Group+Two


 * Essential Ideas**
 * Kolb states that deep learning, learning for real comprehension comes through a sequence of experience, reflection, abstraction and active testing.


 * Reflection is often skipped completely in an attempt to shortcut learning!


 * We cannot separate teaching from learning. Science supports this teaching. We must constantly achieve as a lifelong learner and avoid stagnation.


 * "We are always in the middle of a multitude of learning cycles... this is the story of our lives"


 * What Grabbed Our Interest**


 * Our students miss the opportunity for connections if they are not given time to reflect after classroom experiences or experiential learning outside the classroom. There is often a time crunch in the classroom and reflection is often cut out . This does not allow students to have an experience validated in their own opinion.
 * The Middle Level program stressed adult reflection so we must carry the torch.


 * Connection to Experiences in the Classroom**


 * Kids coming into the classroom may not be ready to learn based on their outside experiences. Facts are relative to individual experiences so some students may be able to pick up on information easier than others. One thing builds upon the previous and that building is not always happening because one thing may have been missed. Students may come from a place where they have learned that education, teachers, and the school are not important. When they enter the classroom with this idea it makes it difficult to teach them material and for that learning to take place. They have already learned not to learn and sometimes define themselves as a non learner.


 * Thinking More Deeply About:**


 * The development of the teenage brain??
 * Generalizing and abstraction are difficult and we push these two... could create gaps in learning.
 * The brain reflecting is actually a chemical/neurophysical change!
 * There is active reflection and then quiet reflection - whereupon the brain physically consolidates the information.
 * In yoga when you rest and relax at the end your body synthesizes all of the new information that your muscles and ligaments have learned.


 * Open Class Discussion and Ideas**


 * Inquiry is divergent by nature, standardized testing is convergent there is only one right answer.
 * The cycle is actually a spiral
 * There is a rich variety of ways in which we can come to know anything
 * Latent learning - Rat Maze experiment (incentive via food bits)
 * Form follows function
 * Hook 20-25 minutes into the class helps to form long-term memory

Concrete experience (Discovery) VS. Information Experience (Pendulum shift) Creativity VS. Content Memory is broken and redistributed and then reassembled so when students are presented with a choice they start in a place where they feel confident and strong. Technology being employed so readily in the classroom – are we making passive kids? Students who have no ability to take notes! Transformation: physically occurs in the bridge between the front cortex and back cortex. Data enters learners through concrete experiences where it is organized and rearranged through reflection. But it is still just data until learners begin to work with it!! When learners convert this **idea in ideas, plans, and actions**, they experience transformation. Keeping a just balance is our duty…
 * Reading Discussion Group – Chapters Three and Four 7.8.09 **

- “Do teachers create opportunities, even make demands, for students to transform the information which came from their past into their future?” - How is knowledge transformed from ours to theirs?” - Find out how students are intrinsically motivated!! - How do we find out how all 70 students are intrinsically motivated? How do we make it relevant for all 70 of our students? - “We must help them see how it matters in their lives.” - As teachers we need to examine how something matters in our lives so we when we are asked by the students we can explain how it will be relevant to them. - Connect the inside of the classroom to their lives even if we cannot necessarily connect the outside. - In the classroom you must create opportunities for the students to achieve cognition, control, fear and pleasure.
 * Implications for teaching… **


 * New Ideas**

The connections from the amy gdala to the brain are far more numerous suggesting that emotions influence our thinking more than the other way around. Amygdala is the fear center. This may mean that students who have constantly pumping adrenaline can not learn.

Stress can make a memory faulty. Extreme stress can damage memory forever.

There is competition for attention in the brain. Emotions are controlling what is going on in our brains so processing is almost nonexistent when it comes to school learning if emotions are high.

Knowing is feeling- we can not teach the feeling---> best practices may guide this process of understanding and "feeling". The body can develop feelings around certain cognitive tasks like math.


 * Connections to other learning**

Feelings are distracting when we want to answer a problem. We want to act to get a certain result. Our brain survives by thinking, planning, and deciding. If feelings guide thinking and we are stuck on an issue outside of the classroom the brain may try to solve or act on a previous problem, playing out the fear (being teased) and getting hyper focused. Page 75 with 50.

We may remember semantic memories by remembering an episode and vice versa. This means that emotions are extremely linked with memory as it is with cognition. Devon can not remember her last dance song and these were happy memories ( so can extreme happiness effect this emotion?) Page 86 Feeling effects memory- remembering and forgetting and even accuracy of the situation.

