Monthly Archives: September 2010

Teachers: What’s Your Framework?

Posted in Attention, Classroom Culture, Differentiated Instruction, Differentiated Learning, Higher Order Thinking, Language, Learning, Learning Challenges, Research, School Culture, Strategies for teachers, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers, Uncategorized by

By Craig Pohlman, Ph.D., Co-author of Schools for All Kinds of Minds and Director of MindMatters at Southeast Psych, a learning program in Charlotte, NC

In some circles, All Kinds of Minds has become equated with the neurodevelopmental framework it uses, but this framework is only one aspect of their approach to understand learning and learners.  All Kinds of Minds is really about a set of principles for education, such as leveraging strengths and affinities.  So the framework itself is not nearly as important as having a framework.

The Value of a Framework for Understanding Learning

As we note in Schools for All Kinds of Minds, gathering and then making sense of clues about learning is made easier with a framework for sorting and organizing those clues.  In the same way that artists or musicians know their influences, teachers should know what pedagogical theory guides their instruction.  Louis Pasteur once wrote, “In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.” A framework prepares the mind for understanding learners.  A framework is a conceptual structure or mental scaffolding that can be used to organize observations from multiple sources.  It is vital equipment for an educator because it clarifies what to look for and then guides how to interpret what is found.

A framework facilitates communication.  When teachers, students, and parents use similar terms to describe learners, collaboration is made much easier.

Learning plans are more readily handed off to different teachers.  Also, using a common vocabulary helps teachers support each others’ thinking and problem solving.

Our Framework

The neurodevelopmental framework used by All Kinds of Minds is an organizing structure through which all learners can be understood.  Developed with an eye towards linkages with academic skills, such as reading and writing, it is similar to neuropsychological frameworks and draws from disciplines such as speech-language pathology.  Its structure and components are well-supported by the research literature.  Its major aspects, or constructs, are attention, higher order cognition, language, memory, neuromotor function, social cognition, spatial ordering, and temporal-sequential ordering.

Frameworks Can Be Eye-Opening

Using a framework is not confining.  Rather, it is liberating in how it opens one’s eyes to new sources of data and more sophisticated levels of understanding.  Put differently, patterns and themes emerge more easily with a framework.  Also, a conceptual framework can and should be adaptable; it’s not acceptable for one’s framework to remain ossified in the face of new thinking and research.   The All Kinds of Minds framework has certainly evolved over the years.

If you are new to the AKOM approach, take the framework out for a spin.  You’ll probably find it comprehensive, yet user-friendly.  Most importantly, it will prepare your mind.

Craig’s  previous books are Revealing Minds and How Can My Kid Succeed in School?

Note from All Kinds of Minds: Did you hear about our free book giveaway?  Each week that we feature a blog post related to Schools for All Kinds of Minds, we’ll be giving away a free, signed copy of the book!  To be entered to win this week, you must subscribe to our blog and share your thoughts about this blog entry by posting a comment.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Related Links:

>      Schools for All Kinds of Minds – Read book excerpts, purchase the book, download book extras, and more!

>      All Kinds of Minds neurodevelopmental framework

‘Waiting for Superman’ — How do we rescue education in America?

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Waiting for Superman has sparked more conversation about our public schools than any other event in recent memory.  While there’s much food for thought, at All Kinds of Minds we are interested in the reactions people are having to how the core business of schooling–LEARNING–is portrayed.  Tell us what you think about this controversial movie and the discussion it is spurring.  How can we collectively introduce a stronger focus on learning into these conversations?

As the movie becomes more broadly available, we’ll continue to post blogs by others we find thought-provoking.

Check out the following:

We invite you to add your comments and perspective.

Building Schools for All Kinds of Minds

Posted in Affinities, Classroom Culture, Differentiated Instruction, Learning, Learning about Learning, Learning Challenges, Learning Specialists, School Culture, Strategies for teachers, Student Strengths, Student Weaknesses, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers, Uncategorized by

In our recently-published book, Schools for All Kinds of Minds: Boosting Student Success by Embracing Learning Variation, our CEO Mary-Dean Barringer makes the point that “Educators, school leaders and policymakers … talk around learning but not about learning,” and she notes that equipping educators with current knowledge from science about how we are wired to learn is essential to the future of education.

But how can educators access this knowledge?  And once they have, how can they translate what they’ve learned into practical solutions in their classrooms, schools, and districts?  Providing answers to these questions is a big part of our work here at All Kinds of Minds.

Schools for All Kinds of Minds

Reading Schools for All Kinds of Minds can be a great first step for educators seeking this expertise.  This book gives school leaders insights, examples, and tools to help them use the All Kinds of Minds approach to transform their classrooms and schools and ultimately help their students learn and thrive.  It highlights schools that have made real progress in building their learning expertise for the benefit of their students and shows educators how taking even small steps can help them meet their long-term goal of ensuring that all students find success.

