Genius Ladder

       How do you help your students become better writers - the genius ladder! The genius ladder helps turn boring, blah sentences into genius paragraphs.  We start with a blah sentence - a 3 word sentence and make it a spicy sentence by adding an adjective. After that, we run it up the genius ladder by adding an extender - my students love using their brainies, especially the because clapper.  The students practice each level orally before they do any writing which helps my ELL students (and all the students) to get ideas for writing.  I love the practice of doing oral writing first and then writing. It has really raised the writing of my students.
     Today, the genius ladder came in handy, I was working with students on their writing and we were talking about adding details and I showed the students how to take a blah sentence and make it into an extender sentence.  I do not have the genius ladder template but I will be getting it ready so that each student can have their own.  
    The genius ladder is available from Whole Brain Teaching as a free download under free ebooks.  How do you help students add details to their writing?

Scoreboard

           I am loving the new scoreboard levels.  The scoreboard is one of the first strategies that I implemented and it is so effective.  Now, it is new and improved - just like many things with WBT, it is constantly being updated.  My students have responded well to the scoreboard and it has helped to improve whole class behavior on a daily basis.  The downfall, of course, is that kids become used to it and then, it becomes less effective.  Coach B. has come up with a great idea - scoreboard levels!!!! As soon as the students walked in the door this morning, they noticed the new scoreboard which is labeled Base Camp and has K (for kindergarten) on the frownie side and grade 4 on the smiley side. We are 2nd graders so, the scoreboard reflects 2 grades lower for frownies and 2 grades higher for the smiley.  Throughout the day, students earn tally marks on each side and at the end of the day, we check out the score.  If we are ahead - more smileys than frownies - then we "won"!  
    The new scoreboard has students leveling up a scoreboard after earning 10 wins! Some levels have bonus points and as the class moves up, brainies are incorporated.  Check out the WBT broadcast {here} along with many other webcasts.  My students are excited for a new challenge with the scoreboard. Are you trying out the new scoreboard levels? If so, how is it going?

Super Improvers Team

     I am loving my super improvers wall and so are my students! Last year when I started using Whole Brain Teaching, I started using some of the different techniques and strategies. I did not use the super improver team because I did not have room for it and I felt that it was too close to the end of the year to try.  This year, I was very excited to start the super improver team and dedicated bulletin board space to the wall.  Here is a picture:

     This is a picture from the beginning of the year with everyone's name on white cards. After about 10 days, I introduced the super improver team to my students.  I have all of the levels except for the beginner level turned around backwards to build anticipation.  I told the students that they are working on improvement - not on having the best grades or best behavior.  They were very excited when the first stars went on the cards and I made them work hard for those stars.  Now that the wall has been active for several weeks, there are several students that are close to moving to the next level. It amazes me how excited they are about getting a sharpie star on their card. They frequently check their card and they know how close they are getting to the next star.  

    I love how easy it is and I have happily abandoned my classroom dollars that I have used for years!! I gave up a treasure box years ago because of the expense and I never could make a clip chart work for me - I would always forget to have kids change the cards. I am also loving that the Super Improver Wall is positive - the students can't lose stars! 

   Sometimes a student will ask me what they get for moving up a level and my response is that they get to move up a level, like a video game AND they get to take the old card home and celebrate at home as well as getting a 10 finger woo! The students are quite happy with that and of course, when they get to a higher level (at level 4), there just be a surprise - which they are dying to know about but they will have to wait. :)