Enriching the Brains of Poverty

On March 26, 2009, I attended one of the speaker's sessions offered by Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) and none other than my favorite author, Eric Jensen (Teaching with the Brain in Mind) was the speaker. I can remember the first time I ever heard him speak back in 1996 or '97 at the Fourth Grade Teacher Convention in Austin, TX. I had never before felt so validated in my teaching practices and now I had the research to back me up. It was a good thing to have my students to parade around the classroom celebrating success and to internalize concepts through the use of singing, playing games, and kinesthetic/tactile activities. In this session, Enriching the Brains of Poverty, Eric disspelled the myth, "Apples don't fall to far from the tree." He saids, "Sometimes the apple DOES fall far from the tree! I now have a better understanding of nature vs. nurture--DNA is not our destiny. There's nearly a 2-1 advantage of environmental influences over genetic ones. Based on these research findings, what are the implications for us in the educational arena when it comes to the learning of students in low socio-economic communities?

Planning for Instruction from a Different Perspective

Over Spring Break, I attended the Assoication for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. I spent a whole day with Robert J. Marzano, widely known in Houston ISD for his work in the book, Classroom Instruction that Works: Researched -Based Strategies for Reaching Student Achievement. Well in 2007, he published another book for educators entitled, The Art and Science of Teaching, and this was my favorite session I attended. One of the many nuggets I will share is the three ways that content might be approached in a given lesson. Marzano identifies them as follows:

1. Critical Input Lessons - the content is new to students.
2. Knowledge Practice and Deepening Lessons - the content has been presented previously and students are being asked to review and revise the content (transformation).
3. Hypothesis Generation and Testing of Hypotheses - the content is being applied to new situations via robust or "real world" tasks that involve the generation and testing of hypotheses.

He reminds us that each type of lesson requires specific and unique teacher behavior.

Now, you may be thinking this is nothing new in education, however, are all educators using them appropriately in designing lessons to meet the needs of all students? There is a reason for so many low achieving students, and please do not say "It's the neighborhood." I have never met a student who did not want to learn, but I have met many who felt they were incapable of learning. An anonymous author once stated, "A sign of failure is to pass the blame to others."

It is time for us as educators to embrace one another and share what it is we are doing successfully and to ask questions on what we do not understand. Let us grow in knowledge together. Think on one or more of these questions and let me hear from you.

1. What are some ways you develop rapport with your students?
2. What teaching strategies do you use in teaching new concepts/skills to your students?
3. How do you keep your students actively engaged in the lesson?
4. How do you know students have internalized the information before you choose to take a grade on an assignment?
5. How do you assist students in making a connection with new learning to their previous experiences and background?