Class Yes - Whole Brain Teaching

What it looks like in Kindergarten…

The Whole Brain Teaching approach is really fun and extremely successful too.  It just makes sense to teach this way.  Common, give it a go.  It’s FREE.  I read about it, watched several You Tube clips and videos about how to implement it but to be honest I completely underestimated its value until I tried it.

More hours in a day!


I decided to try the ‘Class…Yes’ attention gaining strategy last November and really have not looked back.  It is an attention gaining strategy and I was certain that I didn’t need it.  I have great classroom management and thought this was for someone who needed help in this area.
 
How wrong was I…It is brilliant!!!!!!

Yes, it is an attention gaining strategy but more importantly it gets rid of your waffle.  Your kind well intended words or in my case, fun nonsense and useless words, that probably only served to teach the children to tune out to what I was really wanting them to hear. 

Have you ever thought that in having fun this way you might actually be teaching the Little Learners that sometimes the things that you say are not really important.  Now if they think that what your saying might not necessarily be really important then this is like teaching them to give you some of their attention while they decide if it is important or not.  We don’t want the kids to decide this.  We want them to hear and learn from all we say and we want everyone's full attention.

How it works?

First you say, “Class” and the Little Learner’s respond, “Yes”. Plain and simple. You will need to explain to them that when you say ‘class’ you want them to respond ‘yes’ then it’s a good idea to practise it a few times and praise them for their efforts.  Tell them that they must also look to you as they say ‘yes’.  Have a play with this response as a practise time.  You are now ready to implement it.

Raising the bar a little…

Tell the Little Learners that they are so clever that they can now try the advanced level of “Class Yes”.  This motivates them even further.

Now you can vary your class delivery.  Try a high voice/low voice variation. 

Next try saying “Classity class” and they should copy you responding “Yessity Yes”  You can try absolutely anything you can think of. 

Have a go at these,

“Class” “ Yes”

“Classity Class” “Yessity Yes”

“Class, class, class”  “Yes, yes yes”

“Oh class”  “Oh Yes”

Now I realise that this sounds fine and dandy but you want to know why you should do this instead of the usual approaches such as clapping rhythm patterns, good old chants,  “1,2,3, eyes on me” Or “Boys and girls”or lots of positive talk etc.

Well…

I promise that when you introduce this in the fun way outlined briefly above the Little Learners will all, and I mean every single one of them, have their eyes on you ready for your next words - even little Jonny who usually has to be singled out to everyone that you are waiting for him.  Suddenly you have absolute silence in the shortest time, full attention and icing on the cake…expectation that the next words you utter are going to be really important for them.  It’s all up to you at this point. Don't waste the moment, or weaken the opportunity by filling  it with waffle, here’s where you launch straight into your lesson content.

Warning!!

The absolute attention will shock you.  You will realise that you do waffle.  You will gain time in the day and your Little Learners will be super focused.
Give it a go…you have absolutely nothing to lose!

Want to know more? For more information or perhaps a video example of this approach head to wholebrainteaching.com And have a look at some of my other WBT posts. 
Super Improvers Wall
More Super Improvers Wall
The Scoreboard

They work amazingly well together.

Bye for Now
Mrs Stowe

PS. Something for my to do list… Or should I write something else for my To Do list.  Here are my shelves.  Believe it or not, this is on a very tidy day.  There is some structure but they sure need some TLC.

Now that  shared this area with you I feel a strong sense of accountability and will sort it out, relabel and share the results with you soon.