Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Chapter 4 - Movement and Learning
How intentional are you about simple physical activity in your classroom? Do you have any rules about movement? (e.g., "Get students moving every half hour)? What would be the pros and cons of increasing the amount of movement in your classroom? What is a realistic goal for you for the coming year?
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I am not as intentional as I should be about physical activity. When I notice my students getting restless, I will have my students stand up and stretch, but after reading this chapter, I realized that I need to be way more intentional about this. Instead of just doing it when I see a need for it, I need to make sure I am proactive and have them move before they start to get restless.
ReplyDeleteThe pros of increasing the movement within my classroom would be that my students would be reenergized and ready to learn throughout the day. My students would have a better attitude about themselves and school and the movement would increase their memory.
The cons would be that some students might not be able to handle an increase in movement without keeping their hands off of one another and it might take them a little while to calm down after each movement break. Hopefully if it becomes a routine, though, students might become better with this as they will know the expectations.
Here are some things I am already visualizing doing in my classroom. 1) Tossing a ball to reinforce vocabulary and other concepts learned in the past.
2) Having students sing songs and do movements about continents, verbs, nouns, etc. 3) Have students sing and do movements for the Phonics Dance.
4) Have students talk about their goals with once another for the day. For example, “Today, I am going to get my work done without talking to those around me!”
5) Play Simon Says game by using content information within the commands. For example, “Point to the poster in the room that tells us how to add doubles plus one.”
6) Have students move around to different parts of the room to review. For example, “What part of the plant has the function of using sunlight to create food? Move to this corner if it’s the leaves, move to this corner if it’s the stem, etc.” 7) Have students act out different vocabulary and other concepts. 8) Have students exercise through dance. 9) Have students complete cross laterals (Pat your head and rub your belly or marching and patting opposite knees).
Like Lindsey, I do need to be more intentional about planning physical activity into everyday learning in my classroom, rather than doing it on the spot when students become restless and unfocused. Being more proactive rather than on the spot will help the students know what to expect each day and will better prepare them to ease back in to a sense of calmness since it will be a part of their daily routine.
ReplyDeleteThe pros of increasing movement within my classroom would be that my students bodies would be reenergized, they would look forward to these movement breaks which would impact their outlook and attitude on learning, and their ability to retain what was learned would improve.
The cons of increasing movement within my classroom would be that some students would have a hard time calming down, keeping their bodies to themselves, and not taking the breaks seriously. However, if these breaks are implemented on day 1 and expectations have been clearly stated, these behaviors would likely diminish.
The following are some movement activities I see myself incorporating into my classroom (some of which I already do): 1) Sings songs and chants while doing motions when learning about various content: continents, contractions, nouns, verbs, hunks and chunks (phonics dance), time, money etc.
2) Toss or roll a ball to review and reinforce vocabulary, sight words, math facts, etc.
3) Pair-share (I.E. Students sharing a weekly goal they set for themselves).
4) Play four corners with concepts previously learned.
5) Play charades (I.E. acting out a stage of the life cycle of a plant).
6) Clapping, patting, stomping, etc. out spelling words.
I also feel that I need to be more intentional about physical movement in my classroom. This past school year I had an exceptionally wiggly class so I began doing short one to three minute movement breaks between between subjects. For example, I would do a movement break between reading and writing and another one between writing and math in the afternoons. I was really shocked at how much it helped my students focus and learn. Students that had great difficulty staying still began to improve as the year went on. This year I want to make sure students are getting some kind of movement every thirty minutes. I have been thinking about not only doing movements breaks after subjects, but also doing some kind of short movement break after my reading mini-lesson, math lesson, and writing lesson. This way students would get a movement break before going to their seats to complete an independent activity or assessment. I really think this would help them focus and therefore be more successful at completing activities and assessments.
ReplyDeleteThe pros of implementing more movement in my classroom is students feel reenergized. It also gives them time to get energy out that they must release in order to focus and do their best while at school. My students really looked forward to movement breaks as well and it was something that really helped many of them enjoy school. They asked for certain movements breaks throughout the day and I often used choosing a brain break as a behavior incentive. It was a great way to encourage those students who may not always have good days or even to reward those students who have great days everyday and sometimes do not receive the positive encouragement they deserve. I also like doing the brain breaks with them as well because we as teachers definitely need to be reenergized throughout the day as well!
The con I ran into a lot this year while implementing more movement into our daily schedule was that there are students who have difficulty calming down and refocusing after movement breaks. I talked with my students quite frequently about how to calm our bodies, but there were some students who had great difficulty calming down and preparing themselves to learn.
Some of the ways I implemented movement in my classroom this past year were:
-Movements to hunks and chunks Phonics Dance
-Songs and movements for different topics we're learning about
-brain breaks (GoNoodle is wonderful!)
