Maximizing Instructional Time
PlPla
Focusing on the End
Brain-body Connections Activity
Allow me to teach you
15 facts about the
brain using your
body.
Please stand up.
Clasp your hands together
Much like your hands, the
brain weighs 3 pounds.
But the brain is more the
consistency of Jell-O.
Wiggle your thumbs
This represents the frontal lobe of
the brain where problem-solving
and higher-level thinking occur.
In fact, people often hit
themselves in the frontal lobe to
stimulate the dendrites when you
they can’t think of something.
Hold up two fist
Just like the hands, the brain has two hemispheres –
Left & Right
Left Hemisphere
Right Hemisphere
-Organized
-Creative
-Structured
-Musical
-Logical
-Artistic
-Analytical
-Global
-Verbal
-Emotional
-Intuitive
Clasp your hands together
The theory of left and
right hemisphere is
outdated.
What we know about the
brain is that the two
hemispheres are
constantly talking back
and forth.
Wiggle your fingers
Your fingers represent the Corpus Callosum.
Corpus Callosum – the muscle over which the two
hemispheres talk.
Partner Up: Show & Tell
The Neuron
• When you are born, you are born with onehundred billion neurons.
• These are your memory cells.
• In most cases, you don’t grow new neurons.
The Neuron
• Even though you can’t grow neurons, you can
grow dendrites.
• Dendrites are the connections at the end of
neurons.
• Every time you learn something new, you
grow new dendrites.
Hold your dominant arm up. Your arm, including your hand, is a
neuron. If your arm is a neuron, then what are your fingers?
The Neuron
• The palm of your hand represents the cell body of
your neuron.
• Your arm represents the axon of your neuron.
• Dendrites do not talk to other dendrites.
• Dendrites talk to axons but they do not touch since
the message has to cross an area called the synapse.
• There is a substance that forms on the axon called
myelin.
• Myelin is like ‘crisco’.
Partner Up: Show & Tell
Just Facts:
List 15 facts about neurons
Clean Your Plate
1.
You have 100 billion of these
2.
Problem solving and
higher order thinking
3.
Muscle over which the
Two hemispheres talk
4.
Dendrites talk to these
5.
Organized and Logical
6.
Creative and Artistic
7.
Substance forms on axons
8.
Memory cells
9.
Your arm only represented…
10.
Connections at the end of
neurons
4
10
9
6
1
7
5
8
2
3
1. neurons
2. frontal lobe
3. corpus callosum
4. axons
5. left hemisphere
6. right hemisphere
7. myelin
8. neurons
9. axon
10. dendrites
What strategies were used during the lecture
and the paper plate activity?
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•
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•
Movement
Cooperative Learning
Reciprocal Teaching
Chunking
Three Parts of the Lesson
Before
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Build
Activate
Discuss
Introduce
Emphasize
Grab
Generate
During
Engage
• Verify
• Formulate
• Summarize
• Self Monitor
• Explore
• Integrate
•
After
•
•
•
•
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Reflect
Evaluate
Examine
Respond
Retell
Assess
Purposes for Strategies used as a
Culminating/End Activity
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Reflect on the content of the lesson
Evaluate predictions
Examine questions that guided reading
Respond to text through discussion
Respond to text through writing
Retell or summarize
Assess learning
What do we do for those who
did not master the content?
Purposes for Strategies used as a
Culminating/End Activity
• Reflect on the content of the lesson
Journal responses, Facts in Five, 1-3-6
• Evaluate predictions
• Examine questions that guide reading
• Respond to text through discussion
Save the Last Word, Discussion Web
• Respond to text through writing
Exit Cards, Journal Responses, Graffiti
• Retell or summarize
Journal Responses, One pager, Facts in Five, Paired
Summarizing, Ready, Set, Recall
• Assess learning
Exit Cards, Facts in Five, Four corners