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Chris Biffle
Co-Founder, Whole Brain Teaching Crafton Hills College Yucaipa, California Cbiffle@AOL.com WholeBrainTeaching.com
Introduction Complexors Personal Record Rewards Writing Micro Skills Puzzles Writing Rules, Proofreading, Grading Summary Personal Record Charts
Copyright 2010, Chris Biffle. All rights reserved. While individual pages of this document may be reproduced by instructors for use by their students, the document as a whole may not be reproduced, sold or transferred without the persmission of the author, Chris Biffle.
In 1999 in the small town of Yucaipa, California, three instructors, Chris Biffle, Jay Vanderfin and Chris Rekstad, met for a year to design the principles of a new teaching system. Their goal was simple: create a method that was free, effective and marvelously fun. In the last 11 years, over 8,000 educators representing a quarter of a million students have attended Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) conferences. WBT has spread across America and to more than 30 foreign countries. Thousands of teachers have downloaded countless pages of free ebooks from WholeBrainTeaching.com. WBT videos on YouTube and TeacherTube have received over 1,00,000 views. The three instructors, and their colleagues, are not done. The Whole Brain Writing Game (WBWG) is a highly visual system for teaching K-12 students to write. The game, for ease of use, is modular. WBWG components, color coded diagrams, can be combined in any order to design a writing curriculum for beginning to advanced writers. Aspects of the game can be integrated with other writing programs; for example, WBWG fits well with Step Up To Writing and other systems distributed by major publishers. The Whole Brain Writing Game is divided into two parts: Complexors and Puzzles. Complexors give your students hundreds of repetitions in basic writing skills (that you wont have to read or grade!). Puzzles guide your students through a set of writing patterns (some of which you will have to grade ... heck!) Here are some skills your kids will learn while playing with Complexors: generating ideas creating topic sentences designing paragraphs modifying nouns with adjectives using descriptive language substituting active for passive verbs writing similies correctly employing prepositional and adverbial phrases creating complex sentences with words like: and, or, but, because, since, though paraphrasing ideas
Your students will learn the following skills while playing with Puzzles: Brain storming Subject/verb agreement Turning fragments into sentences Writing topic sentence paragraphs Creating three, four and five paragraph essays Writing well organized letters Composing tightly structured narrative, expository and argumentative essays Proofreading When students are playing with Complexors, they work in teams to orally create as many Complexor tasks as possible in a minute (this is why there is no grading involved!) Complexors are speed games designed to build oral fluency. If students can speak 20 topic sentences in a row, then writing a topic sentence is enormously simplified. When students are playing with Puzzles they work individually or in teams, completing prewriting and writing tasks. The prewriting tasks (Puzzles 1-6) can be completed orally. Students work against the clock to build what might be called idea fluency. The goal in Puzzles 7-22, which can only be completed by writing, is not speed but accuracy. Using a set of writing rules, students complete ever more elaborate, and challenging, essay patterns. Lets begin with Complexors.
Perhaps the goal of all education is to teach students how to construct complex ideas. Simple ideas have one part. Complex ideas have two or more parts. Heres a sample of each: Simple idea: Juan went to the store. Complex idea: Juan went to the store and bought some bread. The word and joins two ideas, going to the store and what Juan bought, bread. Here are several more, two part, complex ideas. Juan went to the store but he was broke. Juan went to the store though he was broke. Because he was broke, Juan didnt go to the store. Juan went to the store, or he went to the park. Note that the words and, but, though, because, or, link two concepts and transform simple ideas into complex ideas. There are, of course, other ways to create complex ideas. Nouns can modified, or in our terms, made more complex, by the addition of adjectives. Juan went to the big, busy store. Juan went to the big, busy store to buy some wheat bread. Comma phrases are important components of complex ideas. For example: Juan, when he was hungry, went to the store to buy some bread. When he was hungry, Juan, a friend of mine, went to the store to buy some bread. Similes are an excellent way to make ideas more complex by adding comparisons. Juan, hungry as a bear, went to the store to buy some bread. Juan went to the store and bought some bread that tasted like cardboard. After students learn to use individual Complexors, they can be encouraged to use Multi-Complexors. Juan, hungry as a bear, went to the busy store to buy bread and milk. Because he was hungry, Juan, a friend of mine, went to the bakery to buy some warm, delicious, freshly baked bread. Every Complexor in the Whole Brain Writing Game is introduced with a one page handout. Most Complexors give students the option of increasing the
challenge of their task by supplementing a sentence with an adder. Adders, used all through the Whole Brain Writing Game, are simply sentences that add information to the sentence they follow. Thus, Juan went to the big, busy store. The parking lot was jammed with cars. The second sentence is an adder; it adds information to the sentence it follows. One of the most frequent comments teachers at any level write in the margins of student papers is, more details. Adders, supplementing ideas with additional information, address this universal problem. Heres the one page handout for the Complexor And and an adder. (Ive included explanatory notes for the instructor in cloud shaped diagrams.)
