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Practice

Cards , copyright 2009, Jay Vanderfin

Practice Cards A Powerful Addition to Whole Brain Teaching’s Classroom Management System

Jay Vanderfin Yucaipa, CA WholeBrainTeaching.com

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>> Contents Introduction

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What are Practice Cards?

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More Ways To Use Practice Cards

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Practice Cards and WBT’s Classroom Management System

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Advance Rules Sheet

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Practice Cards Summary

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Practice Cards Samples

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Notes Home Samples

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For more information about Whole Brain Teaching or our products contact Jay Vanderfin [email protected] or visit our website at WholeBrainTeaching.com

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>> Introduction

WHOLE BRAIN TEACHING (WBT) is a grassroots education reform organization founded by three Southern California instructors (Chris Biffle, Jay Vanderfin, Chris Rekstad) in 1999. Since then, we have presented free teaching seminars to over 7,000 educators representing over 300,000 students. Our websites are visited over 2,000 times per day; WBT videos on YouTube and TeacherTube have received over 700,000 views. Whole Brain Teaching is one of the fastest growing education reform movements in the United States. For more information about our movement and to access hundreds of pages of free downloads, visit our website:

WWW.WholeBrainTeaching.com

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What are Practice Cards?

There are many excellent classroom management systems but one of the most popular uses color cards to underscore a students’ positive or negative actions. Here is a sample of how the cards are coordinated with student behavior: Green card: student had a great day Gray Card: student receives a warning Purple card: student receives a time out Red card: student is given a note to take home Black card: student is sent to the principal’s office Not all color card systems are the same but they generally follow a similar pattern. Colors are used to identify an ascending set of consequences for inappropriate activity. There are two problems with this system. First, students aren’t told specifically what they need to work on. Second, all the cards but one indicate negative actions.

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To solve these problems, I came up with Practice Cards. I created one card for each of Whole Brain Teaching’s five classroom rules. These rules are:

Rule 1: Follow directions quickly. Rule 2: Raise your hand for permission to speak. Rule 3: Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat. Rule 4: Make smart choices. Rule 5: Keep your dear teacher happy!

Each Practice Card (see page 29 for samples) is printed with one of the classroom rules. Thus, there is a set of Practice Cards labeled, Rule 1: Follow directions quickly. Another set of Practice Cards is labeled Rule 2: Raise your hand for permission to speak ... and so forth. When students break a classroom rule, the teacher places a Practice Card for that rule in their pocket on a pocket chart at the front of the room.

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Let’s see how Practice Cards work for our imaginary, but wonderful, Whole Brain Teacher, Mrs. Maestra, and one of her challenging students, Juana. Juana has a common problem; she often speaks without raising her hand. Frequently during the day, Juana breaks Rule 2: Raise your hand for permission to speak. Whenever Mrs. Maestra believes Juana needs to practice following Rule 2, she places a Rule 2 Card in Juana’s slot on the pocket chart. The advantage to Mrs. Maestra is obvious. She doesn’t have to stop teaching to address Juana’s problem. Mrs. Maestra simply continues with her lesson, while she picks up a Rule 2 card and places it in Juana’s envelope on the chart. If Mrs. Maestra has several disruptive students who are breaking a variety of rules, she never has to wonder at recess who needs to practice following which rule ... she simply looks at the cards she has placed in the pocket chart. The Practice Card is also an advantage to Juana. She is not “bad,” she simply needs additional practice in following a rule. Juana is not scolded by Mrs. Maestra, neither of them like a

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scolding session, she merely receives additional time to focus on a problem she is having with a specific behavior.

