Bill McBride Educational Consultant Author of Entertaining an Elephant Engaging the Disengaged...

Bill McBrideEducational Consultant

Author of Entertaining an Elephant

Engaging the Disengaged

Sponsored by Houghton Mifflin

Harcourt

Two questions: 1: What does neuroscience tell us about

student engagement?

Two questions: 2: How do we

use this information to help students read SS texts?

Begin with a teaching strategy.

Anticipation GuideAnticipation Guide1. 1 in 5 students drop out of high school.2. Los Angeles has more dropouts than New York City

3. The cost of each drop out who goes into crime is $1.2 million over his/her lifetime.

4. Instruction involving mostly predictable stimuli helps the brain retain its focus.

5. Most dropouts are already failing.

Agree - Disagree

______ ______

How many of you lie to your

students?

Drop in a little

uncertainty.?

When faced with uncertainty, students spend the time actively trying to sort out what is true from what isn’t, and are more engaged, with greater retention. Source: Ellen J. Langer, Harvard

Focus on three

questions.

1. Do we want our students

to pay attention ALL

the time?

Brain vs. ComputerBrain vs. Computer

““Our brain has 100 billion Our brain has 100 billion neurons, or cells. It takes neurons, or cells. It takes in more information from in more information from our environment in a our environment in a single day than the single day than the largest computer does in largest computer does in a year.”a year.”

David Sousa, “How the Brain Learns”David Sousa, “How the Brain Learns”

What does the brain care about?

“The survival brain is interested in two things: desire and need.”

When presented with new information the brain asks ...

Do I need to know this information?

Do I want to know this information?

Constant Attention = No No• Much of what we learn cannot be processed consciously; it happens too fast.

• In order to create new meaning, we need internal time.

• After each new learning experience, we need time for the learning to “imprint.”

2. Are our students paying

attention ANY of the time?

THE PATTERN THAT HAS DOMINATED CLASSROOM TEACHING

• Teacher provides a brief discussion of a new chapter/topic

• Assigns pages to read and end of the lesson questions for homework, and asks students to be prepared to discuss text

• Lectures, discusses and asks questions

• Written tests

Show a video clip!Show a video clip!

Brain-based TeachingBrain-based Teaching

“An environment that contains mainly predictable or repeated stimuli (like some classrooms?) lowers the brain’s interest in the outside world and tempts it to turn within for novel sensations.”

David Sousa, “How the Brain Learns”David Sousa, “How the Brain Learns”

“What percentage of high school students drop out in America each year?”

5% 9% 15% 23% 27% 34% 45%

“An increasing number of researchers are saying that nearly 1 in 3 high school students won’t graduate.”

Time – April 17, 2006

www.polleverywhere.com

Teen Cell Phone Use?• Average 440 text messages a week.• 110 of them during a class.• Works out to more than three per class period.• 65% of student use cell phones at school.• 23% of parents believe they do.Source: USA Today, June 18, 2009

How engaged are our

students?

WHY STUDENTS DROP OUT

• Almost 50% said they were boredSource: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, March 2006

High School Dropouts

“Boredom is a disease of epidemic proportions….Why are our schools not places of joy?”Source: John Goodlad, A Place Called School

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, March 2006

• 69% said they were not motivated or inspired by teachers to work hard

• Life events such as pregnancies, arrests or need for full-time income.

• 60% of girls who have babies at 17 or younger drop out.

Source: Education Week, June 3, 2009

• 70 percent were confident they could have graduated.

• Most students do not drop out because they can’t do the work. Nearly 90% had passing grades when they left school.”

The Silent Epidemic

“Studies show that the lifetime cost to the nation for each youth who drops out of school and later moves into a life of crime and drugs ranges from 1.7 to 2.3 million.”

The Silent Epidemic

“If the number of 20 year old dropouts were cut in half, the government would reap $45 Billion in extra tax revenues and reduced costs in health, crime, and welfare.”

Process Time!Directions: With a partner list two things you’ve learned so far.

• _____________________________________• _____________________________________

• ______________________________________• ______________________________________

3. What engages

our students’ brains?

The brain’s first job is to keep you alive--survival.

Powerful Teaching

The brain constantly learns from its environment.

Powerful Teaching

What is programming the minds of many of our

young people?

Powerful Teaching

Choice Collaborative Problem Solving

Connection

Challenge/ Competition

CommotionCommunication

What does Technology have that captures the brains of our children?

Choice (content, process, resource, environment)

Collaboration (problem solving through trial and error)

Connection (use of personal and subject prior knowledge)

Challenge/Competition (attainable and exciting goals)

Communication (feedback as immediate as possible)

Commotion (physical and verbal)

Choice!

“Choice changes behavior, motivates, provides a sense of ownership, and makes the world seem right to the learner.”

Sprenger, M. (2010), Brain-based teaching in the digital age. ASCD

ChoiceExternal versus Internal Motivation

Richard deCharms – Educational Leadership, March 1977

Pawn – forcing students to learn through threat, reward, or punishment.

Origin – encouraging internal motivation

ChoiceExternal versus Internal Motivation

Richard deCharms – Educational Leadership, March 1977

“Both academic achievement and attendance significantly improved in internally motivated classrooms. Rather than coercion, the emphasis in on CHOICE—allowing students to feel a sense of personal influence over the learning process.”

ChoiceWhich assignment would you rather do?

1. Read the chapter silently. Get out a sheet of paper. Answer all 10 questions at the end. NO TALKING.

2. Choose a partner. Read the questions at the end of the chapter first. With your partner, choose 6 of the 10 you want to answer. Read the chapter and answer the questions you chose. Be prepared to show the class how you found the answer to your questions.

At age 6 Irene Kordick emigrated from Munich to the slums of Cleveland.

