Power Stars and the Grand KaSlami!!

Here's the latest and greatest from Coach B...." Power Stars!”  Every day put up a Power Star ... a star with a word on it. For example, Capitals or Because Clapper or Also or periods or compare, etc. This means all day when the kids are talking to each other, you are looking for them to ADD the gesture/concept during Teach-Okay. We want to move Teach-Okay beyond the crucial skill of paraphrasing and into Oral Writing and/or Critical Thinking. We will use Power Stars to get way more Oral Writing and/or Critical Thinking reps.  When you see kids using the Power Star concept, then praise them ... you see them continuing ... you can give them a star on the Super Improver Team Wall. In other words, Power Stars connect lots of our stuff to Super Improvers Team. This is easy to implement and "powerful"!  So, after you do individual Power Stars, then you can have them work on two or more ... then, Freebie Power Stars!  Tell your students, "You pick the ones you and your partner want to work on ... and let me see if I can guess which ones you picked."   Finally, there’s the Grand KaSlami!  A Grand KaSlami is when the teacher selects five Power Stars and the kids try to use them all ... oh, what a Grand KaSlami that would be ... "
Check out these pictures below of three of the Power Stars my students used during Teach-Okay! I started with the Capitals Star, then added the because Star, and finally put up the For example, Star.  Even though my students have been utilizing Oral Writing and Air Punctuation techniques all year, the Stars became COOL visual cues! The CHERRY on TOP was the SIT (Super Improvers Team)!  This winning combination together inspired them to elevate their participation with their partner.  The best result was the higher level of critical thinking I observed as I moved around the classroom during the Teach-Okay sets during the day.  Each day, I changed the Stars out and built back up to three on the board at once.  We are working toward the Grand KaSlami!
            

Here is the FREE download of the complete set of Power Stars!  Share your experiences with us!