Becoming a Wiz at Brain-Based Teaching

This was a really great presentation. I like how you guys had the classroom set up like a casino with the lights, music, tablecloths, lounge area, and food. This definitely changed the mood of the room, and really got you to want to know what this book was all about. Eric, your section at the lounge was really cool. I liked doing the quote part, and talking about the arrangement and moods of rooms. Something that we talk about in class a lot, but it was cool to see it actually put to good use. Susanna, your game was awesome, (even though Dr. Grace beat me), I liked getting the horseshoes and reading all of those facts about the brain. A lot of these things really related to the part of my book that I read. Josh, thanks for teaching me how to play blackjack! I like how you related three different assessment levels to the blackjack game. It really gave us a visual to link this to. Lyzz, that big game of memory with the facts was really cool. If we hadn't run out of time, I'm sure we would have been able to tell in our group who had a good spatial memory. All in all this presentation was awesome, and I really liked how you guys made the feel of the book really come alive.

Chapter 8: Effective Assessment

This chapter is about effective assessment in the classroom. “Jay McTighe says that assessment should promote learning, not just measure it” (p 89). The chapter then proceeds to talk about different ways to assess students effectively. One of the things that Wormeli talks about is making your goals for the unit clear. He talks about how he sometimes gives his students the test to the unit before beginning the unit. Therefore they know what they’re going to be getting at the end of the unit, and there will be no surprises for them. Making sure that the assessments that the students receive are rigorous and motivating is another key part of effective assessments. However, this type of assessment shouldn’t be tied down to just tests. This is where other forms of activities and assessments come into play. Group projects, or individual projects are a good ways to effectively assess students, without giving tests. Overall this chapter has really good ideas on how to properly assess students without always giving them tests.

Chapter 7: Differentiated Instruction – Fitting the Lesson to the Learner

This chapter on differentiated instruction is a lot different than all of the other books and chapters that I have read on differentiated instruction. Right off the bat in this chapter it talks about why differentiated instruction is useful. However, Wormeli is blunt and to the point saying “teachers looking for the one right way to differentiate instruction will be disappointed. It doesn’t exist” (p 69). This can be perceived in two ways, one as a way of discourage, or as a way to use it as an opportunity to try and make their form of differentiated instruction as best as they can. I like how the book is split up between features of differentiated instruction, and characteristics of successful teachers of differentiated instruction. I liked how Wormeli says “Differentiated instruction means we match the challenge to the student, finding varied ways to help each child stretch intellectually” (p 71). This is one of the best definitions of differentiated instruction that I have heard. It really states it clearly. The list of characteristics on successful teachers of differentiated instruction I thought was very helpful. I will use this as a list for myself when I am in the classroom, because this list has some key points that are really important.

Chapter 6: Accountability for High Standards

This chapter had three major categories. Holding students accountable, holding ourselves as educators responsible and responding to standards. There are many tips on how to hold students accountable for their work. Some things that I thought were really good was stating to the classroom that their work is going to be on display for the school. This makes the students take pride in their work, because they know that others are going to see the work that they produce. Another suggestion that I thought was really good for holding students accountable was not offering extra credit for students. Instead, if they want to better a project, or paper, they can take the time to correct the things that they were docked points on. Wormeli said that his students eventually just gave 100% on their papers and projects the first time around, so they didn’t even need to fix anything and they had good grades. Holding ourselves as educators accountable is something that shouldn’t be a problem, but as he states, and as we saw in “Waiting for Superman”, many teachers just place blame on all of the things working against them, and stop teaching the way that they should. So Wormeli suggest that we need to become better teachers despite this, and really teach the students well. His view on standards is very positive. I really like how he states “I’m waiting for the moment when all the countries of the world can find common ground through intellectual achievement”. In order for this to happen we do need to have standards, and instead of looking down on them, we need to respond to them in a positive light.

