An ASCD Study Guide for Brain-Friendly Strategies for the Inclusion Classroom

Introduction

1. What are some of the new neuroimaging tools, and how are they able to show what is happening while the brain is actively learning?
2. What are some of the ways in which vested interest groups use biased interpretation of brain research to support their agendas at the expense of students?
3. How can activities that build executive function skills increase success for all types of learners in inclusion classes?
4. Why is standardization of curriculum especially challenging in inclusion classes?

Chapter 1: Success for All Students in Inclusion Classes

1. What are some of the benefits of inclusion classes?
2. What are some of the attributes correlated with successful life outcomes for LD students? How can you promote these in your students?
3. What roles do the amygdala and the reticular activating system play in the successful acquisition of knowledge?
4. Infusing personal relevance into lessons, activating prior knowledge, and fostering student construction of meaning are all strategies that boost student engagement. How can you incorporate these strategies in your classroom?
5. What is realistic challenge, and how can it be used to individualize instruction in inclusion classes?
6. How can learning logs and homework policy improve students' organizational skills?
7. What are the advantages of ongoing, supportive, corrective feedback? How can such strategies as rubrics add to this feedback while building student independence?
8. How can a sense of community increase student success in an inclusion classroom? How do your class and your school foster a sense of community? What new ideas might you try to build an even greater sense of community?
9. Which community-building strategies can you incorporate this year? Consider peer interviews, class interest graphs, class or resident expert charts, and teacher modeling.
10. How does stress interfere with learning? What are some inclusion activities that can reduce stress and thereby increase learning and memory?
11. Which suggestions about assessments and parental support have you already used, and which can you incorporate to support your diverse range of students?

Chapter 2: Looking into Multiple Intelligence Brains

1. Can you think of students you have whose dominant learning styles match particular intelligence categories? Have you successfully used any of the activities described for each intelligence? Which new activities could you try with your students who have specific, identifiable intelligences?
2. What are the three broader intelligence categories, and how can they help you more easily construct lessons that suit students' diverse intelligences?

Chapter 3: Teaching Students with Attention Disorders

1. What role does the limbic system play in the attention process?
2. What strategies can be used to increase students' attention and focus? How can you incorporate some of these strategies into your teaching?
3. Can you recall instances when students were at each of the levels of attention—survival mode, interest mode, and selective mode? What strategies can help students reach the highest, most productive state of attention?
4. What is the dopamine-reward state, and which teaching strategies promote it?
5. What do the results of the Marshmallow Test suggest to you about the importance of building goal-directed behavior for all students? Which strategies can help students develop the intrinsic motivation to work to achieve their academic and behavioral goals?
6. How can cooperative group activities be modified to engage and support all learners?
7. How can physical movement, surprise and novelty, dramatization, and visualization build stronger neural memory circuits?

Chapter 4: Enriching the Inclusive Learning Environment

1. Which characteristics of enriched environments could you provide in your classroom?
2. What are the advantages of using multisensory stimulation in inclusion classes?
3. What are the various memory systems that multisensory lessons stimulate, and what is the advantage of activities that promote these memory circuits?
4. What is the role of experiential learning in the development of neural pathways that strengthen memory storage and retrieval? What can you add to your classroom strategies to increase student exposure to this powerful form of memory stimulation?
5. Which review activities might you incorporate that stimulate multiple intelligences and promote neural transmission of information through multiple memory circuits?
6. What are student-centered lessons, and how can you use them to keep students' focus connected to their studies?
7. Consider a thematic unit that you have used or might use in an inclusion class. What activities can help students connect to the experience via multisensory modalities to increase their emotional, relational, and physiological links to the learning experience?
8. How can participating in cross-curricular group activities help students productively prepare for standardized tests?

Chapter 5: Review and Test Preparation Strategies for Diverse Learners

1. What strategic review and test preparation strategies can resonate with all learners in inclusion classes?
2. What can you do to help students practice metacognition and become aware of their own strengths and weaknesses?

Appendix: Sample Lesson Plans for Inclusion Class Activities

1. Where can you find places in one of the lesson plans described to incorporate differentiated assessments that accommodate multiple intelligences and learning-style preferences without lowering expectations?
2. How might writing journal entries from the perspective of figures from the historical time period being studied add personal relevance and motivation to a thematic unit?

Brain-Friendly Strategies for the Inclusion Classroom was written by Judy Willis. This 229-page, 6" x 9" book (Stock #107040; ISBN-13: 978-1-4166-0539-3) is available from ASCD for $19.95 (ASCD member) or $25.95 (nonmember). Copyright © 2007 by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). To order a copy, call ASCD at 1-800-933-2723 (in Virginia 1-703-578-9600) and press 2 for the Service Center. Or buy the book from ASCD's Online Store.