Inspiring Middle School Minds: Gifted, Creative, & Challenging : Brain- and Research-Based Strategies to Enchance Learning for Gifted Students

by Willis, Judy A.

• ISBN13: 9780910707930
• ISBN10: 0910707936
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-03-01
• Publisher: Great Potential Pr Inc

Summary

Teaching adolescents can be quite challenging. Dr. Judith Willis, a neurologist and teacher, explains the inner workings of the adolescent brain. She uses the findings of brain research in her classroom to explain how parents and teachers can trigger untapped inspiration in students. Middle school education has often been a ¿black hole¿ for gifted students, seldom providing adequate challenge. By understanding how the brain works, however, we can make learning for all youngsters exciting and stimulating. The information and advice in this book will help parents and teachers design positive and rewarding learning experiences that will then be stored in long-term memory rather than ¿deleted¿ or ¿filtered out.¿

Author Biography

Dr. Judy Willis, a board-certified neurologist and middle school teacher in Santa Barbara, California, has combined her training in neuroscience and neuroimaging with her teacher education training and years of classroom experience. She has become an authority in the field of learning-centered brain research and classroom strategies derived from this research.Dr. Willis is on the board of directors of the Hawn Foundation for mindfulness education programs organized by Goldie Hawn, and has traveled internationally with actress Goldie Hawn to make presentations about mindful teaching and learning. They were 2009 Featured Speaker Co-Presenters at the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) National Conference.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. xvii
One Size Does Not Fit All	p. xviii
Middle School Years	p. xx
Rekindling Lost Enthusiasm	p. xxi
Keeping Alive Children's Natural Enthusiasm to Learn	p. xxii
All Students Have Talents that Can Be Developed	p. xxiv
Summary	p. xxvi
Reversing the Decline in Gifted Middle School Education	p. 1
Middle School: The "Black Hole" of Education?	p. 2
Problems in Middle School Gifted Education	p. 3
Legislative and Policy Remedies	p. 4
Identification of Gifted Students	p. 6
IQ and Giftedness	p. 7
Problems with Global IQ	p. 7
Other Problems with IQ Tests	p. 8
Gifted or Talented beyond IQ Tests	p. 9
Unique Testing Problems for Adolescents	p. 10
Achievement Tests	p. 11
De-Stressing Testing Situations	p. 11
Conclusion	p. 12
Teaching and Parenting Gifted Adolescents	p. 15
Characteristics of Gifted Children	p. 16
Asynchrony	p. 17
A Lack of Training for Teachers	p. 18
Working with the System	p. 19
Goals for Middle Schools	p. 19
Characteristics of Influential Teachers of Gifted Middle School Students	p. 21
Challenges of Teaching Gifted Adolescents	p. 23
Kidwatching	p. 24
Matching Teachers to Students	p. 25
Parenting Middle School Students	p. 26
Renew the Joy of Learning through Out-of-School Experiences	p. 27
Out-of-the-Classroom Opportunities	p. 28
Personal, Goal-Centered Motivation	p. 28
Building Interest	p. 29
Emotion-Powered Learning	p. 29
Communication Skills and Confidence	p. 30
Higher-Level Thinking	p. 30
Living History	p. 30
Geography	p. 31
Current Events	p. 31
Novelty and Humor	p. 31
Math Skills	p. 31
Visualization	p. 32
Priming	p. 32
Recognize Progress	p. 32
Use Feedback	p. 33
Play Together	p. 33
Emotional Support	p. 33
Showing Trust Builds Confidence and Competence	p. 36
Conclusion	p. 37
The Neurology of Adolescence	p. 39
Brain-Based Research	p. 39
