MW Substack 030: Brain-based learning
How can educators take what researchers now know about learning and the brain and use it to advance teaching and student success?
Welcome to MiddleWeb Substack. It’s a free twice-monthly, topical, five-minute read for middle grades educators, featuring a selection of MiddleWeb’s most popular and influential articles, a book review, and a noteworthy 4-8 resource or project we’ve spotted. That’s it!
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►BRAIN-BASED LEARNING
Getting inside their heads.
Brain-based learning may seem like a tautology (where else would we do our learning), but it's the popular term, and MiddleWeb has quite a collection of articles about coaxing student gray matter into doing its best work!
One of our most instructive posts comes from Dr. Thomas Armstrong, author of The Power of the Adolescent Brain, who contends that middle school behavior has more to do with neurotransmitters than hormones. He offers advice designed to help educators reach adolescents through both their “emotional brain’’ and their still under-developed ‘’rational brain.’’
In his article "Maximize the Power of the Middle School Brain," he gives special attention to the limbic system:
Because the limbic system is alive and popping, middle school educators need to create activities that channel these energies in constructive directions. All too often, teachers attempt to deal with limbic system activity through disciplinary policies, or alternatively, through moral lectures on why unruly behavior isn’t appropriate in the classroom. Neither of these approaches acknowledges the reality and the power of the emotional brain in the lives of these kids.
Armstrong offers four strategies middle level educators can use "that address the impact of the limbic system head-on" and also shares ways we can "speed up" the maturation of the rational prefrontal cortex (which seems like an excellent idea).
WE ALSO HAVE a great collection of articles by ASCD author and brain-and-learning expert Marilee Sprenger. Here are three of the most popular with readers:
Getting Test Ready? Try Some Retrieval Practice
Memory research leads us to an important insight: not only do we have to help students store information, they also need to be able to retrieve it. Expert Marilee Sprenger shares 13 rehearsal and retrieval practices to make learning stick. Re-reading isn’t one of them.
7 Brain-Based Ways to Make Learning Stick
When it comes to student learning, we usually think about how to get information into memory, says expert Marilee Sprenger. But we also have to make the information sticky enough to stay there. Be sure to use these 7 brain-based steps to strengthen connections and make memories permanent.
A Perfect Partnership: SEL & Executive Function
When students learn to both regulate their emotions and apply executive function strategies, they become more engaged learners who are better at managing stress, staying focused, and solving problems. Marilee Sprenger shows how SEL and EF work together in various subject areas.
"As a science teacher with 17 years of teaching experience, I find this book to be easy to read and user-friendly when leading STEM projects with students. I highly recommend the new edition of STEM by Design to anyone who values a strong, easy-to-understand approach to engineering design with children and adolescents alike." – Ryan Nunley, 6th Grade Science Teacher
MORE BRAIN-BASED TIPS! Sample this selection for other practical ways to use brain research in the middle grades classroom:
3 Brainy Lesson Strategies Boost Student Learning
Like many other teachers, Curtis Chandler is trying to uncover all he can about learning and cognition to better understand and serve his students. Here he shares 3 brain-savvy teaching principles – beginning with the primacy-recency effect – drawn from recent research. Also check out Chandler's "Brain Breaks Relieve Stress & Boost Learning."
Spark Math Engagement with Daily Brain Warm-Ups
If you’re looking for a way to engage your students in deep mathematical thinking as soon as they walk into class, give math "brain warm-ups" a try. Middle grades teacher Mona Iehl lays out the elements of eye-catching warm-ups and how to make them work for your kids.
“Savoring” Can Be an Incredible Learning Tool
Fresh off seeing U2 in concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Stephanie Farley is still savoring the experience by describing it to others. New brain-related research says students can learn better and enjoy school more by savoring their own favorite memories and stories. Farley shares some strategies.
►ELSEWHERE
"Students, meet your brain!"
Brain-based learning is most effective when students learn something about how their brains work. In this short YouTube video, learning scientist Karin Hess describes a handy brain model she uses to illustrate the major lobes of the brain and their functions, moving from “emotional engagement” (attention, retention, and motivation) to cognitive engagement and deeper learning.
►OUR BOOK REVIEW
A learning strategy for a world full of problems.
Project-based learning’s mischievous sibling, problem-based learning (PrBL), is once again gaining traction in the educational sphere. District gifted services leader Kim Rensch likes that Todd Stanley’s book Inquiry Learning in the Gifted Classroom: It’s a Problem-Based World "attempts to preempt any obstacles standing in the way of educators committing to problem-based learning by addressing assessment and grading head on." Read the complete review.
►NEXT TIME
School and teacher leadership.
Has keeping our schools on course ever been more challenging? In our next MiddleWeb Substack, we'll include our most supportive, wisdom-filled articles about classroom and building leadership.