Mr. Rennie's Class

  Here I am again talking about John Medina's Brain Rules. In our cohort meeting on the 28th we talked about what we've learned in our classes, field studies and readings. I found myself consantly going back to Brain Rule # 4 :People don't remember boring things. In fact the average person has about a ten minute attention span before their minds will wander ..unless..they are somehow emotionally engaged in what they are seeing, hearing or doing. "Emotionally rousing events tend to be better remembered than neutral events". pg79. So Medina, based on the ten minute rule requiring our brain to have a sort of break before it can stay focused or re-focus, provides in his lessons a built in emotionally strong break that is connected to the topic being discussed; a connection, anecdote question for discussion, a joke...something. This provides the brain a switching opportunity or break, while staying in the topic zone allowing the listener to connect to the topic and to their own experiences. Medina also reinforces the long held notion in lesson planning that the lesson's shape, it's outline be shared at the outset so the audience to connect back to the "where we are" during the lesson. This idea is also repeated throughout at intervals to maintain that connection of the current content or topic to the big picture. This multilayered opportunity to connect and build on previous experinces and information strengthens the chance of commiting the ideas to memory.

  When I consider the average lesson or period, on the average day, it is clear to me that all this is true. The lessons or sessions that are snappy, varied, fast paced but focussed on a clear goal the students are informed of are most effective. Frequent reviews and check-ins with the group as well as reminders, examples and anecdotes keep everyone more sharp. medina in his 5th rule: Repeat to remember, reminds us that only through repetition. "The more repetion cylcles a given memory experienced, the more likely it will be remembered'.Pg. 100. This all supports the case for doing thigs over and over. Math concepts, lit circles (reading strategies and approaches), inquiries, memoir writing, relay passing and slapshots are all better remembered when repeatedly practiced or reviewed.

  Well I came to a couple understanding this past week, First, the learning logs have been meeting all my expectations. Student's reflections have provided closure at the end of lessons, a meaningful bridge to start lessons and connect to previous lessons, a chance to hold learning and ideas over time and of course the metacognitive act of really thinking and processing ideas about content and self. This week I realized what a powerful device they are to foster formative and self assessment. I'm able to see who grasped a concept on paper or hear their words of understanding or confusion during their debrief with partners. It is a great saver of time to just cruise through the class, keeping my ears open and listening for the general tone of either "we've got this" or "Uhhhhh, what?"This had been a real help to my in the moment practice of when to stop, regroup and reteach the whole group or just certain small groups in the room.

  A very powerful event that showed a real community maintenance role for logs took place as well. A student in our class was upset over the treatment they received outside. They were sworn at, called names and excluded from a playground activity. The child was discovered crying alone behind the school. Instead of a meeting, or lecture we got out our logs and responded to the prompt, "Tell all about a time when you were treated badly and left out. How did you feel?"The responses were universally fluent. Some students wrote and wrote. After ten minutes the students shared with a partner. We then wrote all the emotion words from the logs on the board. It showed how common the experience was, how everyone had been there. Only then did we talk about what had happened to our classmate. Some kids were mover to tears. I heard a few others say things like "that sucks", "that's awful" or "I feel terrible". It was a very meaningful way to get to the heart of the matter and have a real, honest discussion about it that they could all connect to. Overll the integration of the logs into our routines has been awesome.

  The year and this current field study are drawing to a close. I am always reminded how weird it is that at their core, what I have the students do and what I'm doing are very similar. This week the students reflected on math, namely polygons and related geometric concepts. It was helpful to see how their logs demonstrate their understanding and often lack thereof. They serve as both a metacognitive opportunity and a chance for me to formatively assess. Also this week the kids put into practice their questioning skills explored a few weeks back as we added questioning to the repetoire of responses used in literature circles. The questions are mostly either "right there" or "think and search" questions but many are doing quite well with them.

  The class overall, as with anything I guess, has had mixed success with their log entries. I of course hoped that over time all their reflections would increase in depth and complexity as well as in the variety of ways in which they represented. While this is the case for over half, I have to say that a good number are still writing brief, quick responses to the questions and prompts given. I still think the practice is valuable for all but it hasn't impacted some of the students I would most liked it to have.

  On anothe topic, I've been reading a book called Brain Rules by John Medina. The book explores 12 Brain Rules each in it's own chapter and is easy to read. The information is expressed for the average person and though extensive it is accessable. I really connected as a teacher,  to a couple recent assertions by the author. While explaining Brain Rule #4  "We Don't Pay Attention To Boring Things', Medina says that the brain works from general to specific, from meaning first to specific details. That it actually stores the big ideas that are associated with concepts, especially if they were emotionally significant (sad, horrible, funny surprising etc.) That way we remember the gist of things or in school of material first and most importantly, not the minute details about it. So to increase recall and learning we need to link new infromation to these big ideas stored in our brains. We also need to approach tasks from a meaning first perspective. It is the same way we seem assessment materials, reading materials in content areas organized these days. First identify the big ideas which the brian would store and then connect and add details to the main concepts to flesh out and extend the learning. Our districts schoo and district wide assessments like DART and DMA DRA all are organized along these lines. The research approach we have kids practice during inquiry is also questions, big ideas, details driven. I'm really enjoying this book.