Does the Research Prove, or Merely Suggest?	p. 40
The Adolescent Growth Spurt-It's Also in Their Brains	p. 42
Plasticity and Pruning	p. 44
Plasticity Research	p. 45
Pruning	p. 46
Adolescent Pruning	p. 47
Gifted Children's Delayed Frontal Pruning	p. 48
Five Major Brain Parts for Adolescents	p. 51
Corpus Callosum	p. 51
Prefrontal Cortex	p. 52
Basal Ganglia	p. 52
Amygdala	p. 53
Cerebellum	p. 53
Looking into Gifted Brains	p. 54
Even Faster than Neuroimaging	p. 58
Is Brain Development All Due to Environment?	p. 59
The Future of Brain Mapping	p. 60
Conclusion	p. 61
Helping Students Overcome Barriers to Learning: Using Our Brains	p. 63
The Brain's Information Filters: RAS and Amygdala	p. 63
Reticular Activating System (RAS)	p. 64
Amygdala	p. 66
The Amygdala in Adolescent Brains	p. 69
Dopamine-Pleasure System	p. 70
Dopamine and Anticipated Pleasure	p. 72
Risk, Reward, and Dopamine	p. 73
Stress Hormones	p. 75
Syn-naps to Avoid Neurotransmitter Depletion	p. 77
Connecting Neuro-Knowledge to Classroom Strategies	p. 79
Lower the Affective Filter and Raise the Resonance	p. 80
The Stress of Being Gifted	p. 81
Providing Gifted Students with Emotional Support	p. 83
Stress-Busting, Brain-Building Classroom Strategies	p. 84
Active Listening	p. 84
Build on What They Know	p. 84
Encourage Participation, Not Perfection	p. 85
Private Response	p. 86
Keep Students Engaged	p. 86
Strategies to Promote the Dopamine-Pleasure-Attentive
State in Gifted Students	p. 87
Make the Information Relevant	p. 87
Offer Choice and Variety	p. 87
Provide Levels of Learning	p. 88
Predict for Success	p. 89
Stimulate Curiosity	p. 90
Offer Chances to Express Creativity	p. 91
Acknowledge Success without Stress	p. 92
What Parents Can Do to Help	p. 92
Bibliotherapy	p. 93
Role Playing	p. 94
Teach Them to Do It on Their Own	p. 95
Reduce Comparisons and Praise Specifically	p. 95
Lessons Learned	p. 96
Conclusion	p. 97
Memory-Building to Enhance Learning	p. 99
Types of Memory	p. 100
Semantic Memory	p. 100
Emotional or Event Memory	p. 101
Working Memory	p. 104
Maintaining Long-Term Memories	p. 107
The Efficiency of Memory Consolidation	p. 109
Patterning	p. 110
Analogies to Build Patterns	p. 114
Patterning Activity to Build Scientific Vocabulary	p. 114
Multisensory Input	p. 116
Research-Based Strategies for Memory Retention	p. 118
Moves to Increase Memory Retrieval	p. 119
Executive Functions to Manipulate Information	p. 121
Visualizations for Mental Manipulation	p. 123
Personalizing	p. 124
Example of Personalization: Discussing Ethical Dilemmas	p. 124
Teachable Moments	p. 125
Teachable Moments in the Ethics of Algebra: Classroom Example	p. 128
Parents Can Help Children Personalize Academic Studies	p. 129
Start with the Interesting Stuff	p. 130
Take It Outside	p. 130
Delve into Debate	p. 131
Q & A	p. 131
Compare and Contrast	p. 131
Sleep Tight, Dendrites Ignite	p. 132
Deep Sleep Grows Dendrites for Permanent Memory	p. 132
Middle School Years and Sleep	p. 134
Conclusion	p. 135
Structuring Instructional Opportunities for Gifted Students	p. 137
Developmentally Planned Lessons	p. 137
Homogeneous vs. Heterogeneous	p. 138
Homogeneous Groupings for Gifted Children's Social and Emotional Needs	p. 140
Program Alternatives	p. 141
Ability Grouping	p. 142
Gifted Student Groupings	p. 143
Mixed Ability Groupings	p. 144
Enhancing Gifted Learning through Positive Social Interaction	p. 145
Challenging Cooperative Work for Gifted Students	p. 147
Sample Cooperative Project for Gifted Middle Schoolers: Math through Paleontology	p. 148
Classroom Community-Building to Liberate Gifted Students	p. 149
Community-Building Strategies	p. 150
