Is Truthiness Enough? Classroom Activities for Encouraging Evidence-Based Critical Thinking3/21/2017 ![]() In the article, Is Truthiness Enough? Classroom Activities for Encourageing Evidence-Based Critical Thinking, Kraus, Sears and Burke discuss ways to promote critical thinking in classrooms. They created a seven-step process for critical thinking along with providing teaching modules, which have a variety of teaching methods. “The modules were designed to stimulate interest amongst students, yet be modified to encourage students to think more deeply about current issues in the news or local community (Kraus, Sears, Burke, 2013).” In addition to thinking more deeply, there is evidence that the modules can increase incentive to think critically outside the classroom, and help students assess their own belief systems (Kraus, Sears, Burke, 2013). Do you think your students, or students you know, are “drowning in facts?” This statement spoke loudly to me, as this day in age, information is readily available at any moment via the Internet. Many consider the online information they find to be real and believe the sources are reliable. This is where the authors use the word, “Truthiness.” Truthiness is defined as, the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true (Kraus, Sears, Burke, 2013).” The goal, yet major challenge is that of helping young adults develop critical thinking skills and make informed choices based around truth, not truthiness. Critical thinking is a complex concept involving an intellectually discipline process of skillfully conceptualizing, applying and evaluating information. The authors of this article aimed at creating modules that promote critical and empirical thinking. Thinking about the claim, evaluating the evidence, considering other interpretations and then drawing conclusions. Seven Steps of Critical Thinking
Nine critical thinking modules were tested in college psychology classrooms. Each week they built upon steps previously focused on the prior week’s module. Each module highlighted an informational presentation with a class activity. Modules should be chosen with an end goal in mind to get students to exercise their critical thinking muscles. The study’s modules contained key features for critical thinking: active learning, developmental tension and fascination with the contingency of conclusions. The module topics were: Medical Marijuana and profiling, Autism and Vaccines, Pit Bull Ban, Deal or No Deal (game show), psychic abilities, Astrology activity, Ghost Photos and Star Wars Force Trainer. Each module got the students thinking deeper than just what they believe and knew previously which made critical thinking fun and valuable to some students. For example, the ghost photos- module, students had to dig deeper than saying a photo was photo shopped to actually analyze data. Using critical thinking does not mean you cannot believe in paranormal phenomenon’s, however it requires you to examine the evidence for the beliefs. This type of analyzing went on through each module. The conclusions were based on a standardized test showing the method of teaching critical thinking was working. Scores increased on a deductive reasoning assessment by 17% from the previous study without the module method. Students would benefit from more practice of looking deeper than the surface “truthiness” of information (Kraus, Sears, Burke, 2013). The author’s hope is that this habit of mind will become rooted with repetition and will be used in everyday decisions such as medical, consumer choices, political decisions and educational decisions. If we are successful in doing this, we can encourage a generation of young adults to think for themselves, rather than rely on what Siri says. I really enjoyed reading this article. It was a good reminder of how many, including myself at times, are “drowning in facts.” Seeing how the Internet and social media is at the tip of our fingers every day and night, we rely so much on instant news, which we don’t really know is true or not. Critical thinking is a crucial life skill that we need to Reference: Kraus, S., Sears, S. R., & Burke, B. L. (2013). Is Truthiness Enough? Classroom Activities for Encouraging Evidence-Based Critical Thinking. Journal of Effective Teaching, 13(2), 83-93.