And so, what does Juana do at each recess and lunch? She sits at a desk with a kitchen timer in front of her; for two minutes she raises her hand over and over, while she whispers, “Rule 2: Raise your hand for permission to speak.” Try this yourself for two minutes to see what a powerful effect it has! Two minutes of hand raising and whispering feels like forever. If one arm gets tired, raise the other! While Juana is practicing Rule 2, Mrs. Maestra is free to engage in whatever work she wishes. If Mrs. Maestra has yard duty, then Juana sits on a bench outdoors and practices following the rule she broke. Later in the year, Mrs. Maestra has the option of increasing the amount of time spent practicing a rule to three minutes, four minutes, and so forth. If Juana refuses to practice the rule, then Mrs. Maestra does not quarrel with her. Mrs. Maestra simply doubles the amount of recess minutes that Juana misses.

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Mrs. Maestra believes, along with contemporary brain researchers, that it is not the size of the penalty, but its frequency that changes behavior. It is more effective for students to have five short practice sessions, than one long one. Thus, it is Mrs. Maestra’s principle that even on Juana’s worst day, she never receives more than two Practice Cards. If four minutes of hand raising and whispering doesn’t motivate Juana, then eight or 10 minutes will be no better. Mrs. Maestra knows it is a long year; in September she gives her students two minutes of practice, understanding that late in the spring, she made need to double, or even triple the rehearsal period. When Juana receives a Practice Card, this also means she will receive a note that goes home to her parents (see page 32). This note informs parents about the rule that the student needs to work on, and encourages them to have the child practice at home(!) In most cases, the Practice Card stays in the student’s pocket chart, until the note comes back from home signed. Thus, Juana is highly motivated to bring Mrs. Maestra evidence that her parents have read the note.

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Luckily for Juana and other challenging kids, Mrs. Maestra is a realist. She knows some parents will follow through and some parents won’t. Juana’s parents are very involved in their child’s education; they can be depended to do anything the school asks of them, including promptly signing notes. And so with Juana, Mrs. Maestra is quite strict about keeping the Practice Card in Juana’s card pocket, until she receives the signed note from the girl’s parents. However, Jack is a different story. Jack’s parents are space cases. Mrs. Maestra knows, realistically, there is no chance in the world that Jack can get his folks to do anything to support his education. Mrs. Maestra cuts Jack a special deal. She takes her troubled student aside after he fails to bring a note back from his parents two days in a row and says, “Jack, I know you want to do your best. If you’ll guarantee me that you’ll work hard today on following the rule you’re having problems with, I’ll pull your Practice Card out of your slot on the pocket chart.” To sum up, students receive Practice Cards, never more than two, whenever the teacher decides they should spend time at recess and lunch practicing a rule they have broken. The practice

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involves two minutes, initially, of repeatedly whispering the rule and making a gesture that reinforces the rule. The cards are not viewed as punishment, only as an opportunity for additional rehearsal. If students refuse to practice, they are not scolded but the time lost at recess is doubled. The Practice Card stays in the student’s card pocket until a signed note is brought home from the parent. Students whose parents are unreliable are given a special deal by the instructor; their Practice Card can be removed even if a note is not returned from home.

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More Ways To Use Practice Cards

After I had been using Practice Cards for several months, I realized that they could be used in two additional ways, as rewards for good behavior and as prompts for in-class practice of individual rules. I made three sets of Practice Cards; each card, remember, has one of the five classroom rules. White cards I used as described above, to signal that a student needed time to rehearse a rule. Purple cards (I call them Wisdom cards) became rewards for good behavior. Green cards were placed on a student’s desk and guided in-class rule practice. Here’s how the whole system worked for Mrs. Maestra. When Juana was having problems with a rule, she received one, or at most, two white cards. She stayed in two to four minutes at recess to practice the rule she had broken. After this had been going on for several weeks (or even longer) Mrs. Maestra reinvigorated her system by introducing purple cards.

