We used class/yes, mirror, teach/okay when discussing main ideas and supporting details in our reading passage today. This is an area of weakness in our class. The students were engaged even though it was a rather uninteresting selection from our reading textbook. I think WBT did make it more fun for all of us. It will be interesting to see how this transfers to their written responses tomorrow.

What type of gestures did you use for main idea and for supporting details?

When I teach Main Idea and supporting details, I have the students draw a rectangle in the air with their hands and say "Main Idea". Then, I have them take their arm and act like their pulling down. They do this three times and they say "supporting detail, supporting detail, supporting detail". Does this help? I hope I didn't confuse the supporting detail part! For mirror with words we say "Main idea is what the story is mostly about. Supporting details support the mean idea. We say this while we are using gestures then of course the Teach/okay! That is where the power is! If you like to sing I often turn it into a song. The kids LOVE IT!!!

I spread my hands about chin high roughly in the shape of a rectangle for main idea. For details, I pointed with one finger (waist high) and lifted the pointed finger to the location of the imaginary rectangle I formed for main idea.

That sounds great. Thanks for sharing!

I like your gestures too. I'll play with it a little and see which works best for me. Thanks for sharing!