Afterschool above all else needs to be FUN!
Maybe we need to take a little time
to try and think a bit like a kid.
What is fun?
Is what is fun for us the same thing
that is fun for our afterschool kids?
Why is fun even necessary?
Brain research suggests that fun is not just
beneficial to learning but, by many reports, required
for authentic learning and long-term memory.
Neurologist and educator Judy Willis’s book
“Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student
Learning: Insights from a Neurologist and Classroom
Teacher” (ASCD, 2006) is one of many that have
highlighted the learning benefits of fun. Here are just
a few excerpts:
The truth is that when the joy and comfort are
scrubbed from the classroom and replaced with
homogeneity, and when spontaneity is replaced with
conformity, students’ brains are distanced from
effective information processing and long-term
memory storage.
The highest-level executive thinking, making of
connections, and “aha” moments are more likely to
occur in an atmosphere of “exuberant discovery,”
where students of all ages retain that kindergarten
enthusiasm of embracing each day with the joy of
learning.
So fun actually seems to promote
learning. It increases dopamine,
endorphins, and oxygen!
The human brain and body
respond positively to laughter with
the release of endorphin,
epinephrine (adrenaline), and
dopamine, and with increased
breathing volume (more oxygen).
When a lesson starts with humor,
there is more alerting, and the
subsequent information is
attached to the positive emotional
event as an event or flashbulb
memory.
More Excerpts on the Brain and Engagement
Optimal brain activation occurs when
subjects are in positive emotional states
or when the material holds personal
meaning, connects to their interests, is
presented with elements of novelty, or
evokes wonder. This is why attentiveness
is so closely linked to positive emotional
cueing and personal meaning. When
there is connection to prior knowledge or
positive emotional experience, new
information passage through the limbic
system will be enhanced. The thalamus
will then “decide” to pay attention to the
information.
Eric Jensen, another noted author in the field of
brain-based learning, echoed this link between
engagement, dopamine, and learning, but
stressed that learning worked best when the
activity was intrinsically meaningful to the
individual. He notes in his book Teaching with
the Brain in Mind (ASCD, 2005):
The task has to be behaviorally relevant to the
learner, which is why the brain will not adapt to
senseless tasks.
So if fun actually leads to engagement, meaning
and purpose, and, yes, learning, what is the
answer for education? Should we create courses
based only around what is deemed enjoyable by
today’s generation?
• No, but we should look at the process of how
current courses are taught and delivered.
Ultimately, we should resist the knee-jerk
urge to declare something that is fun to be
educationally inferior.
• Fun means engagement, doing and learning
what has meaning and purpose, and it means
being challenged. Embracing this belief
should have a profound effect on what and
how we teach.
Our Challenge……..
• How do you make literacy fun for those who don’t like to read?
• How do you help a student enjoy a science lesson if it is their least
favorite subject?
• How do you inspire a kid who thinks they really are not very smart
and they really dislike school?
• How do you discover your students hidden talents?
How to not be a
• We are going to play a game.
• You will be divided up by teams by school. We will give you the seed
of a lesson. Your job will be to make it fun while still targeted to the
needs of our AIM kids.
• You will be making the skeleton lesson and creativity is encouraged.
• We will then rate it on the Fun Sucker Scale to see if it would make
the cut for afterschool.
AIM Fun Scale
• Does it meet the needs of the kids academically?
• Will it engage the students?
• Does it have any WOW factor or something that will be interesting to
a kid?
• Does it involve a lot of discussion, team work, group activities, etc
instead of a lot of teacher lecturing?
• Will students remember easily what was taught?
• Is this something kids would be excited enough about that they would
share it with their parents after AIM?
#1
Create a lesson that meets the following standards
• RL.2.3. Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
• RL.2.5. Describe the overall structure of a story, e.g. including identifying the problem or
central conflict, describing how the beginning introduces the story, and the ending concludes
the action.
• RL.2.7. Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to
demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, and/or plot.
• RL.8.3. Analyze how particular problems, lines of dialogue, or incidents in a story or drama
propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
• RL.8.2. Determine a theme, problem, or central idea of a text and analyze its development
over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, events, and
plot.
#2
• Create a Reading Language Arts Lesson about a Hero
or what a Hero is.
• Be as creative as possible! You are planning for an
hour and 10 minutes of instruction.
•
You have 10 minutes. Be ready to present your lesson
to the whole group. We will vote on our favorite!
#3
Create a lesson that meets the following standards
• SL.3.5. Create and/or listen to engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an
understandable pace.
•
SL.3.2. Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media
and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
•
RL.3.7 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as
well as through audio and oral presentations.
• SL.8.2. Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., audibly, visually, quantitatively,
and/or orally) and evaluate the motives (e.g., social, commercial, political) behind its presentation.
•
RI.8.7. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., audio, print or digital text, video,
multimedia) to present a story, particular topic, or idea.
•
7.4 Describe the changes in American life due to and exemplified in the new forms of media, art, and technology (e.g.
radio)
Lesson Units
• The three challenges we just
worked on are all related to our
upcoming Super Heroes Unit.
• http://www.tnopportunityprograms.org/LP%20Super%20Heroes.html
• We would like all staff to read all
of the units before our next
meeting on the 22nd.
• We also have a staff challenge
between now and then!