Clap! Clap! Teach!

Visually observe.  Large Gestures.  Verbally explain.  More large gestures.  Although I can not quote the scientific explanations about how the brain works, you can refer to the Whole Brain Teaching website for those.  What I can speak about is how it works in my classroom.  And, did I say it works well for me?  It does.  I love teaching with the WBT methods. 

The clap, clap, teach (as I'm calling it here), is simply using the large gestures to teach, having students repeat what you are doing with those large gestures and say what you say.  I clap twice.  Put my hands open in front of me and say, "Teach!"  They clap twice, put their open hands out in front of them and say, "Okay!"  The students turn toward a buddy, and "teach" it, using the same gestures and words I used with the whole class.  This is a simple explanation, for what is a simple strategy.  It can be adapted to any content.  I viewed it in use in Kindergarten through college classes.  "Mirrors with words" are what the students "do" in the WBT world when they are mimicking my movements and are repeating what I say.  There are many, many WBT videos to view this in action.  I hope you enjoy them as much as me!