Has anyone used WBT to teach reading to a heterogeneous class of first graders? The students range from non-readers to fairly fluent readers. When using WBT, do you think it is always best to teach the entire class at the same time, or can WBT be used with different ability level reading groups?

If your reading curriculum has different stories for different reading levels, but use the same theme and the same vocabulary, you could teach everyone about those two components. You could use Teach-Okay for that. You could use it for any whole-group mini-lessons, such as different strategies. You could also use it for when you do read alouds. If you want to use it in small groups who are on the same book, you can do it that way, too. I teach ESL to small groups. I've only just begun using Teach-Okay with my second grade group, but it, and they, are working great! After spending time teaching them how to work with partners, I did it to teach them some factual information about the story we were going to read. This week I'll use it to review Teach-Okay!

Thanks, Diane. Your ideas are very helpful and encouraging. I won't start teaching until this summer, but I'll keep these strategies in mind. I'm glad to hear that your ESL students are responding so well!

I've been using WBT with my first grade homeroom and RtI group for one week (since Spring Break) and have found it to be really useful with my class (which is comprised of 17/20 ELLs). I use it whenever the students are receiving direct instruction on the carpet. Mirroring my gestures and giving them time to teach each other has kept them engaged especially for reading comprehension. When I'm differentiating in small groups I still use gestures and ask them to mirror me, and I also do "teach-okay" with their partner; but I don't use the smilies and frownies or the "class-yes" since I feel that is more useful for whole-group. The Speed 100 HFW game I use in small group as well for now since they're still learning how to take turns reading.

Your success with using Whole Brain Teaching with your 1st grade reading groups is very encouraging. What do you usually have the rest of the class working on when you're working with one of the reading groups? Are they doing independent work, or working with partners?

When I'm working with a small group for literacy the rest of the class is doing workshop. Our district is currently using the Imagine It! curriculum which is the new Open Court. For differentiating instruction the curriculum asks that you add workshop to your literacy schedule. My workshop usually lasts about 40 minutes which means I can always see at least two to three groups in one session. Workshop is similar to centers except the students receive differentiated activities that are at their specific level working on specific targets. For example, today's workshop will run like this:
9:15 -- students get with their DRA level group (there are four homogenous groups)
with their groups, students work on a "Must Do" at a specific location in the classroom (either computers/listening center, library, carpet, back table, or the teacher's desk). Students know their Must Do is something that they must do in order to choose a "May Do". For 20 minutes students work on their target. Their target might be sight word practice, reading just right books, working on consonant blends, compound words, handwriting, paragraph writing, etc. They work on their same target in a different way every day. This way the student doesn't get board of working on their target skill. The students work in their small groups while I pull a small group at my desk to do guided instruction.
9:35 -- the timer goes off and students can choose a "May Do". I have a list of literacy games on a small board that students can refer to and they may do any of those activities (read the room, put word cards in ABC order, copy word wall words, write on the white boards, library, buddy read, or play a file folder game). I change up the May Do's every month as well to keep it interesting. The students know they will have until recess (10:00) to do their May Do's and they know they must choose wisely or I will choose for them. During this time I can usually pull at least two more reading groups. The students can work independently, with a partner or in a small group during this time. I always have students review the rules of workshop before we begin: 1. work, 2. whisper, 3. share, 4. please don't interrupt. If I see a student breaking one of the rules I follow the WBT guidelines and simply call out,"class" (yes) "what is rule number 4 of workshop?" (Rule #4: Please don't interrupt.) "thank you". The student who was trying to interrupt the reading group quietly walks back to try to solve the problem on his/her own.
This system has worked really well for me. I was hesitant at first to switch from centers to workshop because you have far less control, but the students LOVE workshop and I can often use our WBT Scoreboard as an incentive to earn more/less workshop time.
I hope this helps,
Kim

Thanks, Kim, for supplying so many helpful details about your first grade reading program. It sounds like you're doing a great job integrating Whole Brain Teaching with the "Imagine It" curriculum! The school where I'll be working uses Harcourt's "Storytown" first grade reading curriculum, but I'll see if I can try to incorporate some of the things that you do as well. Your program sounds so well organized!
Kathy

Kim,
Thanks for sharing about workshop. Where do you get the "Must Do" selections? Is it in th program? Can you give me some examples of Must Dos? Have often do the Must Dos change?

Again Thanks for sharing!
Dominica

The curriculum has options for workshop must dos and may dos; however, I tend to look and create from online resources as well in order to most accurately meet my students' needs. About 60% of my choices for students come from the curriculum. The must do's include things like rhyming games, sight-word puzzles, word sorts, spelling word sentences, etc. I keep the computers open for writing publishing and I also have two word walls for students to write interesting words they find in books. I can provide more resources if you are interested.
Kim

Please post more ideas I'm at an OCR school in California that is in SAIT 2 (our test scores go up and down so we have outside people observiving all the time) I would love more on which whole brain teaching things work the best with OCR/ImagineIt and on how you find must do's