Challenge + Feedback = Enrichment
(If You Allow Us to Make CHOICES)

What is Learned Helplessness?
(Don't Give Up on Us!)

The Most Effective and Engaging Teaching with The Bob and Weave Technique

Our neural systems get tired really fast! With 3 to 5 minutes of sustained activity, our neurons are not as awake as they should be and need a rest. We can tolerate only a few minutes of pure factual lecture before seeking something a little more intriguing. At best, the first 10 minutes of a lesson is when you can expect optimum learning. Use this time for the meat of the lesson, not for review or other non-learning tasks.

The best presentation and the most engaging and effective teaching, has all three of the following elements: facts, concepts, and narrative. This type of presentation will move back and forth through our interrelated neural systems, pulling and weaving them together.

Here’s what helps us learn more in your classroom:

1. Tell us a story to provide the context for the lesson. Make sure it has something that affects the emotional side of our brains. This will alert and prepare the cognitive parts to store new information. Also, remember that information is easiest to digest when there is an emotional connection.
2. Give us a fact or two, then link these facts to related concepts from the lesson.
3. Move back to the narrative. Make the connection between the concept and the story.
4. Go back to another fact. Reinforce the concepts. Repeat the cycle.

Challenge + Feedback = Enrichment
(If You Allow Us to Make CHOICES)

Did you know that you can help our brains to grow?! If you provide all kinds of enrichment and create stimulating classroom environments, then we actually grow new connections in the brain. This growth can happen within 48 hours of stimulation! Wow! And it is this process of making connections between neurons that is so important for helping us learn.

Here’s how you can help us grow new dendrites: (Dendrites are like little tree branches of a nerve cell.)

• Provide challenge.
• Allow for choice. My friend might not be challenged by the same thing that challenges me.
• Make opportunities for feedback. It helps us cope better and relieves some of our anxiety.

Our brains are amazing in the way they operate on feedback. Our brains decide what to do based on what has just been done. In other words, they are self-referencing. Giving us time to edit a friend’s paper immediately after a writing exercise is a good example of this.

"Chunked Learning" Followed by Reflection

Genuine, "external" attention can be sustained at an effective, constant level for only a short time, generally 10 minutes or less. It is so important that we have "chunks" of focused learning time followed by diffused activities like reflection, so we can process what we’ve learned. This is critical to long term memory formation.

Create opportunities for us to discuss our learning, to debrief it, and teach small chunks of it. Studies show that when we analyze the stuff you teach us, we remember it better!

Here’s another way to look at this concept–our brains are either focusing attention on the task at hand OR making meaning, but we can’t do both at the same time! It’s like trying to chew food and drink water at the same time!

How to Get Attention

If you want to really get our attention, use contrast. As you know, nearly everything that is new or different will attract attention (someone cracks a joke, a visitor barges in the room, etc.). Think about how useless it is to raise your voice to an already loud and unruly crowd of people. It works better if you switch the lights on or off or ring a desktop bell.

A change in location is one of the easiest ways to get our attention. You can simply move to the back or side of the room or move us into groups or partners if you need to focus our attention on something new and different.

The use of color can cause 25 percent better memory retention. And, when using color, it should have a logical pattern because the brain is pattern seeking.

Newness + Ritual = Attention

Please provide a rich balance of newness and ritual. Brain researchers say that novelty, or newness, keeps our attention levels high. Having rituals and predictable routines help lower stress in our class. Use fun, energizing rituals for class openings, closings, and for most of the repetitious classroom procedures and activities. A loud group clap and foot stomp may introduce an important daily summary. Use guest speakers, field trips (even to the edge of the playground to inspect plant types), group dynamics, a daily group clap, sprinkled once or twice throughout the day.

Boring Classrooms = A Thin Cortex

Guess what? In "teenage" rats, a boring environment had a powerful thinning effect on the cortex. When placed in a positive, enriched environment, the cortex of the rats thickened. Boredom is more than annoying for us --it may be thinning our cortex! Not good! Fortunately, scientists found that this type of shrinkage can be reversed in as little as four days. Now, that’s a relief!

How to Kill Brain Cells

Guess what?! When we are stressed, the adrenal glands release a peptide called cortisol. High cortisol levels lead to the death of brain cells in the hippocampus, which is critical to memory formation. Chronic stress makes us more prone to sickness, too! We don't need to miss more school days, that's for sure!

We all face days that are full of stress and that just don't go the way we had planned. However, a predictable daily positive event (a peer cheer or a zany class song) can help put us at ease.

See "Transition Time" for more ideas to help put us at ease.

Other ways to reduce stress: 1) ask for what you want without adding a threat to the end of the request, 2) consistently enforce rules, and 3) make your expectations very clear to us.

Balancing Stress in the Classroom

Relaxed Alertness = Optimal Learning

UNDERPERFORMANCE=
Too Little Stress (sleep, apathy)
Too Much Stress (anxiety, distress, chaos)

One way to balance stress is to establish a "start of class" transition time that allows us to shift gears from what we were just doing. Some of us walk in class still in shock from being called an ugly name in the hallway or arrive carrying extreme sadness over something like divorce or death. You have the power to help!

Simple things, like an imaginary "worry basket," can make a difference. Hold a real or pretend "worry basket" at the doorway so we can pantomime "discarding" our troubles at the start of each new school day. Or let us visit the "Trouble Terminator" here in Kaleidoscope.

Dehydration and Learning

Dehydration is a very common problem for us and it is directly linked to poor learning. When we get thirsty, it is because the water content dropped in our blood. Then, like a chain reaction, the lower water content makes the blood's salt concentration rise! Higher salt levels make our cells release more salt into the bloodstream and that raises blood pressure and stress. Did you know that within 5 minutes after drinking water, there is a dramatic decline in two hormones linked to higher levels of stress?

Hey, and don’t forget that our brains are made up of a higher percentage of water than any other organ in the body. Dehydration very quickly brings on a general loss of attentiveness and a state of lethargy. We have enough problems with that already, don't we?

How Food Affects Memory

Did you know that the chemistry of our body is a critical element in the triggering of our recall? Phenylalanine, found in dairy products, helps manufacture norepinephrin, which is involved in alertness and attention. Adrenaline seems to lock and hold memories of exciting or traumatic events. Lecithin, found in eggs, salmon, and lean beef, is known to raise our choline levels and boost recall.

Even the presence of household sugar in the bloodstream can enhance memory if given after a learning event. Yes! We knew sugar was good for us in some way! Oh, and get this, scientists say if you eat chocolate during learning, you'll recall more at test time if you're eating chocolate again. Of course, this is unrealistic, but it shows us that learning acquired in a certain state can be recalled somewhat faster when the person is in the same state.

5 Ways to Improve Memory and Recall of Information

• Studies show that we are more likely to test "up" to our learning levels if we test in the same room where we learned the material.
• The best way to help us recall information is by association.
• Spaced learning in chunks, with pauses for reflection, helps us remember things longer!
• We NEED to stop every quarter to half-page and take notes, discuss or reflect. Rhymes, visualization, mnemonics, music, and discussion help us retrieve factual information best.
• Wholes taught before parts are recalled better.

Cliffhangers work great! Introduce a pressing problem to solve and leave brainstorming for solutions until the next day. We better recall material when we have reorganized it again and again. While summarizing lessons is important, it is the "loose ends" that encourage us to continue thinking and problem solving, which means we will remember it longer!

5 MORE Ways to Improve Memory and Recall of Information

• Create theme days or weeks for us. On a "skeptical" day, ask us to question our beliefs about everything. Real-life studies show that the amount of learning is doubled in classrooms of teachers that use a thematic approach. WOW!
• We need to BELIEVE we can learn it. Attitude is so important for us. Do things to genuinely build our self-esteem and boost self-confidence.
• "Stamp" our learning by teaching concepts in different places so each location is a key clue to the content. Move to a different side of the room to teach a new math skill or let us lounge under the big tree on the playground to review for a social studies test. Location triggers the content.
• Always reveal your own thinking (mental patterns) and ask us to reveal ours by asking, "How do you know what you know?"
• Add "U" to the K-W-L strategy. Let us determine not only what we have learned during a lesson or unit but also determine its USE.

The Use of Rewards and How It Affects Motivation

PROCESS (with feedback) is more important than PRODUCT.

Provide truly rewarding experiences for us by allowing extended applications of projects and problem-solving opportunities where the process is the focus, not the product, like an eye-popping diorama or a colorful booklet cover.

