Classroom+Strategies

=== If the content of the book inspires you to try something new in your classroom, we all want to know about it. Use this page to upload your documents and to provide a short narrative describing how well the lesson worked for your students. If you need help uploading the documents to this page, just let me know. ===


 * =====Male learners often need ** brain breaks **. This file of engaging conversation starters was compiled for a Guys Read bookclub activity. [[file:Table Talk Conversation Starters.docx]]=====


 * ==== **Choice** promotes learning, especially for males. These files include examples of assignments that allow students to make choices in content, product, and process. [[file:Tic Tac Toe Humanities. Year 3.doc]][[file:Anchors.docx]][[file:Novel Choice Activities.docx]][[file:Sample ISearch Paper. China.docx]]====

2. Students with ADHD - atrophied corpus callosum makes multitasking & learning even more difficult 3. Assignments are often multi-faceted || 1. Music helps improve cross-talk between hemispheres (among other cross-hemisphere activities) 2. Give multistep directions one at a time 3. Provide transition time between activities ||  || 2. Use movement to promote memory - p. 37 || 2. Transition strategies || 2. Overstimulation can be displayed in anger and frustration 3. Can potentially create more discipline issues 4. They are structured to learn with less multi-tasking || 1. Fewer transitions 2. Depth instead of breadth || 1. Choice in assignments/projects 2. Sufficient time to deeply experience, comprehend, share learning || 2. Boys enter school significantly behind female counterparts in terms of language and verbal expression 3. The female brain uses more neural pathways and brain centers for word production and expression of experience, emotion and cognition through words || Less verbal - seek more non-verbal opportunities for males: 1. movement 2. non-linguistic representations || 1. Use boys own words to go step by step 2. Chapter 2 - mazimizing the brain-body connection || __Oxytocin__ - rises when girls communicate verbally Boys tend to do well with and need competition || Boys have more testosterone than estrogen - results in difficulty producing/engaging in tasks that require the use of words Boys with less oxytocin & less verbal emphasis in the brain - results in less verbal engagement || Healthy competition Peer connection, group activities ||  || Choice Boards - choice promotes learning || Choice Boards - p. 72 Novel analysis - p. 73 || 2. Boys are not the best listeners and need more sensory-tactile experiences || Differentiate learning experiences || 1. Learning Centers - p. 72 2. Choice boards - p. 72 || 2. Allow movement || 1. Playbook about students (knowing them) - pp. 42-43 2. Graphic organizers, technology, manipulatives || Boys (as well as girls with higher doapamine-cerebellum functioning) will attach their learning to physical movement. || 1. Learn less well when sedentary 2. Impulsiveness || 1. Allowing & encouraging movement in the classroom 2. Providing students with "props" to keep the mind engaged during more verbal movement || 1. Ball toss review - p. 28 2. Vote with feet - p. 29 3. Word charades - p. 30 ||
 * Brain Difference || Benefit it presents || Challenge it presents || Ideas for greater classroom success || Connections to strategies in the blue book ||
 * Corpus Callosum || When male brain is larger than normal - allows for more cross talk between hemispheres & more emotional processing; boys may be able to focus longer at one task, rathern than moving quickly through multiple tasks. || 1. Difficulty multitasking
 * Hippocampus || Can provide specific, strategic methods for memorizing || Students (boys) need more time to memorize || Boys need a list organization with categories when greater amounts of info are involved || 1. Pass It Back Review - p. 23 - create lists of info for review
 * Rest State || Recharging/reset brain; able to "unplug" and rest; ability to "let things go" || Boys drift off without completing assignments, stop taking notes, or fall asleep, tap pencils, or fidget || Offer short time out breaks || 1. Ideas Jar - p. 19
 * Compartmentalizer || Able to focus for long periods on one task || 1. Boys tend to be less successful moving quickly from task to task
 * Broca/Warnicke's Area || Healthy emotional detatchment; learning in "innovative and risk-taking ways"; ability to refresh || 1. Classrooms tend to be more verbal; also spend large amounts of time asking students to reflect and/or make personal connections to learning
 * Estrogen & Oxytocin || __Estrogen__ - direct impact on the use of words (girls have more)
 * Frontal Lobes || Girls tend to make less impulsive executive decisions than boys || Impulsivity used to be more useful and desirable in learning - especially when children did more of their learning outdoors and independently || Provide an atmosphere where students feel safe and comfortable taking risks.
 * Neural Connectors || Boys generally pick up less of what is actually going on around them || 1. Possible problems with written expression
 * Occipital & Parietal Lobe || Males have better spatial intelligence & calculate easier || Males need to be visually stimulates || 1. Less words, more graphic organizers & diagrams
 * Dopamine || Risk takers - try new things