Chapter 3 Brain Research Applied to Middle School

This chapter of Meet in the Middle really connects to my groups book talk book of A Whole New Mind. It has a lot to do with the brain, and how we can format it to get it’s best memorization. Memory is a coherent process, and an easy tool that can be used in the classroom. In this chapter Wormeli gives some good ways to help students remember things from class discussion. He talks about a triad response, where you call on one person, and then you ask another to give a response to their classmates answer, and then a third classmate is able to respond, and the original student is able to have the last word on what was said based off his response. This causes students to not just shut off their brains when someone else in their class is responding, so they have to listen in case they might be asked to respond to their classmates answer or input. Wormeli continues that we remember things by a process called chunking. This is something I have already heard of, I believe it was in practicum. He also says a good way to get students to remember something is to add emotions to it. He says that “students respond well to emotional cues and retain information as a result”. The one thing that I found very interesting about this chapter was how important staying hydrated is for the brain and learning. It makes sense, but at the same time it’s not something that you think about.

Book Talks

Student Oriented Curriculum
I really enjoyed the way that this book was taught to our class. The form of splitting up into groups and being taught different sections of the book was cool. Being able to have small discussions with two or three other people was a great way to work. This way you are able to really get everything in that you want to say. I like how from the book we were told about the new way of doing an assessment. Because using portfolios and having student led conferences were a very good idea. All in all the presentation for this book was done very well. I really like the idea that this book presents, and I would really like to see it done in the real classroom. Witnessing it would be very cool. I hope to sometime I could work in a school that is in the advancement away from the old school way of teaching.

Chapter 13: Outdoor Adventures

This chapter talked about the benefits to taking an outdoor camping trip. The idea that whenever you have an outdoor experience, you are always going to learn something new. There are three things that Wormeli points out that people experience when they going on camping trips. They are, focusing on our physical, emotional, and intellectual selves, personal autonomy, and gender equity. Another thing that he mentioned was that boys learn how to become nurturers. The rest of the chapter focuses on certain ways in which you can incorporate learning and lesson into a camping trip with your classroom. The ideas for lessons ranged in all subjects. The ones that particularly stood out to me were the freedom trail hikes, and the civil war reenactment. These are two things that I could do with my students on a weekend camping trip. However, the idea of weekend camping trip with your students is somewhat daunting to think about. Maybe with time and experience as a teacher, I will become more accepting of this idea.

Chapter 4: Active Learning

This chapter focuses on the idea of active learning. To begin the chapter Wormeli talks about the benefit of physical movement for the brain. Saying that the brain functions best on high levels of oxygen, and that if we get middle school students up and moving throughout our lesson, chances are they will be more interested, focused, and engaged. One thing I found particularly (and it made sense), was that young adolescent students are constantly uncomfortable because they are growing so much. A simple task, such as sitting at a desk, can be painful for them. That is why it is our jobs as their teachers to provide them with as much opportunities as possible to get them up and moving around. I enjoyed his story about teaching ratios to his class, and how he actually brought them outside to visualize and walk around the school grounds and use ratios to find the heights of the trees. That brings the real world into the classroom, or in other words, outside of the classroom. The list that is presented in the end of the chapter with other ideas on how to get the students up and moving around will be a really good source for when I have a classroom of my own.

Waiting for Superman

The documentary film Waiting for Superman takes on a difficult role. To show the people just what is wrong with public education. The scary thing is, there isn't just one thing wrong with public education, there are many things. All affecting the other. There were two key things that I really took from this film. The first was that the education unions, and tenure are two really bogus things that are, believe it or not, holding back public education. Because the two things allow the teachers to kind of just lay back, and not teach, the kids are no longer being educated fully. A second thing that I liked how the film portrayed it was by showing how tracking is ineffective in this current time. I agree with them on this. When it was first created it was a really good idea, but students definitely should all be allowed to have equal opportunity to go to college. Taking away the tracking aspect of it will let this happen. Overall I really enjoyed this film, and I hope that it starts a trend for other research and action for the education system, where students will leave school a very good learner.