"Happy Children Make Happy Adults" ScienceDaily 2/26/11
"Making the 'Irrelevant' Relevant to Understand Memory and Aging" ScienceDaily 2/26/11
Sunday, February 27, 2011
WORLD OF LEARNING: MONEY FOR STUDY
"Should We Pay Kids to Study?" Planet Money Blog/NPR 2/23/11
Very provocative, eh? Also relates to my review of Daniel Pink's study of motivation in Drive.
Very provocative, eh? Also relates to my review of Daniel Pink's study of motivation in Drive.
WORLD OF LEARNING: BETTER BILINGUAL BRAINS PART TWO
"Speaking Foreign Languages May Help Protect Your Memory" ScienceDaily 2/223/11
Along with this previous post, more evidence for the value of bi-, tri-, multi-lingualism.
Along with this previous post, more evidence for the value of bi-, tri-, multi-lingualism.
WORLD OF LEARNING: MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE
"Listen to the Rhythm: Nerve Cells Acting as Metronomes Are Necessary for Certain Memory Processes" ScienceDaily 2/17/11
"When Fingers Start Tapping, the Music Must Be Striking a Chord" ScienceDaily 2/22/11
I knew there was a good reason for my obsession with music.
"When Fingers Start Tapping, the Music Must Be Striking a Chord" ScienceDaily 2/22/11
I knew there was a good reason for my obsession with music.
WORLD OF LEARNING: MATH CLASS MAKEOVER
"Math Curriculum Makeover" Dan Meyer/TEDxNYED/YouTube 3/6/10
I only just found out about this one, so I'm some months behind, but Meyer's presentation is great, and his comparison of the too predictable (and too brainless) format of math texbooks and Two and a Half Men is funny, on the money, and contemporary, given the recent Charlie Sheen media fixation.
I only just found out about this one, so I'm some months behind, but Meyer's presentation is great, and his comparison of the too predictable (and too brainless) format of math texbooks and Two and a Half Men is funny, on the money, and contemporary, given the recent Charlie Sheen media fixation.
RECENT NEWS: MY REVIEW OF "WHY DON'T STUDENTS LIKE SCHOOL?"
WHY DON'T STUDENTS LIKE SCHOOL? A COGNITIVE SCIENTIST ANSWERS QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THE MIND WORKS AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE CLASSROOM. By Daniel Willingham. Jossey-Bass, 2010 (paperback). 258 pages.
The titular question might appear an opening to a rant against our educational system. Rest assured that Daniel Willingham is hardly scribbling out some angry screed. He’s thoughtful, and avoids polemic.
In fact, I hope I’m not oversimplifying when I say his basic answer is that students don’t like school because it’s hard.
If that sounds awfully facile, be aware that Willingham goes on to a knottier problem: What can we do about it?
What Willingham is really writing about is not student anathema, but how our brains work, especially in the areas of understanding and memory, and how that connects to teaching students. A harder concept to translate into a catchy title.
School is hard because "we are not naturally good thinkers." That doesn’t mean we don’t have amazing brains. Evolution has equipped us to take in what’s around us and react accordingly. In typically down-to-earth and insightful language, Willingham uses a striking contrast to clear up the paradox:
"Tasks that you take for granted—for example, walking on a rocky shore where the footing is uncertain—are much more difficult than playing top-level chess. No computer can do it."
Humans do, however, have more difficulty when consciously processing available information to solve problems or create new ideas—thinking. "The mind is not designed for thinking," Willingham writes. Thinking takes time. Thinking requires work. Thinking means not being sure.
So our brains default to not thinking when possible, even when we are performing complex actions—like walking on a rocky shore. Once we know how to chop an onion, drive a car, or read a book, we no longer waste time or effort considering how we are doing those things, or question whether we are doing them correctly.
Willingham repeatedly returns to a major stumbling block on the road to true reasoning and reflection—working memory. This is a short and easy-to-read book with lots of great practical advice for teachers, but its most valuable contribution to my own thinking was really helping me better understand what working memory is, and how its limitations affect learning and cognition.
In a way, working memory is consciousness itself. It is what you are thinking about now. Working memory allows you to blend what’s coming in through your senses with what you already know so that you can answer questions and put together thoughts.
Willingham cites current research that pretty definitively concludes working memory is limited—very limited—and more or less fixed—there is little evidence that you can improve it.
What you can do is cheat it. If the "lack of space in working memory is a fundamental bottleneck of human cognition," the trick is to enfold richer content into the limited number of items that small space can hold.
There are two ways to do this. One is to increase factual knowledge. That’s extremely counter-intuitive—learn more to learn more. Here’s how John Medina put it in his Brain Rules: "It’s like saying that if you carry two heavy backpacks on a hike instead of one, you will accomplish your journey more quickly…."
But it’s true. Willingham uses the same kind of model as Medina, dividing his work into nine "cognitive principles." One is, "Factual knowledge precedes skill." Another is, "We understand new things in the context of things we already know."
When a student can easily access factual knowledge from long-term memory, he can "chunk" information. He has a clear idea of context. The items that he’s manipulating in working memory are broader and deeper. As I’m reading a discussion of eukaryotic cells and life regulation in Antonio Damasio’s "Self Comes to Mind," I’m extremely grateful I just reviewed cell structure with a seventh grade kid with whom I’m working.
Walking on Willingham’s rocky shore is a demonstration of the other way to get around the working memory logjam. Performing automatically means a student doesn’t have to use working memory to think about that performance.
An example Willingham uses is practicing times tables as a yonng man. When he transferred to a new school, his math teacher insisted that Willingham would do better if he memorized the multiplication facts. Coming from a school that placed more emphasis on conceptual understanding than rote memorization, Willingham at first resented the requirement. He soon realized how much automaticity helped.
It’s another counterintuitive principle, its paradoxical nature beautifully summed up by a marvelous quote from the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead: "It is a profoundly erroneous truism…that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them."
Unfortunately, automaticity only comes effortlessly with tasks such as breathing. Willingham’s cognitive principle here is, "Proficiency requires practice." So teachers have to think hard about what their students most need to practice. They should also consider that spacing practice—rather than cramming—is more effective.