-clapping, stomping, and doing other movements to spell out sight and spelling words
-Making movements up to go with our fluency passages
-Having movements that go with each of our classroom rules (We reviewed these every morning so the students knew the movements well.)
-Movements to go with punctuation when I was modeling writing on the smartboard (movements for period, quotation marks, exclamation point, question mark, comma)
-Having students do hand motions for the addition and subtraction sign in math and having motions for numbers as well.
-Having students do hand motions with me while I am giving directions (motions for scissors, glue, pencil, writing, cutting, talking, ect.)
These are worked really well but my goal is to do more of the following next year:
-Having students set goals with a partner and make up motions to act them out for the class
-Having students act out stories we have read to retell major events of the story
-Playing four corners with concepts we've learned
-Playing charades with concepts we've learned
-Using the retelling beach balls to answer questions about text we've read
-Introducing more songs and motions to use for classroom management during transitional times in our classroom
-Including more stretch breaks in our daily classroom schedule
I am really excited to see how adding more movement to our day helps my students learn!
This past year I was more intentional than before about movement breaks because our students had reading, writing, and math all in one chunk after lunch. I incorporated some sort of brain break between each subject. This coming year I hope to incorporate more during the subjects as well. In this chapter the author talks about goal setting on the move where students partner up and actively set goals together by miming or taking a walk. I think setting goals will be hard for my first graders, but using that partner time as a movement time will help as they prepare to learn the content. I am reminded of a Kagan strategy (or two) where the teacher plays some music and the student circulate the room moving to the music. When the music stops the students greet each other and begin sharing something. I think for first grade we could work up to sharing goals, but could begin with a teacher given question that opens the students thinking to the content they are getting ready to learn about. This could also be used after the 5-8 minute direct instruction time to review the content that was learned. I have always been afraid of students choosing their own partners, but since they would only be partnered up 2 minutes max and would switch often I think this would be doable.
ReplyDeleteThe pros for increasing movement with the children in my classroom include…
Students release energy.
Students retain more information.
Students have a better attitude towards school and our classroom.
The cons would be…
Students struggle to get back in control (This could easily be worked on throughout the year).
Students may not take the break seriously.
Students may see the break as off task time.
I have used GoNoodle a lot this year for brain breaks in between subjects. I would like to work on using other strategies during lessons to get the kids moving, but doing content related things so that instruction time is not wasted.
Okay ladies, like most of you I need to make intentional choices about movement in my class. As soon as I started reading this chapter I began to think about the intervention programs I have that incorporate movement in some way with the learning. I have heard great things about allowing that learning/movement to occur at the same time, but have never been intentional about it.
ReplyDeleteMy classroom (when in the resource setting) of course looks different from each of yours does. I do allow students who need to stand, move, work on the floor etc. I just don't announce that I will allow it for all students. I think if I were more intentional about allowing movement breaks, reviewing with some type of motion or movement in the lesson and just letting students move and engage their body and brain it would be a benefit.
I plan on trying to do this more next year. I worked on guided reading lesson plans at the end of the school year on teacher work days and I think that I can use movement when reviewing out vocabulary and decoding words each day. This will for sure get them up and going.
On a side note, I just read an article on facebook about movement! I have included the link below. Not necessarily a direct link to this chapter, but interesting read.
http://www.balancedandbarefoot.com/blog/the-real-reason-why-children-fidget
I feel like I’ve always been pretty intentional about incorporating movement into my lessons, mostly because I am a kinesthetic learner myself. Also because I try to take notice of when my kids are getting antsy from sitting too long or need a wakeup moment. When I first started teaching, letting kids move around a lot made me super nervous (like it might look like I’ve lost control). As the year went on, I became more confident with my management and let my kids move around quite a bit. I could tell it helped them pay more attention and get more work done than if they had just sat still all day.
ReplyDeleteI don’t have any rules about movement breaks, but I typically have my kids moving around several times throughout each lesson. I use movement in my lessons to help students remember something or get a better grasp on what I am talking about. For example, when teaching plate movement in the earth, students moved toward a partner saying “convergent”, moved away from each other saying “divergent”, and slid past one another saying “transform”. This helped them remember that vocabulary come test time. This year, I had students jump through an imaginary place value chart as we discussed the concept (one jump to the left was 10x greater than where we were, two jumps was 100x greater, etc.). I think writing time is when they move the least. I do allow them to get up and get materials whenever they need to during that time though.
I don’t know that I need to increase movement time all that much in my room, but I really liked the idea from the book of having kids walk and talk while discussing something as simple as goal setting. I could also make more use of ball tossing review games. I try to always do a cross-lateral activity before tests and I also allow students to take movement breaks when they need them. This year in math we “played” a Scoot game several times to get students moving around the room solving word problems on cards. It was great because they worked faster and were waaay more excited about doing the work…I think they forgot it was work sometimes!
