner stated the following: “The management strategies she uses during the first two minutes of this video are AWESOME!! I also love all the kinesthetic learning strategies she uses.” So, of course I had to watch it. The pinner’s description turned out to be incredibly accurate.

The video was of Rachel Freundlich, a first grade teacher at Wilson Elementary School in Wyoming, teaching her students a lesson about using a number line. The video’s title was Whole Brain Teaching: Grade 1 Classroom. I was very impressed by the methods she used and wanted to know more so I did a bit of research on the topic.

Rachel Freundlich's YouTube Video Mentioned Above:

Whole Brain Teachers of America is a grassroots, education reform movement begun in 1999 by three Yucaipa, California teachers: Chris Biffle (college), Jay Vanderfin (elementary school) and Chris Rekstad (elementary school). It is a research based system that utilizes all areas of the brain, keeps children engaged throughout their lessons, and helps them retain much more information than the standard lecture-discussion model.

Whole Brain Teaching is a highly interactive form of instruction that delivers information to students in short “chunks.” Kids then teach what they have just learned to their partners, using hand-gestures to help remember specific vocabulary.  While students teach each other, the teacher walks around the room to discover who understands the lesson and who needs more instruction. Research shows that children retain more information when they have an opportunity to put it into their own words and use gestures to emphasize key instructional units.

I’m intrigued by this method for several reasons. One being the behavior management aspect; the children are actively engaged in their learning therefore there are less behavior problems. I’m also fond of the repetition of key educational concepts. Additionally, I like the “Teach-Okay,” where students get the opportunity to teach their classmates what they just learned. Most of all I love that it looks FUN and that is always my goal.

Obviously, I’m still learning about Whole Brain Teaching. However, by what I’ve gathered from the videos I’ve watched and articles I’ve read on the subject, it’s something worth trying with your kiddos to see how they respond to this type of teaching.

I have included some links below if you are interesting in learning more.

Rachel Freundlich's YouTube Channel

Chris Biffle's YouTube Channel

Rachel Freundlich's Blog: Teaching and Learning Together

Whole Brain Teaching Website

Teachers Pay Teachers Whole Brain Freebies:

                                                                

Whole Teaching Posters    Whole Brain Teaching Rules Posters

                               

                                             

Whole Brain Teaching Callbacks Poster Set

Book Club Crafts

This summer I had the opportunity to teach a week long Book Club class to a small group of students that will be entering 1st and 2nd grade. Below you will find information about the books that I used and the crafts we made.

Monday 

Book:

Pick it up here.

Book description : Ira is thrilled to spend the night at Reggie’s, until his sister raises the question of whether he should take his teddy bear.What would Reggie think? Of course Ira’s big enough to sleep without his beloved bear . . . isn’t he?

Craft:

We made our own little teddy bears. 

Materials Used: bear cut-out template, brown felt, scissors, craft eyes, black marker, cotton balls and fabric glue

Process: Trace bear shape on 2 pieces of brown felt, cut out shapes, position eyes and draw face and other optional decorations one one of the pieces of felt, use fabric glue and glue along the edge of half of the bear shape and wait a few minutes to dry, stuff in cotton balls and glue the remaining edges of the bear together 

Pick up a copy of the bear template here.

Tuesday

Book:

Pick it up here.

Book description: After her castle and clothes are destroyed by the dragon, Princess Elizabeth, dressed only in a paper bag, sets out to rescue Prince Ronald, who was taken captive.

Craft:

We made paper bag clothing.

Materials Used: large lawn bags (available at Walmart), scissors, crayons, markers, construction paper and other craft items such as buttons and ribbon if desired

Process: hold bag up to student to help determine where the holes should be cut, adjust length by cutting off any excess bag, make a cut up the back of the bag for the dress and up the front for a shirt in or to make the garment easy to take on and off

Wednesday

Book:

Pick it up here.

Book description: The kids in Room 207 take advantage of their teacher's good nature until she disappears and they are faced with a vile substitute.

Craft:

We made Miss Viola Swamp masks.

