I just began using Whole Brain Teaching in my 9th grade Earth Science class at the start of the term (last week in January) and while not every student participates fully, they are watching the gestures and respectful, so I've let it go. Last week, a student transferred from another district and so she doesn't know anyone and is trying to look cool to fit in- I understand that. I put her at the table of the really nice, quiet, "A" students who always do their work in record time, figuring they would be available to help her out and be a positive influence, instead of putting her with kids who might not be able to assist. She gets along with everyone fairly well, but is completely refusing to buy in to anything related to whole brain teaching at all! (Thankfully, the rest of the class is on my side) but it makes her more alienated when, for example, a student is asking a question and uses the gesture while talking, and she mocks him for it- the rest of the class fell silent and turned their heads to her with jaws dropped, I gave her the "evil teacher stare" and she realized quickly that we don't laugh at other questions OR the gestures (HOORAY for class support of their friend!). Is she going to be one of the kids who just doesn't participate and let it go, or is she going to try and mock the rest of the kids for trying to copy me? It's a small class of mostly AVID students, and she's showing herself to be "a D is good enough to pass" students (which I have many of in my demographic area). How do you get the academically unmotivated teens to use gestures, say "yes" and stop talking after I say "class", and so on? Is it okay to have 90% participation from the teens, and the other 10% generally non-disruptive? Or is that just "leaving 10% of children behind"?

I wouldn't accept anyone not participating. WBT relies on the idea that EVERYONE must participate, especially for "too cool" high-schoolers. Start taking Scoreboard points away when your new student or anyone else decides not to participate (if she makes a rude comment, don't react emotionally, just point out that she's breaking a rule by speaking without raising her hand and take away a point). This won't work on all students, of course, but WBT has other levels to take it to for students that misbehave or refuse to participate.

Check out this thread for an explanation of the levels. The third level (Guff Counter) also has its own section under First Steps.

Guff Counter might be your solution here, even though she's not talking back to you personally. It empowers the rest of the class to do something positive ("Please Stop!" ) to show they don't approve of what she said rather than just looking at her silently like you described. If they are silent, she gets to be the cool one that is above it all. If they show their disapproval, she sees that to fit in in your class, she needs to participate with everyone else. Of course, this may not be enough. If it isn't, just go on to the next level that Chris describes in the above thread, "Independents."

Good luck!

I agree with jwhicks727 that the guff counter may work. Although I don't teach HS, I have found that my students use the hand motion and say "Stop That!" now without any direction from me. Whenever they see another student breaking the classroom rules, they feel comfortable in taking charge and helping another. We have even talked about using the hand motions and words when they see one child bullying or harassing another. There is power in groups feeling enabled to speak up!
I hope that you can talk with your class and they can help the new girl to see that this Whole Brain Teaching helps her to learn better, since it is based on brain research. Additionally, everyone has fun while learning.
Please post your updates.

I've softened my view on non-participating students in the last few years. If a student absolutely resists my best efforts, but isn't a distraction to the class, then I owe that student exactly as much attention as every other student ... my big mistake over my career is to give such students far more than their fair share of attention. I've let far too many students, who would really benefit from my help, go unserved, because I've focused too intensely on non-particpaters. However, if a student is disrupting class, that's another story. No student shoud be left behind ... but also, no student should be allowed to hold other students behind. In about a week, move on to the Guff Counter ... then go a few weeks at that level ... and then go on to the Independents or the Bullseye Game ... you might also try Power Detention described in "Teaching Challenging Teens." But before you try any of these, be sure you study each technique carefully ... the short articles under "First Steps" are a good place to start ... then go to the downloads, "Teaching Challenging Elementary Students" and "Teaching Challenging Teens."

Like Chris said, the Power Detention and Guff Counter should help eliminate atleast her rude behavior.

I teach 7th grade and like jwhicks727 I do not accept not participating, but that has been an ongoing (long) process, that has just now come full circle. In the begining, I would accept a couple of people not particpating, then I worked to shrink that group. Now even my toughest students participate. My new students have a one-day free pass to watch, then their group is expected to push them along.

To get everyone particpating, just call your scoreboard level 2 and tell them that they have been doing a great job, and now they are ready for Level 2. Not only do they have to follow the rules, use the gestures, but you must have 100% particpation for them to get a point. They should probably lose, but by only one point, and use a lot of points -so that you can keep it bouncing back and forth all class period long.