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![]() During a grant writing class I took at WSCU, I came up with a mock grant for The Mind Up program. This is a program that is part of The Hawn Foundation, founded by the one and only Goldie Hawn. It is an organization whose mission is to “equip children with the social and emotional skills they need to lead smarter, healthier, and happier lives (MindUP Program, The Hawn Foundation)." The Mind Up program has gotten international exposure and rising popularity with many schools across the globe. Why you ask? It is a curriculum that is developed through integration of The Four Pillars: Neuroscience, positive psychology, mindful awareness and social and emotional learning. Its focus is to develop the whole child by creating positive impacts in the classroom and in students' personal lives (MindUp Program, The Hawn Foundation). The program's curriculum offers 15 lessons and provides training tools for teachers to incorporate into their classrooms. These lessons include breathing exercises, mindful awareness, being kind to yourself and other, and so much more! This program addresses students who suffer from stress, anxiety disorders, ADHD and violence related issues such as bullying and child/teen suicide. Since we all know how powerful the brain is, implementing strategies in the classroom to help reduce these factors is something of importance. With the MindUp program, we will not only be educating the disciplinary students, but all students with the goal of decreasing the number of negative occurrences and everyday stressors. Not to mention, these strategies are good for adults too! How can we make learning pleasurable and empowering for young minds? We should re-think our approach to classroom education, while integrating neuroscience with the latest social and emotional learning techniques. This article written by Susannah Gora is worth the read: http://journals.lww.com/neurologynow/Fulltext/2010/06020/Golden_Opportunity.17.asp Reference: Gora, S. (2010). Golden opportunity. Neurology Now, 6(2), 14-17. Do you like listening to music? IN PROGRESS
![]() Do you listen to music when you read? What about when you write? Incorporating mindful music, or music with no lyrics, into classrooms can affect cognition in a positive way. In the last two decades, there has been an outburst of research regarding the effects of musical influence on brain development such as; how it creates new neural networks, strengthens existing ones, and strengthens the synaptic connections (Telesco, 2010). This article explores how Peter Perret, a music director of the Winston-Salem Symphony and Robert Franz, director of it’s education programs wrote a grant proposal with seven goals that will incorporate music into the classroom:
Perret and Franz had a woodwind quintet play for the students 2 times per week for half an hour. Teachers noticed better attendance, better behavior, improved academic performance and longer attention spans. How cool would this be to incorporate to your class or school?! The musicians coordinated their lesson plans with classroom teachers highlighting lessons in reading, arithmetic, poetry, story elements and teamwork. They were teaching “through music.” They accomplished this by playing a short piece- which gained student’s attention, then introduced them to the topic for the day. After which, came questions and engagement pieces like clapping, listening for high, low sounds or stomping their feet to feel the steady beat. Students used their bodies to understand the parts of a story such as settings, conflict, characters and resolution. They did this by listening to the melodies of different instruments, the tempos, and the different dynamics. When the music got deeper, louder and faster, students eyes and bodies began to move, and the climax of the story was understood. Students began to develop abstract thinking to associate something they heard, to a state of mind. In addition, Perret and Franz had them do “soundscape” exercises, where students would sit with eyes closed and listen to all the sounds around them. When they opened their eyes they reported what they heard: footsteps, wind, birds, doors closing etc. When the quintet played, they associated bird noises with a flute, or a clarinet like a bee buzzing, the bassoon like a croaking frog. The musicians talked them through the scene, as they played, and the soundscape sessions became more complicated and students became more intrigued. Neuroscientist Aniruddh Patel confirms that “pitch-related abilities in children predict phonological skills in language (Telesco, 2010). Students also learned how perseverance would aide in their learning whether it be reading, math or learning to play an instrument. The repetition and emotions of learning can help strengthen synaptic contact in your brain and aide in cognition (Telesco, 2010). These astonishing results encouraged other low socio-economic schools and charter schools alike, to develop such practices and programs. The study indicated that children in early elementary grades who have the same opportunities as their peers, develop stronger building blocks for reading with the addition of special music instruction (Telesco, 2010). I am fascinated that musical influences can support learning in many different aspects. Developing “rhythmic jingles” in my class, teaches my students spelling patterns by using high pitch and low pitch tones to spell words. I also found it interesting that this article showcased how music can help students understand elements of a story. In my first grade classroom, I like to play “The Holiday Film Score” channel on Pandora (highly recommended) during writing workshop, and the results are mesmerizing! A group of 20, 6-7 year olds are completely silent, getting into their writing while the music is playing in the background. For anyone interested, this station is fantastic, because it is inspirational, instrumental music, (not just classical). You will hear film scores from a wide variety of films that range