Help! I want to use WBT in my classroom this year, but we have been deemed a priority school (not meeting API and AYP) so they will only allow Explicit Dirct Instruction. I understood that WBT was explicit direct instruction. Does anyone have any data or information I might use to plead my case for using WBT this school year?

Well, what are considered best practices in your district? This is just oozing with tons of stuff:
-engages all students at once in active participation
-meets the needs of diverse learning styles
-targets the preferences of several multiple intelligences
-uses multiple Marzano's strategies
-makes personal connections to the material
-engages students in higher level thinking
-provides additional verbal fluency practice for ESOL
I'm sure this is not an all inclusive list by any means, but hopefully it will give you a starting point.

Hi Kathryn!

From what I've learned about Explicit Direct Instruction, "a typical lesson includes explicit and carefully sequenced instruction provided by the teacher (model) along with frequent opportunities for students to practice their skills (independent practice) over time (review)." [http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/inclusion/teaching/marchand%20martella%20ausdemore.htm]

In that case, if you are using WBT, then you are delivering mini-lectures (about 10-30 seconds of information at a time) of the content you are teaching. This actually breaks up the information you are teaching into small, clearly defined, digestible chunks for your students.

By using WBT's Gestures and Mirror Me, you are essentially modeling while connecting the information to a visual representation to aid in students' understanding and memory.

While the students "Teach! OK!," this could be a form of both guided and independent practice, which you could also use for assessment purposes, such as anecdotal records and observations.

I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck in getting to still keep using WBT this year!

As far as data and research, the only thing that comes to mind that is accessible would be the explanation in the WBT Manual about how WBT uses several parts of the brain at once to process and retain information (auditory, visual, etc.) which in turn, reaches a wide variety of different learning styles, not to mention, motivation levels.

I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck in getting to still keep using WBT this year!

Happy Teaching!
Kirsten

Kathryn,
Take a look at this article -- there are more in the works regarding other aspects of WBT, but this one particularly addresses WBT and Direct Instruction. It should help, and if you still are stuck on getting administrators to see the connection, please email me, I had an administrator who was STRICT about DI, DI, DI, DI (Direct Instruction) and he was HIGHLY supportive of the WBT lessons and the way he saw my classroom running...and he was in our rooms EVERY...day.... without....fail. Whew.
He's now the Director of Curriculum and Instruction in San Jacinto.
I also got huge positive reactions from district administrators and trainers during "DI workshops" when they'd ask us to present DI lessons to our colleages for observation. The WBT lessons were always considered the 'model' of what DI should look like...and they had no clue what Whole Brain Teaching even was so it's not like they were already WBT supporters...they just saw how effective it is, and how beautifully it models good DI.

Keep this in mind: TRUE Direct Instruction is not 'lecture' as people think..it is *highly interactive, explicit instruction*.

Here's the blog article link: wholebrainteaching.blogspot.com/2010/07/...ect-instruction.html

Take care, and have fun showing off your super DI skills!

Jackie

I have to agree with Jackie. I also teach at a school where the model is EXPLICIT DI!!!!

And the fact is that if you are doing WBT correctly then you the teacher are in front of your students teaching pretty much the WHOLE DAY every second of that day. My principle was reluctant about WBT claiming that I wasn't allowed to replace DI! Once he saw it in practice he was so impressed he sent me and 7 other teachers to the conference in Louisiana. WBT is DI!!!!

Farrah Shipley