It’s clear that Willingham regards working memory as a universal. Indeed, he cites studies connecting working memory to intelligence. This viewpoint is quite different from the outlook of Howard Gardner, and Multiple Intelligence theory. Willingham is somewhat abashed to find himself in this counterpoint position.
Nevertheless, despite feeling "like a bit of a Grinch" in stating it, another one if his cognitive principles is, "Children are more alike than different in terms of learning." He makes a critical qualification, however—that he is not making a claim "that all children are alike, nor that teachers should treat children as interchangeable."
But more important than tailoring content to individuals is teachers really getting to a deep understanding of that content. Activating previous knowledge and making sure that knowledge is there will help advance proficiency and comprehensive mastery.
So will thinking "of to-be-learned material as answers." Begin with a thorough examination of the questions.
No matter where children’s interests lie, no matter what their talents or "intelligences," I do believe that well-rounded general knowledge should be a goal of education (as does Gardner). It makes sense to me that we can also generalize about the ways students might acquire such knowledge.
Gardner’s skepticism about "horizontal faculties," like working memory, might result in teachers using valuable time evaluating different learning styles that would better be spent in effectively presenting content to groups with at least some homogeneity.
Educators, parents and students looking for some good tips on how to do that will find Why Don’t Students Like School? a most worthwhile resource.
Highly recommended.
The titular question might appear an opening to a rant against our educational system. Rest assured that Daniel Willingham is hardly scribbling out some angry screed. He’s thoughtful, and avoids polemic.
In fact, I hope I’m not oversimplifying when I say his basic answer is that students don’t like school because it’s hard.
If that sounds awfully facile, be aware that Willingham goes on to a knottier problem: What can we do about it?
What Willingham is really writing about is not student anathema, but how our brains work, especially in the areas of understanding and memory, and how that connects to teaching students. A harder concept to translate into a catchy title.
School is hard because "we are not naturally good thinkers." That doesn’t mean we don’t have amazing brains. Evolution has equipped us to take in what’s around us and react accordingly. In typically down-to-earth and insightful language, Willingham uses a striking contrast to clear up the paradox:
"Tasks that you take for granted—for example, walking on a rocky shore where the footing is uncertain—are much more difficult than playing top-level chess. No computer can do it."
Humans do, however, have more difficulty when consciously processing available information to solve problems or create new ideas—thinking. "The mind is not designed for thinking," Willingham writes. Thinking takes time. Thinking requires work. Thinking means not being sure.
So our brains default to not thinking when possible, even when we are performing complex actions—like walking on a rocky shore. Once we know how to chop an onion, drive a car, or read a book, we no longer waste time or effort considering how we are doing those things, or question whether we are doing them correctly.
Willingham repeatedly returns to a major stumbling block on the road to true reasoning and reflection—working memory. This is a short and easy-to-read book with lots of great practical advice for teachers, but its most valuable contribution to my own thinking was really helping me better understand what working memory is, and how its limitations affect learning and cognition.
In a way, working memory is consciousness itself. It is what you are thinking about now. Working memory allows you to blend what’s coming in through your senses with what you already know so that you can answer questions and put together thoughts.
Willingham cites current research that pretty definitively concludes working memory is limited—very limited—and more or less fixed—there is little evidence that you can improve it.
What you can do is cheat it. If the "lack of space in working memory is a fundamental bottleneck of human cognition," the trick is to enfold richer content into the limited number of items that small space can hold.
There are two ways to do this. One is to increase factual knowledge. That’s extremely counter-intuitive—learn more to learn more. Here’s how John Medina put it in his Brain Rules: "It’s like saying that if you carry two heavy backpacks on a hike instead of one, you will accomplish your journey more quickly…."
But it’s true. Willingham uses the same kind of model as Medina, dividing his work into nine "cognitive principles." One is, "Factual knowledge precedes skill." Another is, "We understand new things in the context of things we already know."
When a student can easily access factual knowledge from long-term memory, he can "chunk" information. He has a clear idea of context. The items that he’s manipulating in working memory are broader and deeper. As I’m reading a discussion of eukaryotic cells and life regulation in Antonio Damasio’s "Self Comes to Mind," I’m extremely grateful I just reviewed cell structure with a seventh grade kid with whom I’m working.
Walking on Willingham’s rocky shore is a demonstration of the other way to get around the working memory logjam. Performing automatically means a student doesn’t have to use working memory to think about that performance.
An example Willingham uses is practicing times tables as a yonng man. When he transferred to a new school, his math teacher insisted that Willingham would do better if he memorized the multiplication facts. Coming from a school that placed more emphasis on conceptual understanding than rote memorization, Willingham at first resented the requirement. He soon realized how much automaticity helped.
It’s another counterintuitive principle, its paradoxical nature beautifully summed up by a marvelous quote from the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead: "It is a profoundly erroneous truism…that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them."
Unfortunately, automaticity only comes effortlessly with tasks such as breathing. Willingham’s cognitive principle here is, "Proficiency requires practice." So teachers have to think hard about what their students most need to practice. They should also consider that spacing practice—rather than cramming—is more effective.
It’s clear that Willingham regards working memory as a universal. Indeed, he cites studies connecting working memory to intelligence. This viewpoint is quite different from the outlook of Howard Gardner, and Multiple Intelligence theory. Willingham is somewhat abashed to find himself in this counterpoint position.
Nevertheless, despite feeling "like a bit of a Grinch" in stating it, another one if his cognitive principles is, "Children are more alike than different in terms of learning." He makes a critical qualification, however—that he is not making a claim "that all children are alike, nor that teachers should treat children as interchangeable."
But more important than tailoring content to individuals is teachers really getting to a deep understanding of that content. Activating previous knowledge and making sure that knowledge is there will help advance proficiency and comprehensive mastery.
So will thinking "of to-be-learned material as answers." Begin with a thorough examination of the questions.
No matter where children’s interests lie, no matter what their talents or "intelligences," I do believe that well-rounded general knowledge should be a goal of education (as does Gardner). It makes sense to me that we can also generalize about the ways students might acquire such knowledge.