from light and flutey to dark and ominous. I have recently given a survey to my students regarding the music that I play in class, and 20 out of 20 students prefer listening to instrumental music while writing or reading. They noted that it calmed them down, helped them focus and inspired them to be creative. There is definitely something to music and learning, and I highly recommend incorporating some type of rhythm into your lessons. Below is a picture of me playing the violin with two students-one with a drum and one with a recorder. We were spelling words with high pitch sounds and low pitch sounds and other students had to guess which word we were spelling. Then we played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. :) Reference: Paula J. Telesco, 2010. Associate Professor of Music Theory and Aural Skills, Department of Music, University of Massachusetts, Lowell ![]() Each morning, students at CES, start the day with 10 minutes of morning movement. Brain based studies show that moving or exercising can improve academic achievement. Below is a picture and quote from the article, "Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on the brain and cognition." "An emerging body of multidisciplinary literature has documented the beneficial influence of physical activity engendered through aerobic exercise on selective aspects of brain function. Human and non-human animal studies have shown that aerobic exercise can improve a number of aspects of cognition and performance. Exercise might not only help to improve their physical health, but might also improve their academic performance" (Hillman, Erickson and Kramer, 2008). "Children might derive benefits in school performance from increased participation in physical activity" (Hillman, Erickson and Kramer, 2008). Our school started the "Movement Initiative" in 2015. At 8:00am everyday, grade levels are assigned a location to begin morning movement. Those locations are, outside at the track, inside the gym, hallway and classrooms. The grade level teachers are the leaders and motivate students to get moving. The purpose of this initiative is to promote exercise and movement in order to help our bodies and brains get ready for the day. Activating the brain first thing is so good for our academic endeavors. When we have movement in the classrooms, I usually project a Go Noodle video. These videos consist of kid Zumba, Kidz Bop dancing, track and field, and other fun activities. Students absolutely LOVE morning movement. In a recent survey I gave to my students, 100% of them answered they like the morning movement initiative and feel better starting the day. There are 3 things needed to learn: 1. Sensory Input 2. Emotional Connection 3. Motor Output Our brain learns in 3 ways: 1. Chemistry 2. Structure 3. Function Brain breaks are also imperative in learning. Teaching 1st grade, I have realized my students need these breaks often. We are sending them so much information, that they need that time to process and just let loose. Our brain breaks change bi-weekly, by vote of the class. They take accountability in their own brain breaks. Some are stretch breaks, some are dance breaks, some are push ups or frog jumps. Movement and brain breaks also reduce stress. These activities lead to thinking, reflective brain response. Students are much more attentive during the day when we have morning movement, and multiple brain breaks throughout the day. Educating students on mindfulness has helped them reflect on their own self and they become more accountable for their learning. Reference: Hillman, C. H., Erickson, K. I., & Kramer, A. F. (2008). Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition. Nature reviews neuroscience, 9(1), 58-65.
One of the writing standards in 1st grade is writing a complete sentence. Students need to demonstrate a sentence with a capital, end mark, spaces and it needs to make sense. Students were taught a song to remember these components of a complete sentence. The song is accompanied by a hand gesture that helps them check their work. I noticed a few students still not writing complete sentences during our writing time, so I came up with more class practice. I started the sentence editing challenge. The sentence editing challenge is a way students can check sentences written incorrectly and have the opportunity to fix them. Plus, students get to come up to the white board and fix it themselves....they love that! At the end of the week, we tally the scores and there is an extra recess or something in which we vote on. Ever since we started the challenge, everyday for 10 minutes, I have noticed students at their desks doing the hand gesture to check their work. I have also posted reminders on the writing focus board. Adding music and movements to our lessons is showing that students really do respond to this type of brain based learning. The action research involving music, movement and the brain is proving that students are retaining the information on lessons taught. The movement and song I taught them this week, was focused on a math concept. They are learning what a horizontal line, vertical line and oblique lines . We paired a physical movement so students could understand what each line looks like. Students extend their arms out to the side, for a horizontal line, straight up for a vertical line and diagonal to represent an oblique line. See the video below. We often use this as a management strategy when walking in the hallway or if needed in the classroom. Students quickly catch on as they see others doing it. This strategy has also came in handy when doing art. I have students hold their papers horizontally, then vertically (then repeated again to make sure they are holding the paper correctly). This movement and song will come spiral back when students have to learn perpendicular, parallel and right angle lines, in 2nd grade. I am consistently giving students informal assessments to check for understanding. Using this strategy consistently will ensure mastery of horizontal, vertical and oblique lines.