We invite you to join us on our blog over the next few weeks as the book authors share some ideas and tips from the book as well as personal insights around the book’s content.

Win a Free Book!

But that’s not all.  Each week that we discuss an aspect of Schools for All Kinds of Minds, we’ll be giving away a free, signed copy of the book!

To be eligible to win a book, you must subscribe to our blog and share your thoughts about the blog entry by posting a comment.

Check back next week for the first Schools for All Kinds of Minds-inspired post.  We look forward to sharing elements of the book with you!

To learn more about Schools for All Kinds of Minds or to read excerpts, visit our website.  Here’s a preview of what you’ll find there:

More than ever, America needs the kinds of minds that generate new perspectives, seek solutions, and discover emerging opportunities. Those are the minds of many of the students in your schools today who, at first glance, look a lot like the struggling student I was in school. I invite you to take a second look at the individuals who walk through your school doors. Join us in helping as many kids as possible become more aware of their unique talents and more confident in their learning abilities—and help us rescue the wonderful potential that may otherwise be lost.

— Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinko’s
(excerpted from the Schools for All Kinds of Minds Foreword)

 

Have you read the book?

If you’ve already read the book, we’d love to hear what you found compelling, how it’s influenced your thinking, or how it’s changed your practice.  Leave a comment below!

Where are our Learning Experts? (Here’s a clue: They weren’t invited to DC this week)

Posted in Differentiated Learning, Learning, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers by

By Mary-Dean Barringer, CEO, All Kinds of Minds

There’s a critical meeting in Washington, D.C this Friday, September 17th, on the “Future of the Profession: New Learning Ecology for Teachers and Students.” Billed as “a discussion about the emerging realities facing the nation—the funding crisis, the teacher shortage, and new technologies—that will reshape learning environments and expectations for the teaching profession,” it has a stellar panel. Leaders from both teacher unions, the U.S. DOE, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the Center for Teaching Quality, Michael Horn (co-author of Disrupting Class) and two teachers will present on “how school structures can capitalize on the transformative power of technology, the implications for creating a student-centered profession, and the federal and state policies that can support a new learning ecology for students and teachers.”

It’s disappointing that a conversation on a new learning ecology is absent any voice that would describe the new expertise that a profession needs to acquire and deploy if a new learning ecology is to be fully realized. But it isn’t surprising. The first chapter of Schools for All Kinds of Minds describes the challenge inherent in truly understanding learning as the core business of schools. As I state in that book, “Educators, school leaders and policymakers—working on new standards, new schools and new systems—talk around learning but not about learning.” Many people following education trends make the point that equipping the profession with the current knowledge from science about how we are wired to learn is essential to future vision of education.

Important initiatives are underway that can move us closer to a profession well prepared to develop the kinds of minds America needs. The Council for Chief State School Officers has created new teacher standards for licensure and practice that first and foremost address learning and learners. Organizations like the Dana Alliance, Johns Hopkins University, the Mind Brain and Education program at Harvard, and All Kinds of Minds are advancing this knowledge base and bringing it to teachers. All Kinds of Minds will be in DC this week as an audience participant, and we hope others working to bring the science of learning into our classrooms will be there as well.

The sponsoring organization of this event is the Alliance for Education Excellence—a first-rate organization advocating a better education for all students, particularly those in high school. They do a great job informing policymakers about critical and complex issues. And creating a learning profession is one. I invite you to read Chapter 1 of Schools for All Kinds of Minds (you can access it right here for free!). If the ideas resonate with you, write to the Alliance and tell them the next time they want to talk about learning, gather the experts and learning leaders.

To learn more about Schools for All Kinds of Minds or to read more book excerpts, visit our website.

How to guarantee “learning”? Understand the learner AND the content

Posted in Differentiated Learning, Learning Challenges, Research, Strategies for teachers, Teacher Effectiveness, Teachers by

By Mary-Dean Barringer, CEO, All Kinds of Minds

For several years, many of my colleagues have been urging me to pick a fight with Daniel Willingham, a well respected cognitive scientist: “He doesn’t believe in learning variation!” That may be, but having read his book Why Don’t Students Like School?, I find much in common with his recommendations and nine principles.

All Kinds of Minds doesn’t use a neurodevelopmental framework to assign labels or learning style terminology. Rather, a neurodevelopmental framework is most useful to organize research findings from the brain, mind and learning to contribute to helping teachers know how to best target pedagogical choices and instructional strategies to achieve learning outcomes–for all students.

Willingham’s blog this week in the Washington Post illustrates how he urges educators to engage in a little deeper analysis regarding the choices they have when teaching. There’s no “right” choice all of the time. Ensuring learning requires the ability to quickly diagnose the goodness of fit between teaching strategy, content, and desired instructional outcome.

