Brain Strategies to Differentiate the Classroom

1. Brain Strategies to Differentiate the Classroom The neuroscience of the brain and the cognitive science of learning

2. Introductions • Shawn Abbate • MS, NBCT • 20 years • Lead Teacher • GATE Coordinator • Nerd

3. Goals for the Session Goals:Your Goals: ~Give you a basic understanding of the brain ~Give you some applications of brain information for your classroom ~Give you specific strategies to utilize cognitive science to improve student achievement ~ Create a plan of your own as a result of being here today.

4. The Brain So why does information from the neurosciences and cognitive science matter? IT HAS BEEN A CURIOSITY FOR MUCH OF HUMAN HISTORY!

5. Yesterday’s thinking…..Phrenology – 1840s and 50s An early practice at the end of the 19th century that claimed to be able to identify mental capacity and character by feeling the bumps of the skull.

6. Today’s Neuroscience

7. SPECT Scans

8. PET Scans

9. MRI and fMRI

10. It is possible to see the mind at work!

11. BRAIN BASICS

12. Brain 101 • An adult brain weighs 2 to 4 pounds. • The brain is comprised of at least 60% fat. • Every heart beat provides 25% of the blood and oxygen to your brain. • The hippocampus encodes new information and initiates learning and memory. • You have millions of brain cells (called neurons) that increase in number with exposure to complex and novel environments. • Neurons communicate with each other chemically, in a process referred to as a synapse. • The more synaptic connections, the greater your brain reserve. • Brain reserve is thought to delay the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease.

13. Communication of Neurons Dendrites grow when we think. New pathways increase intelligence.

14. The Brain Is Shaped and Developed throughout Life • It has plasticity. There is no finite capacity or limitation. • Environmental input across one’s lifespan, beginning at conception shapes the brain. • There is no critical period of brain development, unless one considers life itself to be the measure. • Environmental input into a brain can make a difference with respect to the health of that brain.

15. Three factors critical to a brain enriching environment: • physical activity • socialization • mental stimulation

16. # 1 Physical Activity and Movement Why? • Humans are mobile throughout their life • Movement provides stimulus and helps neuron systems develop • Having students stand up, sit down, jump, or clap as they review activates procedural memory

17. Why Should I Include Movement in My Lessons? • Movement is fundamental to the very existence of the brain. In fact, only an organism that moves from place to place even needs a brain. • The entire front half of the brain is devoted to organizing action, both physical and mental. • “Higher” brain functions have evolved from movement and still depend on it. • Movement is crucial to every brain function, including memory, emotion, language, and learning. • The ability to mimic is movement based. • Physical activity forces oxygen and glucose to the brain.

18. How? • Students pick an energizing partner across the room. Provide opportunities for partners to meet. • Stand up for yes! • Role play stories, order of operations, historical events, scientific concepts. • Musical pair share

19. #2 SocializationBrainstorming and Discussion Why? • Humans are social • Silence is not natural • Talking leads to breathing • Brainstorming improves comprehension and leads to higher order thinking

20. Research Rationale • Students remember 90% of what they say or discuss. • Learning increases when students have a chance to talk about it in their own words. • Brainstorming activates prior knowledge. • Formulating questions is realistic and leads to better thinking skills.

21. How? • DOVE Discussions - Defer judgment, One idea at a time, Variety of ideas, and Energy on task • No Opt Out Discussion: Costa’s Level of Questioning, Socratic Seminar • Pair/Share – Give One and Get One, Cornell Notes, quick writes, problem solutions, explain a concept

22. Brain Snacks Provide opportunities to: • reflect on learning • provide movement • anchor learning • check on understanding

23. Brain Snack! How do you use brainstorming and discussion in your room? Give One and Get One • List 3 ways you can use discussion. • Get up and move. • Share and collect ideas

24. #3 Mental StimulationThe brain benefits from a novel and complex environment What is novelty? Construct unique and individualized meaning of the structure or concept. Recreate or innovate old systems and ideas. Create a means of expressing understanding of subject matter creatively AND with a higher level in a new, unusual, or unique way. Incorporate original interpretations of existing information by utilizing personal views and interests.

25. Novelty Skills: prioritize explain the main idea resolve the conflict ask questions predict hypothesize state your opinion Examples: Debate an issue Editorialize an opinion Make a choice or decision Tally research results Interview a person Prepare an investigative report Use raw materials to solve a problem Prepare a scrapbook or collection Accommodate a new viewpoint Create an original interpretation

26. Brain Snack! Novelty in Your Classroom • Think about the unit you are teaching now. • List 3 choices you could offer students for novelty. 1. 2. 3. • Turn to the person next to you and share your ideas.