Working in teams of two, students use the nouns at the bottom of the page as prompts to orally create as many 1 point Complexors as possible in a minute. -- I like dogs and cats. -- John has a cat and a horse. -- I went to the house and stayed all day. And so forth. For an additional challenge, you may ask students to complete as many 2 point Complexors as possible by including an adder with each sentence.
6. Time the pairs of students for a minute. When they are finished, tell them to cheer their progress. 7. Ask the pairs of students to switch, so that a different student goes first for the next minutes test. For example, if Juan and Alisha were partners and Juan went first initially, then Alisha goes first for the second round. 8. Time the students for a second minute and tell them to cheer if they broke their teams record by going further down the list of nouns than the first attempt. Most will be cheering! 9. Finish by saying, Good job! If you broke your teams record, then next time we play, dont start making And Complexors with the first two nouns, boy and girl, but start with the next two nouns, girl and dog and see if you can go further! In 11 years of experimenting, we have found no learning activity more motivating to a large range of students from kindergarten through high school, than setting and breaking personal records. The beauty of playing Complexor is that students get hundreds of oral repetitions at using important words and grammatical constructions while the challenge is always appropriate to the players ... beating their last record. Let me reemphasize a point I made at #4 above. Whenever you introduce a Complexor, be sure to check to see that your students understand how to use it correctly, before letting them race against the clock. If some students lag behind in competency, simply pair them with your brightest kids and encourage helpsies. As students try to beat their best records, its alright if you hear some errors being made kids will always make mistakes but if the majority of your class has no clue about how to use a Complexor, dont let them reinforce their difficulties by making hundreds of rapid errors! Here are three more suggestions for using Complexors in class. 1. Give students the option, or assign it yourself, of playing Complexors with the adders. Employing adders involves the crucial writing skill of supplementing one idea with another. 2. Ask students to practice for playing timed Complexor rounds by writing down Complexors. As you prefer, students can write individually or with a teammate. Written lists can be used to go further, and faster, in the timed competition. 3. Play Round Robin with your class as a whole. Break a Complexor into a set of individual activities. Point at one student to select a noun; the next student selects another noun; the third student makes a sentence with a Complexor and the two nouns. For additional excitement, give each player a ten count. If they can finish their task before you count ten, the next student gets
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a turn. The class works to set a class record for how many students in a row can beat the ten count. Select each student who is to go next, matching a task to a students ability to complete it.
List of Complexors
Heres each Complexor handout, and a brief description:
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1. And Sample sentence: I play baseball and football. Adder: I like both games because they are team sports. Notes: And is the Complexor that students employ most often. A good general rule, to avoid overuse, is that and cannot be used more than once in a paragraph.
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2. But Sample sentence: Cats are smart but dogs are smarter. Adder: Dogs can learn more tricks than cats. Notes: But is an important Complexor. Point out to students that but often changes the meaning of a sentence. You are a good student but ... I want to go to the show but ... Also point out that but as well as and should not be used to begin a sentence.
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3. Or Sample sentence: He went to the movies or the park. Adder: If he went to the park, he should be home soon. Notes: Or involves a choice between alternatives. Adders, like the one above, can be constructed around one of the choices.
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4. Since Sample sentence: Since you like bananas, try this banana pudding. Adder: It is the best banana pudding I have ever tasted. Notes: This Complexor introduces a comma phrase. As students speak since Complexors to each other, ask them to indicate the comma at the correct place in the sentence by using one finger and drawing it in the air.
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5. Because Sample sentence: I like the boy because he is nice. Adder: He always helps me with my homework. Notes: So far as critical thinking is concerned, because is one of the most important words in our language. In the form, A because B, the word indicates evidence that supports a conclusion. For example: You should take an umbrella outside because it is raining. I eat oatmeal every morning because it is good for me. The evidence that is used to support the conclusion take an umbrella outside is because it is raining. The evidence used to support the conclusion I eat oatmeal every morning is because it is good for me. Since can be used as a synonym for because. Note that a comma is not used before because in the sample sentence. Many English instructors believe that when two short independent clauses like I like the boy and he is nice are joined by a conjunction like because a comma is not needed. However, if the clauses are longer, a comma is appropriate. For example: All through the months of May and June I worried, because I was afraid I wouldnt graduate from high school.
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6. Though Sample sentence: The boy ran fast, though he was losing the race. Adder: He looked tired, but he never quit. Notes: Though is a powerful Complexor that doesnt occur as frequently in student writing as and or but. Point out to students that though can connect two sentences (the technical name is independent clauses.)
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7. Adjectives and Nouns 1 point phrase: big girl, red horse 2 point phrase: red, hungry horse Notes: For simplicity, adjectives and nouns are introduced as standalone phrases, not as part of complete sentences. If you wish, ask students to practice forming adjective-noun combinations and then turning these phrases into sentences. When students speak phrase with two commas, they should draw the comma in the air with their finger.
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8. Similes Topic: Food: I like apples. Sample sentence: This apple is sweet as candy. Topic: Holidays: The best holiday is Christmas. Sample sentence: Christmas is as fun as a roller coaster. Notes: One way to help students construct similies is to have them start with a simple sentence, like those above. After the simple sentence is created, the comparison is then constructed.
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9. Fact Sample sentence: My friend Juana is a fast runner. Adder: She won three races at our school. Notes: Point out to students that facts often follow a pattern: A is B, A was B, A and B are C, and so forth. Passive verbs like is, are, was, which should be avoided elsewhere in an essay are useful in the creation of factual statements. The adder after a fact supplies additional information that supports the facts truth.
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10. Paraphrase To construct a paraphrase, students should begin with a simple sentence. Topic: Recess: At recess I usually talk to my friends. Paraphrase: I usually talk to my friends at recess. Topic: Pets: I take my dog for a walk every day. Paraphrase: Every day I take my dog for a walk. Notes: In general, there are three ways to construct a paraphrase sentence. You can switcheroo the word order, as above, and keep all the original words but switch their order. Or, you can word pop, keep the original order and pop in a new, equivalent word. I almost always talk to my friends at recess. Finally, you can switcheroo word pop. Switch the word order and pop in a new word. At recess I almost always talk to my friends. Important: Students will need to master Paraphrase Complexors before going from Puzzle 10 (which does not require paraphrasing) to Puzzle 11 (which does require paraphrasing).
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11. College Talk Verbs Baby Talk: I am happy. College Talk: I smile and laugh all day long. Baby Talk: We are good neighbors. College Talk: We help our neighbors clean their yard. Notes: Students need an easy way to understand the difference between passive and active verbs. Calling the former baby talk and the latter college talk may be helpful. Often in Whole Brain Teaching we ask students to practice the wrong behavior in order to clarify the correct behavior. In this case, we clarify passive verbs by asking students to deliberately construct baby talk sentences. In general, passive verbs can be used for topic sentences, A is B ... but students should be encouraged not to use them for succeeding sentences in a paragraph. The verbs at the bottom of the College Talk handout are suggestions; your students should be allowed to use any non-baby talk verbs they come up with.
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12. Descriptive sentences To guide students in the construction of descriptive sentences, they first create a blah sentence. Blah sentence: I run fast. Descriptive sentence: I can run faster than a wild deer. Adder: When I run, I almost feel like I am flying. Notes: Writing descriptive sentences is a challenging intellectual activity. Spend some time working as a class on creating blah, lifeless sentences. If you wish, use the phrases at the bottom of the Descriptive Sentences page. When you believe your class is ready to orally create descriptive sentences, you may need to give them extra time, perhaps two or three minutes, for each session.
