Whole Brain Capitals and Punctuation-will it affect test results?

Every year, our Iowa Basic tests show the kids have trouble with capitalization and punctuation. I have tried many different ways to get the point across. This year, I am using Whole Brain lessons to try to get the knowledge inside of their beautiful minds.

One day, I was perusing the Internet when I came across a video of two teachers "giving" me a lesson on how to teach capitals and puncuation. The video showed the fun they were having sharing it and it made me think my kids would love it. If you would like to see the video, it is here: Whole Brain Teaching Air Punctuation. These two second grade teachers will have my greatest thanks if the results come out the way I think they will!

Needless to say, when I introduced the idea, the kids were grinning ear to ear. I am using it with their spelling tests because I require them to use their words in a sentence. Practice, practice, practice is my theory!

Capitals are formed by putting hands together and raising the top hand. The period is shown by a hand pushing out, like you are saying, "Stop!" Question marks are shown with a shrug of the shoulders and the hands out like, "What?" An exclamation mark is kind of like shaking pompoms. Easy and fun! I am having the kids practice by reading their own sentences.

We take the tests in two weeks. I'll let you know how it goes!

Multi-grades-Multi-tasking

Using whole brain education isn't as easy to do in a classroom with more than one grade as it is when all of your students are first graders or eighth graders. I have found that some things are just really hard to accomplish, but there are some things you can do that work perfectly in the multi-grade room.

Class-Yes: Sometimes, I want the attention of my entire class. Then I use the class-yes routine. When I just want my fifth-graders, I say, "fifth-grade class" and, of course, the appropriate response is "fifth-grade yes!" Now, everyone else can keep on keeping on while the fifth-graders are paying attention to me. This is a modification from this previous post.

Super Speed Reader: This is great in a multi-grade room, because my students in any grade may be reading above or below level. I can pair kids up with better readers helping the struggling reader and they just think their are together because everyone has a partner. Super easy!

The Crazy Professor Reading Game: This is a noisy game anyway. Students reading in the same book simply work together and paraphrase their reading together. They all learn the gestures together.

The rules and classroom management are still working well. The kids will immediately quiet each other when I put a mark on the board and, when some kids just can't get it together, they accept that, sometimes, the marks are all about and only for them.

If you haven't tried Whole Brain teaching in your class, I strongly suggest you read the site or head over to youtube and check out a few videos. There are definitely benefits from this fun program.


Happy kids click art by cyberscotty