Category: Attention

Can Puzzle Obsession Increase Your Learning?

6/4/2016

I have just finished playing another hand of Solitaire, my fifth in a row. Before that it was several games of Red Herring and Cut the Rope. While I enjoy the win, it is more about the process for me - the puzzling, persevering, trying to figure it out. So, rather than quitting while I'm ahead, I continue on for another round.

Neuroscientists (Panksepp, et. al) explain this experience as the SEEKING System. As our brains engage in productive struggle, dopamine is released. Dopamine is one of the neurotransmitters that make us feel pleasure and a desire to persevere. Scientists used to believe that the largest release of dopamine occurred upon successful task completion. They now know that opioids are released upon completion instead. Opioids differ from dopamine in that they result in a boost, or high, that drops off quickly. Dopamine, a more long-lasting high, is released during the SEEKING, or puzzling, process.

How can we enhance this process during prescribed lessons? Many teachers struggle with trying to make scripted lessons more engaging for all students. In a recent unit, I tried three different ways to add some puzzling to the learning process. Each of these ideas could be developed for any content or grade level, with very little teacher prep. Students were attentive and highly motivated to complete the puzzles.

1. Crossword Puzzles – I used a free online puzzle maker to create a simple crossword puzzle with the key vocabulary words.

2. Fill in the Blank – I turned the learning target into a fill in the blank puzzle.

3. Wheel of Fortune – A variation on the t.v. show Wheel of Fortune. I provided some of the letters and then had teams compete to fill in the rest.

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Brain Bursts

7/18/2014

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Keep students actively attending during read aloud or lectures with these Brain Bursts!

Combine a brain image with a burst image, print, laminate and adhere to a wooden craft stick.

Explain to students that their brains have bursts of electricity when they make connections and think about new ideas.

Then give each student a Brain Burst and ask them to use their dry erase markers to write the concept of the day on the brain. In this example, students were learning about similes.

They kept the Brain Bursts on their desks, and were encouraged to raise it high whenever they heard a simile. During read aloud time there were several, but the teacher also used them in her conversation throughout the day.

Students were paying attention and excited to have the opportunity to share their brain burst with the class.

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Informational Text Questions with a #Teaching Twist

4/1/2014

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Here's a simple challenge that can lead students to read their texts very closely. After providing your students with the assigned reading material, pass out sticky notes. Tell them that their challenge is to write a question about the topic that is NOT answered by the text. This causes them to read, and reread, and maybe reread again to make sure that the answer isn't in the text. Not only does this lead to interesting questions, but the repeated readings with a purpose lead to improved comprehension and retention.

This photo represents all the questions students generated about the 3 branches of government. Before adding a question to the chart, they had to be sure that the text did not already answer it. Tomorrow we will explore finding answers to some of these thoughtful questions!

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Are your students REALLY watching that video?

2/24/2014

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Are you looking for a better way to engage students with videos? The newest entry to the field of interactive video viewing might be just the answer. eduCanon, currently in beta stage, is the first interactive video tool that I have found to be flexible enough for teaching. It allows you to load any youtube, teacher tube or any public video and then insert questions at any point in the video. Other tools have limits on when and how many questions can be entered, but educanon gives teachers control over these decisions. The free version allows for multiple choice questions, but the paid version incorporates open ended questions. In addition to the Q & A, teachers can include detailed explanations of why an answer is correct or incorrect. Set up multiple classes, assign video viewing and collect student response data.

While much of the promotional material touts eduCanon for flipped lessons, I think it also has value within classrooms and for professional development activities. I tested it this week with a group of educators in my "Co-Teaching that Works" workshop and it received positive comments from everyone.

For a non-tech way to be more interactive during video viewing, check out this post from last year.

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How do you compare 2 informational texts?

2/4/2014

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How do you compare 2 informational texts? One of the anchor standards for reading expects students to be able to analyze two or more texts on similar topics to compare approaches the authors take. My co-teachers and I worked on this standard with our students this week, and, as usual, I wanted to be put a visual/tactile spin on it.

We distributed pieces of yarn, about 12 inches in length, to each student, and broke the students into two groups. They read a passage in the history book, and then another document detailing the same event in history. The second text was chosen in part because it portrays the event with different facts.

After reading each text, we asked a series of questions designed to encourage students to read closely. For example, “Who was Edward H. Moffat?” This historical figure is described very differently in each text. We then asked the students to use their piece of yarn to connect the location in each text so that we could compare. This forced them to be very focused on the textual evidence, before beginning to draw inferences. We then had robust discussion about why the authors chose to describe the person so differently.

The yarn served a great purpose of focusing students on specific evidence, and engaging tactile learners during a difficult reading task. Simple yet effective!

PS Some students chose to tape the yarn in place using restickable highlighter tape.

image by Lori Ann mamawit.wordpress.com

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Stop for Popcorn

10/15/2013

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Video is a wonderful media for engaging students and providing them close to real-life experiences. However, its effectiveness is maximized if students are given a viewing purpose and a concrete way to capture their ideas.

Today I took yellow sticky notes and cut them to look (a bit) like popcorn. We gave each student one and explained that when you go to the movies, you take time out to munch on popcorn – just like we would stop during the video to make a note on our popcorn stickies.

A specific prompt was provided on the board. In this biology class, we wanted to students to complete an analogy based on ideas in the video, so the prompt was:

Cell: city

______:_______

After viewing the video students came up to the board and placed their popcorn, on which they had written an analogy, in a large popcorn tub that I had drawn. Discussion followed.

