Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites

I know I'm about 3 years late to this party - but I've had the book Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites on my shelf since 2015 and I knew I needed to read it! Since I've been working in an Arts-Integrated school, my teaching has really transformed.  I don't do nearly the same amount of crafts as I used to, students create their own graphic organizers and Thinking Maps in composition books, and my reading instruction doesn't include the same amount of comprehension worksheets as it used to.  With today's education focusing on brain research and appropriate development, it seemed like a good time to crack this book open and dive on in. 

Marcia Tate (as seen in this YouTube Video) starts the book off with two scenarios:

1. Mrs. Taylor, a civics teacher, who gives lectures day in and day out.  Sometimes her lectures go on for the whole class! She doesn't use visuals and expects students to take notes on what she says. She has them round-robin read (which we know is a huge no-no for a whole group setting).  Not surprising - few of them are listening or engaged.  
2. Mr. Stewart is a civics teacher next door, but he has different techniques for his classroom.  He uses graphic organizers, checks for understanding with questioning techniques, and even gets students involved in a simulation activity to learn the branches of the government.  He has few behavior problems and his students excitedly learn the content.  

As 21st Century teachers, we know that they ways we were taught in school just don't work anymore.  They weren't engaging then and they aren't engaging now.  We want ALL of our students to succeed, not just the ones who are intrinsically motivated.  Tate has come up with 20 strategies to ensure that students are learning and having fun at the same time:

1. brainstorming and discussion
2. drawing and artwork (Yay for arts-integration!)
3. field trips
4. games
5. graphic organizers, maps, and webs
6. humor
7. manipulatives, experiments, labs, and models
8. metaphors, analogies, and similies
9. mnemonic devices
10. movement (more arts-integration!)
11. music, rhythm, rhyme, and rap (even more arts-integration!)
12. project-based and problem-based learning
13. reciprocal teaching and cooperative learning
14. role plays, drama, pantomimes, and charades (arts-integration again!)
15. storytelling
16. technology
17. visualization and guided imagery (ahem, arts-integration)
18. visuals
19. work-study and apprenticeships
20. writing

As you can see, there are quite a lot of connections between Tate's 20 strategies and arts-integration.  There are also a lot of connections with visual learning, which is helpful for struggling learners and multi-language learners.  We know that long gone is the Sage on the Stage, that we need to be the Guide on the Side.  If you are interested in expanding your repertoire or even validating some practices you already do, I suggest checking out this book. I was not compensated for providing this review, I just love reading teacher books and sharing them with you. 

Which strategy are you excited to learn more about or try? Which is one that you already do?

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Nicole Heinlein

Hawaii Writing Project

This week I'm in a professional development workshop.  But it's not the boring kind you think of when you hear "PD."  It's the Hawaii Writing Project.  HWP is a state affiliate for the National Writing Project, an organization whose goal is to improve writing and learning for all.  I had heard from a colleague that this class would be the best PD I've ever had and will change my life.  And so far, four days in, it's lived up to the hype.  

The premise of the workshop is that we will become better writing teachers by nurturing our own writing development.  We will be better in tune with our own students by turning the tables and being learners ourselves.  We have to write everyday for over an hour.  We have to write reflections after lessons and activities.  We have to share our writing with the class and with small groups.  We have discussions about creativity, vulnerability, and how to teach good writing even though there are curriculum adoptions being jammed down our throats.  

Throughout the past couple of days, we have learned some different ways for students to write and respond.  

Graffiti Boards

This is a cooperative learning strategy where all students add their thoughts and reflections to literature to one class board.  They may then respond to each other's writing.  At the end, the teacher goes over the board and students have to explain what they wrote and make connections to the text.  It's a great way to get kids out of their seats and get them to reference text when they write responses.  

Here is an example of our class graffiti board.

Found Poetry

I first learned about Found Poetry as an ELL strategy in the OCDE Project GLAD® (Guided Language Acquisition Design) trainings I've done over the years.  In this variation, students read a piece of literature, then pull out interesting words and phrases.  They then take those words and use them to create a poem.  They can change some words to fit their poem, or not.

As a class, we read "Take Me Home" by Ray Bradbury, an article from the New York Times.   As we read, we highlighted and underlined parts of the story that spoke to us.  

Here are two poems I wrote:

Poem One: 

He went away for good when I was five, 

Toward the midnight sky,

On a balloon that whispered itself fat with the hot air rising inside. 

Sailing over the beginning to sleep town, 

Leaving me to brush the tears away with fingers sulfured by firecrackers. 

You rarely have such fevers later in life that fill your entire day with emotion.   

Poem Two: 

Midnight sky, 

Brush away the tears. 

Fill your entire day with the hot air rising inside, 

All fired and bright, 

Sailing over the beginning-to-sleep town.

I didn't change too many of the words from Bradbury's article, just rearranged them to evoke a different feeling.  I really liked this strategy for getting kids thinking about the theme and meaning of the literature and using it to make connections to text, life, or the world.  

Response to Writing

The last strategy I want to share with you is one that children can do together in cooperative writing groups.  In these groups, they share their writing and can get feedback from each other.  Of course we want to encourage active listening, so we can give them one of these sheets to help them organize their thoughts and help share their reactions with the author.  

Here are the steps:

1. Students reads his or her piece of writing to the small group
2. Other students in the group listen to the writing and fill out their sheets
3. Students in the group go around in a circle and share their thoughts with the reader/author

I made a little freebie for you to use to facilitate this practice.  It was adapted from something our instructor, Marnie Masuda, gave us.  Marnie believes we should treat children's writing like works of literature.  We can have a wide variety of responses to children's writing and by sharing these responses, it will encourage them and help them develop as writers.  

Download both of these for FREE

Have you taken any great PD courses this summer? Don't forget to join in my book study right here on the blog for Teaching With Intention by Debbie Miller and earn graduate credit from Concordia University! 

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Nicole Heinlein