Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Chapter 3 - Rules We Learn By
Some might argue that teachers do not have time to incorporate all the rules of learning. What are the rules about learning and the brain that you feel could have the biggest impact on your teaching and student learning? How could you apply this to your every day practice?
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Engagement is a constant struggle in 4th grade because students are very concerned with their social status: making friends, who's "dating" who, what to play at recess, who to sit with at lunch, etc ... It is hard to get and keep the attention of a 9 year old. Likewise, it's easy to fall into the trap of keeping things the same in your classroom. Students need consistency in their day, they need to know what to expect in class, but to keep engagement they also need different stimuli. The things I think I could apply to my classroom to impact student engagement are: rearranging the setting (moving seats/moving desks), shortening my direct instruction time to 8-12 minutes and then allowing time for independent reflection, allow students to have a snack during core teaching to keep glucose levels up, and giving more "brain breaks" in the classroom to allow movement and refocused attention.
ReplyDeleteOther practical strategies to improve learning/memory that stood out to me in this chapter are: scheduling - switch the times you teach important subjects like reading and math by 45 minutes to allow kids on high and low brain cycles to be more successful on different days of the week, stretching - allow sleepy students to stand in the back of the room to stretch for a few minutes, and timely positive feedback - reviewing important mistakes in learning with students immediately following a test but do so by using a praise then the suggestion for learning and end with another praise.
The input quantity section strikes me as something we should figure out together. My takeaway from this section is that less is more. I've had countless conversations with coworkers about the lack of student retention I see daily. I've always known that as I try to cram as much learning into one day as possible, I'm really overloading my students with information they can't retain. However I usually feel like my hands are tied to get everything accomplished. I don't know how we can teach all of our standards and still leave time for students to process and retain their learning. The strategy of learning something new, discussing, and taking a walk to let it sink in seems like a good one in theory. However, do we have the time to allow for reflection (by taking a walk or another non-learning break) every time we teach something new? Also, how would we go about teaching our kids to use those times to reflect on their learning rather than socializing?
Though this chapter was great, I did have to take MULTIPLE brain breaks to get through it. It was a long one, TONS of information to process. :) I have to say, there were a couple quotes that really stuck out to me. They were: "You can teach more and faster, but students will simply forget more and faster" and "Less is more. Too much, too fast, it won't last." Yes, we have a lot to teach and we feel like our hands are tied, but a lot of our kids are not retaining what they are learning. So what do we do? I think we need to keep things short, give a little processing time, then use the movement breaks to our advantage and incorporate as much content as possible while doing them. I do agree kids tend to get a little hyper during these times but I think we just need to teach through modeling what is expected. Some of these movement breaks don't have to be the big productions but just a simple stretch or marching while inserting some type of content.
DeleteOTHER Nuggets from the Chapter:
*Changing the way the environment is arranged to gain the attention of all students
*Lessons need to be mini then encourage processing time afterwards OR learn it, discuss it, and then walk or move
*Reviewing material: Vary the way kids review the material in order to keep them from getting bored.One way is to let students make up their own way to review the info
*Give FAST feedback- especially with new learning so they can fix any misunderstandings
*Use prior knowledge and link it new learning
*Kids learn by doing than by watching
*repetition
*rearrange schedules to help kids with their high and low brain cycles.
Engagement is also a struggle in first grade as students attention spans are so easily lost. Once someone pops in the room to share something with me or a spider is seen crawling across the floor I've lost my students and it takes several minutes to get them back in control. I think having the controlled "walking" or other movement breaks scheduled throughout the day might help with this. Getting them used to the interruption in a controlled way might help them refocus and become engaged again more quickly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the chart that showed the amount of minutes of direct instruction students should have at each grade level. 5-8 minutes is very appropriate for first. We, as a team, will have to be better prepared to make the most of those minutes. Actively engage the students in discussion or some work product after, and then allow for that movement break so that the brain can process and rest before starting again. I feel confident that switching our reading workshop time to 30 minutes common core and 30 minutes shared reading will help with this.
