It's Day 4 of school for me & my 5th graders LOVE the genius ladder. Here's a picture of our Awesome genius ladder from today.

P.S. Our A/C was out all day...it seemed appropriate to write about it since the kiddos had been complaining all day.

Tiffany
WBT Intern, 2011-2012

Thanks for posting your samples on the genius ladder. I haven't started it, and didn't quite know how to jump in. You've given me inspiration!

First off Tiffany I feel so sad for you But your genius ladder was great. No, no it's not cool! Annette

Tiffany,

Hello! I teach fifth grade as well and yesterday I introduced the genius ladder to the class. I modeled the process, the students wrote it down, and we had a discussion about how each step 1-6 was different on the ladder. At the end of the discussion and when we hit the genius level, my students replied, "This is sooo easy and fun!" I do hope that as my students begin to build their ladders everyday, they will continue to think it is easy and fun!

Thanks for sharing!

Laura Caisse
WBT Intern, 2011-2012

thanks, for this im struggling on how to get started. looks good.

I love it!

Rand

I love how simple it is. I've been trying to brainstorm something fancy and frilly. I think I'll bag that and go with easy and functional.

Tiffany!

Great ladder, I am eager to post one that my third graders write next week. Just think of all the commotion we can stir up by getting everyone to post samples of their daily genius ladders!! Love it!:
Heather Hansen
Wbt intern
2011/12

I was wondering if anyone could share a mini lesson on the genius ladder? Do you use the teach ok so they can orally create sentences? thanks for the help i really want to start using this this week if i can get a lesson going?

Hey Tiffany-

Great job on the Genius Ladder! My third graders are loving working through the Genius Ladder everyday. We haven't quite made it to the Genius rung yet, but it's coming this week! We've been working with Proper Nouns, so we've been changing our common nouns to proper nouns this past week. We've also been labeling our nouns, verbs, and adjectives as we work through the ladder. Then we use our words and gestures to review the parts of speech! They will definitely know the parts of speech, and that sentences start with capital letters and end with punctuation! I have pictures taken...I just need to get them uploaded. Hopefully this week will give me a little more time!

Thanks,
Staci Glass
WBT Intern, 2011-2012

This Genius Ladder is stirring up quite ruckus! A good ruckus it is...we're all trying to get our kids to become better writers!

As I read the posts, I am hearing different thoughts/ideas about how this is written up. Our original thoughts were that the teacher wrote each of the levels new every day. Then for 5-10 minutes a day you go over the ladder. Each step is then orally practiced where the kids are saying the Spicey sentence with their own adjective, multiple times. Then move on to the Complexor/Extendor and have them add their own multiple times also...still orally. Now you are going to move onto the Genius level where the kids are now taking their Complexor/Extendor and placing two Adders after it...orally of course.

Every once and awhile you may want them to write them down on their own. Also, as the year goes on you can even have them generate the ladder from a beginning Blah sentence.

Build Away!

My students are really liking the genius ladder. We didn't get to it much this week between a short week and district assessments. I am excited to pick it up next week. Great ideas Tiffany!

Coach keep it simple, for blah sentence. For example, article, noun, verb. The apple shines. I also teach third grade and I was getting way too fancy!!

Heather Hansen
Wbt intern
2011/12

Thanks everyone, for the awesome comments about our genius ladder.

My kids BEG me every morning to do the Genius Ladder. They've given me some AWESOME ideas this week & during our ten minute writing all of my 37 kiddos wrote about the genius ladder and how much they love it. Our principal came in and we wrote a Genius ladder about him today...it was AWESOME!!!

Already, 9 days into school, I've seen improvements in my kids writing. We even chant "NO BLAH SENTENCES!" before we write.



Tiffany
WBT Intern, 2011-2012

Awesome! I can't wait for the next webinar on the genius ladder. I still can not wrap my head around implementing it. Nhoping to get some clarity this week.

Chris,

If the ladder is suppose to be completed orally many times through each day, is that the way it stays for the entire year, only having students writing it down occasionally?

Thanks a million,

Laura Caisse
WBT Intern, 2011-2012

Love It!!! Ten finger woo to you!!!