Using the Strategy Ring

1. Using the Strategy Ring How the brain works and implications for education and learning

2. GAME Plan • Goal - Participants will learn about how the brain functions and how the Strategy Ring can help. • Activities – Baggage Claim, 10+2, Response Cards, ABA, Numbered Heads Together • Measure – Completed notes • Evaluation – Plus/Delta

4. Bonny Buffington • 14 years sp ed resource room teacher • 3 years intervention specialist, inclusion • 12 years teacher trainer for co-teaching, inclusion strategies • 21 years high school math teacher • 23 years district administrator • 2 years as educational consultant • Nearly 75 years!

5. Baggage Claim On an index card, LEGIBLY write your response to these questions: • What do students need in order to learn? • What can teachers do to facilitate student learning?

6. When I say “GO,” find a partner to share what you have written. • Explain your responses to your partner, and then give your index card to that person. • He/she will explain his/her responses to you and then give his/her index card to you. • Repeat after 60 seconds when I say “GO” again

7. The Brain Stem

8. The Brain Stem • Involuntary actions – blinking, breathing, heartbeat • Also called “reptilian brain” • Collects and delivers sensory information to higher brain

9. The Limbic System Hippocampus Amygdala Cerrebellum

10. Amygdala • Gatekeeper • Three levels of attention • The need to BELONG • The need to be SAFE

11. The Hippocampus • Transferring memories • Making new memories • Inhibition • Smell • Location

12. The Cerebellum • Movement • Balance

13. The Cerebellum “It's like a math co-processor. It's not essential for any activity ... but it makes any activity better. Anything we can think of as higher thought, mathematics, music, philosophy, decision-making, social skill, draws upon the cerebellum....” Dr. Jay Giedd, National Institute of Mental Health

14. STOP! 10 + 2 Activity • On a piece of paper, write down as much as you remember about the 2 parts of the brain that we have discussed. Try not to peek! • Share what you remembered with a partner • Look at your notes and add whatever you forgot to include

15. The Cerebrum Parietal lobe Frontal lobe Occipital lobe Temporal lobe Cerebellum

16. The Frontal Lobe • How we interact with our surroundings. • Our judgments on daily routines. • Our expressive language. • Assigns meaning to words we choose. • Involves word association. • Memory for habits and motor activities

17. The Parietal Lobe • Location for visual attention. • Location for touch perception. • Goal directed voluntary movements. • Manipulation of objects. • Integration of different senses that allows for understanding a single concept.

18. The Occipital Lobe • Vision

19. The Temporal Lobe • Hearing • Memory • Visual perceptions. • Categorizing of objects. T

20. Memory SongSung to the tune of “10 Little Indians” Touch the appropriate area of your brain as you sing: Temporal, Occipital, Parietal Temporal, Occipital, Parietal Temporal, Occipital, Parietal Frontal, Cerebellum

21. Stop! Response Cards Which lobe(s) would students mainly use when: • Sorting colors into primary, secondary, tertiary • Playing spelling Twister • Typing vocabulary words • Copying notes from the board • Listening to teacher lecture • Role playing an event from history • Completing a word find • Discussing the pros and cons of a proposal

23. Higher Level Thinking Using the Gray Matter! • Can actually generate NEW neurons (neurogenesis) • Adds dendrites • Increases the thickness of the myelin sheath

24. Stimulating Environment Affects Learning A child's ability to learn can increase or decrease by 25 percent or more, depending on whether he or she grows up in a stimulating environment. www.brainconnection.com

25. Two times of ENORMOUS brain growth and pruning: • During the first month of life, the number of connections or synapses increases from 50 trillion to 1 quadrillion. • If an infant's body grew at a comparable rate, his weight would increase from 8.5 pounds at birth to 170 pounds at one month old. • Overproduction ends, pruning begins until about age 3

26. Second cycle of growth and pruning • Dendritic growth spurt at age 11 in girls, 12 in boys • Pruning phase during adolescence • Age 13 – 18 lose 1% of gray matter per year • If you don’t use it, you lose it!

27. The Teacher Effect • Quality of classroom instruction is most significant factor in students’ brain development. • Didactic instruction – teacher directed • Interactive instruction – student actively engaged Which type do you think grows dendrites?

28. Sad Fact: Use it or lose it: If dendrites are not being used, they will be pruned. Failing to engage students actively can actually make students dumber.

29. Stop! ABA activity • Stand up for REVIEW! • Grab a partner • Decide who will be A and who will be B • A speaks for 60 seconds, nonstop • B speaks for 90 seconds, nonstop • A speaks for 30 seconds, nonstop

30. Implications for the classroom… • Students interacting to increase emotional level • Students talking, explaining to increase meaning • Students using various modalities

31. Stop! Numbered Heads Together • In groups of 4, number each person 1, 2, 3, and 4 • Come to consensus on a response for the question. I will draw a number and call on the person with that number to give the group’s response.

32. Match the following items to the correct percentage. What we hear 95% What we see 80% What we see and hear 70% What we read 50% What we discuss 30% What we teach others 20% What we personally experience 10%

33. 10% of what we read • 20% of what we hear • 30% of what we see • 50% of what we see and hear • 70% of what we discuss with others • 80% of what we personally experience • 95% or what we teach others - Edgar Dale

34. Using the Strategy Ring: Strategy Ring

35. Q and A Bonny Buffington Knox County ESC 740-393-6767 Bonny_buffington@knoxnet.k12.oh.us