It’s possible Willingham and I may part ways when we consider the usefulness of adding learner and learning expertise to the diagnostic “habits of minds” today’s teachers need. My own decade-plus of teaching “complex” students was successful only when I married what I knew about content with what I knew about learning and its variations to make effective instructional choices.

That’s the value of the research from the neurosciences and learning. We have more expertise available to help us understand and analyze the neurodevelopmental demands required to be successful at instructional mastery. It helps teachers make an even more specific and targeted instructional decision, increasing the likelihood for success. As Willingham points out, a PowerPoint can be the most effective choice for demonstrating quadratic equations, and I argue even more effective when modified to fit the understanding a teacher has of the attention, temporal-sequential, and memory strengths and weaknesses of a particular group of students.

That’s my opinion, and I’d like to hear yours. I’m sure Daniel Willingham would as well. So respond to both of our blogs today and continue this important professional conversation.

Origami and Temporal-Sequential Ordering … An All Kinds of Minds Lesson Plan

Posted in Classroom Culture, Demystification, Differentiated Learning, Learning, Learning about Learning, Learning Challenges, Metacognition, Strategies for teachers, Student Strengths, Student Weaknesses, Teachers, Temporal-sequential Ordering by

It’s the time of year when lesson planning is, once again, on every teacher’s mind. And we at All Kinds of Minds are thinking about lesson plans, too – that is, “Learning about Learning” lesson plans!

We believe that it is critical to empower students to find success. Educators can promote and support this goal in many ways. One way is to help students understand the different components of learning, gain insight into their strengths and weaknesses, and employ targeted strategies to achieve success.

With this in mind, we wanted to share a sample “Learning about Learning” lesson for you to try in your classroom. The objective of this lesson is for students to develop an awareness of temporal-sequential ordering and the importance of following directions in the right order.

“Temporal-sequential ordering” refers to the process of organizing information by putting things in order and understanding time. It includes:

  • Understanding order of steps, events, or other sequences
  • Generating products arranged in a meaningful order
  • Organizing time and schedules

LESSON PLAN: Ordering with Origami*

*Adapted from a lesson plan submitted by several teachers at Nolan Catholic High School in Fort Worth, TX.

Grade Levels: This lesson can be taught in an elementary, middle, or high school setting, with the complexity of the origami figure based on the grade level.

Objective: Students will develop an awareness of temporal-sequential ordering and the importance of following directions in the right order.

Estimated time: 20-30 minutes, depending on complexity of origami figure and depth of debrief

Preparation:

Materials: Paper square for each student

Lesson Procedure:

  1. Tell students that they will be creating an origami figure. Do not reveal what the final product will be.
  2. Tell students that this activity is designed to help them explore an aspect of how they learn.
  3. Convey the steps in one of the following ways: (1) Distribute handouts with the steps listed (either through pictures/diagrams or words), (2) Write the steps on a white board as you proceed through the figure, or (3) Demonstrate the steps while reading them.

Debrief (use all prompts or just a few):

  1. Discuss the mode in which directions were given. Ask students whether they think another mode would have been more effective for them, which mode, and why.
  2. Ask students whether they would have preferred to know what the final product was going to be before they began. If so, how would that have helped them achieve the result?
  3. Briefly explain temporal-sequential ordering. Points you may want to cover include how sequences and memory or sequences and language work together, how time is a sequence, how getting organized with time often involves organizing sequences, etc. Discuss the importance of sequencing and what can occur if the correct order is not followed.
  4. Ask students to brainstorm areas in which sequencing is important (e.g., understanding how time works, order of events in history or in a story, cause-effect relationships in science, problem-solving in math, etc.).
  5. As a class (or in pairs or small groups), ask students to come up with a few strategies they can try if they have difficulty with sequencing. See below for some suggested strategies to get your students started!

Feel free to adapt this lesson – play with it!

Sequencing strategies:

For students:

  • Break sequences into small chunks.
  • Repeat a sequence quietly to oneself (subvocalization).

For teachers:

  • Regularly repeat, review, and summarize key points of the sequence. Students will benefit from paraphrasing directions in their own words. Have students discuss whether they agree or disagree with each other’s summaries of the directions.
  • Provide checklists for sequential procedures, temporal order, and scheduling. Encourage students to refer to them often. Students may benefit from recording how well they use each step in the process.
  • Provide concrete visual representations of sequential information that is delivered verbally. Represent multistep or complex sequences by drawing diagrams and flowcharts, and writing timelines on the board. Give handouts to refer to during class instruction and discussion.

What activities have you used to help your students understand sequencing? How might you adapt this leson? Do you have any great strategies for helping students improve their abilities in sequencing? Share your ideas with us by leaving a comment below!

For more information about temporal-sequential ordering, see: