Hi-

So I am going to implement WBT this year in my 4/5 combo, when do I start using gestures to teach my lessons and do I do it for every lesson? Also when and how often do I use "okay teach"

Thanks any help from veterns with this would be great.

Karen

I would definitely use gestures from the very beginning.
About how many gestures to use and their frequency, I think that is going to depend on yourself and your class. If you have a lot of kinesthetic learners or you are a kinesthetic person yourself, then use more. If you are more visual and/or auditory, and/or your students are not especially kinesthetic, use less.
I think that in early childhood, repetition is key. I would surely use teach/ok often in my classes, but this, again, depends on the characteristics of the teacher and/or learners.

I agree. I'd use the gestures from the start. Use them in lessons/situations that lend themselves to that extra kick with the kinesthetic movement. I personally use gestures for everything; from my rules, to the pledge, to writing, to core standards and concepts. As for teach/okay, that to me is one of the most important tools with WBT. If you aren't using it many times a day, odds are you are speaking too much (kids are getting lots of input data/info). The more we talk, the more kids we lose. Teach/okay is that tool that allows the kids the chance to talk (under our system and get to output the info from the teacher). Keeping students engaged is what WBT is about and both gestures and teach/okay do that.

Good luck and let's keep the discussioin going.

Okay I am a little confused and need some clarification. I have been watching the videos on 'teach-ok' and it seems like both studetns are talking at the same time. But, when I read about it how to implement it, it sounds like only one student is talking at a time. HELP-- school starts next week.

Thanks-

Karen

Pair your students 1 and 2, or peanutbutter and jelly, or any other way to distinguish them. Have 1s teach the 2s while the 2s mirror what the 1s are doing/saying. Have you read about SWITCH? Essentially, you call out "SWITCH" during the middle, the kids respond "SWITCH" and switch roles; 2s teach the 1s and the 1s mirror. It takes practice, but the results are truly amazing.

What if you do not have an even number of students???? And by mirror do you mean mirror the gestures the teaching student uses?

If you have even numbers, you can work with a student or have a group of three. I usually work with the lone student, but groups of three can work as well....

By mirror, yes mirror the gestures the student is using. Hopefully, the student is using gestures that you used in your lesson.

How do you use gestures for writing?

Vanderfin wrote:



I came on the forum to start this conversation, and it was already here! I wanted a little clarification on what you mean about using gestures for EVERYTHING. Would this include vocabulary words from a story?

Yes, I use it with vocab terms from Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and Math. They evolve into the core gestures for the concept pictures. As far as reading goes, I use gestures to frontload important vocabulary in a story for the crazy professor game. If you haven't seen the video, check it out. My class is in the critical thinking video, there you will see I use gestures while having the kids work with the terms to be discussed for the compare and contrast.

dianedj wrote:



I have some simple steps for the grammatical aspect of writing. Each of those steps has a gesture with it. For example, writing rule 1, always put your name and date in the upper right hand corner of the paper. The gesture is pretending like you're lifting something up (to the upper right of yourself) and then making a writing motion.

I do this for Titles, starting and ending sentences, sentence variation, run ons, fragments, and so on.

Like I said before, gestures for just about everything.

okay I just a little more claification. I understand they mirror the student talking. So, basically all students are talking at once during 'teach-okay' and the student doing the mirroring is repeating their partner as they teach.

Not exactly, only half of the class is talking/teaching. The other half is mirror silently the gestures and words of their partner. The talker is using the verbal and motor parts of the brain, while the learner (mirror) is using the visual, auditory, and motor parts of the brain.

Then they switch roles on your call.

Partner one teaches partner two the concept you just taught. When you call switch partner two teaches partner one the same thing. Watch the videos by clicking the top of this page. It will explain it again. This really works. I'm anxious to teach this years class.

Vanderfin wrote:



Are you the male fourth grade teacher? That has been my favorite video so far, and I have shown it to many people--even showed my wife! What point of the year is that? The kids seem to really have it down!

BTW--I am not skeptical about WBT. I have not used it yet, but I have no doubt it is going to be effective.

Are you the male fourth grade teacher? That has been my favorite video so far, and I have shown it to many people--even showed my wife! What point of the year is that? The kids seem to really have it down!

BTW--I am not skeptical about WBT. I have not used it yet, but I have no doubt it is going to be effective.[/quote]

That would be me. That was mid-year with my 4th graders and it did take a while to get there. They are usually a touch calmer, but the camera man (Chris Biffle)pumped them up right before the shoot. A very chatty bunch, but they loved the fact that I'd let them talk in class, little did they realize they were talking under my system.

WBT plays to what most kids like; to talk and move. Verbal and kinesthetic. It doesn't have to shift what teachers are doing dramatically, but rather these little tweaks can greatly affect what our students are retaining, by keeping them engaged both with input (what we teach) and output (what they in return teach in their own words).

I hope you give it a shot. What grade(s) do you work with?

Okay so I have watched the video a few times and that is why I got confused on who was teaching when, the mirroring thing cleared it up a little. But, now you mentioned the video is from the middle of the school year. Can you describe what the beginning of the year is like? Thanks! I am getting ready to teach a 4/5 combo for the 2nd year.

Karen