Switch!: The Whole Class Involver

When you are using Teach/Okay you'll notice that you have some students who are chronic talkers and some wo are chronic listeners.  We want the talkers to learn to listen and the listeners to come out of their shells and talk!  This is where the Switch command comes in handy.

Divide your class so that your top students are paired with your bottom students and your middle students with your middle students (of course, you don't reveal the basis for the pairing to your kids.)  Next, count off your students in ones and twos.  If you have an odd number of kids in your class, one group will have two ones.  

When you are ready for your class to teach each other, explain that you want the ones to teach the twos.  When you call out "Switch", they should respond "Switch!"  Then the twos will teach the ones.  Thus, you are guaranteed that every student in class is equally involved in speaking and listening.

A key feature of this interaction is that both the talkers and the listeners should be using gestures.  The talkers illustrate what they are saying with gestures and the listeners, so that they stay focused, sillently mirror the talker's gestures.

As students teach each other, walk around the room and either praise or prompt each group.  When both partners are gesturing, praise them.  If one or both partners are not gesturing, prompt them by saying, "Please use gestures."

If you’ve read through all the articles in this menu, “First Steps,” then you’ve learned about Whole Brain Teachings “Big Seven,” our core instructional techniques.

1. Class-Yes
2. Five Classroom Rules
3. Teach-Okay
4. The Scoreboard
5. Hands and Eyes
6. Mirror
7. Switch!