Strategy+1-+Brainstorming+and+Discussion

Strategy 1: Brainstorming and Discussion

What strategies in this chapter appealed to you? How can you envision applying this strategy in your classroom?

Five things spoke to me from this chapter. Here they are: /kis (12.25.2010)
 * Before starting a new lesson, give students time to brainstorm all they know about it first.
 * Talking and communicating build dendrites. Therefore, decrease teacher talk and increase student dialogue.
 * Use question stems from pp 5 - 7 of book to ask questions AND . . . incorporate the questions we used with Michelle Flaming at ESSDACK too.
 * Ask students to find errors in someone's work and then correct the problem. This is especially good to prepare students for state assessment questions. ("What did ___ do wrong?" )
 * Here's my favorite thing from this strategy: "What was the first thing you thought about when you started to solve the problem?"

Jenn

Last year I took a brain-based teaching class, so a lot of this chapter was review, but it was a good reminder! Most of this boils down to good teaching practice, but it's sometimes hard to slow down and give kids the processing time they need when we are in such a hurry to cover content. I really liked the statement that "the person in the classroom who is doing the most talking about the content is growing the most dendrites." How often is that person ME? There are many days when our schedule is so packed full that I find myself just telling them the answers to A.D.D. rather than really going over the process. I need to remember that picking just a couple of the concepts and really going "in-depth" would be better than just reading them the answers when we grade.

Engaging students in discussions that help them make generalizations about a particular topic is something I would like to explore more and get better at. Sometimes it really does feel like we are teaching to the test when giving them specific types of questions. Asking those higher-level questions (Is there another way to solve this problem? Can you create a similar problem?), or showing a problem with mistakes and asking students to identify the errors seem like attractive ways of doing this. The other thing I want to continue to improve on is not just calling on another student if I have a student who doesn't have the answer. I liked the guiding questions at the bottom of page 4 that will help a "stuck" student contribute to the discussion. Most of the time I feel like I don't know what to do with kids who just sit there when I call on them; this will definitely help!