Group+Four

Guiding Questions:

 * 1) What were the essential ideas in the reading?
 * 2) What grabbed your interest?
 * 3) What connections are you making to the reading?
 * 4) What is the reading making you think more deeply about?

Chapter 1:
Teachers knew the information before reseachers did, though the author may not have realized this at first.

Chapter 2:
Having a more conscious experience for everyday use: understanding how learning happens and accessing learning differently for different people Learning is a cycle, but you can enter it at any point. Also, the cycle may be more of a spiral, where we build on the information we already have, learning more and more. Learning is never wasted. What you think you've taught or what the student should have learned may not be what was learned, but something was learned. The example of latent learning (rats who were not given incentives did not show learning, but with some creativity, the researchers were able to get the rats to show that they had learned the maze). Different styles of learning: auditory, visual, kinesthetic.

Chapters 3 & 4:
p. 34: Brain turns into its back on the past and points forward to its future. Balance between front & back Difference between information and knowledge -- knowledge is the important thing Balance between too much information and motivation in the form of more info Movement: not always physical movement Need to feel they are in control; why this is applicable to their lives

Motivation: Emotional involvement in material: kids are more interested in learning the reproductive system than any other system Choosing your own project Conditioned behavior vs. internally motivated behavior involving deeper understanding How will we use emotion to help a student learn?
 * Be excited about your subject
 * Find out what excites/is interesting to each student
 * But this question is not answered well in the text.

New Information**
 * Chapter 5:
 * Semantic vs. episodic memory
 * Base reaction (emotion) and fear (feeling) - i.e. the bear story
 * Idea that cognitive tasks involve feelings
 * The role of adrenaline in memory & brain function
 * The idea that memories are rebuilt

Chapter 6 & 7 To teach abstract ideas 1. Use concrete examples 2. Tell stories 3. Use analogies Start with an example ie eat potato chip (for an example of teaching enzymes) Antonyms -develop conrete situation or sensation (help complete the connection in the brain) What is not love? Example What is a good analogy - What is puppy love?
 * Prior Connections**
 * The idea of teaching being "wasted" (p. 20) connects to the idea that people may learn more than we explicitly tell them (p. 79).
 * P. 77 & P. 32 - Similarities between Anita's memory (memorized the information and then forgot it) and Hamilton's problem (he didn't do anything with the information) - not really understanding the meaning.
 * P. 71 & P.38/39 - The brain interacts with other parts of the body in through millions of cellular wires and chemical reactions. This is similar to signals on the fasiculi travelling in both directions within the brain itself.
 * We had a long discussion regarding the idea of taking sematic memories and changing them to episodic memories through the use of stories. ie. alphabet song, the use of pneumonic devices, the use of story in Zull's book. Stories help the information come alive or gain emotion this can help people see how it matters to their lives (p. 52). This links with the idea that we all pay the most attention to the things that matter most in our life (p. 76). The use of story seems like and effective and powerful way to engage our unique reference points.

Pull in other emotions (olfactory, emotion - particularly a pleasant emotion)

Can think of allegory in teaching about abstract concepts.

Free association - record their voices and then listen and then map out answers Make a class concept map

Webspiration - use to build concept maps