Today, I attended a professional development that I am still in awe over. It was a brain based professional development offered by Shawna Angelo, OTR, in my school district. Shawna presented an eye opening presentation that educated her audience on what we need to understand about the brain, and how to teach students about their brains. She also offered suggestions to bring brain science into the classroom. I am going to summarize the 3 ways our brain supports learning. Chemistry, Structure and Function. Chemistry The first way our brains learns is chemical. Happy brains learn better: Dopamine is like a "post it" note for the brain. The more attention the brain pays to a given stimulus, the more elaborately the information will be encoded and retained. Actions and reactions are chemical signaling taking place between neurons. Stressed and exhausted brains do not learn well. Mrs. Angelo mentioned that parts of the brain that are highly involved in learning, have the most cortisol (stress hormone) receptors in the hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex. This means that they suffer first and the most to stress, sadness and lack of support (Angelo, 2017). Structure The second way our brains learn is structural. The brain can change connections between neurons. Long term memory can occur when new dendritic branches and synaptic connections are added. Changing students brains, helps these dendrites grow. If you can imagine a tree, the dendrites are the branches...The more dendrites that grow, the better. Exercise and movement have a positive impact on the structural changes in the brain. Myelination is like the bark of a tree. It is essential for proper functioning of the nervous system (Angelo, 2017). A cool fact I learned, put things into how important exercise is, for the brain. New nerve cells are spawned in the hippocampus, and produces 7,000 new neurons per day- without exercise. 9,000 new neurons are produced with exercise. So get those dumbbells and running shoes out! Function The last way our brain learns, is functional. Exercise uses the whole brain and more neurons are used during exercising than any other activity (Angelo, 2017). The more neurons fire, the more likely they are to fire again. Neurons that fire together, wire together to build bigger circuits. Those circuits are recruited by other brain regions for thinking and learning. Along with knowing how our brain learns, we also need to know what is needed to learn. 1. Sensory Input 2. Emotional Connection (happy people learn better!) 3. Motor Output (PLAY!) The video below, "After watching this, your brain will not be the same," is a TED talk by Dr. Lara Boyd, brain researcher at The University of British Colombia. ![]() Do you ever think about the enjoyment students have when fun, social interaction is incorporated into their learning experience? How awesome would that be? Engaging classrooms that provide well planned, cooperative situations are found to be more joyful, and on the plus side- management issues are on the decline and students begin to actually develop social and learning skills. Isn’t that every teachers dream? Judy Willis, an author and current middle school teacher shares some quality insights on cooperative learning “When students participate in engaging learning activities in well-designed, supportive cooperative groups, their brain scans show facilitated passage of information from the intake areas into the memory storage regions of the brain” (Willis, 2007). Willis goes on to talk about how seating in a classroom can aide in collaboration. Arranging students sitting in rows, cuts off the cooperative learning throughout the lesson. Instead she suggests having them sit at round tables and if possible with four to six students. Students become more empowered in their learning when the teacher abandons the traditional autocratic control therefore allowing students to collaborate to achieve common goals (Willis, 2007). I have found this particularly helpful in 1st grade. When I walked in my first year of teaching, I noticed these large blue tables. My first thought was, “Where are the desks?! I need desks!” I hadn’t realized that the large blue tables were going to be my future best friends. They are a great way to get kids quickly working together, building teamwork skills and empowering each other. As I was reading, Willis started to dive into the developmental stages of an adolescents life. We have all been there. We develop new capacities and psychosocial strengths by working through these complicating times and some days might be tougher than others. Who doesn’t want to feel included? Welcome to 1st grade! Best friends one day, enemies the next, he said, she said… tattle tattle tattle. Inclusion is a sense of belonging to a group where a student feels valued and builds resiliency. The following are some of the benefits that come along with inclusion: social competence, empathy, responsiveness, and communication skills. They also demonstrate abilities to solve problems peacefully. Successfullly planned and structured learning groups helps build support in your classroom in addition to increase student’s self esteem and academic independance (Willis, 2007). Now lets dive into why this actually works: In the brain’s relaxed state, it receives information as sensory input, such as hearing or vision, into particular sensory receptive centers. From these areas, neural pathways project this information to the amygdala. “In the amygdala emotional meaning may be linked to the information and connections are made with previously stored, related knowledge The new information, now enhanced with emotional or relational data, then travels along specific neuronal circuits to the higher cognitive centers of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, where information is processed, associated, and stored for later retrieval and executive functioning (Willis, 2007)." The next time you plan your groups, keep in mind student’s strengths and understand that those strengths have authentic importance to the eventual success of the group. With that comes the individual learning styles, talents and skills being valued and each student can learn from one another in areas they are not as skilled. Project based learning can really be beneficial as well. "Studies of brain neurochemistry also support the benefit of linking rewarding, positive