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13. Comma List To guide students in the construction of a comma list, they should begin with a simple sentence. Topic: Food: I like apples. Sample sentence: I like apples, oranges and pears. Topic: Pets: The best pets are dogs. Sample sentence: The best pets are dogs, cats and birds. Notes: There is a debate among English teachers about whether or not a comma should go before and in a comma list. Some say it shouldnt. Others say it should. To solve this raging debate, I tell my college students, The comma should go before the and or it shouldnt. And I mean it!
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14. Comma Opener Beginning with a simple sentence will help students construct comma phrase sentences. Topic: The Farm: Farmers work hard. Sample sentence: In the summer, farmers work hard. Topic: School: He walked to school. Sample sentence: Happily whistling, he walked to school. Notes: We believe it is easier for students to understand prepositional phrases like in the summer and adverbial phrases like happily whistling if they arent called prepositional and adverbial phrases! In our terminology, an Opener is a phrase that opens a sentence and that ends with a comma.
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15. Comma Splitter To help students construct parenthetical phrases, they should begin with a short sentence. Topic: The Farm: Farmers work hard. Sample sentence: Farmers, in the summer, work hard. Topic: School: He walked to school. Sample sentence: He walked, happily whistling, to school. Notes: We believe comma splitter is easier for students to understand than parenthetical phrase. We suggest you teach Comma Openers before Comma Splitters; students are often happy to learn that the former can be easily transformed into the latter.
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16. Double Comma Phrase Students should first master Comma List, Comma Openers, and Comma Splitters before attempting the Double Comma Phrase (which combines any two.) Original Sentence: Saskia played on the beach. Opener/Splitter: Under the hot sun, Saskia, with her friends, player on the beach. Opener/List: Under the hot sun, Saskia, Deidre and Lily played on the beach. List/Splitter: Saskia, Deidre and Lily, under the hot sun, played on the beach. Notes: Double Comma Phrases are the most complex, linguistic constructions in the Whole Brain Writing Game. Kids love challenges; expect strange constructions, but praise student effort.
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I In the Whole Brain Writing Game, the teacher encourages the class to set and break personal records. Students should keep track of their records on a copy of the records page (see last two pages of this manual). But what rewards should be used? Here are several suggestions: 1. Ask your record breakers to stand while everyone gives them a vigorous round of applause, or rhythmically chants their name ... or makes some other uproarious, supportive noise. 2. Hold a raffle for three to five inexpensive prizes every Friday (fancy pencils, erasers, plastic rings, etc.). Whenever students set a personal record, they receive a raffle ticket. (This is probably the cheapest, most motivating, easiest to manage of all personal record rewards.) 3. Whenever students break five personal records, they receive a plastic wristband. The wristbands (available for about 50 cents each on the Internet) can be printed with motivating words, Excellent! Brilliant! Super Brain! etc. In addition, the wristbands can be color coded. Breaking 5 personal records wins a white band, 10 wins a blue band, 15 wins a red band and so forth. 5. One reward we favor is placing a students photo on the Photo Hall of Fame. After 5 records are broken, take a photo of the student or pair of students involved. (Kids love to have their picture taken.) Then, without showing anyone, stick the photo on your Photo Hall of Fame, but with the picture facing the wall! This will drive students crazy. The picture is only revealed when the student(s) pictured breaks five more records. (This technique also cuts in half the number of photo rewards you hand out ... five records is a photo, ten records is merely the students getting to see their photo.) Students with the most photos on the wall will be the ones who have broken their records most often. One of the first locations kids will take their parents on Parent Night is the Photo Hall of Fame.