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When Mrs. Maestra noted that Juana was doing a good job of following a rule, she put a purple card in Juana’s pocket chart. A purple card canceled the effect of a white card; Juana was always highly motivated to get back on track and earn a purple card when she knew she had practice time ahead. If Juana managed to end the day with one or more purple cards (and no white cards) then Mrs. Maestra sent a congratulatory note home to Juana’s parents (see page 32 for samples). As the year unfolded, Mrs. Maestra saw that Juana’s number of white cards decreased and her purple cards increased ... but the troubled girl needed additional guidance. It was not enough that Juana knew the rule, had practiced it over and over, and was taking positive and negative notes home. Juana needed help in class ... she needed practice actually following the rule when

surrounded by the normal lively atmosphere of a classroom full of students.

To address this issue, Mrs. Maestra put a green

Practice Card on Juana’s desk. The card was labeled with the rule Juana needed to focus on; in her case it was almost always Rule 2, raise your hand for permission to speak.

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Mrs. Maestra explained the green cards to Juana as follows, “You’re doing a great job with the Rule 2 and I really appreciate the effort you have put into practicing. I love to give you purple cards because I want you and your parents to know when you are excelling in classroom behavior. So, here is a green Rule 2 card. Each time during class you actually raise your hand for permission

to speak, I want you to make a star on the green card. At the end of the day, I’ll look at how many stars you have accumulated on the green card, showing that you have been following the rule. If I think you have been doing a good job ... and I really want consistency ... raising your hand for permission to speak and not breaking this very important rule, then you’ll have a good chance of earning a purple card.” Thus, green cards guide student practice in class. Juana now has a chance to apply what she has learned about controlling her impulse to speak. Her goal is identical to Mrs. Maestra’s, to see how many times during the day she can follow Rule 2. The green cards are a simple way of guiding and nourishing her positive behavior.

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It turns out that Juana eventually went overboard with raising her hand for permission to speak. She so enjoyed making stars on the green card that could earn her a purple card, that she shot her hand up at every opportunity. Mrs. Maestra, ever the wise Whole Brain Teacher, was prepared for this. She took Juana aside and said, “You are doing fantastic following Rule 2. You are always raising your hand for permission to speak. But I need you to let other students follow this rule as well. If you always have your hand up and focus too much attention on yourself, then that isn’t fair to others. In fact, I may think you are breaking Rule 4: Make smart choices. Or even worse, I might feel you were breaking Rule 5: Keep your dear teacher happy. We certainly don’t want to start getting Practice Cards for those rules! You’ve lost enough recess time already with Rule 2.” Several additional points should be noted. When using the green card, Mrs. Maestra did not say how many stars Juana

needed to make. Nor did she guarantee that a heavily starred green card would earn Juana a purple card. Mrs. Maestra deeply

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believed in one of Whole Brain Teaching’s favorite sayings, “We use the system. The system doesn’t use us.” Mrs. Maestra valued the freedom of making decisions based upon her best intuition as a teacher. She did not want to be confined by an arbitrary rule like, “If you turn make 10 stars on the green card, then I’ll give you a purple card.” Mrs. Maestra did not want to be involved in this kind of bookkeeping for 35 kids. In addition, she wanted the flexibility of being able to give, or withhold, purple cards whenever she judged it was the best for her students. Occasionally, Mrs. Maestra had a student who couldn’t be relied upon to make stars on the Green Card. Paulie nibbled on his card; Janey could resist tearing the corners off. In cases like these, Mrs. Maestra gave the Green Card to a dependable student, someone who could do excellent work and make a star whenever the troubled student followed the rule on the card. Finally, Mrs. Maestra knew that one of the most difficult aspects of classroom management was to keep the system from becoming stale. Techniques that worked in September, often had little effect in January. Thus, she saw the Practice Card system as

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having three phases, White Cards, White Cards plus Purple Cards, White Cards plus Purple Cards plus Green Cards. By stretching out each phase as long as possible, Mrs. Maestra kept her students engaged for many months. In the next chapter, you’ll learn how Practice Cards fit into the year long WBT classroom management system.

