Any sixth grade teachers with questions please let me know. I'd love to discuss those strategies here.

I teach in basically an inner city school with mixed population and no motivation to do homework, nor parental support to enforce the homework policy. I have no budget and limited personal funds- what do you suggest as motivational techniques? Also any hints on how to build peer relations would be most appreciated- apparently some of my students have had issues in elementary school that are pouring over into middle school and despite my efforts of team building and life lesson teachings, I still face multiple verbal disputes between the children.

For your first question I would try free time - I tell my students that my goal is to teach to teach all the time...then I allow them to play to bank points toward having free time on Fridays, or towards playing a game like Mind Soccer.

Homework makes me crazy, most of my kids don't do it, but I have not given up. At some point our students have to be internally motivated. Playing for less homework gives the students a sense of control. At the top of the score board, I write how many problems they are supposed to have to for homework, and then they play to decrease that. I am still battling with students who don't do the homework, but they still love to play for less homework.

My last class of the day is my toughest, multiple students have fought each other, most failed state assesment, and most have failed at math. We use leaders in the room, each group has a leader, and my leaders have gone through leadership training, they lead their groups/class through the rules, they step up when it is time to teach, they remind people if they are breaking the rules. My leaders and I have lunch together once a week to discuss different ways to motivate the class - Good luck!

Ok... I hate to be opinionated here... but I'd stay away from Free Time as much as you possibly can. Free Time is when kids tend to get in trouble. Not to mention, 'Free Time' is hard to justify to administrators and parents. If you must, and that's all they will work for, find a way to structure it...such as 'choice time'...where they get to choose from a variety of seat activities...but Free Time seems to be nothing but disaster in my experience.

I have the 'toughest of the tough' in my school, and they are 7th graders, and I'll tell you...they work for games like Mind Soccer or Beach Ball Baffler...or if they REALLY need a 'brain break'...I do throw in silent-ball every once in a while but only VERY short games of it (again, hard to justify to to administrators...not academic).


Truly, if you stick with it and stay consistent...follow the "getting started" on the site..you'll find that the Whole Brain Teaching methods will take care of the majority fo the problems you mentioned. Not all of them...and not necessarily the homework problem.. but the peer relations (within the class...no guaranteeing what they do outside of class, unfortunately. I haven't figured that one out yet).

It's a matter of being patient, being positive and funny, and being consistent. I know I know...I made it sound easy. It's DANG hard. But it will work on the majority.

I guess I should be more specific - when I say free time, my class has a system set up. There are tons of bonus math problems and puzzles in my room. Some I have made over time some that I have purchased. Free time usually amounts to about 6 or 7 minutes at the end of the week, that they use to work on these puzzles or problems. My students are very competitve, and love problems and puzzles - they earn points when they complete problems, the points don't mean anything, but they are dying to be the high scorer at the end of the year.

I use this time, Mind Soccer, and many other games during this time, but not every week, most weeks they play for less homework, I use time banking for weeks where we have a test, or a project.

I agree with what Jackie said about free time. I think the whole-class games described in Whole Brain Teaching (along with several others) can be more constructive and actually a lot more fun for most kids. Sara's system of the bonus puzzles, etc sounds cool though. Sara, do you let kids do these any time they finish work early, etc, or only when they have earned it on the scoreboard? Do you have any online content you could share?

This is certainly a difficult question and one that I think everyone faces no matter where you teach. All I can say is this...the saying I often use in my room is "Work hard, play hard!" Administrators need to understand that if 1,2, or 3 minutes of reward at the end of class are earned then they deserve to have it! I'd give up 2 minutes of class time for 48 minutes of on task work any day. My sixth grade students often like to play for a 2 or 3 minute parties at the end of class. This is often what we play for when using the "Scoreboard." The great thing about the scoreboard is you're always in control. The first couple of times throw a carrot out there...let them succeed a time or two. Then start to tighten the screws. Make them really earn their daily reward by raising the expectations when using the scoreboard.

My next question would be this...how much homework is given? If you limit your homework to just a few questions, say 3 moderate to easy ones and then maybe 1 difficult question (whatever the subject), you may find they respond more favorably to completing it.

That brings up something I've often thought about: why do you even assign homework? It might be necessary for administrators, parents, and even students to respect you (due to preconceptions), but I would argue that the vast majority of homework doesn't actually contribute much to learning, at least at younger ages. If it's a headache, and you don't have parental support anyway, why not consider just dropping it altogether? Your kids would love you, and you could devote more of your attention to in-class productivity.

I'm not saying I do this, it's just something I've thought about...

We only have about 50 minutes of class, so we go bell to bell, there is no time for getting started on homework, or free time, unless I plan it in. This is why I love Whole Brain Teaching, it allows me to maximize my time so that we can do things like play games.

When my students bank time for free time, it is a very structured system. My students are in an ongoing competition, based on doing extra math. There are many different problems/puzzles they can work and they change on a regular basis. Some puzzles can only be completed once, some as much as they want. Each puzzle has a point value associated with it, and oce a week I update the scores on our score board. There is no end prize, they play to beat each other, to have bragging rights in the end.

I have tons of puzzles, and bonus problems, during this time they work to figure them out, many of the problems are first come first serve on points. If 2 people work together to figure a problem out, they split the points. Many of the puzzles and problems are from AIMS, state assesment problems (with answer choices removed), or puzzles I have made. We keep a scoring binder, I have 110 kids, so it can be a job, but it is worth it!

I am trying to attach some puzzles - if it doesn't work let me know... I will email them out.




