In her review of Dr Judy Willis’ book “Inspiring Middle School Minds: Gifted, Creative & Challenging” (Great Potential Press, 2009), Diane Horban explains the recurrent message from Dr Willis to “avoid teaching to the test and eliminate the “dumbing down” of lessons into skill and drill worksheets used for test purposes only”. Challenging lessons should be created which “engage the adolescent brain with inquiry, questioning, and timely, constructive feedback” and which “focus on the interests of our students, give students choices, make information relevant, and stimulate curiosity”.
Over a period of four weeks I had to deliver a three hour workshop of fairly dry content over and over to different participants. All participants came with varying degrees of knowledge and experience in regards to the content. To make it not only interesting for the participants and ensure they got the most out of the workshop, but also interesting and fun for me to deliver the same content every time, I included the brain friendly following strategies:
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Handouts were provided on four different coloured paper and participants were asked to choose one in the colour of their liking. This in itself provoked discussion as some participants jokingly wondered if there was an underlying psycho analysis going on.
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Participants had a tendency to sit at a table with people they knew. To encourage discussion and learning from each other participants were asked to sit in small groups with people they did not know or only vaguely knew. At times this was met with frowns and unhappy faces. Participants then had to learn a little bit about one person at their table, write a name tag for them and introduce them to the rest of the group. A table question was included such as ‘favourite holiday destination’ or ‘favourite tv show or series’. Although these table questions had absolutely nothing to do with the content, it started conversation and frowns were often replaced by smiles and laughter. Having to introduce someone provided the platform for participants, even those who had planned not to open their mouth at all, to speak up, ask questions or contribute to discussions.
Over a period of four weeks I had to deliver a three hour workshop of fairly dry content over and over to different participants. All participants came with varying degrees of knowledge and experience in regards to the content. To make it not only interesting for the participants and ensure they got the most out of the workshop, but also interesting and fun for me to deliver the same content every time, I included the brain friendly following strategies:
·
Handouts were provided on four different coloured paper and participants were asked to choose one in the colour of their liking. This in itself provoked discussion as some participants jokingly wondered if there was an underlying psycho analysis going on.
·
Participants had a tendency to sit at a table with people they knew. To encourage discussion and learning from each other participants were asked to sit in small groups with people they did not know or only vaguely knew. At times this was met with frowns and unhappy faces. Participants then had to learn a little bit about one person at their table, write a name tag for them and introduce them to the rest of the group. A table question was included such as ‘favourite holiday destination’ or ‘favourite tv show or series’. Although these table questions had absolutely nothing to do with the content, it started conversation and frowns were often replaced by smiles and laughter. Having to introduce someone provided the platform for participants, even those who had planned not to open their mouth at all, to speak up, ask questions or contribute to discussions.
Before a start was made with the actual content delivery participants were asked about their inquiries, the topic they hoped to hear discussed when they signed up for the workshops. In their groups they were asked to write down a minimum of three questions or topics on A3 paper with a whiteboard marker. Three colours were provided with some groups writing each topic in a different colour. All questions/topics were read out to the whole group which showed that participants often had similar queries and even the stand-out question was often one other participants were interested to hear the answer to. Participants were informed that I would come
back to these questions/topics during the delivery but definitely at the end to ensure all were dealt with. If a topic was outside the scope of the workshop participants would be informed of this and an explanation would be provided (hardly any topics fell in this category).
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During the delivery, most questions were “reflected back” to the group to see if others were able to use their experience and knowledge to answer it. In this way peer learning was encouraged, with me as the facilitator and not the font of all learning. It also provided me with an opportunity to learn and use the new learned information in other workshops.
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The power-point presentation consisted of a total of 19 slides, most of them containing photos or pictures and very little text.
For me the telling sign that participants were engrossed in the workshop was the fact that every workshop went over time (10-15 minutes). Not once did people early (unless they had other engagements) or did they become restless in their chairs. Most participants took their time to fill out the evaluation form, which was double sided and contained half a dozen open questions. Feedback overall has been extremely positive, not only to the content delivered but also to the way it was delivered.
Reference:
Horban, D. (2012). Inspiring the Adolescent Brain. MiddleWeb. Retrieved June 2014 from: http://www.middleweb.com/4075/inspiring-the-adolescent-brain/
back to these questions/topics during the delivery but definitely at the end to ensure all were dealt with. If a topic was outside the scope of the workshop participants would be informed of this and an explanation would be provided (hardly any topics fell in this category).
·
During the delivery, most questions were “reflected back” to the group to see if others were able to use their experience and knowledge to answer it. In this way peer learning was encouraged, with me as the facilitator and not the font of all learning. It also provided me with an opportunity to learn and use the new learned information in other workshops.
·
The power-point presentation consisted of a total of 19 slides, most of them containing photos or pictures and very little text.
For me the telling sign that participants were engrossed in the workshop was the fact that every workshop went over time (10-15 minutes). Not once did people early (unless they had other engagements) or did they become restless in their chairs. Most participants took their time to fill out the evaluation form, which was double sided and contained half a dozen open questions. Feedback overall has been extremely positive, not only to the content delivered but also to the way it was delivered.
Reference:
Horban, D. (2012). Inspiring the Adolescent Brain. MiddleWeb. Retrieved June 2014 from: http://www.middleweb.com/4075/inspiring-the-adolescent-brain/