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A fundamental problem with most writing systems is that students are asked to do too much, too quickly. If you attend a camp to learn how to play tennis, you likely wouldnt be told, Go out there, throw the ball in the air and start wacking it back and forth across the net. Playing tennis even with moderate competence, involves a host of micro skills. Just to hit a forehand shot correctly, you must learn how hold the racquet, place your feet, bend your knees the proper amount, move toward the tennis ball, swing the racquet back smoothly, strike the ball at the correct height with the correct amount of top spin, follow through appropriately, prepare for the next shot. And thats just one forehand, to say nothing of serving, volleying, hitting a lob, a slice or top spin backhand, or returning any of the variety of strokes your opponent may send sizzling your way. Each of these individual skills must be practiced repeatedly, hundreds of times, before they can be woven together into a competent performance. Now, think about the host of skills involved in writing. -- Using words like and, or, but, though, since, because to create complex sentences -- Generating ideas -- Breaking topics into smaller subjects -- Constructing topic sentences -- Creating subordinate details -- Arranging a set of paragraphs into a coordinated whole -- Understanding the relationship between sentences, paragraphs and an essay -- Understanding the difference between the introduction, body and conclusion of an essay -- Learning how to proofread for a variety of errors: spelling, subject/verb agreement, capitalization, apostrophes, fragments, run-ons, end marks, commas, passive verbs, improper use of modifiers, etc. -- matching appropriate adjectives with nouns -- correctly using coordinating conjunctions -- creating and placing transitions -- paraphrasing key ideas -- employing similes, metaphors, descriptive language -- Transforming rough drafts into a polished essay
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The list could be easily extended and it wouldnt include the nuances of writing an essay of a certain type: argumentative, expository, narrative, autobiographical. Just as one should break the complex skill of tennis into small skills, the same strategy should be followed with writing. Students will be more successful creating essays, if they have had hundreds of repetitions in each of writings micro skills. It is far easier to master the skill of creating a topic sentence, for example, if all one has to do is think about topic sentences! We believe that one of the best ways for students to achieve hundreds of repetitions in writings micro-skills is to engage in oral writing as you have seen with Complexors. If a student can learn to speak one topic sentence after another, actually writing the sentence down requires no additional skill. As I have pointed out, the two modules of our game are Complexors and Puzzles. You have seen that Complexors are words and grammatical devices that add complexity to language. Puzzles are diagrams that guide students from pre-writing skills to full featured, five paragraph, college essays. The most challenging essay patterns involve, besides other features, the most Complexors.
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The Whole Brain Writing Games Puzzles are patterns that help students practice composition skills. Puzzles 1 to 6 develop prewriting abilities and can be completed orally, like the Complexors. Puzzles 7 to 22 involve writing. Here is Puzzle 1, with explanatory notes for the teacher:
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As you can see, this Puzzle is played like the Complexors. Students work in pairs to strengthen their ability to break a topic into smaller parts. However, unlike Complexors that give students sentence level writing abilities, Puzzles 16 develop prewriting skills. Here is each Puzzle and a brief description.
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Puzzle 1: Name One, Two, Three, Four Students practice the fundamental writing skill of dividing a topic into several parts. The bottom of the page shows 40 subjects (Balls, Rooms, Games, etc.).
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Puzzle 2: Writing Sketches The topics in this puzzle (My Friends, School, Vacations, Games) are more appropriate for simple writing tasks than the topics in Puzzle 1 (Balls, Rooms). Sample solutions to the puzzle are listed at the top of the page. Students solve the puzzle by selecting a topic and then dividing it into two subjects, Part 1 and Part 2. Additional difficulty is added when they attempt the two point puzzle, dividing a topic into three parts.
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Puzzle 3: Subject Verb Agreement Typical subject/verb exercises ask students to correctly match a singular subject with a singular verb or a plural subject with a plural verb. Puzzle 3 presents an alternate strategy. We want students to have hundreds of opportunities of hearing the correct subject/verb pattern. To solve Puzzle 3, student 1 makes a sentence with a starter and a finisher: Starter: I am Finisher: in the woods. Then student 2 makes a sentence with the next starter and the next finisher. Starter: I was Finisher: on the table. As you can see, the game involves nothing but reading. Students read a starter and then read a finisher ... and, in the process, hear, hundreds of times, the correct link between subject and verb. This Puzzle is especially useful with English Language Learners.
