Invitation to share your experiences with brain research-based strategies as a contributor to my next books.

An Open Ended Invitation

Book 1: RAD Lessons Taught by Teachers

Book 2: What You Wish You Knew Your First Year Teaching



Book 1: RAD Lessons Taught by Teachers
I’d like to invite you to share your experiences with brain research-based strategies as a contributor to my next book. Since I have been sharing my suggestions for neuro-logical strategies to engage all learners in books and presentations I have received many emails from educators and parents writing about strategies they learned from my books or presentations and the success they had when they applied these in their schools or homes. I realized we all learn so much from our fellow educators that I should make these specific applications of strategies available to our fellow educators. Your contributions are especially useful because they include how you modified my suggestions to best suit different age groups, subject areas, and types of learners.
The timing for the first of a series of these books is such that submissions will continue through August 2010 (perhaps longer). After the lessons are collected for the first book, the next ones submitted will automatically be considered for the second book in this continuing series of books.

Here is where YOU come in! What strategy or lesson have you used, about which I have spoken or written, that has been successful for you. For example, lessons where you use one or more parts of “RAD” teaching

Reach (Focused attention & engagement, get through RAS filter to reach thinking brain in prefrontal cortex))

Attitude (Negativity & Stress = Behavior Problems and Learning Blocks. Solutions such as: Directing input through Amygdala with positive attitude, using Individualization for Achievable Challenge

Develop Long-Term and Conceptual Learning (strategies involving: Dopamine, Neuroplasticity with Mental Manipulation and Mistake supported by feedback, Inquiry for Prefrontal Cortex)

Suggestions are listed below as to what to include, but it is not necessary for you to explain what may have happened in your students’ brains during the experience. Please do so if you wish! I will write my interpretation of why I believe your lesson/strategy was neuro-logical.

Suggested information to include (only the first two are required)

Grade/subject where you taught this lesson or used this strategy
Grade/subject to which this lesson could be applied

Optional information to include
What brain-research based strategy did you have in mind?
Students’ verbal, behavioral, written, and/or assessment results.
Your impression of what worked well (and if possible why you think it did).
Would you do anything differently next time?
Your advice to teachers who will use your strategy/lesson.

If available, please send your created materials and typed versions of student work.
*I will write the brain-link/gray matter - my impression of the neuro-logical basis and strengths of your lesson/strategy. (I won’t include any criticism because I will only select submissions that I can support). If you would like to include your own metacognition about the connection to what you did and how the brain learns, please do so.

Include with your submission:

Your name and credential:
Grade/subject you teach:
Name of school:
City and State:
Your email:
Your mailing address (to receive a copy of the book if your submission is included)
Email your lesson to jwillisneuro@aol.com

Options for Crediting You as the Source
After I return my edited version of what you submit, with my added neuro-logial connections, to you, you’ll have a choice of how you would like to be credited – with or without your name, school, city, head of school, or other information you choose. Nothing sent will be used as a “bad example”.
If your input is selected it will be because it reasonable, appropriate, & neuro-logical.


Here is an example, from my own classroom, you can use as a guide for your submission.

Lesson objective: Introduction to unit about rules of punctuation
Grade: Taught to grade 5. Could be applied to upper elementary through high school.
Objective: To promote student interest in wanting to learn about proper use of punctuation so the lesson would engage their attentive focus.
Lesson description: The Problem -Low interest in learning required material: We all know how much students love to learn and practice rules of punctuation. I can clearly visualize their glazed looks when I previously listed, lectured, and had them drill on placement of commas. Even when they “learned” these rules to successfully answer test questions, this knowledge did not become permanent long-term memory or the students did not recognize the concept of comma rules as something of value or personal relevance to apply to their own writing.
To promote curiosity and engage students through an area of high personal interest I told them I had an advance copy of the first pages of a new Harry Potter book by J.K. Rawlings. I explained that although she did not plan to write any more, she was inspired to do a follow up to her last book and a friend had gotten me a sneak preview.
After the students asked questions (I kept answering “you’ll see”) and class curiosity rose, I distributed a page of print. I actually took random paragraphs from an earlier Harry Potter book and typed them into the computer as a single paragraph. I did not include any punctuation or capitalization.
Student responses: After I distributed the page and put one on the overhead and varying durations of trying to make sense out of the page, students protested that they could not read the page. They were truly frustrated. I listened to their complaints and nodded agreement with most of them. The class was so engaged they essentially lead the discussion.
I then asked them to what they wanted to happen to resolve their frustrating dilemma.
The initial responses were what has been called, “welfare teaching” where the teacher does the work for them.

“I want you to put in commas or periods or quotes so I know who says what.”
“I can’t read this because it is not separated into sentences and paragraphs. I need you to put things together that go together.”

My response was that I would help them figure out how to make the page readable if they would write down specifically what they needed to read it successfully.
Now the students took control of finding solutions to a problem they wanted to solve. They wrote:

“I need to know where to put periods so I can separate the sentences.”
“I want to learn how to pick words that should have capital letters and make those changes in this page.”
“I think there are people talking. I see Harry’s name and words that don’t look like regular words but that people use when they speak. I think those things are clues to where quotation marks go. I want to know if I am right and how else to figure out where to put quotes so I know who says what.”

RAD Connection: This is where you could write your impression of your lesson such as, this lesson connected with the “R” in RAD. By stimulating students’ interest and curiosity about personally meaningful reading their RAS filters were open to selecting the sensory input I offered in the lesson. The novelty, surprise, and high motivation of these students to read a “new” Harry Potter book resulted in their personalization of the learning goal. They had a “Here-Me-Now” desire to have punctuation. THEY WANTED TO LEARN WHAT I HAD TO TEACH.
I would then add any additional RAD connections I found in you lesson to your interpretations and make suggestions for adapting the lesson for other subjects or grades.

Book 2: What You Wish You Knew Your First Year Teaching
Write a book for new teachers with me

Recall your first year as a teacher? What do you know now you that you wish you knew then? Perhaps it a strategy/intervention you developed or modified in response to an unexpected challenge. Perhaps it was a way to increase your efficiency and success at instruction, behavior management, or relationships with parents that you learned from a colleague that made a difference. What you didn’t know at the start and now know could be a great help to new teachers as they confront the steep learning curve of their first year.

My goal is to pass this information on to new teachers, but with the personalized touch you can provide with your actual experiences. After you write responses to any of the questions below, I’ll select contributions to which I can add insights from neuroscience research that correlate with the strategy or intervention you learned or discovered that you didn’t know when you started, but find valuable now.

Questions you can select from as prompts (choose one or more)

• RADteach
• Notable Events
• Invitation
• Hot Topics
• Musings
• ASCD Webinars
• Publications
• Presentations
• Media
• Consulting
• Honors
• Bio
• Blogs
• RAD Discussions
• Published Books
• Parent Guide
• Parent Tips