Maximizing Instructional TimePlPlaFocusing on the End

Brain-body Connections ActivityAllow me to teach you 15 facts about the brain using your body.

Please stand up.

Clasp your hands togetherMuch like your hands, the brain weighs 3 pounds. But the brain is more the consistency of Jell-O.

Wiggle your thumbsThis represents the frontal lobe of the brain where problem-solving and higher-level thinking occur.

In fact, people often hit themselves in the frontal lobe to stimulate the dendrites when you they cant think of something.

Hold up two fistJust like the hands, the brain has two hemispheres Left & RightLeft Hemisphere

-Organized-Structured-Logical-Analytical-VerbalRight Hemisphere

-Creative-Musical-Artistic-Global-Emotional-Intuitive

Clasp your hands togetherThe theory of left and right hemisphere is outdated.

What we know about the brain is that the two hemispheres are constantly talking back and forth.

Wiggle your fingersYour fingers represent the Corpus Callosum.

Corpus Callosum the muscle over which the two hemispheres talk.

Partner Up: Show & Tell

The NeuronWhen you are born, you are born with one-hundred billion neurons.These are your memory cells.In most cases, you dont grow new neurons.

The NeuronEven though you cant grow neurons, you can grow dendrites.Dendrites are the connections at the end of neurons.Every time you learn something new, you grow new dendrites.Hold your dominant arm up. Your arm, including your hand, is a neuron. If your arm is a neuron, then what are your fingers?

The NeuronThe palm of your hand represents the cell body of your neuron. Your arm represents the axon of your neuron.Dendrites do not talk to other dendrites.Dendrites talk to axons but they do not touch since the message has to cross an area called the synapse.There is a substance that forms on the axon called myelin.Myelin is like crisco.

Partner Up: Show & Tell

Just Facts:List 15 facts about neurons

Clean Your Plate

1.

You have 100 billion of these

2.

Problem solving and higher order thinking

3.

Muscle over which the Two hemispheres talk

4.

Dendrites talk to these

5.

Organized and Logical

6.

Creative and Artistic

7.

Substance forms on axons

8.

Memory cells

9.

Your arm only represented

10.

Connections at the end of neurons

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1. neurons2. frontal lobe3. corpus callosum4. axons5. left hemisphere6. right hemisphere7. myelin8. neurons9. axon10. dendrites

What strategies were used during the lecture and the paper plate activity?

MovementCooperative LearningReciprocal TeachingChunking

Three Parts of the Lesson Reflect Evaluate Examine Respond Retell Assess

BeforeDuringAfter Build Activate Discuss Introduce Emphasize Grab Generate Engage Verify Formulate Summarize Self Monitor Explore Integrate

Purposes for Strategies used as a Culminating/End Activity

Reflect on the content of the lesson Evaluate predictionsExamine questions that guided reading Respond to text through discussionRespond to text through writing Retell or summarizeAssess learning

What do we do for those who did not master the content?

Purposes for Strategies used as a Culminating/End Activity

Reflect on the content of the lessonJournal responses, Facts in Five, 1-3-6 Evaluate predictionsExamine questions that guide reading Respond to text through discussionSave the Last Word, Discussion WebRespond to text through writing Exit Cards, Journal Responses, GraffitiRetell or summarizeJournal Responses, One pager, Facts in Five, Paired Summarizing, Ready, Set, RecallAssess learningExit Cards, Facts in Five, Four corners

Questions

Exit Slips

March 2011

Application:

Read through the Family and Consumer Science scenario and answer the questions on your graphic organizer.Be prepared to share out in whole groupApply your knowledge and make necessary changes to your lesson plans

*Remind them that this activity came from Marsha Tates workshop.Worksheets dont grow dendrites.*************************Do activity15 facts about the brainUse Clean Your Plate activity to begin

Ask: What strategies were used in this activity? Let them respond and then click and read answers and then sayRemember the brain loves to receive information in connected chunks because the brain is a category seeker. When the brain takes in new information it goes through its personal file system to find a place where the new information connects with something they have previously learned. Movement, cooperative learning, reciprocal teaching are great strategies to incorporate in the middle of your lesson.*Today we are focusing on the end of the lesson. Ask: What are some things that you think need to happen at the end of the lesson.

(click and put up words and see if they can clarify each one based on the answers they just shared)

**Lets see how we didClick and read each oneThink about how I started off todays lesson what was the purpose of the activity if I had done it at the end of a lesson? Answer: Assess learningI want to make a very important pointThere are two parts to every lesson that are critical to student learning. The first is building background knowledge or connecting to prior knowledge and the second is SUMMARIZING. If you think back to the theory of Primacy Recency - what does it say? (Pause and let them answer) The brain remembers best what comes first and last.So by having the students summarize or retell, you are increasing their chances of comprehension and long term memory.

But everyone did not clean their plate(click and read the question) (click and read answer)**These are strategies that can be used as culminating or end of the lesson activities. Turn to the last 2 pages of the strategy handoutassign one to each person in the group tell them Using your strategies handout You will have 2 minutes to look up one of these and read it to yourself. Be prepared to share your strategy with a partner.**