Gardner’s skepticism about "horizontal faculties," like working memory, might result in teachers using valuable time evaluating different learning styles that would better be spent in effectively presenting content to groups with at least some homogeneity.
Educators, parents and students looking for some good tips on how to do that will find Why Don’t Students Like School? a most worthwhile resource.
Highly recommended.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
WORLD OF LEARNING: BETTER BRAINS THROUGH BILINGUALISM
"Infants Raised in Bilingual Enviornments Can Distinguish Unfamiliar Languages" ScienceDaily 2/20/11
"Juggling Languages Can Build Better Brains" ScienceDaily 2/21/11
Compelling evidence that early bilingual ability does not cause confusion, but improved cognition.
"Juggling Languages Can Build Better Brains" ScienceDaily 2/21/11
Compelling evidence that early bilingual ability does not cause confusion, but improved cognition.
WORLD OF LEARNING: EARLY TRAINING WITH A MOUSE
"Practice More Important Than Child's Age in Learning to Use Computer Mouse" ScienceDaily 2/16/11
If you're thinking about "stealth assessment," maybe kids should learn early how to use the computer. One intriguing thing in this Australian study is that kids seem to lose "smoothness" when manipulating the mouse as they get older. I would posit that this is not only a result of having to "sacrifice fluidity for speed," but also points to one of the drawbacks of computer screens--overstimulation. I think kids tend to jump around on screen because the movement is stimulating. The trouble then is less attention and focus.
If you're thinking about "stealth assessment," maybe kids should learn early how to use the computer. One intriguing thing in this Australian study is that kids seem to lose "smoothness" when manipulating the mouse as they get older. I would posit that this is not only a result of having to "sacrifice fluidity for speed," but also points to one of the drawbacks of computer screens--overstimulation. I think kids tend to jump around on screen because the movement is stimulating. The trouble then is less attention and focus.
WORLD OF LEARNING: "STEALTH ASSESSMENT"
"Video Games to Enhance Learning" ScienceDaily 2/16/11
Video games can offer the student an immediate chance to see if he has mastered material, and to try again if he doesn't. It can offer the teacher an immediate chance to see the level of remembering and understanding for an individual. Then there's the added benefit of kids having fun as they play. That's why one of the researchers quoted here uses the term "stealth assessment." It's worked for me with Quizlet.
This kind of assessment is just what is indicated in a Purdue University study that gave more weight to "retrieval practice" as a memory enhancer than "elaborative studying with concept mapping."
Video games can offer the student an immediate chance to see if he has mastered material, and to try again if he doesn't. It can offer the teacher an immediate chance to see the level of remembering and understanding for an individual. Then there's the added benefit of kids having fun as they play. That's why one of the researchers quoted here uses the term "stealth assessment." It's worked for me with Quizlet.
This kind of assessment is just what is indicated in a Purdue University study that gave more weight to "retrieval practice" as a memory enhancer than "elaborative studying with concept mapping."
Saturday, February 19, 2011
LAR'S LIBRARY: MY REVIEW OF KAREN CUSHMAN'S "ALCHEMY AND MEGGY SWANN"
ALCHEMY AND MEGGY SWANN. By Karen Cushman. Clarion Books, 2010. 176 pages.
While reading Anne Scott MacLeod’s thought-provoking essay on historical fiction in the recent, and excellent, ‘A Family of Readers: The Book Lover’s Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Literature,’ I was a little distressed to learn that MacLeod faults Karen Cushman for copping out on her heroine’s fate in ‘Catherine, Called Birdy.’
At the end of that work, Birdy lucks out when her arranged medieval marriage to an ‘old, ugly, and illiterate’ lecher is cancelled when he dies. Instead, she will wed his young, handsome, and well-read son. Not a legitimate representation of the time, MacLeod insists. ‘In fairness,’ she admits, ‘I think Cushman knew this; she just flinched at consigning her likable character to her likely fate.’ (MacLeod’s piece is online at The Horn Book’s site.)
OK, sure. But I loved ‘Catherine, Called Birdy.’ I also believe that children have the wherewithal to distinguish fantasy from history, and to realize that writers of fiction have license to alter the documentary record. Readers of ‘Catherine’ learn a great deal about England in the late thirteenth century. As MacLeod has to acknowledge, ‘Birdy’s world is real enough---rough, dirty, and uncomfortable….’
I suppose ‘Alchemy and Meggy Swann’ could be criticized in the same way. Perhaps Meggy, a poor teenaged girl left orphaned in Elizabethan London, crippled by a congenital birth defect, should have ended up battered and hopeless. That would’ve been a different, and grimmer, tale.
A tale that could not have starred Cushman’s Meggy, a typically and satisfyingly feisty and sharp-tongued protagonist whose hard exterior covers the warmest of hearts. But Meggy’s life in exile is hardly anodynic, and Cushman’s London festers, filthy, stinking, noisy—and alive with color and flavor.
With the death of her beloved granny, Meggy has been ousted from country home and sent to her absent-minded and irresponsible father. He’s the one who practices alchemy. With the end of the period of servitude for the boy who assists the alchemist, he is forced to recognize his daughter and enlist her help.
The boy, Roger, turns out to be Meggy’s first friend in London, other than her pet goose. Unlike others, Roger does not ‘look to…demons’ to explain Meggy’s hip dysplasia. He’s more interested in her eyes than her limp.
Attempting to finance the search to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, worthless material into gold, Meggy’s father gets in too deep with the wrong sort. Meggy is, of course, the one who must try to subvert the nefarious plot that ensues.
As she does, she ‘wabbles’ through the crowded London streets and the reader learns about ballads and broadsides, sausage pies and ale, and that alchemy and natural philosophy were precursors of chemistry and the Scientific Revolution.
The reader is also treated to a marvelous story. In the same way that alchemy blurs the line between magic and reason, Cushman crafts a blend of energetic fiction with an authentic dose of the era’s language, customs, sights, sounds, and smells that earns ‘Alchemy and Meggy Swann’ a place among the best children’s historical fiction.
Highly recommended for fifth graders on up.
While reading Anne Scott MacLeod’s thought-provoking essay on historical fiction in the recent, and excellent, ‘A Family of Readers: The Book Lover’s Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Literature,’ I was a little distressed to learn that MacLeod faults Karen Cushman for copping out on her heroine’s fate in ‘Catherine, Called Birdy.’
