Teaching With the Brain in Mind

Teaching with the Brain in Mind
Ask questions that compare and contrast
elements in nature.
Help children learn to use jigsaw puzzles,
blocks, and dominoes.
Use stitchery to learn patterns. Sort buttons,
needles, thread, and other sewing items. Use toolboxes
to sort nuts, bolts, screws, and tools. Use
sorting skills for simple home, school, or life
objects.
Teach and learn sound patterns. Listen to
the patterns in wildlife, such as bird calls.
Before beginning a topic, give global
overviews using overheads, videotapes or
videodisks, and posters.
Help students use motor skills to walk them
through a learning process in advance of needing
to know it.
Days or weeks before actually starting a
topic, prepare learners with oral previews, applicable
games in texts or handouts, metaphorical
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descriptions, and mind-maps of the topic posted
on the walls.
When you finish with a topic, make sure
that you allow learners to evaluate the pros and
cons, discuss the relevance, and demonstrate their
patterning with models, plays, and teachings.
More and more schools are realizing the
importance of integrating educational practices
with current brain theory. The kinds of practices
illuminated in this book fit well with the current
theory and practice of contextual learning and constructivism
(Parnell 1996). Those who have advocated
the purposeful and individual construction
of meaning are right on the money. Ultimately,
everyone has to make his or her own meaning out
of things. It’s not more content that students want;
it’s meaning. One of the things good schools do is
understand the importance of meaning-making
and provide the environment that includes the elements
necessary for making meaning.