Materials Used: Miss Viola Swamp face and hair template, scissors, glue, white and black construction paper, crayons, yard or elastic string, and a hole punch

Process: trace face template on white paper and hair on black paper, draw on face with crayons, glue face and hair onto plate, make one hole punch on each side of the mask and attach yarn or elastic string 

Pick up Miss Viola Swamp face template here.

Pick up Miss Viola Swamp hair template here.

Thursday 

Book:

Pick it up here.

Book description: Camilla Cream loves lima beans, but she never eats them. Why? Because the other kids in her school don't like them. And Camilla Cream is very, very worried about what other people think of her. In fact, she's so worried that she's about to break out in… a bad case of stripes! 

Craft:

We colored pictures of ourselves as if we had a bad case of stripes.

Materials Used: camera, Photoshop program, computer, printer, copy paper, crayons, glue

Process: I first took pictures of my students, I then downloaded them on my computer, and used Photoshop to convert the photos in a coloring page. For a step by step video of how this was done, click here. Then, print out pictures and have students decorate them with their version of "stripes." We then mounted these pictures on a piece of construction paper.

Friday

Book:

Pick it up here.

Book description: Jimmy's boa constrictor wreaks havoc on the class trip to a farm. 

Craft: 

We made our own pet boas. 

Materials Used: green duck tape, green bulletin board paper, scissors, markers, red ribbon

Process: lay green bulletin board paper on floor or long desk, decide how long your snake should be, slowly lay duck tape down on top on the paper, cut out paper around tape, round off face and tail with scissors, tape on a piece of red ribbon that has been cut out into a forked tongue shape, have students decorate with markers

If you would like to see my lesson plan/parent letter for this Book Club, click here.

Occupy Kindergarten

I just stumbled across this video and felt compelled to share it with you. In this video Kurt Schwengel talks about his movement "Occupy Kindergarten." The goal of this movement is to take Kindergarten back and put the fun back in Kindergarten. It's inspiring, entertaining, and informative. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Writing: Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Stories

Recently, I had the pleasure of teaching a week long Young Readers and Writers class to a group of students that will be entering 1st and 2nd grade. The largest project that the students created that week was their very own version of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.
Pick up a copy of this great book here.

I know that many teachers do this activity with their students but I wanted to take it a bit further and get them  more involved in the editing, revising and publishing aspect of writing. Earlier on in the week we talked a lot about "juicy" words, or synonyms for overused words. Rachel Lynette has a wonderful resource for this on Teachers Pay Teachers. I suggest you check it out here,

My students absolutely loved using these posters to make their writing "juicier." By using this wonderful resource my students were able to come up with titles such as, Olivia and the Lousy, Awful, Not Good, Terrible Day, Melanie and the No Good, Awful, Miserable, Very Bad Day, Zijun and the Awful, Dreadful, Lousy, Very Bad Day, William and the No Good, Nasty, Bummer, Lousy Day, and Henley and the Awful, Terrible, Down in the Dumps, Miserable Day. 

They then brainstormed about some things that could happen to them to make their day terrible. I gave the students the choice of either drawing pictures or adding text about these horrible events. They could work on both at the same time if they chose but they must be done on a separate piece of paper to eliminate the need to redraw a picture or illustration because of the need to edit text. I then started a separate word document on my computer for each of my students and had them choose a font for their book. We discussed how different font styles often gives a text a different "feel" and "attitude." We looked at some literature out of our classroom library to give us some examples of this. After my students had come up with at least 5 upsetting events that could happened to them and created pictures to match their text, they chose some transition words to help their story flow from one event to the next. For a resource on transition words that's helpful to students, click here.

Students then typed in the text to their books, and printed out the pages. Then, they cut out and glued on the illustrations they had created to match the text. It just so happened that we are lucky enough to have color copier and that is what we used to create our final copies. We then bound our books with ribbon and staples. I am very happy with the way they turned out and the students were extremely proud to show off their published work. 

Here is Henley's published book, Henley and the Awful, Terrible, Down in the Dumps, Miserable Day.

Open publication - Free publishing - More awful

If you'd like to view my daily lesson plan document for the Young Readers and Writers I taught click here.