Research on the brain is in a fully developed brain. What is the difference in an adolescent brain? There are 12 years for the male brain to be fully developed. Can extreme emotion, happy or sad, have an effect on memory/ learning? We have middle school girls on a high of dating and seem to lapse. Can the intensity of a relationship help or hinder learning? (crushes on teachers) What does this mean for planning rooms? The fear connection with learning.
 * Questions**

Questions for Chapters 6 & 7 (Devon)

1. Prior Knowledge is....
 * A fact
 * It is perisistant
 * it is the beginning of new knowlegde
 * It is complex and personal
 * In its physical form it is a neuronal network

(Erin Jackman)
 * It is a fact, it is persistent, and the beginning of new knowledge
 * There's no understanding if it is not connected to prior knowledge
 * Prior knowledge is a thing - there is a neural network for everything we know

2. How do we fix incorrect prior knowledge?
 * We have to physical change the neuronal networks by building new connections
 * We cannot excise old neuronal networks - we simply have to start where the leaners knowedge begins and keep building.

(EJ)
 * We can not fix wrong ideas simply by stating that they are wrong
 * We must find ways to build on existing neuronal networks
 * Find out what the students believes instead of ignoring it, combine it with existing networks

3. How can we facilitate abstractions?
 * Any concrete example that has the same type of neuronal network can be used to create a conceptual or abstract idea of life.

(EJ)
 * The use of metaphors and stories will help build on abstract concepts
 * Something must be physical before it can be abstract
 * We must push students to tell stories about concepts or information to grasp a better understanding of what they believe

4. How might we operationalize neuronal networks so that students can understand their learning?
 * Free-Write (Tell me what you already know - uncover their prior knowledge)
 * Identify any misconceptions
 * Build on prior knowledge with a new concrete experience

(EJ)
 * Students must make concept into a physical thing
 * Students should find prior knowledge about ideas on neurons, networks, where they see networks (i.e. telephone or computer networks)
 * Share experiences in their own words

5. Which ten ideas do I now know more about as a result of chapters 1-7?
 * What the brain wants - safety and happiness
 * What the brain uses to survive - cognition, control, fear and pleasure
 * The control needs to be returned to the learner
 * We need to incorporate reflection in order to complete the loop!
 * Emotional functions preceede cognitive functions!
 * Deep learning comes through a sequence of experience, reflection, abstraction, and active testing.
 * Sense - Integrate - Act
 * We cannot separate teaching from learning.
 * Transformation physically occurs between the bridge of the front and back cortex
 * Data is still data until the learner converts it into ideas, plans and actions.

(EJ)
 * All students have prior knowledge that affects their response to our teaching

6. Whats the biological error in telling students you expect them to know it?

(EJ)
 * We must start with the knowledge of the learner rather than our own knowledge
 * The learner does not always have a neuronal network to connect the information or to make the connection stronger because they do not have experience or prior knowledge
 * A synapse cannot get stronger without having a connection first, so it is the teacher's job to connect something to prior knowledge to build a new connection between other synapses
 * We must not instruct or explain but instead provide new experiences so that a connection can be made
 * We must understand that a wrong connection has come from some experience in a student's life that has not happened in our own

7. Why is it wrong to spend time addressing mistakes?
 * Because you don't want to accidentally reinforce incorrect neuronal networks.
 * Additionally resurrecting old networks can perpetuate error.
 * Sometimes the 'wrong' conections are just complete
 * Errors can be a tool for teaching rather than a barrier

(EJ)
 * If we spend time focusing on our mistakes then we will reinforce the incorrect connections
 * There must be some change in connections or learning cannot occur
 * [Ylvisaker & Feeney] - Repeating the use of correct connections is more effective (p. 123)
 * Wrong connections may be just be incomplete connections and we can use this as a tool to find better connections

8. What ideas that were once outside are now inside?
 * 'Errorless learning!' - It is ok to embrace the piece or pieces that they know and then move on from there!

** Notes from Chapter 10-11 **
 * Constructing language is making a plan for action. It is a major part of what the front brain evolved to do. **
 * Assembling ideas into language is what creates the action. This action is what actually completes the learning cycle. **
 * Sense **** à **** Integrate **** à **** Act **
 * Learners must carefully assemble their plan for speaking. This plan must have specific content, and that content must be arranged in a way that accurately conveys the image that is in the brain. **
 * If there is no clear image there is no clear plan. Yet assembling the plan makes the image clearer – a specific plan makes things clear! **
 * Planning calms the amygdala and helps us with a plan of action which is needed for deeper learning.

Plan for action--> action is needed though

We need to be exact for when kids can use mimicry and wen they can't.

Chunking information (clusters vs. pieces of information). We must break things down and organize the important and limit information.

Writing in our own voice makes ideas our own, they are ours. Goes to Ch3 where we transfer ownership to the future oriented.