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Practice Cards And WBT’s Classroom

Management System

Whole Brain Teaching’s classroom management system is set up in a series of ever more challenging levels, like a video game. The levels (completely described at WholeBrainTeaching.com) are:

Level One: The Scoreboard Game Level Two: Practice Cards Level Three: The Guff Counter Level Four: The Independents Level Five: The Bullseye Game Level Six: The Agreement Bridge

As you can learn at our website, Level One rewards and penalizes the class as a whole. When the majority of students are working hard, then the class earns a point on the Scoreboard; when too many students are off task, the class loses a point.

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Points earn time to play learning games at the end of the day or week. If the class loses more points than they earn, then extra homework or lost recess minutes can be a consequence. Practice Cards, which we introduce at Level Two, address the behavior of individual students. If Juana is off task or breaking a classroom rule, she might receive a White Card which gives her time at recess and lunch to practice following the rule she broke. Later in the year, if Juana is on task, she might earn a Purple Practice Card that she can take home to her parents letting them know about her excellent behavior.

Finally, still later in the year,

when Juana needs additional in-class practice, then Mrs. Maestra might give her a Green Practice Card. Thus, Practice Cards are a powerful complement to the Scoreboard Game. The latter is used by the teacher to guide a class as a whole; the former helps individual kids. I remember exactly where I was when the Practice Card System came to me; it was somewhere between clouds 9 and 10. I believed I had found teacher heaven, until a student saw something that I missed. I can’t tell you how foolish I felt when a

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nine year old discovered a glaring problem. My dear little Brielle, asked me, “If the class loses the

Scoreboard Game, why should we ALL suffer for a couple of kids breaking the rules?” Her point was wonderfully obvious. The Scoreboard assessed penalties to the class as a whole, but generally it was only a few kids who were breaking the rule. These kids were getting Practice Cards ... but their behavior was also pulling down all their classmates. How could Practice Cards and the Scoreboard be integrated ... in a way that was equitable for everyone? After some head scratching, I found a simple solution. If the

class loses the Scoreboard Game, only the students with Practice Cards receive the penalty (even those who forgot to have their note signed by their parents). Thus, if the penalty was five extra homework problems, and the class lost more points than they won by the end of the day, only students with Practice Cards in their card pocket chart did the extra homework. Even more motivation for following classroom rules!

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A final note. Look again at the six levels of Whole Brain Teaching’s classroom management system. Level One: The Scoreboard Game Level Two: Practice Cards Level Three: The Guff Counter Level Four: The Independents Level Five: The Bullseye Game Level Six: The Agreement Bridge

Depending on the teacher’s needs, a class can stay at a level for a week to several months before moving up. At Level Two we introduce Practice Cards and assess a two minute rehearsal time. But what happens to Practice Cards at Level Three through Six? We keep using them, but increase the rehearsal time to match the level. At Level Three, students practice for three minutes; at Level Four, they practice for four minutes, and so on. This underscores the importance of using a short practice time when the Practice Cards are first introduced. As you move up levels, the the system becomes increasingly

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challenging, and the Practice Cards become more and more powerful motivators.

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Advanced Rules Sheet In Whole Brain Teaching, we like to have “a big back pocket.”

We always want to have a large number of fall back options when a technique needs supplementing. One year, Mrs. Maestra had a particularly challenging class. In the spring of that memorable term, she introduced two of her strongest willed students, Paul and Benny, to the Advanced Rules Sheet. Here is what she said, “I have a new challenge for the two of you and I’m very interested in seeing how you respond. It’s called the Advanced Rule Sheet. From here forward, instead of practicing a rule at recess, you’ll be going through a more complex routine. This will give you additional, very specific practice, in following rules and also in making smart choices.” She handed the two boys the two sided Advanced Rules Sheet.

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Advanced Rules Sheet At each recess and lunch, your job is to do each of the following practice procedures FIVE times. Place a check mark beside each one as it is completed. Thus, when finished, each number below will have five checks.