How do you keep students engaged and responsible for learning while watching videos?

Photo by Enokson, Flickr

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Symbaloo

7/9/2013

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One of the sessions I attended this week at #geekcamp13 was on the use of Symbaloo. Linda Horne, teacher extraordinaire and Certified Symbaloo guru, provided an idea-packed workshop on engaging ways to use Symbaloo with students of all ages.

Symbaloo is a curation tool for visually organizing your favorite websites and documents. Instead of searching through a long list of bookmarks, Symbaloo allows you to design webmixes, using tiles, that include images and text. You can choose to color-code the backgrounds and group items together.

Comparing Symbaloo to Pearltrees, another curation tool, I would suggest that Symbaloo is more accessible for students who struggle. The color-coding and visual structure of Symbaloo tiles feels more organized and linear - important for students who may experience attention or organizational difficulties.

I had the chance to play with Symbaloo and found it very intuitive, and quickly developed this Symbaloo - an iPad app teaser.

My mind is buzzing with ideas for using Symbaloo in teaching!

Set up a webmix for a web quest
Provide access to your substitute teacher of all websites and documents they might need
Develop a webmix for the Common Core Standards relevant to your students
Gather your favorite math sites for student independent practice time
Students can create a webmix related to a research project
Show parents various resources and sites for homework help.

How are you using it?

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Ideas for Engagement

2/26/2013

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For the last few years I have been collaborating with a Nebraska school district to improve their co-teaching practices. Through a series of workshops, observations and job-embedded modeling, teachers have engaged in analysis and reflection. I am excited to see so many teachers embracing new ideas for engagement and hands-on learning!

Last week I visited co-taught classrooms at two different middle schools, both teaching author’s purpose using the RIPE acronym (Reflect, Inform, Persuade, Entertain.)

In one class, the co-teachers used a novel approach to activate student thinking. They began class by putting on banana necklaces! Students immediately wondered what was happening, and started making predictions. What a creative, novel way to activate learning! (For more ideas about novelty, download a Novelty Schedule on this website's downloadables page.)

In the other class, the co-teachers chose to use “cootie catchers” (also known as fortune tellers) to increase their students’ motivation. The teachers made the largest cootie catcher I have ever seen and used it as a model. What I loved about this was that it was impossible for one person to manipulate – it had to be collaborative. Students then made smaller versions and paired up to practice their knowledge of the four author purposes. Watch this video clip from the BER video Making Inclusion More Successful.

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Strategic Reading in a Non-Linear World

10/1/2012

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Recently I had the opportunity to co-teach in a class where students were learning about reading diagrams. Working in teams, they were supposed to assemble a complicated Lego toy by following one of the diagrams that had been provided. (The teacher had distributed diagrams at 3 differing reading levels.) Watching them, I realized that one group was struggling because the students did not have a strategy for effectively scanning the diagram for key information. They had ignored one very important section of the page.

Afterwards, the teacher and I had an opportunity for professional dialogue about the lesson. We discussed the fact that reading tasks are not always linear, or logical, in their directionality. We realized that it isn’t always enough to provide materials at different ability levels. We also need to teach strategic skills. We then developed the solution shown in the photo below. Using plastic report covers, we divided the page into four quadrants and numbered them (similar to a graph.) Students can scan strategically, teachers can talk about items in each quadrant, and students can even annotate. We also realized that these clear report covers could be used to teach students about how to scan web pages (see photo.)

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Teaching with Minute to Win It

4/3/2012

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Last week I had the pleasure of observing a co-taught math lesson at Bell Herron Middle School in Carrollton, Ohio. As a motivational strategy, the teachers had designed a “Minute to Win It” activity for students who answered a math problem correctly. If you have not yet seen this game show, it is based on the idea that there are all kinds of tasks that can be done with simple materials found in the typical household. The tasks look easy at first, but can be quite challenging to accomplish in a minute.

To tap into their students’ interest in this game show, the teachers chose a few of the tasks that could be simulated in the classroom. The one I observed involved the reordering of plastic cups – moving the top to the bottom, over and over again, until each cup had been moved once. The teachers began by projecting a youtube video of the game show’s countdown music and visuals. All the students gathered around to watch and cheer on their classmate. One minute later, success or no, students were back to work on the next problem in hopes that they would get to try Minute to Win It.

Whenever students find something of interest, it makes sense to see if we can find ways to tap into this for learning motivation. So many of the games on Minute to Win It lend themselves to studying the math and science behind successful completion. They also require higher level thinking skills to develop a strategy for winning. Many of the games can also be altered slightly to reinforce specific content. For example, the cup stacking activity can be changed to work on patterning.

Here’s what I did – using a water-based marker, I put an even number on each of 30 cups. Next, I mixed them up and stacked them so that only one number was showing. The “contestant” has to rearrange them so that they are in correct order from 2 to 60 in a minute. (You could use fewer cups for younger students.) You could also do this with alphabetizing words, sequencing colors, or any other concept that has a hierarchical nature. By adding content to the cups, the contestant and observers engage in quick thinking about your topic!

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<<Previous

Can Puzzle Obsession Increase Your Learning?

Brain Bursts

Informational Text Questions with a #Teaching Twist

Are your students REALLY watching that video?

How do you compare 2 informational texts?

Stop for Popcorn

Symbaloo

Ideas for Engagement

Strategic Reading in a Non-Linear World

Teaching with Minute to Win It

Anne M. Beninghof

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