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Puzzle 4: Fragments and Sentences Our strategy with this puzzle is to have students deliberately write fragments, make mistakes on purpose, so that they clarify for themselves the difference between incomplete and complete sentences. Students are often confused when a sentence is defined as a complete idea or, even less helpfully, they are told that a sentence must have a subject and verb. Whats a subject? Whats a verb? In Whole Brain Teaching, we define a sentence as a complete message. We ask students to imagine that their phone rings in the middle of the night and they hear, running and laughing along the beach. This is not a sentence because it is not a complete message. The phone rings again. The caller says, I was running and laughing along the beach. This is a sentence because it is a complete message. We call this the Midnight Phone Call Test and use it whenever students wonder if what they have written is a sentence.
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Puzzle 5: Brainstorming In Puzzle 5, students begin with a topic and then break it into two parts; each part is then divided into two smaller units. This puzzle prepares students to establish the structure of a short essay. Significantly more difficult is the second task, dividing a topic into three parts. Allow three or more minutes for this section of Brainstorming.
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Puzzle 6: Topic Sentence Students start by constructing a short topic sentence, I like desserts. The next step is to construct a longer topic sentence by adding the word and. My favorite desserts are pie and cake. We believe using the word and in a topic sentence is the simplest way to guide students toward topic sentence paragraphs. For example, here is a kindergarten level paragraph: I like dogs and cats. Dogs are friendly. Cats are fun to pet. Using and in the first sentence, points the beginning writer toward using dogs in the second sentence and cats in the final sentence.
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Puzzle 7: Topic Sentence Paragraphs As pointed out in the notes to Puzzle 6, some of the easiest topic sentences to write are ones that contain and. My favorite desserts are pie and cake. Cherry pies are sweet and delicious. Chocolate cake tastes great after any meal. And divides the topic sentence into two parts; each part can then be expanded in the next sentences. In this puzzle, students orally construct short, but tightly organized, paragraphs.
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Puzzle 8: Beginner Essay Previous puzzles can be completed orally, but Puzzle 8, a three paragraph mini-essay, is the first writing assignment. Adders, sentences that add information to a previous sentence, are required in this puzzle. The problem of constructing transitions is avoided by asking students to copy sentences from the first paragraph into the next two paragraphs. Also, note that students are assigned to write their first Complexor in the second sentence of the second paragraph. Tell your class which Complexors they can choose from. Puzzle 8 would be a good occasion to introduce some of the simpler writing rules (pg. 102). Evaluating the Puzzle 8 mini-essay can be done quickly; check to see that the form and rules have been followed and that the Complexor in the second paragraph is used correctly. If a significant number of your students are having problems with the Complexors they are using, give them additional oral practice with the appropriate Complexor games. If you assign this puzzle and others as in class writing exercises, tell students that when they finish one puzzle, they should start working on another. Thus, your quickest students will not end up with their arms folded, happily announcing, Im finished! From here forward, a solution is included for each Puzzle. Spend time discussing these with your class, prior to asking them to begin writing.
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Puzzle 9: Only slightly more difficult than the previous assignment, in Puzzle 9 students must write two Complexors.
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Puzzle 10: Four Paragraph Essay Students add a conclusion to their mini-essay.
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Puzzle 11: Paraphrase Complexor Essay A new skill, writing paraphrases, is introduced in this short assignment. Give students plenty of practice orally creating Paraphrase Complexors (page 30) before assigning Puzzle 11.
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Puzzle 12: Students are now writing a tightly organized, four paragraph essay. The topic sentence includes and; Paraphrase Complexors are used as transitions; two additional Complexors are introduced in the body of the essay.
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Puzzle 13: This Puzzle is only slightly more difficult than 12. Refreshingly enough, students are given some freedom! They can choose where in the essay to place a new Complexor.
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Puzzle 14: The big change, and it is considerable, in this Puzzle is that students can no longer write topic sentences with and. This requires them to generalize about a subject which they will break into two parts in the second and third sentences of the first paragraph. As an introduction to this new approach, show your class the solution to Puzzle 14.
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Puzzle 15: Dividing a topic into three, sub-topics is one of the most difficult skills in student writing. Give your students substantial amounts of oral practice with Puzzle 5, Brainstorming (page 58), before assigning Puzzle 15. Also, note that students are given additional creative freedom in Puzzle 15; they write several sentences in each body paragraph as opposed to the previous pattern which requires three. Finally, the topic sentence is paraphrased as the conclusion. Puzzle 15 represents one of the larger challenges in the puzzle series.