At the end of that work, Birdy lucks out when her arranged medieval marriage to an ‘old, ugly, and illiterate’ lecher is cancelled when he dies. Instead, she will wed his young, handsome, and well-read son. Not a legitimate representation of the time, MacLeod insists. ‘In fairness,’ she admits, ‘I think Cushman knew this; she just flinched at consigning her likable character to her likely fate.’ (MacLeod’s piece is online at The Horn Book’s site.)
OK, sure. But I loved ‘Catherine, Called Birdy.’ I also believe that children have the wherewithal to distinguish fantasy from history, and to realize that writers of fiction have license to alter the documentary record. Readers of ‘Catherine’ learn a great deal about England in the late thirteenth century. As MacLeod has to acknowledge, ‘Birdy’s world is real enough---rough, dirty, and uncomfortable….’
I suppose ‘Alchemy and Meggy Swann’ could be criticized in the same way. Perhaps Meggy, a poor teenaged girl left orphaned in Elizabethan London, crippled by a congenital birth defect, should have ended up battered and hopeless. That would’ve been a different, and grimmer, tale.
A tale that could not have starred Cushman’s Meggy, a typically and satisfyingly feisty and sharp-tongued protagonist whose hard exterior covers the warmest of hearts. But Meggy’s life in exile is hardly anodynic, and Cushman’s London festers, filthy, stinking, noisy—and alive with color and flavor.
With the death of her beloved granny, Meggy has been ousted from country home and sent to her absent-minded and irresponsible father. He’s the one who practices alchemy. With the end of the period of servitude for the boy who assists the alchemist, he is forced to recognize his daughter and enlist her help.
The boy, Roger, turns out to be Meggy’s first friend in London, other than her pet goose. Unlike others, Roger does not ‘look to…demons’ to explain Meggy’s hip dysplasia. He’s more interested in her eyes than her limp.
Attempting to finance the search to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, worthless material into gold, Meggy’s father gets in too deep with the wrong sort. Meggy is, of course, the one who must try to subvert the nefarious plot that ensues.
As she does, she ‘wabbles’ through the crowded London streets and the reader learns about ballads and broadsides, sausage pies and ale, and that alchemy and natural philosophy were precursors of chemistry and the Scientific Revolution.
The reader is also treated to a marvelous story. In the same way that alchemy blurs the line between magic and reason, Cushman crafts a blend of energetic fiction with an authentic dose of the era’s language, customs, sights, sounds, and smells that earns ‘Alchemy and Meggy Swann’ a place among the best children’s historical fiction.
Highly recommended for fifth graders on up.
LAR'S LIBRARY: DYSTOPIA PRIMER
With Charles McGrath's look at the dystopia phenomenon in the New York Times Magazine, it's time for a review of what I've seen on the subject in the last couple of years. Let's start with Newsweek's "Unhappily Ever After," followed by YA writer John Green's review of "The Hunger Games" and what I think is the best of the lot, Susan Beth Pfeffer's "The Dead and Gone." Next up: Laura Miller's superb survey, "Fresh Hell," from The New Yorker, and bringing us up almost to McGrath's piece, prominent YA authors weigh in on "The Dark Side of Young Adult Fiction."
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
LAR'S LIBRARY: ROALD DAHL
It seems I've been reading a lot of, and talking a lot about, Roald Dahl's children's books recently. It's good to remembre that he is such a great children's author is because he's a great writer, as this article in the U.K.'s Telegraph reminds us.
WORLD OF LEARNING: MICRO AND MACRO BRAIN RESEARCH
"V.S. Ramachandran's Tales of The 'Tell-Tale Brain'" NPR/Fresh Air 2/14/11
"Trial and Error: The Brain Learns From Mistakes" ScienceDaily 2/14/11
"Partnership of Genes Affects the Brain's Development" ScienceDaily 2/14/11
Perhaps it's a stretch to connect these stories, but nevertheless:
The two ScienceDaily stories are about new technology is letting us better see how the brain works by looking closely (micro) at the actions of "Golden Goal" and "Flamingo," as well as Bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4), proteins.
The Fresh Air interview with the very cool neurologist V.S. Rmachadran, on the other hand, is largely about how old technology is letting us better see how the brain works by looking globally (macro) at how plasticity can help us trick ourselves into relieving pain and learning.
Both approaches are useful.
"Trial and Error: The Brain Learns From Mistakes" ScienceDaily 2/14/11
"Partnership of Genes Affects the Brain's Development" ScienceDaily 2/14/11
Perhaps it's a stretch to connect these stories, but nevertheless:
The two ScienceDaily stories are about new technology is letting us better see how the brain works by looking closely (micro) at the actions of "Golden Goal" and "Flamingo," as well as Bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4), proteins.
The Fresh Air interview with the very cool neurologist V.S. Rmachadran, on the other hand, is largely about how old technology is letting us better see how the brain works by looking globally (macro) at how plasticity can help us trick ourselves into relieving pain and learning.
Both approaches are useful.
Monday, February 14, 2011
WORLD OF LEARNING: CONTEXTUALIZING A RECENT STUDY ON SELF-CONTROL
"For Kids, Self-Control Factors Into Future Success" NPR 2/14/11
NPR picks up on the long-term study recently done by Duke University psychologists looking at children in New Zealand and Great Britain and the effect of early self-control (or lack of it) as time goes by. I first saw the study covered in ScienceDaily.
Neither story really contextualizes this recent work. It's a hot topic and I linked to a few other pieces in that earlier post. Now I was reminded that the first chapter of Ellen Galinsky's Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Skills Every Child Needs is "Skill One: Focus and Self-Control." And Elena Bodrova and Deborah J. Leong's Tools of the Mind program places heavy emphasis on self-regulation, and offers strategies to encourage that.
NPR picks up on the long-term study recently done by Duke University psychologists looking at children in New Zealand and Great Britain and the effect of early self-control (or lack of it) as time goes by. I first saw the study covered in ScienceDaily.