I believe that student engagement is a critical factor that should be a part of every classroom in order for successful learning to occur. It surprised me when I read that engagement is not a requirement for all learning and that probably more than 90% of it is the result of unconscious acquisition. I do agree with this statement, however, I do believe that every student must be fully engaged during direct instruction (although it may look differently depending on the child) in order for learning to occur. Every year, I always stress to my students the importance of being an “active learner/listener.” When I find my students zoning out, I find ways to redirect their attention or adjust my lesson as needed. The following strategies are ones I learned from this chapter and look forward to incorporating these into my classroom: 5-8 minutes of direct instruction (I have a VERY hard time with this), providing snack time to raise glucose levels, and sitting/standing in different spots in the classroom during direct instruction rather than always learning from the same spot on the carpet.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the section on error correction, it mentioned “trial and error learning” which reminded me of the importance of formative assessments. In my classroom, I grade my students’ assessments in front of them, which provides them with immediate feedback and a chance to correct their errors and/or reflect on their learning. In addition to the teacher providing the immediate feedback, this section also discussed the importance of peer feedback, which is something I need to do more of, such as peer editing in writing.
While we all agree that engagement is super important, similarly to Morgan, I was surprised that they said more than 90% of it is the result of unconscious acquisition. I guess that makes sense though. Just thinking from personal experience, I know that in ever grad school class, seminar or even faculty meeting I was not 100% engaged.
ReplyDeleteI felt like some of the most useful parts of information that I could apply in my classroom was the different types of repetition. I know my students especially would benefit from multiple exposures to the same knowledge. I know that I try to do this in my classroom, but I didn't know the variations of it or the way that it effected the brain. I am planning on being more intentional about exposing my students to difficult or challenging concepts multiple times before we teach it and then revisiting it after it has been taught.
Several ideas were great, but I don't know that I have time or honestly if it would even work out for us. It made sense about students glucose levels, like Morgan pointed out as well, providing snack or even allowing them to bring in a snack will take time away from instruction and we all know that all kids do not have the means to do this. We would end up with kids who have no snack or kids who bring in an unhealthy feast that would for sure have an effect on their glucose levels! I was intrigued by like Melissa by the Input Quantity section. I noticed some of the suggestions they gave were naptime, or a walk or even for older adults to have time to organize and get things back on track. NONE OF US GET THIS TIME! I think it makes sense that our brains crave that "rest" and needs it for new synapses to form. Wonder what we can do about that with the high demands of the Common Core?
Surprised by the engagement issue, like the rest. The chart Kim mentioned is a hard pill for me to swallow because I am a talker! lol
ReplyDeleteAgain, so pumped to start using some of these strategies! I have set up my room with a spot in front of the word wall for phonics instruction, a small area for calendar instruction/math strategies, and then my normal carpet area for instruction. The custodians allowing us to remove tables will sure impact my teachable areas. I am going to allow snacks to be eaten throughout the day ad more "brain breaks" Kagan style.
Like Morgan said, I correct student's formative and summatives in front of them and discuss. Ever since I heard Carrie Emmons did this, I was floored that I had not done it earlier! I do question, as Melissa does, about teaching them to reflect on new concepts during their breaks. This is hard for adults to do and we have had practice.
Seems they are telling us to teach more thoroughly, provide plenty of time for students to "absorb" what they have been taught and that they are a lot like their teachers when it comes to needing breaks! All that sounds great, but isn't It even better that research on the brain and how it works is where they are getting these methods?
ReplyDeleteI liked the way the author focused on Student Engagement . When I set up my classroom for next year I need to focus on making sure I have plenty of room for different areas of instruction. Changing the physical environment of my classroom will enable my students to better pay attention. Also, when I plan my mini lessons I need to ensure the lessons are engaging. I would like to play quite music to incourage "personal processing time".
ReplyDeleteHaving different areas for different content areas or types of instruction is a great idea, Kim. That would encourage movement for sure. :0)
ReplyDeleteI had two big takeaways from this chapter. The first being that our mini lessons need to actually be mini. I always start out with good intentions of keeping my talking to a minimum, but I have a hard time sticking to the 8-12 minute lessons that are appropriate for 3rd graders. I would like to focus on keeping my lessons mini this year in order to maximize my students' attention. I may have to set a timer to keep me on track!
ReplyDeleteMy second takeaway was that students need time to process/take a break before jumping into the next learning activity. Last year, I used brain breaks occasionally and my students loved them. I plan to incorporate them more purposefully throughout the day to give my students these breaks. Gonoodle.com is a great website full of brain breaks that my students loved last year and I plan on using it quite a bit more this year!
When I first started reading this chapter, I was a little daunted by its length, and I didn't think I would be interested in all of the information that was presented. (I, like our students, have to take breaks and process new information slowly!) However, as I began reading, I was blown away by all of the strategies and suggestions that the author gave in this chapter and how much sense it seems to make to increase engagement with our students. However, like several others have mentioned, I'm also frustrated by the high amounts of content that our students are expected to learn, and I am not sure how to begin implementing all of these strategies without feeling completely behind in the pacing and standards that I need to teach. Like Melissa said, I think there are parts of this chapter that we will have to tackle together.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there were a few strategies that I could begin to implement immediately.
