Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 12 Number 3
#5 Eight super questions for promoting learning
#6 Parenting with threats or commitment
#7 Helping a teacher with discipline problems
Archive
Visualization activities make learning easy, fun, and engaging. Brain compatible learning infers that learning will take place in a manner that is “natural.” Unfortunately, however, many teachers expect students to learn in an “unnatural” way. Let me explain by asking you to visualize the last time you dreamed. Not that you remember your dream, but did you dream in letters, in words, in sentences, in paragraphs? Or did you dream in pictures? We often forget that the act of reading is a relatively recent development in human development. Until recent years, very few people read. Reading is not a “natural” brain activity as is visualization. Then how was history passed from generation to generation? The answer is in stories–stories that
READ MORE >>> →The very first step outlined in Dr. Marshall’s Discipline without Stress Teaching Model is classroom management. He explains on p. 205 of his book, “Students need to be inducted into the organization of the classroom. The way to do this is to teach procedures.” Further down on the same page, he continues: Procedure gives structure, which is especially important for at-risk students. The label “at-risk” has nothing to do with intelligence. It simply means that these students are in danger of failing or dropping out of school. Often the lives of at-risk students are chaotic, and the only part of their lives that is stable is school. The reason they are in danger is simply because they don’t do their work.
READ MORE >>> →Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 12 Number 2
#2 Responsibility and language
#4 Relationships and giving
#6 A very effective parenting technique
A boy measures everything he does or says by a single yardstick: “Does this make me look weak?” If it does, he isn’t going to do it. That’s part of the reason that video games have such a powerful hold on boys. The action is constant; boys can calibrate just how hard the challenges will be; and when they lose, the defeat is private. With this in mind, it’s important to remember that PUBLIC competition improves performance, but not learning. Some students will practice for hours spurred on by the competitive spirit in music competition, athletics, or speech contests. These students are motivated to compete. Competition can be fun, as witnessed by the hours that young people invest in such
READ MORE >>> →Working in Harlem under contract for three years with the New York City Board of Education taught me an invaluable lesson: Having a teaching SYSTEM is far superior to talent when a teacher faces challenging behaviors in the classroom. The assistant superintendent and I were very impressed while observing a teacher one year. We agreed that the teacher was a “natural.” However, when I visited the teacher the following year, she told me that three boys were such challenges that she could use some assistance. Even teachers with “natural talent” are challenged by student behaviors that teachers in former generations did not have to deal with. To retain the joy that the teaching profession offers and to reduce one’s stress,
READ MORE >>> →When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. But we can speed up the process. 1. Create curiosityCuriosity is perhaps the greatest of all motivators. Here is the difference between American and Japanese styles of teaching: In Japanese schools, students are immediately introduced to a problem or challenge. They grapple with it. Curiosity is naturally engendered. By contrast, in American schools the main idea(s) are presented, the solution is taught, and then students practice. Where is the curiosity engendered using this approach? 2. Teach students to ask themselves questionsEncourage students to ask themselves questions. The questioning process starts the thinking process. When students begin to ask themselves “Why?” and “How?” questions, both alertness and interest increase. There are only three
READ MORE >>> →Expected behavior is more effectively achieved through the use of standards than rules. REDUCING RULES A common practice in this country is to establish classroom rules, either by the teacher or by the teacher and students cooperatively. Rules are necessary in games, but in relationships rules are counterproductive. Although the establishment of rules has good intentions, their implementation often produces deleterious effects. When Johns Hopkins University researchers analyzed data from more than 600 of the nation’s schools, they found six characteristics associated with discipline problems. Notice that the first three concerned rules. Rules were unclear or perceived as unfairly or inconsistently enforced. Students didn’t believe in the rules. Teachers and administrators didn’t know what the rules were or disagreed on
READ MORE >>> →Consider: When you tell, who does the thinking? When you ask, who does the thinking? Reflection is a powerful teaching and learning strategy that is too often overlooked. The key to reflection is the skill of asking self-evaluative questions. It is the most effective, yet neglected, strategy both in learning and in dealing with people. Using this skill also reinforces the other two practices of positivity and choice. REFLECTION AND LEARNING Reflection is necessary for long-term memory reinforcement. Its absence in the learning process can be likened to chewing—but not swallowing. The food is tasted, but unless it is digested, there is no nutritional value. Before elementary students leave a subject or middle and high school students leave a classroom, teachers
READ MORE >>> →Gratitude is not only the greatest of all the virtues but the parent of all the others. —Cicero The following exercise combines three practices of positivity, choice, and reflection. Hal Urban has conducted the exercise for many years with amazing results. Since young people think about what they lack—more often than they think about what they have—the exercise is a wonderful way to foster gratitude and positive thinking and self-discipline. Inform your students to conduct themselves for the next twenty-four hours without complaining. Tell them not to stop the experiment even if they do complain.Just have them see how few complaints they can make in one day. Give each student a blank card, such as 3 x 5 or 4 x
