Hey everybody! I'm looking to implement the Genius Ladder in my class as soon as we go back to school. I LOVE the video of it on Youtube, but my question, specific to kindergarten, is what to do if my students don't understand noun / verb / adjective yet. Should I wait to implement it fully until they understand that vocabulary? I am planning to teach all three of those during the first two weeks of next semester, but I'm so excited about the Genius Ladder that I want to start ASAP I'm also wondering-- do we stop before Genius Paragraph, or do we have them do it orally and just not write it? Thanks for your help!!

Hey there,

Sorry that no one has responded! Especially me...I have been so busy in my kinder class and getting ready for 1st grade next year ALREADY!

I would suggest that you start off with orally introducing the GL first using terms like spicy words and such! For instance...just start with taking a blah sentence and moving it to a spicy sentence.

EXAMPLE:

The fox runs.
The fat fox runs.

Read the sentences together as a class and explain that the word "fat" is a spicy word! Then see if they can think of any other spicy words to describe the fox. You don't have to teach them the concepts of noun, verb, or adjective right off but before moving to the next level in the ladder I would. That way they are familiar with the parts of the ladder and will have an easier time learning what a noun and such are! HTH

Power to the Teachers!
Farrah

Farrah, my students love GL. We use it almost daily. What a difference, I know on the benchmark test I hinted for them to look for the correct sentences like in our GL. You should have heard the ah-ha's.