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!).