Ending the Question "What Page?"

When you walk into my room at the beginning of class you will hear a chorus of students responding to a direction by repeating it multiple times.  No, my students do not have a stuttering problem, but rather I use what is called The Three Peat. Whenever I need to emphasize something, be it directions or an important vocabulary term, I signal my students to repeat it. The dialogue in my classroom looks something like this:

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T: "Class"
S: "Yes"
T: "Turn to page 23 in your notebook.  What page?"
S: "23, 23, 23!"

Later on...
T: "Today we are going to talk about Hypothesis.  What are we talking about?"
S: "Hypothesis, Hypothesis, Hypothesis!"

By having students repeat what you just said, students are tuned into and able to respond to your direction.  Now what's important is to make this repetition fun and engaging!  Students should not be slowly dragging out their response.  The responses should be quick and energetic.  Like many things in Whole Brain Teaching, you can make The Three Peat fun and silly. Change it up a bit!  Make your students eager to hear what's going to come out of your mouth next!

Some ideas:
1. High Voice
2. Low Voice
3. Silly Voice
4. I also sometimes point to my students when I say a vocabulary term, and they point back at me three times as they repeat the word.

If you are not getting the energy that you want from your students when using The Three Peat, remember you can always go to your Scoreboard and entice that energy you know they have out of them!

Want to learn more about Whole Brain Teaching's Classroom Rules and The Three Peat?  Check out other great blogs by clicking on the link below!