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Puzzle 16: Topic Paragraph Flip Flop As a general pattern, this Puzzle is probably the easiest, most flexible of all the full featured essay models in this series. Some instructors call this pattern, a funnel. The first paragraph begins wide and then narrows down to a point in the topic sentence. You can, if you wish, adapt the expository, narrative and argumentative models that follow to this funnel pattern. If I was going to teach my college students only one essay model, Id teach them Puzzle 16.
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Puzzle 17: In this Puzzle, students write a total of eight Complexors (three Paraphrase and five additional Complexors).
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Puzzle 18: Narrative Essay Puzzle 18 introduces freebies, words, first ... then ... finally that simplify the internal organization of an essay. These chronological transitions are well suited to a narrative essay.
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Puzzle 19: Expository Essay Explain to your students that an expository essay is a type of story. They will be explaining the story of the steps involved in a process; first ... then ... finally, can be used just as in the narrative assignment.
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Puzzle 20: Argumentative Essay Argumentative essays are among the most difficult for students to write, and thus are the last Puzzle pattern. Note that the topic sentence must contain the word three. There are three reasons why students should go to college. There are three values that good teachers must possess. A good parent should have three goals.
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Letter Puzzle 1 Using letters as writing assignments can be introduced early in the Puzzle sequence. Only because they involve special considerations, date, greeting, closing, are they set aside here at the end. Note that the body of the letter uses a topic sentence with and.
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Letter Puzzle 2 The body of this letter presents a small, well formed paragraph with a topic sentence and two sub-points expanded with adders.
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If you are intrigued by this idea, then tell your class that when they turn in their paper they should write down which rules (see next chapter) they are positive they have followed perfectly. Weaker writers might indicate they want to be judged on rules #1-3 (neat appearing paper, name and date in the correct place, every sentence beginning with a capital letter). Stronger writers might choose more difficult rules involving Complexors and challenging essay patterns. Under this system, students would receive recognition (raffle ticket, photo on Photo Hall of Fame, etc.) when you judge, and this could be done quickly, that they have met the goal they set for themselves. When students consistently set goals that are below their ability, your task then is to coax them to try something slightly harder. The grade you assign to the paper might, at your option, take into account how well students met their own standards.
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Our writing rules (on the next page) are arranged, roughly, in order of complexity. Thus, it is easier for students to turn in a paper that is unwrinkled (Rule 1) than it is to turn in a paper that has no missing words (Rule 13). Of course, you may arrange these rules, or add others, as you wish.
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The general idea of the Writing Rules is that students should begin by following simpler rules and then advance to following more challenging rules. Using writing rules in conjunction with Puzzles and Complexors allows you to design writing tasks appropriate to each students ability. Kindergartners might only be trying to complete Puzzle 7 and follow rules 1-4. 1. Your paper is not wrinkled or torn. Your writing is very easy for the teacher to read. (Smooth your hand over your paper.) 2. Your name is in the upper right corner of each page. (Tap your name.) 3. The date with the month, day and year is on the line under your name. (Tap the month, day and year. Three taps in all!) 4. Every sentence must begin with a capital letter. As students advance in ability, they should be trying to follow more and more of your writing rules. Note that each rule is followed by instructions in parenthesis. These instructions tell students what to do while proofreading.
Paperclip Proofreading
Here is a great truth: you will go batty if you spend your career circling capitalization errors. Your students are the ones who need proofreading practice, not you. The main problem we have found in student proofreading is that we ask students to look for all the possible errors they might make, instead of trying to identify one mistake at a time. To solve this problem, all youll need is a box of paperclips. In Paperclip Proofreading, each student is given a paperclip that they clip to the side of their writing rules. After they complete each proofreading task (indicated by a parenthesis in the writing rules), they move the paperclip down to the next proofreading task. Thus, as you circle the room, you can tell immediately what error students are looking for, based upon where the paper clip is pointing on the list of writing rules. Almost every proofreading task requires students to engage in a physical activity, smoothing their hand over an unwrinkled paper, flicking an end mark. You can easily tell which students are following your instructions, simply by watching their gestures! When students have completed proofreading for all the rules that the paper required, instruct them to go back to the beginning of the rules and begin again. This solves the problems of kids folding their arms and announcing, Im through when you want them to keep working at finding errors.