Also, its rigged... sort of - I use it as a motivator for my low level students. We have homeroom and tutoring during the day. When I bringing low level students to do tutoring, I have a special folder marked 50 point problems, (which I never actually put out) after we have done some tutoring, I pump them up and get them to try a "tough" problem. The problem/puzzle is meant to challenge them at their level, and boosts their score - this is usually enough to get them on the scoreboard. My low level students always walk around with their heads held a little higher the next day - and it encourages my other students to earn more points.

I love the idea of using it for lower level students to get them to do the harder problems, and that students can share points (do they do that much?). The attached puzzles don't appear to have come through. My email is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . I teach third, but I'd still be interested to see them.

On 2/2/09, I began to teach 6th grade language arts in an urban district. The first 2 weeks the students behaved. Weeks 3 and now beginning week 4 has been a nightmare.

First let me explain that both of my classes have about 30 students in them. We run on a six day schedule and 3 of the days I have my homeroom for over 130 minutes for Language Arts. The other class (which is the more difficult class, there are 13 classified students in it) I see for mostly 90 minute blocks, but one day a week for 130 minutes.

My problem with the inclusion class is talking - I tried punishments, calling home, and detention. I also tried rewarding students that worked well - or timing students to get their work done - and they winners would get a ticket. The tickets equal computer time or a no homework pass. Neither strategy works, the students do not show for detention, the parents punish the child, but within 2 days this chatty, getting out the seat, grabbing pencils out of another students hand, and just calling out does not stop.

I need a suggestion on how I can get my students to stop talking long enough for me to teach.

NJKitty - Are you using Whole Brain Teaching currently? If so, can you give us some idea of what you have used, like Class/Yes, Scoreboard?? I think we can offer your more help with a little more information.

NJKitty
The first thing to do is download and read "Teaching Challenging Teens" ... then look at the Whole BrainTeaching videos, lessons 1-8 ... this will give you a background in our approach. The wrong thing to do is jump in and try one technique without a full understanding of how Whole Brain Teaching works! Also, before you start, you might set up a baseline classroom management score. Do that as follows. For each student score as follows:
5 = a student who is on task 90-100% of the time (An "A" student in terms of diligence, regardless of ability)
4 = a student who is on task 70-90% of the time (A "B" student in terms of diligence, regardless of ability)
3 = a student who is on task 50-70% of the time (A "C" student in terms of diligence, regardless of ability)
2= a student who is on task 20-50% of the time (A "D" student in terms of diligence, regardless of ability)
1 = a student who is on task less than 20% of the time (An "F" student in terms of diligence, regardless of ability)

Total the points for the class, then divide by the number of students ... this will give you your classroom baseline score ... your goal is to raise this average score by .1 a month ... thus, in ten months, you will have moved all students up one level ... if you don't use a scoring system like this with a difficult class it will be very hard for you to see if, and when, you're making progress. If you are unsure between two scores for an individual students, for example, between a 4 and a 3, give them the lower score. New students should be entered as a 3. Recalculate your scores every two weeks.

NJKitty--I have similar types of students, and let me tell you the KEY to my day going smoothly....

it must be planned down to the MINUTE. I can use WBT alllll I want, but if I didn't plan every single minute, transition, material needed, Teach-Ok spots, and allll the other What Where When Who and How s.... then it can fall apart. The only way I can get my students past the issue of 'talking' is if I simply leave no room for them to talk off-task.

That means I must:

Plan every minute and transition
Keep MY talking short and powerful (in terms of content, not necessarily volume)
Give THEM plenty of time to talk with me, to me, and to each other (on-task)... but keep THAT short, too.

Start with what Chris told you, though, about the scores....it truly gives you a baseline so you know where you're starting. Otherwise, your assessment of 'improvement' will vary day-to-day based on your emotions.

(and with crazy middle-schooler animals....laugh at everything that you can. No one can survive in middle school without a hefty sense of humor, and a willingness to laugh. Alot.)

Hi, I'm new here and haven't yet tried WBT. I wanted to ask what Mind Soccer is-something from this site? Thanks!

Mind Soccer is a way to review important concepts from a subject area or across subjects. It involves a high energy question and answer session in which students answer roughly 40 questions related to class material. The information is free for download on this website. I've used it in my classroom and the students were really into it. You will need to take some time and get used to the rules in order to keep the game moving at a fast pace but the results are great.

Could some of you 6th grade teachers give me examples of the rules you use for class? I was thinking some of the rules on the GETTING STARTED tab might be too young for 6th graders. I did use power teaching last year and it was great. But, I decided that this year I needed to make more of an effort with the rules.

I teach 7th grade an I use the same rules... they have never made a big deal about the rules... they actually love "Keep your dear teacher happy" they think it is funny!

I for one do not like rules... they are usually negative. For 18 years I promoted guidelines for students' success. These do not include procedures I may have in class, i.e. raise your hand. Guidelines are what is needed for the students to be successful in school both academecally and socially. For example: Maintain on-task behavior, Keep your class cool and your act together. With students, we usually come up with 5 to 6 Guidelines for Success.

We use the rules and my students enjoy them... I also use them because they are an important piece of my detention (behavior modification)- now I also have classroom values, similar to your guidelines, values are the things we decide as a class that are important to success, that everyone agrees on.... including myself - if I mess up on a value they have the right to call me out on it (privately or through a note).

I started Power Teaching without the rules, because I felt the same way, that the kids would not get into them or think they were babyish - I was wrong.... the rules also give the students a tool for calling each other out on bad behavior, in 7th grade they all wasnt to scream "SHUT-UP!!" all the time, instead you give them a rule and a method for telling one of their peers that they are messing up the class.