Valparaiso Community Schools: Using the ‘Whole Brain’ in Teaching

vcs-megan-oglesbyWritten by Meghan Oglesby Kindergarten Teacher at Cooks Corners Elementary School

“Whole brain” teaching and learning? As opposed to using only half our brain? This teaching technique is simply the engagement of strategies based on body/mind/brain research. Research shows that the combination of multiple strategies when teaching improves children’s ability to learn.

At Cooks Corners Elementary, you will find brain-based teaching and learning happening on a regular basis. Teachers incorporate several principles and interactive elements when planning their instruction.

Ask one of our kindergartners what it means to infer, and they immediately look through their imaginary magnifying glasses and recite, “Good readers can infer. They use the clues from the story and what they know to make their best guess.” If you ask them how the brain works, they fold their little hands together to form a brain and pump them open and closed (symbolize location of amygdala) to explain that when you get angry or scared the amygdala takes over and your brain goes into fight (hold up fists), flight (hand zooms) or freeze mode (become statues). These are a couple of examples to illustrate how brain-based teaching is helping children experience more success while having fun learning.

As good teachers and parents, we can, hopefully, captivate our audience without impersonating the infamous Mrs. Trunchbolt. Using those call and response hooks, for example, “1,2! Eyes on you!” or “Macaroni and cheese! Everybody freeze!” exemplifies how you’re already using brain-based teaching. Now imagine that when teaching your class, or interacting with your child, he or she is that responsive, engaged and positive.

According to Geoffrey Caine and Renate Caine, “Students benefit from imitation, modeling and having opportunities to 'live' whatever is being learned.” So how can you facilitate your child’s growth of knowledge? Two take-aways would be concise speaking and letting your child/class be the teacher!

Our attention span as adults allows us to follow longer conversations, but when speaking to or teaching your child/class resist the urge to keep talking! Think about what you want to say (two or three sentences) and have him or her repeat it to you two to three words at a time, while including meaningful motions.

 

Take the aforementioned example of the brain. The students interlock their hands together and repeat, “This is my brain." Your two hands together are about the size of your brain, giving the students meaning to the motion. Then they might repeat, “It’s right here,” “in my head,” while moving their two hands and tapping their head. Children learn through example, so try speaking and moving with purpose, or have your child be the teacher.

The next time you are working with your children on homework, give brain-based teaching a try by asking them to teach you what they know about the topic. In the classroom, have pairs of students whisper talk and then share with the class a couple of things they understand.

There is a wealth of information on this topic, so I would encourage visiting youtube.com and watching whole brain teaching videos, purchasing the book, “Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids,” exploring the website wholebrainteaching.com, and/or signing up for a training or two.