 Another Brain Rule #4 idea I found surprising was the Medina's ideas about how "the brain cannot multitask". Having always considered my self a multitasker and given how our society values the trait, I was at first doubtful but as he explains it I see that he's right. He states that "we are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously." This refers to complex thinking not walking and talking and chewing gum at the same time. A theorist named Michael Posner has ideas about attention functioning along a Trinity Model, "three seperabel but integrated systems in the brain". These systems are: The Alerting and Arousal Network, The Orienting Network the third of these sytems the Executive Network.. This third network is the decision maker, the what do I do now?system. When we try to do a task we are often interupted by sensory inputs that cause the three systems to disengage, activate or reactivate in response. It may only take fractional seconds but it is still linear and sequential following the same pattern each time and so we focus on the one task at a time. So what seems like multitasking is really starting and stopping different tasks over and over again. Medina saysthat  what we think of as multitaskers are actually people "with good working memories capable of paying attention to several inputs one at a time." The reason he says this is important is "a person who is interrupted takes fifty percent longer to accomplish a task,,,he or she makes up to 50 percent more errors". That has huge implications for the school and classroom environments.HUGE.

  This week marks the end of a 4 and a 2 day school week. Easter anf Camp Homewood are the culprits for this seemingly lax period of class time.As a result this entry is a combined effort that covers a two week period. The students were asked to evaluate their own grasp of fraction concepts as the week came to a close. They were to express how they thought they had done and to formulate questions that remained regarding their grasp of certain concepts that they were uncertain about. They were asked to do this after a brief written demonstration of their skills and understanding of a rangr of fraction concepts. We'll review and revisit the questions when we return to school next week.

  The other reflection that stands out for me was in social studies regarding the imminent federal election. We have reviewed and summarized the major party platforms in preparation to participate in Student Vote. The party groups presented while the class took notes then perused the posters to add more detail. Incredibly for the fourth time in four Studnt Vote elections I\ve done, the Green Party was the easy victor with 18 of 26 votes. The Conservatives were second but far behind with 8 votes. This always happens. At this age the students are very sympathetic towards a party whose policies are all environmentally grounded In their logs the students were asked to explain their choice im voteing for their candidate. I'll have a few enter their entries below. I really think they've thought seriously about the issues:)

  This week we worked on developing questioning skills like those discussed earlier. The students were able to learn about and practice formulating questions that were three different types: Right There, Think and Search and Authoe and Me. Each type requires a different level of response. Right There are fact based literal comprehension questions. Think and Search requires events from the story to construct answer with evidence. Author and Me questions require the reader to connect and access prior knowledge to construct a complex answer with evidence from the text.

  The kids listened to and read excerpts from the novel The Cay by Theodore Taylor and wrote all three types. Then we listed them on the board and agreed on what category or type each was. Next week they will reflect on how well they think they're doing with creating and understanding the questions. 

Earth is happiness, white puffy clouds in the sky

leaves dancing around on the ground

Blue Skies, Green grass

Swimming in rivers and lakes

riding bikes and skateboards

Protect the trees the air

the animals

Recycle a juice box and reuse some cardboard

Replanting trees for

future generations

Happiness is Earth. 

By Sarah

            Spring

spring is the warm crisp air touching my skin

spring is little baby birds singing

spring is the bright yellow sun shining in my eyes

spring is hearing the leaves rustling up against each other

spring is smelling the fresh evergreen

spring is seeing robins fly through the sky

spring is the breeze flowing through your body

spring is looking at the cloudless sky   

      By Steven Sauer     

Spring

I smell the fresh, clean air

I see the evergreen trees dancing with the light wind

I see the clear blue sky  with a big, bright, bold sun

I taste the cool air and the light breeze

 I hear the birds trilling in trees and rustling leaves

I feel the warm, bright yellow sun shining down with a slight breeze

This is Spring.

Spring is smelling the fresh air to the grass waving in my hand,

Spring is the ants marching in and through the grass to the white clouds

in the sky,

Spring is the chips and clacking of the birds to the warm breeze on my face,

Spring is the buzzing of the flies going around me while I lay on the soil to the taste of the air in my mouth,

Spring is the tree branches waving back and forth to looking up at the burning sun on my eyes,

Spring is the blue sky to smelling the cut grass.  

By devin austin    

                                                                 April, 8th/ 2011

Spring

Feel...

warm,

soft breeze,

moist air,

bugs,

cold ground.

Smell...

soil,

earth,

pine,

fresh air,

evergreen,

fresh cut grass,

Hear...

buzzing bugs,

rustling leaves,

silence,

giggling kids,

music,

chirping,

crashing waves,

See...

fir trees,

alder trees,

grass,

sun,

blue sky,

seagulls,

ants,

bugs,

robins,

Taste...

moist air,

clean air,

cold air,

breezy air,

                                                                                              By, Owen Boyd