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After you are satisfied that papers have been thoroughly proofread and a clean, perfect copy has been produced, we suggest you go on to our version of peer review. Students trade papers with a neighbor. The neighbor only marks violations of the writing rules assigned for the paper. When this is completed, the neighbor slowly waggles the paper over her head until she sees another paper being waggled. She quickly trades papers and, on the new paper, only marks violations of the writing rules. This multiple error checking continues until you are satisfied that each paper has been reviewed several times. As the next step, students return the paper to the original author. The author looks at her paper and places a star beside each mistake that she agrees is a violation of a writing rule. The paper is then turned in to you already proofread by many students and the author. Check to see if you agree that the author has correctly starred errors; this will vastly reduce the time you spend correcting errors yourself! If no errors have been starred, read the paper carefully to see if you find unmarked mistakes. If many errors have been correctly starred, dont take the time to mark more mistakes (which would only depress the author further.) Note that with this entire procedure, you will be spending the most time carefully reading the best papers. And, isnt that what you want to do?
Grading
Obviously, you can grade writing assignments in any way you wish. However, the traditional method of giving a score for content and another score for form often results in confusion among student writers. It often isnt clear what the difference is between A and B content or C and D form. If it isnt clear to your class what you expect of them, and how they are being evaluated, how can you expect them to meet your? Here is our most controversial suggestion: grade only the writing rules assigned for the composition. Lets say it is early in the semester in a lower grade and you ask students to complete Puzzle 7, a three sentence paragraph. You tell them to write as well as they possibly can but you are only going to be grading them on the following: neatness, name location, correct day, month and year, first word capitalization and end mark placement. Thats it! And, here is the truth. Using only these evaluators, you will have a number of students who dont follow these rules! What sense does it make to drive them on to more complex compositions, if they cant manage the simplest tasks.
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In college for the last 10 years, I graded only on rules followed and never had a disagreement with any student on the grade on their paper! They see the rules. They see the violation. They have starred their own errors. They understand what they did wrong and how they can avoid the problem on the next essay. What do you do about content? Well, you have to clearly define what you mean by excellent content. Is it the use of adjectives with nouns? Is it descriptive language? Is it the use of similes or active verbs? These are all Complexors! When you give students a Puzzle to complete, tell them what Complexors you will be looking for and exactly where in the essay you expect to find them. Make Complexor use one of your rules or use rule 14. 14. Your paper exactly follows the directions you were given. Using Complexors correctly, as defined by you, results in better content.
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Summary
The Whole Brain Writing Game is divided into two parts: Complexors and Puzzles. Complexors can be completed orally and provide students with hundreds of repetitions in using words and phrases that added complexity to their compositions. Puzzles are writing patterns that begin with simple tasks, creating three sentence paragraphs and culminate with five paragraph college level essays. Complexors add verbal sophistication to the Puzzles. Puzzles 1-6 can be completed orally; Puzzles 7-22 require writing. Setting and breaking records is an important component in the Whole Brain Writing Game. Working in pairs, a weaker with a stronger writer, students try to see how many Complexors or simple Puzzles can be completed in a time period, usually a minute. Record breakers can be given awards, the easiest to manage are raffle tickets for a Friday raffle. Assignment completion and proofreading are simplified with a set of writing rules. The rules, arranged from simpler to more complex, are accompanied by proofreading tasks which, for the teachers and students convenience, often involve a physical activity. A peer reviewing system is suggested which culminates in students placing a star beside errors that have been correctly marked by their classmates. When teachers receive these starred papers, the amount of time spent evaluating a composition is significantly decreased. A controversial suggestion is that teachers grade only on the writing rules following, the form of the composition, and not on content. Content is difficult to define and, in the Whole Brain Writing Game, is largely created by the effective use of Complexors. For more information about the Whole Brain Writing Game contact me, Chris Biffle. Cbiffle@AOL.com To access thousands of pages of free downloads, go to WholeBrainTeaching.com Complexor and Puzzle records pages follow.
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