Neither story really contextualizes this recent work. It's a hot topic and I linked to a few other pieces in that earlier post. Now I was reminded that the first chapter of Ellen Galinsky's Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Skills Every Child Needs is "Skill One: Focus and Self-Control." And Elena Bodrova and Deborah J. Leong's Tools of the Mind program places heavy emphasis on self-regulation, and offers strategies to encourage that.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
WORLD OF LEARNING: LARGE NUMBERS AND LANGUAGE
"Without Language, Large Numbers Don't Add Up" NPR 2/9/11
"Words Help People From Mathematical Concepts" ScienceDaily 2/7/11
This intriguing idea is not new. I first encountered it in Keith Devlin's The Math Gene.
"Words Help People From Mathematical Concepts" ScienceDaily 2/7/11
This intriguing idea is not new. I first encountered it in Keith Devlin's The Math Gene.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
LAR'S LIBRARY: MY REVIEW OF VICTORIA BOND AND T.R. SIMON'S "ZORA AND ME"
ZORA AND ME. By Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon. Candlewick Press, 2010. 192 pages.
People tend to denigrate adaptations, abridgements, those shortcuts to understanding that all of us use from time to time despite their reputations.
Admit it. As a student, you read the Cliff Notes, or more likely these days, the Wikipedia summary, of a required text rather than do your homework. Perhaps as an adult, you’ve refined the process. A few reviews, and you blithely pretend that you’ve read the book they’re talking about at the dinner party.
One of the joys of working with kids is that you get to read kids’ books. They’re easily digestible, but you can still feel like you aren’t cheating. They’re real books. Many are just as much works of literature as anything the older crowd might consider paragons. Plus you can learn something.
Such is the case with Zora and Me. By reading a clever little mystery that could stand alone as just that—a clever little mystery—you’re exposed to a fascinating slice of history. Eatonville, Florida, was "the first incorporated all-black township in the United States." That was in 1887. It was also the place where the family of Zora Neale Hurston, one of America’s most esteemed writers, moved in 1894, and where she grew up.
So you’re also introduced to Zora, or a fictionalized fourth grade version of Zora Neale Hurston. Besides appending their book with a timeline of her life and a bibliography, Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon also include a list of children’s books based on folktales that Hurston collected. So you can follow up, if you so desire.
But that’s not a requirement. Which brings me back to the clever little mystery.
Cassie has a friend, Zora, already known for her fascination with the tales adults tell, and her own story-telling abilities. When Old Lady Bronson is mysteriously injured at a pond called Blue Sink, Zora conflates the reality of a man-eating alligator and a reclusive old man to produce the story of a man who "can take on the face of a gator." Or it seems that is what Zora is doing.
Then an event of greater import happens in Eatonville—murder. Cassie, Zora, and their friend Teddy set out to prove the gator man is guilty. And there is something to Zora’s theory. But the real shape-shifting, it turns out, has a more insidious source than ghostly gators.
The mystery is wrapped up in a wistful coming-of-age story told in wonderfully evocative language—a story where Zora’s father lights in on her with special vigor because, "Sometimes there’s nothing more aggravating than looking in a mirror."
A story that takes place in a time before "the moving pictures and before the radio" when: "people were accustomed to silence; we even used to hug up on it once in a while. I never though of it as special then, that we could just sit and stare and luxuriate in the comfort of our own thoughts. Without time to think, we wouldn’t have had anything to talk about in the first place."
See? You should read kids’ books. Kids need adults, and other kids, who can tell them what’s good. Zora and Me is.
Recommended for fourth graders on up.
People tend to denigrate adaptations, abridgements, those shortcuts to understanding that all of us use from time to time despite their reputations.
Admit it. As a student, you read the Cliff Notes, or more likely these days, the Wikipedia summary, of a required text rather than do your homework. Perhaps as an adult, you’ve refined the process. A few reviews, and you blithely pretend that you’ve read the book they’re talking about at the dinner party.
One of the joys of working with kids is that you get to read kids’ books. They’re easily digestible, but you can still feel like you aren’t cheating. They’re real books. Many are just as much works of literature as anything the older crowd might consider paragons. Plus you can learn something.
Such is the case with Zora and Me. By reading a clever little mystery that could stand alone as just that—a clever little mystery—you’re exposed to a fascinating slice of history. Eatonville, Florida, was "the first incorporated all-black township in the United States." That was in 1887. It was also the place where the family of Zora Neale Hurston, one of America’s most esteemed writers, moved in 1894, and where she grew up.
So you’re also introduced to Zora, or a fictionalized fourth grade version of Zora Neale Hurston. Besides appending their book with a timeline of her life and a bibliography, Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon also include a list of children’s books based on folktales that Hurston collected. So you can follow up, if you so desire.
But that’s not a requirement. Which brings me back to the clever little mystery.
Cassie has a friend, Zora, already known for her fascination with the tales adults tell, and her own story-telling abilities. When Old Lady Bronson is mysteriously injured at a pond called Blue Sink, Zora conflates the reality of a man-eating alligator and a reclusive old man to produce the story of a man who "can take on the face of a gator." Or it seems that is what Zora is doing.
Then an event of greater import happens in Eatonville—murder. Cassie, Zora, and their friend Teddy set out to prove the gator man is guilty. And there is something to Zora’s theory. But the real shape-shifting, it turns out, has a more insidious source than ghostly gators.
The mystery is wrapped up in a wistful coming-of-age story told in wonderfully evocative language—a story where Zora’s father lights in on her with special vigor because, "Sometimes there’s nothing more aggravating than looking in a mirror."
A story that takes place in a time before "the moving pictures and before the radio" when: "people were accustomed to silence; we even used to hug up on it once in a while. I never though of it as special then, that we could just sit and stare and luxuriate in the comfort of our own thoughts. Without time to think, we wouldn’t have had anything to talk about in the first place."
See? You should read kids’ books. Kids need adults, and other kids, who can tell them what’s good. Zora and Me is.
Recommended for fourth graders on up.
Friday, February 11, 2011
LAR'S LIBRARY: BLACK HISTORY MONTH, E-READERS, NEWBERY
For Black History Month, Scholastic School Journal asked twenty of the best children's book authors to write a few words on a kids' book about the black experience "that they truly loved." The result is wonderful. I nominate Langston Hughes's autobiographical The Big Sea. Though technically not a children's book, it is so accessible that older kids can easily read it, and it's profoundly moving.