Research suggests what we already know--that rewards (pizza, stickers, privileges, certificates) provide little or no lasting pleasure and that we will want increasingly valuable rewards each time a behavior is required. It has been documented extensively in research how the overuse of rewards damages intrinsic motivation.

This really makes us wonder about some computerized reading management programs. Some researchers believe that the use of rewards, so often linked to the points on these reading programs, actually devalues reading. Since intrinsic motivation is being motivated and curious to do an activity for its own sake, what does that say to those of us who can't read the books we want because they don't have the right sticker? What should we say to the parent who takes the book we want to read away because it doesn't have a high point value? What would you say to my friend that declares, "I can't wait for summer because I don't have to read those books with points?" Even worse, what do you do if your media specialist makes you take your book back to the shelf because it doesn't have the right color label? Why not let those of us who are high point scorers pick out new titles for next year's program, or read to the kindergartners in the building?

How to Increase Intrinsic Motivation

You can INCREASE our intrinsic motivation and grab our attention for longer periods with three simple strategies:

• Give us CHOICES;
• Make the material RELEVANT (personal); and
• Keep activities ENGAGING (emotional, energetic, physical).

5 Ways to Uncover Your Students' Intrinsic Motivation

• Eliminate stress and threat in the classroom. (Examples: Avoid yelling and constantly rushing us to finish assignments. Administer anonymous class surveys to discover what would make learning more enjoyable for us. Use interest inventories and learning style inventories to plan lessons that involve us in the learning.)
• Positively influence, in every way you can, our beliefs about ourselves and about our ability to learn (use of affirmations, positive nonverbals, acknowledgements).
• Set goals that allow us to make CHOICES.
• Make the learning content RELEVANT to our lives, not to adult lives.
• Feedback is one of the greatest sources of intrinsic motivation! Increase our feedback through group work, projects, self-evaluation, natural successes, and technology.

Engage Emotions to Lock in Memories

Scientists have known for a long time that when emotions are engaged immediately after a learning experience, we will remember the material longer and more accurately!

One great way to engage emotions after a learning experience is debate. We just love situations that involve debate, dialogue, or an argument. In other words, if you set up two sides + a vested interest + voicing opinions, you’ll get action! Another way to engage our emotions is to ask us to prioritize a list of items together as a group.

How Movement Increases Learning

Exercise triggers the release of BDNF, a natural substance that boosts learning by helping our neurons to communicate faster with one another. Wow! Let's go out for PE!

Exercise fuels the brain with oxygen and feeds it neurotropins to enhance growth and greater connections between neurons.

Motor memory, or body learning in our brains, appears to have unlimited storage, requires minimal review, and needs little intrinsic motivation. Hey, guess that's why the most memorable classroom learning is hands-on!

6 Ways Movement Can Help in the Classroom

• It’s great if you can force both brain hemispheres to "talk" to each other. Use "cross-laterals" when we have been sitting for a long time. Cross-laterals are arm and leg crossover activities that force both brain hemispheres to communicate. "Pat your head and rub your belly" is an example of a crossover.
• We like to charade or mime the main ideas.
• Let us do one-minute commercials to advertise a concept or review past content.
• We like to use the body to measure things around the room. Did you know our bookcase is 30 knuckles long?
• Let us play Simon-Says to point to the South or turn 180 degrees west.
• Those of us who fail miserably with attempts to store information are real successes with the use of rap and other quick reaction activities, like flash cards or hopscotch.

What is Learned Helplessness?
(Don't Give Up on Us!)

Certain severe cases of trauma (uncontrollable events, abusive home life) can literally rewire our brains. You know how difficult it is to gain the attention of those of us who have had early and constant exposure to emotionally abusive or violent environments. You've probably noticed how we often swing or swat at others as a way of protecting ourselves. This territorialism is the source of the comments you hear like, "Don't look at me that way!" What we are doing is showing survival-type behavior.

We have learned not to be successful and simply don’t want to try any more. Unknowingly, you often give up on us after a few attempts. The hard truth is that we need dozens of positive, successful experiences before our brains are rewired enough for a change in behavior.

If we are repeating something we have learned, there is a good chance our neural pathways will become more and more efficient. Why? Myelination occurs when we repeat something we have already learned. Myelination adds a fatty coating to the axoms, and once that occurs, the brain becomes more efficient!