*As others have mentioned, the table that laid out the "Appropriate Amount of Direct Instruction" was challenging for me because I have normally given myself 15-20 minutes for a "mini-lesson," when 1st graders should only be receiving 5-8 minutes. 3rd-5th is a little longer, but the max. is still only 12 minutes! I want to work on making my mini-lessons more "mini" this year!
*I also want to implement more student-led goal setting throughout the year (not necessarily focused just on testing). The author mentioned that video games are so engaging to students because they set "goals" to reach a certain level, and they can quickly gain or lose their status through choices they make. Though this obviously doesn't happen as quickly in the classroom setting, I want students to set goals that are meaningful and important to them that will hopefully increase engagement in instruction, as well as meaningful reflection on what they've learned. I've thought about having "student-led conferences" in which the students present what they've learned so far and what their goals for the year are to their parents during parent-teacher conferences in November.
I think one of the major take-always from this chapter for all of us was the idea of "brain breaks". I think this should be one of our major discussion points for school-wide implementation of brain-based learning strategies. They are practical, research-based, potentially easy to implement regardless of grade or ability level or content area, and easy to share with each other. With many of the suggestions in the book potentially harder for us to manage, the brain breaks can be implemented from day one by everyone. This would be a good discussion point for staff retreat.
ReplyDeleteThis was a chapter chalked full of information, and I agree with Jenna. My mind needed some brain breaks too, to digest it all. I will say that I felt a little disheartened at some of the things we can't implement, or that would be difficult to implement based on the time constraints we work under. We have so much to cover, and not enough time for students to dive in to specific content. I know one of the aims of the common core was to create fewer, deeper standards, but I still feel like we are overwhelming and cramming.
ReplyDeleteBut, on a brighter note, there are lots of takeaways here that are feasible to implement. I liked the idea of priming, especially with science vocabulary words. This seems to give us more bang for our buck. This might be something for us as a fourth grade to work on this year. Brain breaks are also fairly easy to implement. I also like the idea of allowing students time to get up and stand in the back of the room if they are finding it difficult to pay attention. Although, I think you have to be careful that they don't abuse it. I do this already, and had one little fellow, who wanted to do it all the time last year. I thought the block scheduling was interesting as well. This concept was related to high school, but I think we are doing it somewhat this year with our reading/writing, and math/science switches. Lots of things to think about!
One more thing! I thought the cross body movement thing was brilliant (pg. 51)
ReplyDeleteI agree that engagement is critical to help students focus in on what is being taught. However, I think that input quantity is important. It is easy to focus so much on moving through the standards and trying to stay on pace with the pacing guide that you lose focus on whether the students are actually acquiring and maintaining the information being taught. If the students do not maintain this information then time is being wasted.
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom I will increase the input quality by connecting what I am teaching to the students' lives. I want to make the information relevant to them so they can connect with it and retain what we are learning. I will also revisit information throughout so that I can gauge whether it is being maintained or not, and most importantly, I will give the students time to digest the information. They need time to take a break and really let their mind soak in what they have learned instead of constantly bombarding them with more and more information.
I was definitely shocked, as many of you were also, about engagement not being a requirement for all learning. If 90% is the result of unconscious acquisition, then not only do we need to be more intentional with direct instruction, but we have to think about other possible forms of learning. One example is how we call students to the carpet. We do this multiple times every day, so why not make this a form of learning too? I like to call students to the perimeter of the carpet. Even if they don't catch on right away, they will notice everyone heading to the outer edge of the carpet. The concept of perimeter is acquired (almost) unconsciously after repeatedly going through the motions and hearing the term "perimeter" along with the motion. This is also way to incorporate the idea of movement and a change of surroundings moving from one place to the next in a certain way. This also doesn't take any extra time out of our day! Being more intentional about things that we have to do every day like transition time and movements will help incorporate some of the great ideas posed in this chapter. If we aren't intentional about sitting down and discussing it, though, it probably won't happen. There is a LOT to think about!
ReplyDeleteThis chapter seemed so daunting at first but if you think about it--we do a lot of things without thinking about it. It is so automatic that we don't notice it. I got an aha moment from this chapter about letting students reflect and interact more with each other more. It is just difficult to think of the time crunch and we all get hung up on that.
ReplyDelete