The Whole Brain Teaching BIG 7!

WBT has what they call the BIG 7.  Seven key elements to effective teaching that uses every part of the brain.  If you are unfamiliar with the Big 7, they are Class-Yes, Five Classroom Rules, Teach-ok, The Scoreboard, Hands and Eyes, Switch, & Mirror. 

1. Class-Yes is an attention grabber. The teacher says "class" and the students respond with "yes", matching the teacher's tone of voice. It gets the brain ready to receive information and the reasoning part (prefrontal cortex) activated. Some variations for this strategy include "classity class-yesity yes" and "oh class-oh yes".  It can be used for capturing attention, starting a lesson, etc.

2. The Five-Rules are meant to be rehearsed in class over and over again with gestures to go with them.  The five rule strategy allows the 7 areas of the brain to be engaged.  These areas are the prefrontal cortex (reasoning), Broca’s area (speaking), Wernicke’s area (listening), limbic system (emotions), hippocampus (moves information from short to long term), visual cortex (processes visual information), and motor cortex (movement). 

3. Hands and Eyes allows students to focus all their attention to the teacher. Here’s how to do it works....

teacher says: “class,” students say: “yes”
teacher says: “hands & eyes”, students say: “hands & eyes.” They immediately sit up straight, fold their hands together and look at the teacher.

As soon as you have their attention, you teach your main points for about 15-45 seconds, which leads into the next big 7....

4. Teach-ok is used in conjunction to "hands and eyes". After you deliver information, clap twice and say “teach!”  Students mimic your movement and say “OK” just like you did.  They then turn to their partner or neighbor and teach one another what they learned.  During this time, you walk around and listen to the students' conversations.  

5. Switch allows each student at have an opportunity to speak and listen to his or her partner (Broca’s and Wernicke’s area).  While students are teaching their partners, the teacher yells out, “SWITCH”.  Students say, “Uh Oh, Switch” while pretending to pull an imaginary cord from ceiling. While the students are teaching one another, they are using the gestures and words the teacher modeled. 

6. Mirror is a technique used when you want the students to mimic exactly what you say or do. Here is how it works:

Class! Yes! Mirror! Mirror! Speak briefly using gestures. Then students will copy what you do.  Mirror is great for explaining a process, giving several steps, telling a story, or capturing attention. It activates the visual and motor cortex of the brain.

7. Scoreboard  is a great class motivator and involves the limbic system (emotions) into learning.  A simple t-chart is drawn on the board. One side is for "Mighty Oh Yeahs" (smiley face), and the other side is for "Mighty Groans" (sad face). Here you will award points to the class for jobs well done and subtract for off task behaviors, slow responses, etc.  You should keep the game balanced at all times (within 3 points).  Too many smileys will cause the class to get over confident, and too many frowns can cause discouragement.  Keeping the score close makes the "game" more interesting.  When a tally mark for a "mighty oh yeah" is given, students clap their hands once and shout “Oh yeah!”  When frown points are given, students lift their shoulders up and drop quickly while giving a mighty groan.  Students are playing toward some kind of incentive.  You can choose the incentive yourself or have the class brainstorm ideas. If the smiley side wins, the class receives the incentive at the end of the week. 

*The score board has worked really well in my class. The games have been tight, but the "Mighty Oh's" always seem to come out winning. I like to keep my student on their toes. They are learning how to work as a team and achieve a common goal. To be effective, the scoreboard needs to be constantly reinforced and updated. Once the students' emotions get involved, there's no stopping them! They will do what they can to feel good about themselves and earn a reward.