Whole+Brain+Teaching

=Tami in CO= [|www.ariosostudio.com] tm13769@gmail.com I've been bad about not using Whole Brain Teaching this week. I did use Class Yes and the scoreboard, but I slacked off using Teach Okay. I didn't think anything of it, but I have noticed that my students have not been able to perform well. I watched some of videos (yes, I record my lessons every day) and I rushed through going over the targets and the success criteria. On top of that I never gave my students time to process what I was saying. I just assumed they knew what to do and how to do it. Big mistake. Teach Okay really does make a difference and it's important because it gives the students time to process what the teacher just said.

Teach Okay is where the teacher says "Teach" and the students respond with "Okay" then they quickly turn to their neighbor and teach (same as partner share). I really like Teach Okay because it not only gives process time, but it gives me a chance to wander the room to listen in on what they are saying. If they don't get it, I can pull them back together as a whole class and go over it again. Teach Okay also makes the students accountable for their learning because they have to be able to tell their partner what we are discussing. Sometimes I will randomly call on a student when we're back to the whole class and ask them what did their partner say. This means the students really need to focus and listen to their partner.

I know some of this sounds time consuming and a waste of time, but I learned this week how valuable it really is. I will now have to reteach this week's lesson next week because my students really didn't get it. I know because we used the Expressions (clickers) to answer some simple questions about what we have been working on and my students failed to answer the questions correctly. I didn't save any time by rushing through and skipping some steps.

My teaching target for tomorrow is: I can slow down when teaching and allow my students to process what I am teaching by using Teach Okay.

Success Criteria -Look at Largo the turtle to help remind myself to slow down -After reading the learning target do a Teach Okay (have a student read the target) -Read through the Success Criteria. Do a Teach Okay after reading a step. Do this for all the steps.

A Success Criteria is a list of what students need to do or to know to accomplish the learning target. This is an Expeditionary Learning component. It really does help the students to know what to do.

It can be done both ways. When I am teaching a new vocabulary word then I will have them "teach" at the same time. When We are discussing learning targets and success criteria then they will each take a turn. This is when you add "Switch" to the mix. You just randomly say "Switch" to the class and they will say "Okay". The students figure out on their own who teaches first. They are pretty good about doing this and they know if they can't figure it out quickly that I will give a sad face on the scoreboard.