Kids can read books about the black experience, and many other books, on e-readers. As more and more young people get e-readers, children's e-book sales are rising, as reported in the New York Times.
The American Library Association's annual awards for 2011 include the prestigious Newbery, which went to Clare Vanderpool's Moon Over Manifest.
Kids can read books about the black experience, and many other books, on e-readers. As more and more young people get e-readers, children's e-book sales are rising, as reported in the New York Times.
The American Library Association's annual awards for 2011 include the prestigious Newbery, which went to Clare Vanderpool's Moon Over Manifest.
WORLD OF LEARNING
"Neural Communication: Weak Electrical Fields in the Brain Help Neurons Fire Together" ScienceDaily 2/7/11
"Study Finds Social-Skills Teaching Boosts Academics" Education Week 2/4/11
"Teenagers, Friends and Bad Decisions" Well Blog/New York Times 2/3/11
"Children's Genes Influence How Well They Take Advantage of Education, Twin Study Shows" ScienceDaily 2/3/11
"Learning Causes Structural Changes in Affected Neurons" ScienceDaily 2/3/11
"Sleep Selectively Stores Useful Memories: Brain Evaluates Information Based on Future Expectations, Study Suggests" ScienceDaily 2/1/11
"Can Txt Msgs Really Help Kidz 2 Spell?" ABC News 1/31/11
"Presence of Peers Heightens Teens' Sensitivity to Rewards of Risk" ScienceDaily 1/29/11
"Study Finds Social-Skills Teaching Boosts Academics" Education Week 2/4/11
"Teenagers, Friends and Bad Decisions" Well Blog/New York Times 2/3/11
"Children's Genes Influence How Well They Take Advantage of Education, Twin Study Shows" ScienceDaily 2/3/11
"Learning Causes Structural Changes in Affected Neurons" ScienceDaily 2/3/11
"Sleep Selectively Stores Useful Memories: Brain Evaluates Information Based on Future Expectations, Study Suggests" ScienceDaily 2/1/11
"Can Txt Msgs Really Help Kidz 2 Spell?" ABC News 1/31/11
"Presence of Peers Heightens Teens' Sensitivity to Rewards of Risk" ScienceDaily 1/29/11
WORLD OF LEARNING: SELF-CONTROL
"Childhood Self-Control Predicts Adult Health and Wealth" ScienceDaily 1/25/11
A little surprised this article didn't even mention the Stanford marshmallow experiment. A couple of years ago, Jonah Lehrer had a marvelous piece in The New Yorker about self-control (and the marshmallow experiment). I've written about it, too.
A little surprised this article didn't even mention the Stanford marshmallow experiment. A couple of years ago, Jonah Lehrer had a marvelous piece in The New Yorker about self-control (and the marshmallow experiment). I've written about it, too.
WORLD OF LEARNING: SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA MEMORIZE
"Podcast: Oops! Why Rote Memorization is a Valid Teaching Tool" BAm!Radio
This discussion features Daniel Willingham. I'll be reviewing his Why Don't Students Like School? He really help me crystallize my understanding of working and long-term memory.
This discussion features Daniel Willingham. I'll be reviewing his Why Don't Students Like School? He really help me crystallize my understanding of working and long-term memory.
WORLD OF LEARNING: ROOTS OF LITERACY
"Podcast: Parents, Books and the Roots of Literacy" Early Ed Watch Blog 1/24/11
Nice interview with Gabrielle Miller, national director of Raising A Reader, about the skills children can, or cannot, bring to reading from their homes. Miller touts Ellen Galinsky's Mind in the Making, a book I'm now reading.
Nice interview with Gabrielle Miller, national director of Raising A Reader, about the skills children can, or cannot, bring to reading from their homes. Miller touts Ellen Galinsky's Mind in the Making, a book I'm now reading.
WORLD OF LEARNING: HANDWRITING AND LEARNING
"Better Learning Through Handwriting" ScienceDaily 1/24/11
I've posted on this subject before. While this study, by a Norwegian reading specialist in collaboration with a French neuro physiologist, just leads to some initial ideas about how composing by pen or pencil, rather than on a keyboard, might affect learning, it definitely makes the case that different things are happening in the brain when you write instead of type. In an experiment "in which the participants were assigned the task of having to learn to write in an unknown alphabet," those who learned by writing on paper did better than another group that learned on keyboards. The handwriters also showed far more brain activity in Broca's area--speech production.
I've posted on this subject before. While this study, by a Norwegian reading specialist in collaboration with a French neuro physiologist, just leads to some initial ideas about how composing by pen or pencil, rather than on a keyboard, might affect learning, it definitely makes the case that different things are happening in the brain when you write instead of type. In an experiment "in which the participants were assigned the task of having to learn to write in an unknown alphabet," those who learned by writing on paper did better than another group that learned on keyboards. The handwriters also showed far more brain activity in Broca's area--speech production.
LAR'S LIBRARY: MY REVIEW OF CARL HIAASEN'S "FLUSH"
FLUSH. By Carl Hiaasen. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2007. 263 pages.
You might come to Flush with two preconceptions.
Carl Hiaasen writes adult thrillers with a satirical tenor, often featuring characters from the trailer trash end of the social spectrum. So it’s likely that his children’s books will retain a bit of that edge.
Those adult thrillers, and Hiaasen’s books for younger readers, focus on environmentalism, so it’s likely that Flush centers on that kind of issue.
Your preconceptions would be proven true.
The tone of Flush is sardonic. It features a bartender who saves the day named Shelly, who has a "barbed-wire tattoo around one of her biceps," wears "stockings that look like they were made from a mullet net," and actually lives in a trailer park. Not your run-of-the-mill children’s book character.
It’s all about a kid’s battle to help his father stop a casino boat owner from dumping raw sewage in Florida’s coastal waters. Sometimes the message is close to heavy-handed. The bad guys have zero complexity, no redeeming social value.
