Has anyone tried the whole brain writing game with primary students? We played it whole class, round robin style, and the children had a blast. I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly and would love and ideas/suggestions that have worked for you.

I have participated in the webinars and have learned sooooooooooo much. I can't wait to "physically" attend a conference. I'm hooked on WBT.

We have tried just the begining and did it whole class also. Please share more of what you have done and I will too. I have a combo class of kinder and first graders so I push them so that they really know their stuff.
Annette

Annette,

This is what I've done so far...we sat in a circle and the students had a copy of the complexor:and paper with the nouns. The first student said the first noun (boy), second student said the second noun (girl), and the third student used the two nouns in a sentence (The boy and girl walk to school). The students know that each sentence has a who/what doing something. We did it a few times so each student shared a sentence. The most exciting part of the activity was every student was engaged and participating. I keep reading the e-book and I'm going to try and pair the children with a partner and time them for a minute to see how far they can get through the list. I'll let you know how it goes.

Karen

That helps me. I have been wanting to try this, but haven't figured out the best way to start. It appears to me that some of the noun combinations would be difficult to come up with a sentence that would make sense. I'm getting ready to teach a small group of 4th graders in about 20 minutes. I think I'll try what you suggested and see what happens. I would love to know more about how you progress through the game.

Karen and others working with the WBT Writing Game...

This game has so many great parts that it's hard not to talk about all of the benefits, but I'll start where there are the most questions here on the forum. I have taken it all the way to the simple essay puzzle.

When I started in the fall, I took Puzzle 1, printed it and used my document camera to make a large copy for everyone to see. (Of course, if you have great technology, you can just display it right off you computer through your LCD)

We talked about breaking things into parts. Once we were understanding that, we looked at the word bank at the bottom. I have my kids in groups of two, so the one took the first word, balls, and named one kind of ball. His partner then took the next word, room, and named one kind of room. In upper grades this can go pretty fast and they can move through the levels of Puzzle 1 pretty quickly. The point of Puzzle 1 is getting kids to break things up into parts. Really that is the beginning of any essay topic; taking the question and breaking it up into parts/paragraphs to answer it thoroughly.

Once we went through the first 4 puzzles, this took about 2 weeks. You may say this is slow, but I really wanted the kids to get good at breaking things up into parts and doing the other three puzzles first, before we move on. This is only going to make them better in the long run. (I did skip Puzzle 5, because we have used many different brainstorming techniques, so feel free to adapt it to your style.)

After we got comfortable with this I did the complexor and. This was great becuase they had now used Puzzle 1 to break thing into parts, so now using the and was going to help them put it into great writing. Once we had that we did another complexor, again, taking time to do it, learn it and review it. Then, goig back to review the other complexors that we have learned.

Once you get to the Beginner Essay, kids are able to really do a thorough job with their writing. You'll find that they stay much more on topic with what they are writing about.

Please, do not be bothered by the fact that the essay's are sounding too rehearsed/cookie-cutter or not using a good voice or anything else that you are used to seeing. Trust the system and let it work itself through. All of the other parts will come in other puzzles and complexors. It's a great system that works by itself or hand in hand with something that you are doing.

One more thing...in the beginning it is so great because the kids are spending time in what we call oral writing. Their getting massive reps in doing a hard skill, but they get instant feedback from their neighbor and you while you are walking around....and best of all, you're not grading as many papers!

Chris,

Thanks for explaining the procedure. I plan to give it a try...can't wait!

Karen

Thank you! I tried to start with the complexor "and" yesterday. What I discovered was that my students wanted to say compound sentences instead of joining the nouns together. This was an eye opening experience in itself. (I teach small group reading/com arts). I will try starting with puzzle one tomorrow and progress through as you described. I think it sounds great and can see it as being very beneficial. I just need to figure out the best way to approach it. Do you have a seminar on this in the works, or have I missed it?

Chris,

I know that you work with 4th grade, am I right? So for first or lower how far into the puzzels would one go? I am using the "because" right now just on it's own merit and trying new things with the writing game.

Also, we found a really little soccer ball to use during mind soccer they love passing it from side to side when on the rug playing. You won't believe the "in your face" comments from my first and kinders, I hope they don't say that in the wrong place.

Wow, I haven't learned about this yet and I want to try it. I'm going to go look for the ebook so I can get on board
Karen C.