Today will be my second day doing Whole Brain Teaching. Do I need to give myself a point
if one or two of them (out of seven) don't give me a Mighty oh yeah or a
mighty groan in the beginning? Because I can see a power struggle starting already if I
"force" them to do it in the first few days.

Thanks,

Diane

Hi,
I had the same problem, and I solved it by telling them that they had done so wel that I actually wanted to grant them a point, baut I couldn't because not everybody had joined in the mighty oh yeah. So the next time I put a mark on the scoreboard the students really urged the two spoilsports to participate, and they did.

When I introduced the professor reading game with my second graders they were a bit hesitant. I showed a portion of the utube video and that seemed to help. Maybe you could show them a portion of the video of college students participating. Just a thought!

Diane, this shouldn't be a power struggle for you. If you're using scoreboard, and you're playing for something the students are eager to earn, then they should be interested in following along. If you have a couple students who absolutely will not participate then make a separate part of the scoreboard for these students and label it "independents." If anyone in the independent group misbehaves then everyone in that group earns a frownie face. All they need to do is say "I don't want to be in the independent group" to be part of the whole class again. In this way you are forcing them to make a choice and also to be polite about it.

rhopple wrote:


I agree that the Scoreboard should avoid most power struggles. For the few that refuse to participate at first, just take away a point every time it happens and let them be the villain. For some kids, the peer pressure will be enough for them to start participating. Make sure and keep the +/-3 rule in effect though by giving points liberally for things the rest of the class is doing well.

I think maybe you should hesitate before doing Independents so early. IMHO, you might want to let a few weeks go by first. You won't get everyone on board in these first few weeks, but once most of the class has "bought in," having Independents will be more effective. It's important to note that the Independents must always lose the Scoreboard game while the rest of the class wins, and that to get out of independents, they must ask you politely (as Ross said), and it must be at the end of the day (in other words, they can't just come in the next morning and go "forget this, I want back." It has to be a thought-out decision that they express to you maturely, or you won't accept it.

I like what you have all said. Knowing they won't all be perfect at first is a big help, because it tells me that it's not that I'm doing something wrong. Today was my second day, and it went better. The students didn't balk at all about doing it. But there is one student who still won't do it. He said "we'll still get the reward anyway." That tells me I've been way too liberal in rewarding them. But the other kids said, "no she won't, because she didn't yesterday." Yay! They're catching on. I bet the peer pressure is going to get this guy eventually - and my consistency.

One thing you don't want to forget is that you can't have them win too often, especially in the beginning. If you play until your first recess, and then again up to lunch and then for the last part of the day, that is three times you have played in a day. They can't win the first day, and they probably shouldn't win the second day...but they'll get closer to winning. It's all about balancing out how you want it to turn out, remember the best part about the scoreboard is that it's rigged. You choose when they win.

Also, your challenging student is why we have these games. Don't worry about him right now, get everyone else on your side. We have more levels for him later. Keep up what you are doing for the next few weeks, and then move on to Levle 2. Check out the download page and get a copy of Teaching Challenging Students and the resr of your class too! This will be a great resource.

ChrisRekstad wrote:


Chris, I remember you talking about the "levels" at your talk, but I haven't found them referred to anyplace in the online resources. Am I missing them?

Jason
You know they are not listed by levels in the ebook, they are kind of spread out throughout. Level 1 is section 13, level 2 is section 19, level 3 is section 24, level 4 is the independents which I don't see in the book, and level 5 is in section 31. We'll have to put them up as a new thread. Thanks Jason for bringing that up.

Independents is in section 18, though it doesn't go into as much detail as you did at the seminar. I've used that to great effect, by the way, though I actually skipped some of the levels. My kids don't really give guff at all, so the guff counter wouldn't really be appropriate. However, I do have a few that don't participate very well, and Independents has worked well for them.

Chris, I'm a little confused about how often to play. You're talking about the scoreboard, right? Shouldn't you be doing it all the time, whenever someone does something they shouldn't, you give yourself a point, and when they do something right, they get a point? I've only got my groups for 30 minutes at a time, and I've been averaging about 8 points on either side during that time. Am I doing it wrong?

Another question about points: one of my groups was so good today that I struggled to give myself a point. This is a group that is usually very disruptive, so I was shocked. In the end, they won by three. Is it okay to have them win by that much?

At first you will have a lot of points on both sides. That is good and normal. As time goes by you will get a better feel for what exactly you want to reward for, and the points will probably go down a little.

Just be careful to never let them win or lose by more than 3. Keep the rewards small. That way even if they become perfect little angels you don't end up over rewarding, and they stay hungry for the game.

dianedj wrote:


What Chris was talking about was how often you end the Scoreboard (and potentially win a prize). In your case, it's irrelevant, since you have your kids for such a short period of time. You might even consider continuing the Scoreboard through a whole week before giving a prize, so you can make the prize bigger (like 10 minutes of a game for example).

When you have a group that is doing really well, you can do two things. One, up the bar for getting points. Another trick that might be hard for you given your small groups is inventing a "phantom bad student." Just say "oops, I see someone not paying attention," and give yourself a point. No need to indicate who it was, the students won't ask. Like I said, it might not work in such a small group, but it's worth a try.

Oooooh, sneaky. But keeps the teacher in control. I like that.

Yeah, just remember that the Scoreboard is not actually a reflection of how good they are doing, but rather a tool to keep them engaged. If you think of it this way, you won't feel bad about giving or taking points that they don't really deserve.