She managed to reach the 5th grade as an “A” student without knowing how to read or write in English.

She vowed that this would never happen to anyone else.

Powerful Teaching

Source: Washing ton Post.com May 28, 2008

She is now the Principal of Ocean City Elementary, and 100% of her students passed the state assessment.

Her secret: She abolished the practice of teachers asking questions, students raising hands, and the teacher picking one to answer.

Now students pair off and answer the questions together.

Powerful Teaching

Getting Groups to Work

Powerful Teaching

Collaborative Review Activities

Cooperative Learning and Rubrics

“By offering students the choice of how to create the rubrics, a feeling of control and ownership is further enhanced, ...

Cooperative Learning and Rubrics

“... and using a rubric helps students see connections between what they are supposed to be learning and how they will show it.”

Dodging the QuestionDodging the Question

1. Why does “Choice” get students engaged?

2. What percentage of American dropouts are making passing grades?

3. 1 in how many American students drop out of school?

4. What is a good technique to use at the beginning of every class?

“Powerful teachers build explicitly on their students’

prior knowledge and experience.”

Linda Darling-Hammond

Stanford University

Powerful Teaching

“Today’s students want to see their real world reflected in

the classroom.”

Powerful Teaching

People love gamesPeople love games

Challenge Games

What is it?What is it? King of PopKing of Pop

Challenge Game

What is it?What is it? A card sharkA card shark

What is it?What is it?

Pool tablePool table

What is it?What is it? Dr. PepperDr. Pepper

Gator aideGator aide

What is it?What is it? Egg PlantEgg Plant

Light beerLight beer

What is it?What is it? Tap dancersTap dancers

What is it?What is it? Assaulted Assaulted peanutpeanut

Tie makerTie maker

An eye podAn eye pod

20 Questions

2nd grader listening to a teacher’s lecture

2nd grader telling a classmate what the teacher said

In a study of over 2,500 classrooms, “fifth-graders spent 91.2% of class time in their seats listening to a teacher or working alone, and only 7% working in small groups, which foster social skills and critical thinking.” from USA Today, as reported in

Science magazine, March 30, 2007

Listening Rubric1. Keep eye contact with the

speaker.2. Never interrupt the

speaker.3. Never respond with a

statement beginning with the word “I”.

4. Repeat back to the speaker what you have heard using a phrase like, “So I hear you saying ....”

Feedback!

“After looking at more than 7,000 studies, John Hattie and Helen Timperley (2007) concluded that providing students with specifics about how they are doing in regard to learning objectives raised student achievement 37 percentile points!”

Commotion!

“Exercise readies our neurons to connect more easily.• improves attention and motivation by increasing dopamine and norepinephrine• creates positive moods, lowers anxiety, raises self-esteem• causes stem cells in brain to divide, making new brain cells

Commotion!

“Exercise readies our neurons to connect more easily.• decreases impulsivity• adds new cells to the hippocampus (the memory control area)• adds to the “chemical soup” that promotes growth and survival of neurons

The more senses you use to learn something …

Powerful Teaching

the greater imprint it makes on the brain.

Myelin coating

Neuron

Myelin – a fatty substance that coats the axons and allows messages to travel quickly without any loss of transmission.

Source: Learning and Memory by Marilee Springer

Myelin Promotes Retention

Myelin-coated neural pathway

What Causes Myelin Secretion?

Reteaching and Practice Emotion

Think of one of the best teachers you ever had.

Think of one word to describe that teacher.

“Good learning does not avoid emotions, it embraces them.”

Eric Jensen

Teaching with the Brain in Mind

Engagement Requires Emotion

“Powerful teachers motivate with the heart as well as the

head.”

Stanford University

Powerful Teaching

“Students

learn as much for a teacher

as they do from a teacher.”

Stanford University

Powerful Teaching

Anticipation GuideAnticipation Guide1. 1 in 5 students drop out of high school.2. Los Angeles has more dropouts than New York City

3. The cost of each drop out who goes into crime is $1.2 million over his/her lifetime.

4. Instruction involving mostly predictable stimuli helps the brain retain its focus.

5. Most dropouts are already failing.

Agree - Disagree

______ ______

Choice

Collaboration

Connection

Challenge/Competition

Communication

Commotion

Were you engaged?

Reading and Social Studies• Four strategies that help students learn new vocabulary terms

• Eight hands-on lessons for teaching students to comprehend textbooks

• Step-by-step approaches to helping students read and interpret primary sources, newspaper and magazine articles, and information from Internet sites Order from www.ascd.org

Entertaining an Elephant

Carrying a Load of Feathers

Teacher Price - $6.36

Half the proceeds go to charity!

Order online at www.underoneroof.org

Contact Information

Dr. Bill McBride, Ph.D. 432 Vicksburg St., San Francisco, CA 94114

Email: drbilly@comcast.net Web Site: www.entertaininganelephant.com

Bill’s Wiki: http://billmcbride.pbworks.com/

Engaging the Disengaged through Debate Speaking and Listening through Simple Debate Internet Research and Evaluation Critical Thinking Persuasive Writing

Teacher Debate Blog: http://arguewell.blogspot.com/

Order at: www.incentivepublications.com

The Great Debaters

“We’re daft if we don’t see that argument teaches students to think and is about the best inducement for getting them to read purposefully and write with passion.”

Mike Schmoker

“If They Can Argue Well, They Can Write Well”Step-by-Step Student

Activity Pages

www.incentivepublications.com

1-800-421-2830

-- Speaking and Listening through Simple Debate

-- Internet Research and Evaluation

-- Critical Thinking

-- Persuasive Writing

The systems you have in place

are perfect

for the results you are getting.

Words to Remember

Bill McBride Educational Consultant Author of Entertaining an Elephant Engaging the Disengaged...

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