Maintaining Class Community	p. 151
Conclusion	p. 153
Customizing Challenges for Gifts	p. 155
Individualization of Instruction	p. 156
Individual Intelligences and Learning Styles	p. 156
Linguistic Intelligence	p. 157
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence	p. 158
Visual-Spatial Intelligence	p. 158
Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence	p. 158
Tactile-Kinesthetic Intelligence	p. 159
Interpersonal Intelligence	p. 159
Intrapersonal Intelligence	p. 159
Naturalist Intelligence	p. 159
New Trends among the Intelligences	p. 160
The Larger and Overlapping Categories	p. 160
Sequential or Analytical Learners	p. 161
Global Learners	p. 161
Exploratory Learners	p. 162
Learning Style-Compatible Teaching	p. 162
Individualized Meaning	p. 163
Differentiating Instruction	p. 164
Guided Choice	p. 165
Example of Choice in Learning	p. 167
Too Much Choice?	p. 169
Homework	p. 170
Parent-to-Teacher Homework Feedback	p. 171
Journaling and Logs	p. 172
Learning Logs	p. 173
Literature Logs	p. 174
Graphic Organizers	p. 175
Venn Diagrams	p. 175
Timelines or Chains of Events	p. 175
Cause/Effect Visual Organizers	p. 175
Webs or Map Organizers	p. 176
Metacognition, or Thinking about Thinking	p. 176
Metacognition for Comprehension	p. 178
Metacognition to Build Lifelong Strategies	p. 179
Marshmallows and Goal-Directed Learning	p. 181
Strategies to Build Goal-Directed Behavior	p. 182
Individualized Goal Setting	p. 183
Rubrics	p. 184
Planning Rubrics to Enhance Gifted Learning	p. 185
Keeping Students on Track with Rubrics	p. 186
What to Include in Rubrics	p. 187
Rubrics with Challenge Options	p. 188
Conclusion	p. 191
Enriching Units of Study for Gifted Learners	p. 193
Cognitive Atrophy or Enhancement?	p. 193
Creating Enriched Classroom Environments	p. 194
Use Interests to Unwrap Gifts	p. 197
Open Big to Stimulate Learning	p. 199
Offer Appropriate Challenge	p. 200
Strategies to Promote Gifted Students to Challenge Themselves	p. 201
Activities to Increase Challenge for Gifted Students	p. 202
Note-Taking/Note-Making Strategy	p. 202
Ethnography Activity	p. 203
Inspire Motivation	p. 204
Motivation and Feedback	p. 205
Student-Centered Lessons and Open-Ended, Student-Centered Discussions	p. 209
Guidelines for Open-Ended, Student-Centered Discussions	p. 209
Student-Centered Discussion Topic: Discriminating Fact from Opinion	p. 210
Discussions and Inquiry at Home	p. 211
Turning Assessments into Learning Opportunities	p. 213
Plan Assessments from the Start	p. 214
Pre-Assessments	p. 214
Make Assessment Expectations Clear	p. 215
Spot Errors in Comprehension with Daily Individual Assessments	p. 216
Testing Problems	p. 217
Conclusion	p. 218
Extending Classroom Learning to Enhance Gifts	p. 219
Extension Activities to Engage Gifted Students	p. 220
Learning Contracts	p. 221
Slowing Down Instead of Speeding Up	p. 222
Extensions, Not Add-ons	p. 222
Planning Independent Learning Extensions	p. 224
In-Class Lesson Extensions	p. 225
Mathematics	p. 227
Language Arts	p. 229
Science	p. 232
History	p. 233
Pairing Gifted Students for Lesson Extensions	p. 236
Small Group Extensions	p. 237
History Example: Lincoln-Douglas Debate	p. 237
Out-of-Class Extensions	p. 238
Mentoring	p. 238
Competitions	p. 239
Video Game Extensions	p. 239
Cross-Curricular Investigations as Extension Activities	p. 240
Cross-Curricular Study and Parent Participation	p. 241
Conclusion	p. 243
Concluding Thoughts	p. 245
Sample Activities for Enrichment and Extension	p. 249
Glossary	p. 263
Endnotes	p. 271
References	p. 281
Index	p. 293
About the Author	p. 305
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