Invitation to share
your experiences with brain research-based strategies as a
contributor to my next books.
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)
Follow-ups (select one or more)
INCLUDE WITH 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
Grade and or subject areas levels for which this would be applicable.
If your strategy/intervention relates to a special type of student (ADHD, gifted, behavior challenge, motivation challenge, parent interactions) please include that information.
Optional Neuro-logical Connections: If you would like to include your interpretation of how the intervention/strategy correlates with your understanding of how the brain processes information, RAD strategies, or emotional input, please add that. I will add additional information about what neuroscience research correlates with your strategy/intervention. Any editing will be sent back to you for your approval and only what we both agree on will be included under your name.
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.
Deadline
There is no absolute deadline as there will be on-going updated editions of this book so new submissions not received in time for the first book, will be automatically considered for the next edition.
Send your contributions to: jwillisneuro@aol.com