Today was one of those Usual Fridays, as the culmination of activities and assessments for the week come together. Then, right in the midst of it all, the Bells and Whistles of the Genius Ladder start going off!! Oh, yeah! One of my 2nd Grade EL students hands in a written Book Report with a Topic sentence, three Adders, and an In conclusion,...! A proud moment for a young student just at the Early Intermediate EL level! Coach B, your WBT methods are touching so many lives each day! What a joy to witness it in my class! I love my job!!

Nancy Stoltenberg
WBT Intern 2011/2012
Blog: www.nstoltenbergwbt.blogspot.com

NIce!!!

oh yea!
ten finger woo!

I teach 4th grade in Indiana. We had a blast learning about the genius ladder the other day. I adapted some samples from the WBT resources plus the youtube video of Coach B teaching it to a class and put them in a Powerpoint. It was a great way to teach them the components of the ladder. The best part was my arm wasn't tired from writing all over the board. We were able to get in tons of repetitions with partners. We were laughing so hard at our sentences that I thouht I had died and gone to Teacher Heaven.

I wanted to attach the Powerpoint, but I'm having difficulty. Is there a way for me to attach a Powerpoint?

The great things about the Genius Ladder is the scaffold it provides for learners. The hardest part of any writing task is getting started. Even good students have a hard time knowing where to get started. The Genius Ladder provides them with a starting point. Once they learn it they can apply what they have learned to make any writing task easier to complete. The more often they use it, the easier it will get to use.