Joint Presentation with Judy Willis - NESA

Applying What We Know
What Neuroscience Reveals about the Brain and Learning
(continued)
Strategies for helping students build personal relevance and activate prior knowledge:
• Show students how what they are about to study relates to their lives or the world around them.
Watch a relevant video, such as those relating to math and science found on the following website:
http://www.thefutureschannel.com/
• Connect a unit with current events
• Read aloud something curious or interesting that relates to the topic at hand
• Before a lesson or unit, tell a narrative about the life of the author, scientist, historical figure, or
mathematician when he/she was about the age of your students
• Discuss the “So what” factor. Why should students WANT to know what you have to teach
them You can discuss with students how information connects the “real world” or to their lives.
Further it is motivating for students to know concretely how they are going to use the new information
after you teach it to them. Are they going to discuss it with a classmate, or teach it to
younger students
• Have students interact with a text through the strategy of “Talking Back to the Text”
“Talking Back to the Text” is an interactive reading strategy that helps students become personally
engaged with what they are reading. Students begin by writing questions and prompts on post-it notes
or other small papers that they can insert into their text. Some questions are prediction questions the
student will answer before reading. Other questions and prompts will be answered while the student
is reading:
• Before reading, the student writes and answers prediction questions:
o What do I think you’ll be telling me
o I already know things about YOU so I predict....
• During reading, students can complete the following questions or prompts:
o You are similar to what I have learned before, because you remind me of...
o I would have preferred a picture of...(or sketch or download your own)
o I didn’t know that and I like what you have to say (or I’ll bet this will be on the test)
o I disagree
o This is not what I expected
o This gives me an idea
o I want to know more about this than you have to offer and I know how to find out
o I know there is more than one way to interpret this information
o I won’t let you get away with anything, so I’ll check your source
o What clues do you have to help me answer the Big Question Ah, this could be one right
here....
• After reading, the student can respond to prompts, such as:
o My prediction was.... (e.g., “on target” OR “very different from what YOU said”)
o YOU didn’t say anything about....
o I wish that you had....
o If I had written you, I would have....
©2010 Jay McTighe and Judy Willis page 18