1. Get out your math book. 2. Open to page 147. 3. Sit with your hands folded for ten seconds. 4. Put your math book away. 5. Raise your hand for ten seconds. 6. Put your hand down. 7. Stand up for ten seconds. 8. Sit down. (Begin over at #1 above)

Turn this paper over and answer the questions on the back about making smart choices.

When finished practicing the procedures FIVE times, sign and date this paper and turn it in to your teacher. Use the rest of your recess for a bathroom break and getting a drink of water. If you have time, head over to the playground. Student____________________________________

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Date___________________

Smart Choices Practice Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence. Be sure to think about what the BEST possible answer would be. 1. What is one smart choice you have made recently?

2. Why do you think it was a smart choice?

3. What is one foolish choice you have made recently?

4. Why do you think it was a foolish choice?

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Mrs. Maestra believed the Advanced Rules Sheet was a good supplement to the Practice Cards. Paul and Benny needed even more structure than was provided by practicing a single rule at recess. She wanted the boys completely inside a structure that, for at least five minutes, canceled their impulsive, unthinking behavior. Having a detailed set of instructions to follow was a much stiffer requirement than sitting at a desk and raising their hand over and over. Also, Mrs. Maestra thought that the boys needed to spend time each day thinking about the difference between smart and foolish choices. Often she used their answers as a prompt for additional discussion with her beloved, but strong willed boys.

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Practice Cards Summary 1. Kids receive a maximum of two White Practice Cards to

practice the rule(s) broken in class. Initially, the practice is for two minutes per card at each recess and lunch. 2. A note is sent home to parents describing the rule broken. If the note isn’t signed and returned, kids continue to practice (unless the teacher decides that the parents can’t be relied on to sign the note.) 3. Later in the year, Purple Practice Cards are awarded for positive actions. A note is sent home informing parents about their child’s excellent behavior. 4. A Purple Practice Card cancels a White Practice Card. 5. Still later in the year, at the teacher’s option, Green Practice Cards are placed on a student’s desk during class. Students make a star on the card each time they follow the card’s rule. At the end of the day, the teacher may decide that the student’s work with the Green Practice Cards merits a Purple Practice Card.

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6. If the student cannot be relied upon to put stars on the Green Card, another student may be given this task. 7. If the class loses at the Scoreboard Game, only kids with Practice Cards receive the negative consequence. 8. Practice Cards are introduced at Level Two of Whole Brain Teaching’s classroom management system. For each level the class moves up, an additional minute of practice time is assigned to the Practice Cards. 9. The Advanced Rules Sheet is used for students who need highly structure practice time.

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Practice Card Samples

Samples of the Rules Cards, using Whole Brain Teaching’s symbols for the five classroom rules are on the following pages. To make a set of white, green and purple Practice Cards, print each symbol (as you might expect) on white, purple or green card stock.

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Note Home Samples Samples of the Practice Note and the Reward Note that

should be sent home to parents are on the following pages. Print the former on white paper and the latter on purple paper.

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Note To Parents: Your Child Needs More Practice

Help!!!!!!!! I need practice. Today at school I broke the circled rule(s). I agreed that all of these rules are fair and I am fully capable of following them. I would never do anything to spite my wonderful teacher or break one of the rules on purpose; therefore, I need you to help me practice.

Family, Please have your child practice the rule at home for as long as you feel necessary. We have practiced at school already, but PRACTICE MAKES PERMANENT! Sign and return this paper tomorrow. If you have any questions, please give me a call or email. My son/daughter practiced for _____________ minutes at home.

Student_______________

Date_______

Parent_________________

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Note To Parents: Your Child Deserves A Special Reward!

I ROCK!!!! Today at school I was a model student following the circled rule(s). My teacher acknowledged me in front of the class for doing such an amazing job and for sharing my wisdom with my classmates! Family, Please give your child some extra one on one time or a special reward. Your student’s actions today in class were better than expected and displayed strong, virtuous character. Your child was a model of what we look for in our students! If you have any questions, please give me a call or e-mail. Teacher____________________________

Date____________