Whole Brain Teaching: Oral Writing FREEBIE

     This summer I have been re-watching the classroom management videos that are available on Whole Brain Teaching.  If you have never heard of WBT, you have got to try Chris Biffle's methods!  Everything whole brain teaching is totally revolutionary and free!  He started out with great classroom managment tools.  Recently he has added more academic content.  I want to start some of his methods on day one. 
     One of my favorites is Oral Writing.  Chris maintains that students cannot improve in writing without first having good oral communication.  This is especially important for English Language Learners, students of poverty, and students with poor receptive and expressive language skills.  I assessed my class on the skill of oral writing on Step-Up Day when students had to use 7-Up sentences (sentences with a minimum of 7 words) to describe themselves and their hobbies (see my blogpost).  I found that many students had difficulties doing this.
     When I reviewed the video on Oral Writing, I noticed how Chris taught specific "adders" to help students extend their sentence length and improve their critical thinking.  I felt that I wanted to post these "adders" at the beginning of the year, so I made these adder strips.

          Each adder has a picture and a gesture.  That way, if a child gets stuck, their peers can non-verbally suggest an adder by doing its gesture.
In the spirit of Chris Biffle, this is a FREEBIE.  Just click the picture to get your own adders!