27. “LEARNING IS • THE BRAIN’S • PRIMARY FUNCTION…” • Frank Smith, Insult to Intelligence

28. Why don’t we like to think?Ask the Cognitive Scientist • The mind is not designed for thinking. • People are naturally curious but curiosity is fragile. • Thinking requires the knowledge of facts. • Factual learning improves memory. Source: Why Don’t Students Like School?, Daniel Willingham

29. Working Memory awareness and thinking Environment Long-Term Memory factual knowledge and procedural knowledge How Thinking Works attention learning remembering Source: Why Don’t Students Like School?, Daniel Willingham

30. Making meaning through • pattern seeking and chunking • Developing a mental program for using what we understand and wiring it into long-term memory Learning is a two-step process:

31. Nine Cognitive Principles for the Classroom • People are curious but they are not naturally good thinkers. • Factual knowledge proceeds skill. • Memory is the residue of thought. • We understand new things in the context of what we know. • Proficiency requires practice. • Cognition is fundamentally different early and late in training. • Children are more alike than different in terms of learning. • Intelligence can be changed through hard work. • Teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be practiced to be improved. Source: Why Don’t Students Like School?, Daniel Willingham

32. Implications for the Classroom • Think of content as answers. Spend time explaining the questions. • Factual knowledge is critical so always ask the question, “What do I want students to think about?” • Identify key concepts and practice them over time. • Let lesson content, not student differences, drive decisions about teaching. • Always talk about success and failure in terms of effort, not ability. content Source: Why Don’t Students Like School?, Daniel Willingham

33. # 4 Differentiate the Classroom • Offer extension menus and extra credit enrichment opportunities to get students to read. Factual knowledge is key! • Use Levels of Questions/Kaplan Icons to help students acquire shallow AND deep knowledge. • Allow students choice or use for discussion to differentiate instruction. • Tier assignments to accommodate the working memory.

34. Differentiation Means Choices • Keep the focus on content. • What do you want students to learn? • Teacher choice AND student choice

35. Student Choice in the Classroom Extension menus Independent study Project design

36. Teacher Choice • Unit design • Levels of questions • Discussion strategies

37. Depth and Complexity Provides rigorous thinking opportunities for all students. Offers students a chance to “think about” content. Creates thinking patterns and connections to help the brain to recall and utilize knowledge.

38. Using Icons A Layered Approach to Learning Thanks to the work of Dr. Sandra Kaplan, use of iconic thinking is becoming more common in California GATE classrooms. Her icons are available at jtayloreducation.com.

39. Tiered Vocabulary Menu Level 1 Practice words in context Fill-in-the-blank Graphic organizers Find examples in magazines, newspapers, books Level 2 Develop understanding of words Create a worksheet, word search, or vocabulary quiz. Write your clues or definitions in your own words. Create Power Point with words and definitions in your own words. Draw a picture or symbol for each word and explain its relationship to vocabulary word it represents. Level 3 Create an original composition Alone or with a friend, write a short script appropriate for students. Write a riddle for each word. Write a friendly letter using the words. Write an advertisement. Make a political or “comics”-styled cartoon book. Design a board game or a computer game using all of the words in correct context. Choose a different product this week!

40. Layered Curriculum Units Divides learning process based on cognitive science A. Factual knowledge B. Practice and think about content C. Higher levels of thinking

41. LAYERED CURRICULUM TM A teaching model that divides the learning process into three layers based on the complexity of the student’s thought process Source: Differentiating the High School Classroom, Kathie F. Nunley

42. Nunley Model Asks students at each level to: • C Layer: Gather information • B Layer: Apply or manipulate that information • A Layer: Critically evaluate an issue

43. Costa’s Levels of Questions • Level 1: The answer can be found in the text (either directly or indirectly). Factsabout what has been heard or read. • Level 2: The answer can be inferred from the text. This type of question, although more abstract and involves examination, analysis, causes of details. • Level 3: Answer goes beyond text. This type of question is abstract, and may not pertain to text. These questions ask that judgments be made from information. They also give opinions about issues, judge the validity of the ideas or other products and justify opinions and ideas.

44. Brain Snack! Let’s Try It Out Worksheet for Designing Curriculum Unit • What BASIC new knowledge do I need them to know/learn? • How can they apply this new information? • What debatable issue in the real world deals with this topic? Source: Differentiating the High School Classroom, Kathie F. Nunley

45. Conclusions • The brain grows and intelligence increases in complex and novel thinking environments • The brain needs movement and socialization • Factual knowledge proceeds the ability for complex thinking • Differentiate to accommodate content knowledge levels and provide opportunity for complex novelty

46. Teaching Techniques in Your Packet • Movement • Discussion • Depth and complexity icons • Content frames • Pathway to Learning • Layered Curriculum • D&C Novel Project Design Model • Tate Strategies

47. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ~ Confucius ~

49. How? • Create a “personal pictionary” • Brochures, posters • Storyboard a math word problem • Draw a picture to review or summarize content • Use stick figures to illustrate information about a person or groups of people

50. Drawing and Artwork Why? • Drawing figures helps improve comprehension • Visualization helps to teach vocabulary • Art enrichment increases gains, self-discipline, work ethic, and teamwork • Thinking in art precedes improvement in thinking in other areas.