Movement breaks for my kids are a little different, some require movement to calm down, others require it when the material is too hard. Really, the only movement breaks I did this year was to walk around with my kids or take the sensory kiddo's to do some heavy work. I was thinking that this year I would like to try to incorporate some exercise groups, maybe some sort of structured aerobic exercise, Pilates, or something like that into their day. Especially if it will help them retain material!!
ReplyDeleteI love this chapter and can't help but think that if we brainstormed reasonable ideas, we could figure out options for increasing movement in the classrooms. This is a big one for sure!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Chapter 4, I realize I am not as intentional as I could be with movement breaks in the classroom. I always have a few who I pay special attention to and give extra movement breaks because it is more evident they need them but rarely do I do this with the whole class. The benefits make so much sense and I can see how they improve classroom behavior and academic performance. We are always worried about not having enough time for students to get through the work they need to but there are so many quick and easy activities like simply standing and stretching that would only take a few minutes out of instruction and hopefully lead to better learning!
ReplyDeleteA pro would obviously be improved behavior and academic performance-- and the students would love it. The cons as most of you have said are some students would not take the movement breaks seriously and a few would have difficulty settling back down. However, if students were made aware of the purpose and expectations of movement breaks they could become just another daily routine with expectations.
I have found movement to be very beneficial with language learning. I began last year with lots of movement, and students used motions to learn certain Spanish words and phrases. For some words/phrases, I could simply show the motion, and students automatically remembered the Spanish word/phrase. Movement really reached some students. As the year moved on, I got busy and forgot about incorporating so much movement. I decided to give student surveys during the last few weeks, and several students suggested incorporating more movement. They complained of sitting too long in my classroom. And when thinking about it, they are very right! Of course, I stand the whole time, so maybe I just forget to get students moving during the hour I am with them. In reading this chapter, I had so many ideas for movement, outside activities, etc. I liked the suggestion of turning a debate into a tug-o-war. Even though I only have students for an hour at a time, I want to be very intentional during this next year to include some type of physical activity within each class session. I know this would help to actively engage students. However, I do not want to waste my precious hour, so I will need to teach specific routines and procedures for these movement breaks or physical activities.
ReplyDeleteOne benefit to switching classes in the 5th grade is that students get up and move after each class. We also allow students to stand if they are struggling to stay awake or pay attention. This isn't enough for some students, so we'll need to figure out other ways to incorporate movement.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about the "movement program" that is mentioned on page 65 that helped improve reading, verbal fluency, and semantic fluency. If movement will significantly improve learning, then it is probably worth our time.
My students in small groups have always loved the "movement" games we play to reinforce key concepts of learning (like baseball, basketball, and many others), but I never really grasped how important that actual "movement" type of game was for their learning; I just always assumed they loved them b/c they were FUN, not b/c they were a crucial part of the learning process that actually helped them improve their memory and retrieval skills beyond just that particular concept. I was amazed by the extensive list on page 64 that listed the many play-oriented movements that have the capacity to improve cognition. This is another area that I think we could really benefit from sharing ideas amongst each other at staff retreat and throughout the school year. Several examples on pages 66-67 would be great to help us start those discussions!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michelle that switching classes in 5th grade is beneficial to our students. With our current schedule this allows students to move every 50 to 60 minutes in the morning. We will need to intentionally plan for movement breaks in the afternoon since we will be remaining in our homerooms during that time.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a standing station in my room (Remember the ironing boards that everyone had!) for students who chose to stand during class instead of sitting at a desk. I think I gave this up because my classes got so large that I didn't have room. I think I'll try this again.
I may modify my "turn and talk" too. Students could get up once during the lesson to move to another table to "move and talk.''
Such a good chapter! But, I will say Melissa Thompson might kill me if we break out the jump ropes during the day! Can you imagine? Anyway, aside from that, good, solid, practical advice! I think I am pretty liberal about allowing my kids to move around. I have always felt like it was good for them. I also do a lot with pairing movement with concepts, but definitely see room for improvement. For example, I like to have the kids so specific movements to demonstrate the three wats the heat transfers (conduction, convection, and radiation). I really feel like this makes abstract concepts more concrete. One idea I had was to maybe do some sort of voluntary at home exercise log. The students could do twenty to thirty minutes of exercise three times a week, log it, and get some type of small reward for their efforts. I would like to talk to Lori about that. I really think it would help keep me motivated as well. I would also like to do move organized games during recess time to help kids get in the daily exercise they need. We have lots do kids just standing around at recess, and this is really a wasted opportunity for them. Another take away is using a ball toss activity for review. So simple to implement!
