Comments on: “Now I Know My Brain Is Growing When I Read Every Night”

By: Grow your brain | mathsrc's Blog

Grow your brain | mathsrc's Blog — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:50:28 +0000

[...] be successful in Maths. Larry Ferlazzo has written a very positive and motivating article entitled Now I know my brain is growing when I read every night. Its about getting students to realise that they are not just born with innate intelligence. [...]

By: Jodi Stevens

Jodi Stevens — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:16:10 +0000

I have used a clip from the movie Dangerous Minds. It’s when the teacher introduces the idea of working hard before they begin Dylan. She uses talks to the class about the brain being a muscle and needing a workout…like on a track, etc. This clip would be great to use with the lesson described here.

By: Karenne Sylvester

Karenne Sylvester — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:43:05 +0000

I like Alice’s idea of grass or glass and will use this idea to create a discussion using the concepts you laid out here.

I think the LP you’ve laid out here has even greater potential outside of reading and will go about the challenge from their learning styles perspective as well – asking my students to think about all the different ways they learn and what effect practicing the ways they don’t learn well can affect those neurons too.

I reckon this is a good one-of-the-first-classes-learning2learn-lessons…

And by the way, Larry – I really enjoy you making my brain grow more!

By: Larry Ferlazzo

Larry Ferlazzo — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:44:24 +0000

Lynda,

I appreciate your leaving a comment, but I have to say I’m uncomfortable with a focus on reading instruction that is primarily phonics-based. Phonics certainly has its place, but I’d also say it has to be kept in its place. The research I have read, and what I have seen in my own experience, is that phonic-based approaches can often lead to the ability to decode words, but doesn’t necessarily lead to comprehension development nor towards helping students gaining a love of reading. I’m also not convinced of the validity of needing 150 words per minute in order to “read to learn.” Very few of my ninth-grade mainstream students are at that level, and they’re still doing excellent work.

Larry

By: Lynda

Lynda — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:17:28 +0000

Hopefully, the students in your classes who cannot read at the 150 words per minute needed for “reading to learn” will get the 1 to 2 hours of systematic instruction in reading that research indicates is the only way to get them to that point. Too many programs for middle and high schoolers “wish and hope” that through encouragement and focus on comprehension that these kids will learn to fluently decode the words. Take some text and cover two or three words out of every eight and try to make sense of it. Many of these kids who are now older never got the type of phonics-based reading instruction when they were little and since it takes four times the effort when they are older to come close to “catching them up,” no one wants to do it. Sorry, I had to rant, because these kids hide their reading deficiencies and the pain for them is overwhelming.

By: Dorothy

Dorothy — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:23:26 +0000

The ideas you have in this post (and your preceding ones) are fabulous Larry. I am going to be much more intentional with the way I speak to students about ‘exercising’ their brains. I hope that we can include some of the ideas across our whole school when we begin our new year in February. I think this type of intentional approach would be very beneficial at the beginning of a school year.

By: Is your brain grass or a glass? | Reflections on Teaching

Is your brain grass or a glass? | Reflections on Teaching — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:33:55 +0000

[...] he did with his student’s to get them to think about their own brains. He wrote about it here, noting that many of his lowest students felt they were just “stupid”. I had done a [...]

By: A. Mercer

A. Mercer — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:37:45 +0000

I wonder if this sense of inevitability and intelligence sinks in as kids get older. I did a bit today with fourth graders on whether their brains were grass (could grow) or a glass (that you could only fill so far). All of them agreed with grass, and I did some scenarios with them about kids reacting to test scores as an example.