READ MORE >>> →People do better when they feel better, not when they feel worse. Positivity is a more constructive teacher than negativity. Positive messages elevate, encourage, and foster growth. ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE When thoughts are guided to focus on the positive and constructive, then the self is nourished and enriched. Self-worth is intangible, and much of its cause, as well as its effect, is a matter of choosing thoughts that expand and strengthen the human psyche. A monkey is smart enough to eat only the nourishing banana and throw away the bitter peel. Yet, humans often “chew on the peel” of criticism, ridicule, embarrassment, failure, or other negatives. It is important that teachers and parents help young people learn to throw away
READ MORE >>> →Reflection and Approaches of outstanding teachers Reflection has a number of attributes. At the top of the list is that reflection prompts gratitude—which is the key to both happiness and goodness. In learning, reflection reinforces what we want to remember. This is the reason that I encourage teachers to use some strategy such as “Think, Pair, Share” at the conclusion of every lesson. To use “brain terminology,” reflection makes temporary memory more permanent by strengtheningneural connections. Kerry—a teacher in British Columbia who explores the use of internal approaches to inspire students to learn—reflected on the teachers who had taught her over the course of her own schooling. She shared with me some attributes of her own outstanding teachers—those who clearly
READ MORE >>> →Reflection is a marvelous way to learn. RESPONSIBILITY AS A SKILL “I learned how to play golf yesterday.” “I learned a foreign language last year.” “I learned how to make decisions last week.” As silly as these sound, there is little difference between them and “I taught responsibility the other day.” Playing golf, learning a foreign language, and making decisions are all skills. So is learning how to be responsible. Teaching the four levels of social development is the foundation that allows teachers and students to speak the same language. It is also an effective approach for a school to have consistency. But the levels cannot be presented with the expectations that students will act on level D—taking the initiative
READ MORE >>> →Metacognition is awareness of one’s own thinking. Metacognition is essential for developing critical thinking skills. The objective of metacognition is to have the learner become aware of his own cognitive processes and to become involved in understanding what he is thinking as he proceeds. The student is reflecting to see whether or not what he or she is doing is working. Reflect on whether or not you hear yourself talking to yourself while solving this problem: How much is half of two plus two? When we hear ourselves thinking, we are metacogitating. But do not assume that every student does it. For example, a student works on and solves a problem, and the teacher says, “Tell us how you solved
READ MORE >>> →How to Help Kids Learn and Comprehend Listening is a largely untaught skill that applies to every subject in school and is of paramount importance in good relationships. I recently spoke to 65 middle level students in a major urban area. The students were using a section of my book as a source for their conflict resolution discussions. I was there by their invitation and was treated as a celebrity. Almost all wanted my signature. Nevertheless, during my presentation, I felt it necessary to use an attention management approach five times with two variations just to bring their attention back after I made a point or told a story to emphasize a point. The principal commented afterwards that poor listening skills
READ MORE >>> →If learning is what we value, then we ought to value the process of learning as much as the result of learning. People are attracted to activities where they feel free of psychological or emotional pain. Learning is promoted in a climate where people feel safe and cared for. The adage, “People don’t care what you know until they know you care,” is applicable. When working with one middle school, William Glasser stated, The teachers stopped almost all coercion—an approach that was radically different from the way most of these students had been treated since kindergarten. When we asked the students why they were no longer disruptive and why they were beginning to work in school, over and over they said, “You
READ MORE >>> →The highest reward is not what students get—rather it is what they become. Responsibility and democracy cannot be separated. John F. Kennedy in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Profiles in Courage, wrote, For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, “holds office”; every one of us is in a position of responsibility. . . .”(p. 255) Responsibility is the bedrock of our democracy. The following words changed history—borrowed from John Locke and so eloquently stated by Thomas Jefferson: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure
READ MORE >>> →Adults can use a little horse sense. Monty Roberts is a famous horse trainer—the model for the Robert Redford film, “The Horse Whisperer.” The trainer conducts demonstrations of how he trains wild mustangs. Monty grew up in central California and, at age 12, started observing them. He now puts his observations and experiences with horses to work with humans. As with the strategies I share, his approach is one of noncoercion to effect behavior changes and improve relationships. The strategy is in direct contrast to traditional approaches of using coercion. Here is how the horse whisperer trains a wild mustang within 30 minutes in front of hundreds of people. He gives instructions to the audience and emphasizes that, during the
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