ReplyDeleteI loved the info that was presented in this chapter! The stats that the author gave about how the movement part of the brain is connected to the learning just reinforces all that we have heard about incorporating movement breaks with the classroom. In regards to last year, I felt that I had no choice but to be intentional about adding movement into the learning that was happening because of the way that our schedules were. The poor kiddos had 3 core subjects one after another, right after lunch with no breaks in between. They COULD NOT handle that, especially being in 1st grade. I started the year out doing simple brain breaks like jumping jacks, push-ups, spinning around 3 times as fast as you can (without getting hurt) and so on. The kids loved these little breaks and they usually were a little more energetic at the start of the next lesson. I was then introduced to GoNoodle, and I started incorporating that into our day. The kids absolutely love it and there is yoga, calming exercises, and just dancing to name a few.
ReplyDeletePros:
-the kids get a break.
-they can release some pent up energy.
-can help with some of the behavioral issues.
-Academic gains.
Cons:
-Students can calm down and get themselves back together.
-Some may see this time as an excuse to goof off and get off task.
I think the pros of adding movement into your classroom and instruction far outweigh the cons. My goal for this year is to incorporate movement into instruction and not have it just as a transition tool. I have been reading up on "Whole Brain Teaching" and am so excited to incorporate that into my classroom this year. Whole Brain Teaching includes lots of gestures, mirroring, responding, and chanting. The students are literally using their entire brains while learning.
Its sad to say, but I think (in the past) it depended on what my class was like. If they were well behaved, I would tend to go longer periods of time without having them move as much. I thought that moving from seat to carpet/carpet to seat was enough of a break and to carry on with the daily lessons. Now that I think about it, with those more subdued and well behaved classes I WAS more of the one doing the movement in order to to try to drive home the point of each lesson. (does that make sense?) Basically I was the nut in the front acting silly and putting on the show for them to learn the content.
ReplyDeleteToday, I try to get more movement in with all of my classes no matter what they are like. I like to get my kids up and moving every 20-30 minutes but like to do it in a way that is organized so chaos doesn't break out. We do various activities like cheering/clapping/chanting spelling and vocab. and hunk-n-chunks, give afternoon brain breaks and of course the normal stretching when kids have been sitting or look like they may be getting sleepy. From what the research says though, I still need to include so much more. I have included a list of some things that I am going to include throughout the year.
*Hopping/jumping to spell words, count items, do vocabulary words
*drama and role playing, commercials and charades
*simon says to find things around the room
*tossing bean bag or beach ball for review, story telling, telling math facts
*Stretching exercises (student lead)
*More chants with hand motions and movements
*Using bodies to form models
*Singing with dance moves
*More standing than sitting
*Short active celebrations for a job well done.
*walking and reflecting with a partner
*using the the four corners of the room to answer questions
*walk around and read the room
As a new teacher, I have not had the opportunity to establish my own rules about movement in the classroom until now. I do believe that for order and safety students need to move carefully in the classroom. Some natural movement would be set up in my classroom already because I would have students moving from the carpet to the tables and so on. I also have seen brain breaks used in other classrooms that incorporate movement, and I would like to try using these in my classroom as well. They are very short but they allow the students to take a break and release some of their energy before refocusing on the next activity.
ReplyDeleteIn the upcoming school year I would also like to add movement to some academic exercises. Our team had already discussed using active games to practice spelling and word work with the students, and I think the same principle could apply to other subject areas as well. This would help students get a break from sitting and also get them energized about learning!
I believe this chapter was one of my favorites and the most validating for me. Even before becoming the counselor, I always spent lots of time trying to come up with content related lyrics that went to a tune of a popular song that would stick with the students...calling them "sticky" songs. The kids loved it (most of them anyway..there were always a few that balked) and didn't realize how much they were retaining until later. As the counselor most of my classroom lessons, especially second steps, are tied together with some movements and a song. Songs that even the teachers and myself have a hard time shaking long after the lesson is done. I also use a lot of movement props/games when I get the chance. It was nice to hear in this chapter that there is lots of support for bringing movement into the classroom. While there are the obvious retention pros..I think we often get caught up with the cons...the students that don't know when to stop, the ones that may focus more on the fun than the "content" or the pressure we put on ourselves that teaching cannot be "fun and games" all the time. One goal of mine is to be sure that the students understand the "why" behind our movement during lessons, which I feel I am very intentional about. It's nice that they have fun when I'm there but I want to be sure they understand that I really am a teacher too with important things for them to learn.
ReplyDeleteWe have lots of movement breaks in my classroom. I am not as intentional about them or scheduled as I should be. I use them more when I see that they are needed. When my friends start to get "squirelly" I will have them move around. I don't know if that is because there is so much content and basic skills that need to be fit into the day that I don't plan for it…or if is as simple as oversight on my part. I am going to try and be more intentional about planning them this year so I can remain proactive instead of reactive.
ReplyDeleteI am unsure how to do this with a 20 minute block without losing time from instruction. At least the students will have movement walking to my room. I also am worried about noise since a share a room. I will have to look further for this.
ReplyDelete