Book+Review

Date each entry and put the newest entry at the top of the list.
September

9/15/08 All members present-Met to discuss possible books to read. Organized timeline for reading. Spoke to Bruce about funding. Members to brainstorm/research possible books.

9/17/08 (Crowley/Collins) Members met and discussed book selection. Decision was made to read texts relating to brain based learning/research. The goal is to incorporate strategies into class instruction.

October (Replogle/DiGregorio) 10/20/08-Selected titles, first book chosen is __Freaks, Geeks and Asperger's.__- Will read and discuss next month-

10/20/09 (Crowley/Collins) Discussed how graphic organizers will enhance visualization that aids in increased comprehension. When students can connect and "see the text play out in their head" they own their knowledge.

10/24/08 2/9/09 (Replogle/DiGregorio) Discussed book __Freak, Geeks and Asperger's__ and how it relates to our teaching and the students behavior. Started to discuss second book __The Tough Kid Book.__ Using the book we developed a behavior plan for a student struggling to hand in homework.

3/23/09 (Crowley/Collins)

Discussed the following memory lanes:

Episodic: This memory lane is location driven. Thereby stimulated by bulletin boards, class arrangement and student position within that arrangement. Automatic: Triggered through stimulus (music, flashcards, repetition through daily oral work) Procedural: Repetition (automatic motions) Syntax: Learning through words Emotional: Triggered by customs, debate and role play

Decided to test 2 of the memory lanes. Will report back at next meeting.

20 April 2009 (Collins/Crowley)

Ms. Collins tested the Episodic memory lane by using a personal pronoun chart in a specific location. This increased retention and grades. Mr.Crowley used an Emotional Lane by role playing a project on the forty niners. Students engaged in their own learning. Today we examined how novelty engages the brain and increases retention through the use of humor, movement, multi-sensory instruction, quiz games, and music.

18 May 2009 (Collins/Crowley)

Using closure to enhance sense and meaning Closure was incorporated into key concept areas by using Socratic methods to have students summarize the key concepts they learned to incorporate the knowledge into long term memory. This method was used during opening questions to review inform, during assignments (procedural closure) to make connections and terminal closure at the end of a class. This strategy aids movement from short term to long term memory as the students are required to access prior knowledge, apply current knowledge and after a short period of time they need to be able to rephrase in “kid language” therefore students now own their knowledge. We stared to discuss mnemonic strategies. We will pick-up here next time.