Whole Brain Teaching

Whole-brain teaching is an effective strategy for engaged learning and classroom management. Research shows that using whole brain teaching in the classroom reduces disruptive behaviors and increases student learning and retention. Whole brain teaching engages the whole brain because students are using the different parts of the brain for moving, speaking, listening, and visualizing. 

Whole brain teaching usually begins with an attention getter, such as “Class! Yes! Classity-class! Yessity-yes!”. When the teacher says class, the students say yes in the same way. Then, the teacher uses different variations of ‘mirror’ to involve the students in instruction. Then, he or she will say, “Teach!”, and the students respond, “Okay!”. For example, if the teacher says, “Mirror with Words!”, the students will mirror the teacher’s words and gestures to their partner. During instruction, the students must listen intently, and they are constantly engaged. I love how a whole brain classroom is loud and fun.

During instruction, the teacher only introduces one new point at a time. The teacher also assesses throughout the lesson. Both of these tips are important in any classroom. The longer the teacher talks, the less the students focus. After the teacher has lost the students’ attention, there is no learning taking place. By introducing one new point at a time and discussing with one another, the students are more likely to retain the new information.

Whole brain teaching also uses effective classroom management, such as learning the classroom rules and using a ‘scoreboard’ system. The classroom rules are not just displayed on the wall in the back corner of the room. The students mirror and teach the rules with their partner until they have been committed to memory. The scoreboard system allows the teacher to recognize good behavior and bad behavior, as well as good and bad techniques during instruction. If the class does something good, the class gets a point. If the class does something wrong, the teacher gets a point. Students are then rewarded at the end of the day/week. There are many different ways to do the scoreboard, so as a teacher it’s important to find what works best for each class.

I love how interactive the whole brain teaching approach is. I can see myself using it in my own classroom. It takes more time to master the rules and procedures, but there are rewards. I look at it like this: you can spend the first few weeks working toward mastering WBT, or you can not do WBT and three weeks into the school year you’re trying to figure out new classroom management strategies and engaging activities. Whole brain teaching for the win!