There is more going on in Flush, however. Wthout making a big deal of it, Hiaasen makes his personable 14-year-old protagonist an accomplished naturalist. Noah knows the names of plants and animals that live where he does—in the Florida Keys. And I mean he really knows them, not just as names he can rattle off. Noah really looks at where he is when he’s outdoors, and notices what he sees.
In our culture, where kids often suffer from what Richard Louv in his Last Child in the Woods called "nature-deficit disorder," Noah makes a nice role model. Although Noah is not afraid of risks, he’s an eminently practical kind of guy, unlike his dad, who is a hothead. Noah gets that practicality from his mother. She married because she loved her impulsive husband, but he goes a little far in his fight to keep the ocean clean. Flush has a lovely subplot—Noah and his stubbornly righteous little sister, Abbey, working together to save their parents’ marriage.
That subplot and Noah’s eye for nature combine with colorful characters and a good dose of action and suspense to endear readers of Flush. I haven’t met a middle schooler who’s read it who wasn’t enthusiastic about the experience. Now I am, too. It’s a sweet little chapter book.
Recommended for fourth graders on up.
You might come to Flush with two preconceptions.
Carl Hiaasen writes adult thrillers with a satirical tenor, often featuring characters from the trailer trash end of the social spectrum. So it’s likely that his children’s books will retain a bit of that edge.
Those adult thrillers, and Hiaasen’s books for younger readers, focus on environmentalism, so it’s likely that Flush centers on that kind of issue.
Your preconceptions would be proven true.
The tone of Flush is sardonic. It features a bartender who saves the day named Shelly, who has a "barbed-wire tattoo around one of her biceps," wears "stockings that look like they were made from a mullet net," and actually lives in a trailer park. Not your run-of-the-mill children’s book character.
It’s all about a kid’s battle to help his father stop a casino boat owner from dumping raw sewage in Florida’s coastal waters. Sometimes the message is close to heavy-handed. The bad guys have zero complexity, no redeeming social value.
There is more going on in Flush, however. Wthout making a big deal of it, Hiaasen makes his personable 14-year-old protagonist an accomplished naturalist. Noah knows the names of plants and animals that live where he does—in the Florida Keys. And I mean he really knows them, not just as names he can rattle off. Noah really looks at where he is when he’s outdoors, and notices what he sees.
In our culture, where kids often suffer from what Richard Louv in his Last Child in the Woods called "nature-deficit disorder," Noah makes a nice role model. Although Noah is not afraid of risks, he’s an eminently practical kind of guy, unlike his dad, who is a hothead. Noah gets that practicality from his mother. She married because she loved her impulsive husband, but he goes a little far in his fight to keep the ocean clean. Flush has a lovely subplot—Noah and his stubbornly righteous little sister, Abbey, working together to save their parents’ marriage.
That subplot and Noah’s eye for nature combine with colorful characters and a good dose of action and suspense to endear readers of Flush. I haven’t met a middle schooler who’s read it who wasn’t enthusiastic about the experience. Now I am, too. It’s a sweet little chapter book.
Recommended for fourth graders on up.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
LARS'S LIBRARY: MY REVIEW OF SCOTT WESTERFELD'S "LEVIATHAN"
LEVIATHAN. By Scott Westerfeld. Illustrated by Keith Thompson. Simon and Shuster Children's Publishing, 2010. 464 pages.
Aleksander, a prince barred from his throne, is up past his bedtime in 1914, playing with tin soldiers. Given who he is, it follows that in this imaginary battle, the French and British forces stand "no chance against the might of the Austro-Hungarian Empire."
What prevents the boy from becoming king is his mother, Sophie. Franz Ferdinand married her for love rather than dynastic succession, and children of the union are denied the crown. For now.
Suddenly, the surreptitious playing and the actions of make-believe armies are interrupted, and the prince is whisked away to very real battles. When Aleksander threatens his abductors with beheadings ordered by his father, one of them counters, "Alas not, Your Highness…. Your parents are both dead, murdered this night in Sarajevo."
Does it sound like history? The 1914 assassinations of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo did begin World War I. European nations, insecure about their imperial standing, reacted all too swiftly, leading to the unraveling of a complicated network of alliances and counter-alliances, and a long and brutal war that solved nothing and left more than nine million combatants dead.
Franz Ferdinand did fall in love with Sophie Chotek. Her lack of pedigree meant a marriage designated as morganatic, between social unequals. Offspring were out of the royal line.
But hold on. There was no son named Aleksander. If there had been, his tin toys would probably not have included "diesel-powered walking machines," nor "Darwinist monsters." Actual models for such toys—that, of course, is complete fantasy.
A steam-punk fantasy made rivetingly believable by Scott Westerfeld. In Leviathan, the same powers still go head to head, but with competing technologies based on competing science. The British and the French have moved forward from the discovery of evolution to genetically-engineered living weaponry, while the Germans and the Austrians have taken steam-driven machinery to a new level—armored vehicles that traverse difficult terrain by walking on legs.
It’s not the Central Powers against the Allies, but Clankers against Darwinists.
Westerfeld creates the perfect foil for Aleksander in Deryn Sharp, a newly enlisted British midshipman learning how "fabricated beasts" work. The swirling stew of events in the aftermath of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination result in her getting a position on "the first of the great hydrogen breathers to rival the kaiser’s zeppelins"—the Leviathan.
Sharp is a quick study, brash and bold. Sharp also has a secret. She is not the boy that the Air Service thought they had signed up.
The Leviathan carries its own secret, a military secret zealously guarded by one of Britain’s "boffins." Dr. Barlow is an unusual scientific expert in the same way that Deryn Sharp is an unusual warrior. She’s not the expected gender.
The Leviathan rushes to complete its covert mission and perhaps keep war at bay. The Austrian prince runs to escape those who would eliminate any rival to the kaiser, a rivalry that could postpone a greater conflict. It’s inevitable that Deryn and Aleksander’s paths will cross.
What happens makes for a skillfully-woven tale of intrigue, suspense and adventure. Westerfeld has done a sterling job. Keith Thompson contributes extraordinary illustrations that perfectly fit the story, little wonders of chiaroscuro. Leviathan will keep middle schoolers, teens, and adults totally engrossed, and anxious to read, as I now am, its sequel, Behemoth. Perhaps it will also prompt them to find out more about World War I.
