II Newsletter Issue 4

In this issue:

Adding movement to increase engagement/memory

So many kids that we see each day are kinesthetic learners who thrive in classes like drama, tech, and phys. ed., but struggle in math, English, history, etc. The question is how do we attend to this particular intelligence? In the previous post I mentioned the Kagan workshop that was held last October. During that workshop, we were taught the 5 things that a brain needs in order to function better. The way we were taught was through gestures--assigning a body movement/position to a concept. I can hear eyes rolling already. Many of you are thinking "Oh I can't wait to see the kinds of gestures my 2P class can come up with!" I was skeptical at first too, but decided to give it a try after hearing about Tim Evenden's success with his classes. Tim gave me the okay to mention him by name because he loves to receive feedback about his teaching strategies.

Tim decided to teach one gesture for each cause of the Great Depression, something that kids often have trouble remembering. There are 6 causes in total, and the gestures are very simple. When we did our Action Research reports, he said that even as the kids wrote their test, he observed them doing the gesture at their desk then writing the answer. Their recall was great. Other classes responded very well to this strategy, and some even went so far as to create their own gestures for topics, something that requires even higher-level thinking.

I decided to try the Depression causes activity. I skipped a step and had them create their own gestures after showing them the first one. It was one of those classes when more than one kid said "That period went by really fast." To top it off, it was last period on a Friday!

I have heard of many other examples of incorporating movement into classrooms. If the kids do a reflective activity or create something on their own, have them get out of their desks and look at other students' work. Young kids can actully become manipulatives in math. Take things further and conduct role plays and dramatizations. Many cooperative strategies can be used to get more oxygen to students' brains. Once you become comfortable with a handful, you can used them spontaneously when you see kids yawning. Try to think of content that is important, but that kids often struggle to remember. Can you apply a gesture activity to it?

Thanks, Tim for sharing your success with others. If any of you have cool ideas and want them shared, I would be happy to put them into this forum. Your name doesn't need to appear (and I won't steal credit for the idea!).

teambuilding activity

Back in October, many of us attended Kagan's 2-day workshop that dealt with both cooperative learning in general and brain-friendly instruction. He had us do a teambuilding activity and explained to us how the brain's chemistry changes when these activities are used when kids work in new teams. I began 2 classes today with the exact activity he did with us:

1. Students are in teams and number off
2. Students each receive a handout that describes and has pictures of 8 different superpowers
3. Students are given time to select a power and determine why they chose that power (no discussion yet)
4. Students have 3-step interview explained to them and teacher provides examples of questions that could be used during the interview. Students are told their interviews must last one minute and then they get time to create 3-4 questions on their own.
5. Students conduct the interviews (works for groups of 3 and 4) and teacher works the room to eavesdrop and provide intervention when necessary
6. Teacher provides time cues and after each step in the interviews, asks how many filled the minute.
7. Teacher debriefs exercise by conducting a poll to see how many students chose each power and how many of them said they would use it for good instead of evil.

Observations: Lots of laughter and smiles, very easy-going discussion, open-ended questions being used, increase in team cohesion, increased chance of productive discussion later in class, no student is left out of the process at any time

Teambuilding takes time, but if you use groups, it's essential.