Institute on Disability/UCED



Train Your Brain: 3rd Grade CurriculumSession 4: How Can I Help My Brain Grow?Materials: Train Your Brain Folders New flashcards Set of flashcardsBrain Growth Tracker Sheet (Your Fantastic Elastic Brain curriculum)Brain Info Exit Ticket “How Can I Help My Brain Grow?” SignReview Brain regions and functions.Focus on functions and give examples1-frontal lobePersonalityConcentration/planning/problem solvingEmotional reaction2-Parietal lobeTouch and taste3-Occipital lobeSight4-Cerebellum “little Brain”Muscle controlBalance & coordination5-Temporal lobeReceive and process soundSpeech and memory6-Hippocampus “file cabinet of the brain”Controls memory7-Amygdala “heart of the brain”Alert system: SurvivalEmotions: (ie: Inside Out movie)Give example of how it works: (ie tiger coming in room…fear, fight/flight, shuts down decision making, etc)Anterior cingulate cortex, the “mistake filter” in our brain, is activated when a mistake is made. Trying new strategies leads to skill improvement and brain growthBrain stem: all things that happen automatically and connected to our spinal cord. Neurons: sends electrical connectionsNeurotransmitters: chemical connections that transfer electrical signals. We are all born with unique strengths which relate to an area of the brain. If a skill comes easily to us, that part of our brain is shaped. Our brains require exercise to stay in shape. Those we want to improve require more brain exercise. We can strengthen our brain and learn to do new things through effort and practice. Making mistakes is an important part of the process. When you make a mistake, your brain learns to identify what didn’t work quite right so that it can try a different strategy the next time around. Introduce the Left and Right brain differences: Handout of the colorful picture of brain differences.The human brain is made up of two halves. These halves are commonly called the right brain and left brain, but should more correctly be termed ‘hemispheres’. For some reason, our right and left hemispheres control the ‘opposite’ side of our bodies, so the right hemisphere controls our left side and processes what we see in our left eye while the left hemisphere controls the right side and processes what our right eye sees.In general, the left and right hemispheres of our brain process information in different ways. While we have a natural tendency towards one way of thinking, the two sides of our brain work together in our everyday lives. The right brain of the brain focuses on the visual, and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. The focus of the left brain is verbal, processing information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole. ()Left brain thinking is verbal and analytical. Right brain is non-verbal and intuitive, using pictures rather than words. The best illustration of this is to listen to people give directions. The left brain person will say something like “From here, go west three blocks and turn north on Vine Street. Go three or four miles and then turn east onto Broad Street.” The right brain person will sound something like this: “Turn right (pointing right), by the church over there (pointing again). Then you will pass a McDonalds?and a Walmart. At the next light, turn right toward the Esso station.”Though right-brain or non-verbal thinking is often regarded as more ‘creative’, there is no right or wrong here; it is merely two different ways of thinking. One is not better than the other, just as being right-handed is not ‘superior’ to being left-handed. What is important is to be aware that there are different ways of thinking, and by knowing what your natural preference is, you can pay attention to your less dominant side to improve the same.The right side of the brain looks at visual reference as a whole, whether it be a landscape, object, or piece of artwork, and then works its way into noticing finer details. The left side on the other hand, first sees the details and puts them together to form the bigger picture.Those with?a right-side dominant brain depend more on visual references?for understanding and are often times visual learners. They are more emotional, swayed by feelings, and are able to better understand and reflect on these feelings. Furthermore, right-brained thinkers are very intuitive and curious about the world. Finally, as a down side, they tend to be disorganized, lacking in time-management, and unable to prioritize well.The left brain is the side that?handles organization and logic. Because of this, those that have a dominant left side are also very organized; they prefer schedules and deadlines, and love rules and regulations. They are more auditory learners, and are better at using words to remember things rather than visual aids. They process ideas in a step-by-step, algorithmic way, and are therefore less prone to error. ()The left brain is also referred to as the digital brain. It controls reading and writing, calculation, and logical thinking. The right brain is referred to as the analog brain. It controls three-dimensional sense, creativity, and artistic senses. These two work together, to allow us to function as humans.Take a left brain test on-line: a left/right brain activity: Have the students stand in a line down the middle of hallway or classroom. Give choice to go to the left or right. See Handout: Left brain/Right brain ActivityHow Can I Help My Brain Grow?Neuroplasticity video on Youtube talk: Activity Set 3: Lesson Plans we do affects the growth of our brain. Struggling with certain skills helps our brain change and grow. If we stick to only doing what comes naturally or easily, our brains wont grow. To promote successful brain growth, we have to defy our natural inclinations to back away from things that strike us as too difficult and rather, increase the time we spend developing skills that may not come naturally. We also need to provide our brains with the opportunity to develop new skills through different mediums. We can develop our brains in multiple ways: social/emotional, cognitive, physical, etc.Activity: Brain Growth TrackerHave students identify brain strength in each area: Cognitive, social/emotional and physicalHave students identify brain area for growth in each area: cognitive, social/emotional and physicalLog on Brain Growth TrackerAdd new flash cards with Left/Right brain infoHandout Brain Info Exit ticket and collectSummary: Brain growth and change happens when we change our behaviors or practice behaviors. Struggling allows for more change in the structure of the brain. Important to know our brain and what are strengths are and what we need to do to improve and make new pathways in our brain. Understanding the structure and function of our own brains gives us information and keys to how our executive functioning will work and what we may have to do to improve it. Having a growth mindset, leaves open and available to new information and new ways of learning and doing.Homework: Have a Brain Tracker chart on the board, every time a student demonstrates a growth mindset, willingness to learn and try something new, does something different, acknowledges and understanding of their learning style, put a tally. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download