Highly recommended for fifth graders on up.
Aleksander, a prince barred from his throne, is up past his bedtime in 1914, playing with tin soldiers. Given who he is, it follows that in this imaginary battle, the French and British forces stand "no chance against the might of the Austro-Hungarian Empire."
What prevents the boy from becoming king is his mother, Sophie. Franz Ferdinand married her for love rather than dynastic succession, and children of the union are denied the crown. For now.
Suddenly, the surreptitious playing and the actions of make-believe armies are interrupted, and the prince is whisked away to very real battles. When Aleksander threatens his abductors with beheadings ordered by his father, one of them counters, "Alas not, Your Highness…. Your parents are both dead, murdered this night in Sarajevo."
Does it sound like history? The 1914 assassinations of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo did begin World War I. European nations, insecure about their imperial standing, reacted all too swiftly, leading to the unraveling of a complicated network of alliances and counter-alliances, and a long and brutal war that solved nothing and left more than nine million combatants dead.
Franz Ferdinand did fall in love with Sophie Chotek. Her lack of pedigree meant a marriage designated as morganatic, between social unequals. Offspring were out of the royal line.
But hold on. There was no son named Aleksander. If there had been, his tin toys would probably not have included "diesel-powered walking machines," nor "Darwinist monsters." Actual models for such toys—that, of course, is complete fantasy.
A steam-punk fantasy made rivetingly believable by Scott Westerfeld. In Leviathan, the same powers still go head to head, but with competing technologies based on competing science. The British and the French have moved forward from the discovery of evolution to genetically-engineered living weaponry, while the Germans and the Austrians have taken steam-driven machinery to a new level—armored vehicles that traverse difficult terrain by walking on legs.
It’s not the Central Powers against the Allies, but Clankers against Darwinists.
Westerfeld creates the perfect foil for Aleksander in Deryn Sharp, a newly enlisted British midshipman learning how "fabricated beasts" work. The swirling stew of events in the aftermath of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination result in her getting a position on "the first of the great hydrogen breathers to rival the kaiser’s zeppelins"—the Leviathan.
Sharp is a quick study, brash and bold. Sharp also has a secret. She is not the boy that the Air Service thought they had signed up.
The Leviathan carries its own secret, a military secret zealously guarded by one of Britain’s "boffins." Dr. Barlow is an unusual scientific expert in the same way that Deryn Sharp is an unusual warrior. She’s not the expected gender.
The Leviathan rushes to complete its covert mission and perhaps keep war at bay. The Austrian prince runs to escape those who would eliminate any rival to the kaiser, a rivalry that could postpone a greater conflict. It’s inevitable that Deryn and Aleksander’s paths will cross.
What happens makes for a skillfully-woven tale of intrigue, suspense and adventure. Westerfeld has done a sterling job. Keith Thompson contributes extraordinary illustrations that perfectly fit the story, little wonders of chiaroscuro. Leviathan will keep middle schoolers, teens, and adults totally engrossed, and anxious to read, as I now am, its sequel, Behemoth. Perhaps it will also prompt them to find out more about World War I.
Highly recommended for fifth graders on up.
WORLD OF LEARNING: TESTING MEMORY
"Learning Science: Actively Recalling Information From Memory Beats Elaborate Study Methods" ScienceDaily 1/21/11
"To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test" New York Times 1/20/11
Both articles are about the same study, but offer complementary information. ScienceDaily's headline is a bit more to the point.
What the study finds is that exercising recall from long-term memory with timely feedback can be more effective than approaching material in different ways (continued exercise of working memory). I don't think that could be the basis for an argument for more standardized testing, which usually involves lots of prep (elaboration) and delayed reporting of results. In California, students wait months before seeing how they did.
Look over the material, test yourself, look again, especially at where you erred, test yourself again. That's common sense, and can even be entertaining.
The study does call into question overemphasis on making subject matter "relevant."
"To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test" New York Times 1/20/11
Both articles are about the same study, but offer complementary information. ScienceDaily's headline is a bit more to the point.
What the study finds is that exercising recall from long-term memory with timely feedback can be more effective than approaching material in different ways (continued exercise of working memory). I don't think that could be the basis for an argument for more standardized testing, which usually involves lots of prep (elaboration) and delayed reporting of results. In California, students wait months before seeing how they did.
Look over the material, test yourself, look again, especially at where you erred, test yourself again. That's common sense, and can even be entertaining.
The study does call into question overemphasis on making subject matter "relevant."
WORLD OF LEARNING
"Risk, Consequences of Video Game Addiction Identified in New Study" ScienceDaily 1/19/11
"Girls Who Are Bullied Are at Risk for Substance Abuse Through Depression" ScienceDaily 1/19/11
"Challenging the Limits of Learning: Linguist Measures the Human Mind Against the Yardstick of a Machine" ScienceDaily 1/20/11
"Girls Who Are Bullied Are at Risk for Substance Abuse Through Depression" ScienceDaily 1/19/11
"Challenging the Limits of Learning: Linguist Measures the Human Mind Against the Yardstick of a Machine" ScienceDaily 1/20/11
WORLD OF LEARNING: MATH DOODLES
"Bending and Stretching Classroom Lessons to Make Math Inspire" New York Times 1/17/11
Vi Hart is sharp, irreverent, and awfully funny. She might get some girls (and boys) interested in math, and might get some teachers thinking about ways to make math lessons less boring. Be sure to link to the videos. Let's hear it for doodling!
Vi Hart is sharp, irreverent, and awfully funny. She might get some girls (and boys) interested in math, and might get some teachers thinking about ways to make math lessons less boring. Be sure to link to the videos. Let's hear it for doodling!
WORLD OF LEARNING: LANGUAGE FROM A DOG
"Stay. Sit. Parse. Good Girl!" New York Times 1/17/11
As many pet owners will attest, we are not that far removed from the animals in our families and in nature. We can learn as much from them, as we teach to them.
As many pet owners will attest, we are not that far removed from the animals in our families and in nature. We can learn as much from them, as we teach to them.
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