Good Luck!!

Have you explained exactly why you are using Whole Brain Teaching? Sometimes older learners need to know exactly why you are doing the method to really commit to it.

You might want to check out my post under "gestures" for Earth Science, but...

IT WORKED TODAY!!!!

We were reviewing for their test tomorrow and I made sure we all remember conduction, convection, and radiation, and about half immediately used the gestures to explain it to me. Then I said we were going to make gestures for as many as we could think of, because I noticed how well they remembered those 3 words and it was scientifically proven that using their hands while talking makes them smarter and their brains remember better, which would be especially helpful for their test (a few groans from kids who did not realize their test was coming up, but now about 80% have dropped pencils to begin). So we practice the new gestures mentioned on the other post, and did "teach-okay" for short sentences- now Ashley had to participate with her partner (as well as the other stragglers). This continued as they realized that "everyone's doing it" and they looked petulant by refusing to try, instead of looking cool. It was awesome, and they were giggly and participating and could make whole paragraphs with their hands- like the crazy professor reading game, but without the reading part

A completely random story- Another student who is involved in the school musical I'm choreographing (You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown) was backstage making the gestures as they were rehearsing "Little Known Facts", which I thought was adorable- especially when she made faces when the lyrics are inaccurrate- "those fluffy little white things, those are clouds, they make the wind blow....the little stars and planets, they make the rain, that falls in showers....snow comes up Charlie Brown, it only LOOKS like it comes down because the wind blows it around after it comes up- snow comes up, like the grass"

Today was a good day for gestures AND getting them to participate!!! WOO HOO!!!

Wow! Thanks for sharing such an inspiring experience. I particularly loved the image of Teach-OK making it obvious to Ashley that the "cool" thing in this class was to participate. I have found an unexpected benefit with WBT: my kids get excited about tests! They realize that the gestures and partner sharing have improved their scores, and I always amp them up after a quick review by doing "turn to your partner and tell them 'I'm SO going to ace this test'" or something similarly silly. Keep it up, Jessi, and congratulations on your success!

Much like Biff, I am learning to ignore behavior that is not dispruptive to my class and does not influence other students. When I have non-particpating students, I will often pick them as my "demo" students when I want to model expected behavior. Sometimes this works and other times, not so much.

I would like to start by saying Congrats to you and to your students!

I am a new Whole Brain Teacher in Yuma, AZ. I teach High School Algebra 2 and Pre-Algebra. This is my 5th year of teaching and I have spent the entire time fighting for control of my classroom. Until this past week.

I do not have 100% buy-in yet but I can see it catching on a little more each day. I did have three students after a few days of class:yes and the scoreboard decide that they would try to start a rebellion. It didn't work for them, it merely reinforced the need for my "new" rules and procedures. I am still in control of my classroom and the students were suspended for 2 days by the principal.

I just attended the seminar in San Jacinto, CA and will stop using the scoreboard as a punitive measure as well as pointing out specific non-participants. I will kid and cajole when I know that the kid will take it as such but will not worry if the student is not participating 100% but is not a disruption either. I can see by your story that my students will take care of bringing them in little by little.

Tonya Sissel
Yuma, AZ
Kofa High School, Math Dept.

Hi everyone,

This is just an update with PRACTICE CARDS for individual behavior. I think the practice card system was introduced to WBT since this thread was last active.

Anyway, I train the teachers that rule #4 is perfect for uninvolved students because they are making a bad choice by not helping themselves be successful in school when they do not do the gestures etc. I like it better than rule #5 for high school because it avoids making it a point of contention between the student and teacher.

However for the younger (5th grade and under) rule #5 is perfect for a student who does not become involved because they are not learning to the best of their ability. As Chris B. says, teachers are happy when students are learning. Non participating students are not learning so their teachers are not happy. With the younger students they usually want their teachers to be happy.

As Jeff pointed out, the middle and certainly the high school students do much better when they know why they are making gestures, doing teach / ok, and all of the other WBT things. By training the students on what brain based teaching is (that part that applies to WBT -in the manual) the students are much more willing to go along with it.

If a student does not participate, have them do the white card program for the rule they break and explain why they are breaking it.