Whole Brain Teaching Series! Mirror

July is here and I'm excited to be writing my third Whole Brain Teaching Series post! I hope that this focus on a specific WBT strategy is helpful to those of you who are wishing to learn more about how a certain strategy may work. In my last Whole Brain Teaching post I highlighted "Teach-Ok", this week I would like to introduce you to the WBT strategy of "Mirror". 

     "Mirror" is a classroom management strategy that allows us, as teachers, to gain our student's attention while maintaining engagement levels. One of the things that I found difficult with teachers that they always couldn't tell if their students were truly paying attention while they're speaking. Sure they were sitting quietly staring at the board but were they actually listening? I found that many times the teacher would explain an activity or concept (verbally and on the board) only to have a few students respond, "What page was that on?", "Am I allowed to use markers?", "Can we have partners?" I quickly learned that no matter how clear the instructor made their instructions, some students will just zone out at times and not be able to pay attention. That's fine, we all do it! There is a way, however, to assist in addressing this concern in our classrooms.

The strategy of "Mirror" is awesome in the sense that it is very simple, requires little to no planning and we can quickly ensure that we have engagement from our students. When we are introducing something important like a definition, a new topic, an important announcement or instructions for an assignment we want to make sure our students are paying attention and understanding what we are saying. Like many whole brain teaching strategies, "Mirror" engages our student's motor cortex of their brain which assists in memory development. The following describes the "Mirror" strategy as stated by Chris Biffle on the Whole Brain                                                                                                                                          Teaching website.

Mirror is one of WBT’s simplest and most powerful techniques.  You say “mirror” and your students respond “mirror.” They then pick up their hands ready to mimic your gestures.
As students imitate your motions, their motor cortex, the brain’s most reliable memory area, is automatically engaged.  Use mirror when telling a story, giving directions, describing the steps in a procedure, demonstrating a process ... anytime you want your class locked into what you are saying.  In general, there are three kinds of gestures that you can use with mirror:

     -- casual:  these are hand motions that come naturally while speaking
     -- graphic:  match your gestures to exactly what you are saying.  

                       For example, if you’re talking about walking somewhere, 

                       walk your fingers through the air.  If you want to explain a hard problem, scratch your head.  If you are presenting a big idea, spread your arms far apart.

     -- memory:  these gestures are linked to core concepts and/or state standards. 

                       Every memory gesture should be unique.          

Thus, we suggest pretending as if you are writing in the air like the memory gesture for an author, making an “X” with your arms for multiplication, dealing imaginary cards for sorting and so forth.

     I used this technique with teachers so they can teach their class and it worked amazingly! I am a "hand talker" to begin with (maybe that's one reason why I love whole brain teaching haha) so I could easily incorporate casual gestures so the students would follow along with. The very first time I saw a teacher introduced this they were explaining an assignment, so the instructor said, "There are 3 things I need from you today" and then as she went through the list she would have her students hold up 1, 2 or 3 fingers depending on what step she was explaining. At first, they were hesitant because before they could just let her talk and they didn't need to be paying attention but now they had to participate! After some encouragement, however, she was able to have them all participate with following along with the instructions. It was super simple, didn't require any prep to incorporate but she and I could easily tell if her students were paying attention. Plus, she didn't have any questions about assignments afterward!

Check out the Whole Brain Teaching website to see Chris Biffle's instructions in context or check out Chris Biffle's YouTube channel to see this strategy in action.