social experiences with the learning process. This is called dopamine-based reward-stimulated learning (Willis, 2007). Dopamine is the chemical neurotransmitter associated with attention, memory storage, comprehension, and executive function. In the end, because dopamine is the neurotransmitter associated with attention, memory, learning, and executive function, it follows that when the brain releases dopamine during or in expectation of a pleasurable experience or reward, this dopamine will be available to increase the processing of new information (Willis, 2007). This article was fascinating and gave me more insight to why collaboration is so important especially in adolescents, today. In recent times, we can be engulfed in social networking, video games and low communication skills. Incorporating this type of learning and interaction can really ignite a child’s brain while creating a safe environment of active learning. Those blue tables in my classroom mentioned earlier, turned out to be one of the best things that has happened to me as a teacher. My students are strategically placed, behaviorally , academicly and by gender. That is where the quality learning begins and the magic happens. Suggestions for cooperative learning: (Willis, 2007) Different students can make their own special contributions. Students learn to respect each other as group members. (role play) The group negotiates roles with guidance from the teacher. There should be more than one answer or more than one way to solve the problem or create the project. The activity should be intrinsically interesting, challenging, and rewarding. Possible questions teachers can ask while facilitating cooperative learning groups: (Willis, 2007) 1. Is everyone talking? 2. Are you listening to each other? 3. Are you asking questions of fellow group members? What could you ask to find out someone’s ideas? 4. Are you giving reasons for ideas and expressing different opinions? 5. What could you ask if you wanted to find out someone’s reason for a suggestion (Willis, 2007). Have fun! Reference: Willis, J. (2007) Engaging Instruction to Captivate Students; Cooperative Learning Is a Brain Turn On. Middle School Journal. ![]() The debate on whether recess is necessary or not, continues. Does it promote optimal child development and well-being or is it a waste of time? The purpose of this article was to take a look at the value of recess as an important component of the school day. Ramstetter argues that recess serves as a critical role in school as not only a break from the academic challenges in the classroom, but it promotes activity and a healthy lifestyle to the students. Think about this, have you ever seen kids play and pretend they are horses galloping across the desert? What about them running up to you with T-rex arms pretending to be dinosaurs chasing each other? How about 4 princesses prancing in the forest twirling in their big beautiful dresses? I see this every single day. Ranstetter states that free play provides a unique delivery to a child’s creative, social and emotional development and may combat childhood obesity as well (Ramstetter, 2010). Amongst the many viewpoints of how movement helps students learn in academic situations, it is a child’s personal time and enhances their health and well being. Young children are not able to focus their attention for extended periods of time. Their cognitive performance will be affected if they continue to push through their academic tasks, which require focused attention for prolonged time periods. If we allow them frequent breaks before, during and after highly focused academic tasks, their performances on later tasks should prove higher results than children who have not been given these breaks. When I read this article, all I could think about was what my students do during recess. I have a particular student who is diagnosed with MS, and has a wheelchair when his muscles get tired. Well, at recess, he is almost the first one out on the playground. As I observed his movements and actions, I couldn’t help but notice how he climbed to the top of the slide, put one hand covering his forehead to block the sun and yelled out, "The pirates! The pirates are coming! Steer the boat towards land!" In no time, he had about 8 kids playing make believe with him. They were helping him down the stairs, encouraging him, and asking what to do next to save the ship. He was giving out orders like Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of The Caribbean. It was incredible. This is a child who needs his personal time to explore his mind and come up with make believe stories. School and retention is very hard for this kiddo, but when it comes to having a conversation about something happening on the make believe recess ground, he lights up with enthusiasm and pride. He is a true example of how recess is necessary for all children. I continued to observe this particular child immediately after recess, back in the classroom. He was more alert, attentive and has consistently impressed the Special Education teachers by the progress they are seeing regarding his academic successes. Don’t you like to take a coffee break and talk with your co-workers? Do you feel a little bit better when you return back to work? Yes, me too. Sometimes I even daydream about Pirates of the Caribbean or other movies I like, or should watch when I get home. We shouldn’t be robbed of this crucial academic break for our students or for ourselves. Final thoughts: Not only does recess give ample opportunities to solve problems on their own and build social skills, but it improves cognitive skills, self esteem, self control all the while keeping them healthy. You can't forget about staying healthy by running, playing and one of my favorite things to see kids experience...laughing. What more could you want for your students? Reference: Ramstetter, C. L., Murray, R., & Garner, A. S. (2010). The crucial role of recess in schools. Journal of School Health, 80(11), 517-526. |
About:Welcome to my blog! If you are interested in learning how music, movement and the brain work together, check out my summaries and reviews based on peer reviewed and research based articles. I have loved reading and learning more about how music, exercise and movement help the brain learn. I hope you enjoy it too! Archives
March 2017
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