The plan is public record!! ** ** __Big Ideas__ ** 7. Emotion is learning 8. Build on Prior Knowledge 9. Intrinsic motivator should be learning- use intrinsic vs extrinsic such as free time or games ** ** Implications for teaching… ** · ** Language is a plan for action and asking students to explain in their own words leads to new meaning and a deeper understanding of their own plan. ** · ** Watching our own language to make sure we provide students with time to process and think about their own certainties and ** ** uncertainties. Giving them a few seconds to think ** · ** Allow students to use facts to form their own beliefs and opinions instead of “mirroring” the opinion of the teacher. ** · ** Starting to work can be the hardest thing for students. They either don’t know where to begin or don’t fully understand it. As teachers we must help them and model for them how to make a plan to get started. Teach them how to- may take a ton of time at first but once they can do it then work is done faster. ** · ** Analyzing the feasibility of the plan – what pieces worked and what pieces did not work. Reflecting on the plan. ** · ** AS students cannot complete a plan. Creating a plan must become internalized as part of the routine. “FIRST we are making a plan THEN we are acting on the plan.” **
 * 1. **** Create our own experiences and learning will happen. **
 * 2. **** Sense **** à **** Integrate **** à **** Act **
 * 3. **** Any ideas we produce must be tested by action. **
 * 4. **** Make the classroom full of senses balance lecture with experience. (We remember because we made it) **
 * 5. **** Complete thinking takes time!! – We need to make a plan, act and reflect on it. **
 * 6. Reflect!
 * Examples/ Graphic Organizers /Rubric **
 * ** We should always model behavior, words, language, actions because children/adolescents mimic to learn. **
 * We have to pick important information to teach students. There is a limited amount of space in working memory so we can not overload. Use 2 or 3 vocab and terms.
 * Build in time for reflection on everything; instructions, work they have done...
 * Find out what motivates students and build on their prior knowledge and intrinsic motivation. Make connections to their lives
 * Teachers who feel emotion and have own experience will be followed by students who build their own- excitement and emotion, planning, reflecting


 * Edutopia Video Notes and how they relate:**

School can be frustrating and should be- life is a question Students come up with area of inquiry and relate to each subject, go more in depth- students invested in lerning Students met people with AIDS-- own experience-- able to ask question---science becomes important issue Wanted to study war and talk to Iraqi people-- email-- DGen-- primary source of info Have mind of own- anti war march- had formed experience with pen pal, papers, learning, __expressing emotions__ - make difference with money earned from peace songs Students given power through reflection- use of art and expression through singing- release of intense emotion With parents and admin behind beliefs the school can really succeed- what are real experiences- okay to be graphic- open up learning atmosphere in urban area with such conflict, crime

Can still have it be safe but push the level of comfort within the classroom!! Ownership of learning - choice - action plans that are public - feeling of safety - use of voice leads to empowerment! "We developed our voice."


 * Article Discussion

Hypotheses: Childhood memory will interfere with memory in young adults. A relationship between childhood stress and adult working memory will be mediated by chronic stress exposure.

Findings: Allostatic load during childhood significantly predicts working memory in young adulthood.

Wondering if the two are inextricably linked - stress and the hippocampus is linked but is stress from poverty really that different than any other stressors?

Do children always know they are poor? Does it always create stress for them? How do they define stress? Are they adults at 17? Could they continue the study into adulthood?

Regardless -Teaching implications - If we want our students to process what we are telling them we must limit the number of items they need to process. We cannot overload working memory - especially if it is already stressed! The manipulation in working memory is what creates new knowledge for the learner. If the working memory is not functioning at full capacity then the learner is manipulating less information - and thereby creating less new knowledge.

Article Response

Although we need each part of our brain working in its own way, our frontal cortex is of utmost importance. This part of the brain is where our short term, working memory takes place. This type of memory is important for planning for future events, assembling ideas, rearranges parts of information to make an internal experience, understanding and producing language, reading, problem solving, and hold facts. After items are arranged and reordered in our working memory they are transfered to long term memory. If this part of our brain is damaged or not working properly language can be skewed and vital tasks can not be completed as they should be. Unfortunately, it has been found that poverty, which many children live in, has a negative impact on working memory.

Evans and Schamberg suggest that the longer the exposure to physiological stressors in poverty the more damage is done to the frontal cortex. This in turn would decrease short term working memory. They found that it was not necessarily the time of exposure to poverty, but the length of time the child was classified as living in poverty. They found a negative correlation between exposure to stressors due to poverty and the measured achievement at young adulthood. They point out that chronic stress will eventually have a negative impact on working memory, which can be due to environment of impoverished children.

As a teacher we know that it is important not to overload the working memory. If a student gets too much information at once they are unable to distinguish which parts are important and which are not. We understand this for a fully functioning brain and are able to talor lessons, but if working memory is negatively affected in young adults by age 13 or 17 then it is possible that we are overloading without meaning to or being aware of it. For a young adult who lived in poverty and has been negatively affected by physiological stressors this means that they may not be able to process the information we give them or even the same amount of information that similar classmates can.

Another impact of less working memory is that problem solving, reasoning and forming new ideas may be more difficult. A student who spent a great deal of childhood in poverty may not easily respond to the prompts we provide other students because their ability to take in all of our input and form something new is a complicated task that requires our working memory. **