BIBLIOGRAPHY
Eric Jensens TEACHING with the BRAIN in MIND
COSTA, Arthur L, and KALLICK, Bena, Discovering & Exploring Habits of Mind, pb, 106 pages, ASCD, 2000. This is the beautiful introduction to the list of 16 types of intelligent behavior that Costa and Kallick have termed “habits of mind.” In this book, you will find out what are these 16 indicators of intelligence, and find a visual icon for each. (There is also a website with famous quotations for each of these habits of mind.) At the end of the book you’ll find exciting and inspiring ways for teachers to teach directly what these habits of mind are for students, in many creative and motivating strategies to deeply process their appeal and power. Hint: my favorite is “managing impulsivity.” Intelligent, indeed!
DECI, Edward L.,Why We Do What We Do, 230 pages, Penguin Books, 1995. ISBN 0-14-025526-5. This is the most often referenced book on the subject of intrinsic motivation. It establishes the goal of helping others find the long-term benefits of choosing what is the most worthwhile and satisfying course of action instead of settling for the goal of gaining compliance. It is very readable and refocuses a person on why it is honorable and important to help people gain the knowledge of self-direction and self-control.
ERLAUER, Laura, The Brain-Compatible Classroom: Using What We Know About Learning to Improve Teaching, pb, 168 pages, ASCD, 2003. This book begins with “A Walk Through the Brain,” and includes seven chapters explaining the seven most important components of a brain-compatible approach. Examples show how to put them into place at different grade levels and in different subject areas. At the conclusion of the book, there is a challenge to make the move to help make your school, or even district, commit to putting these powerful tools into practice! It provides clarity and inspiration to help you test your practice to align it with realities of the truths about human learning.
ERWIN, Jonathan C., The Classroom of Choice, Giving Students What They Need and Getting What You Want, 229 pages, ASCD, 2004. ISBN 0-87120-829-6.
Based on Glasser’s beliefs that people have these motivators: fun, freedom, power and belonging. Give students choices, and they will pick what meets an unmet need. It is rich and wonderful, full of practical and engaging strategies to achieve important intellectual goals while helping students meet their developing social and intellectual needs. Erwin believes that while learning is hard work, it doesn’t have to be painful: Fun is both a prerequisite for and a byproduct of quality learning.
GREGORY, Gayle, KAUFELDT, Martha, The Motivated Brain: Improving Student Attention, Engagement, and Perseverance, pb, 169 pages, ASCD, 2015.
If you have been interested in brain compatible teaching, you will find this a great addition to your search for information on strategies for presenting information and helping students deeply understand and retain it. This book adds the other important dimension of brain research, the power of motivation to learn, or to seek to explore for deeply satisfying personal growth. Full of ideas you can use in enthusiastic ways!
JENSEN, Eric, Brain Compatible Strategies, Second Edition, pb, 82 pages, Corwin Press, 2004. This is the handbook to help you move from understanding the importance of brain compatible teaching to finding the specific teaching suggestions for putting your beliefs into practice. Ideas include “Physical Movement,” enriching the “Learning Environment,” choosing “Learning Boosters,” “Active Learning” and “Cooperative Learning.” This how-to field book will provide you with activities for your brain-compatible teaching.
JENSEN, Eric, Arts with the Brain in Mind, pb, 137 pages, ASCD, 2001. Here is a book to add insights and confirm your suspicion that the arts can be a wonderful avenue to teach all sorts of subjects better. While this book has bedrock value for arts educators, it can also provide richness to the teacher of any subject area who suspects there are more ways to enjoy learning than the artless classroom provides.
WILLIS, Judy, M.D., Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning: Insights from a Neurologist and Classroom Teacher, pb, 125 pages, ASCD, 2006.
In each of the four chapters of this book, you will find both highly practical information to inform your own teaching and down-to-earth explanations of why these strategies are so powerful in light of brain research. The author, who was first a doctor of neurology, working with students and adults with brain dysfunctions, found teaching in elementary and middle schools her more exciting calling, and her work combining the science and art of teaching is the reason for this book. The book is especially easy to follow, because every main point has a dark heading, and the book includes information, both about the science of better ways to teach for memory and test taking, and about the importance of getting student attention and the role of emotions in the learning environment.
WOOD, Chip, Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14, 3rd Edition, pb, 216 pages, Northwest Foundation for Children, 2007. The answer to many of our questions about the best way to deal with the children of a certain age or grade level will be amply supplied in this invaluable book on developmental aspects of each age from 4-14. Although there are wide ranges in the development of children across ages and cultures, the big picture is also helpful to pick up patterns of growth, classroom abilities, and learning readiness. For each age profiled, you will learn about the typical physical norms, social-emotional development, language skills and readiness, and cognitive strengths. In addition, there are notes on vision and fine and gross motor abilities, It is easy to bracket the ages of your particular focus, to see the prior and emerging patterns to expect. Life a college course in child development without the paperwork!