A Study Guide for Brain-Based Teaching in the Digital Age

1. Use Figure I.1 to determine which digital generation you belong to. Which description best fits you?
2. Based on Figure I.1, determine whether you are a digital immigrant or digital native. Do you find that there is a digital divide between you and your students? What can you do to narrow the gap?
3. Are you keeping up, catching up, or discouraged about using technology? Talk with your colleagues about what they do personally and professionally with technology. If necessary, create a digital plan to improve your use of technology.

Part 1: Digital Technology and the Brain

Chapter 1: iPod + iPhone = iVideo + Internet = iBrain

1. Think about the changes to the reticular activating system. How can you feed it novel information quickly enough to keep your students' attention? How can you slow things down and still keep their attention?
2. How are students' brains changing in response to digital devices? What can you do in your classroom to compensate for any negative changes?
3. Read the sections on "Digital Dilemmas" on pp. 7-12. Do you see these dilemmas as problems in your school? Prioritize them according to what appears to be most prevalent. What can you do to combat these issues?
4. Are your students attempting to multitask? Are they completing all of their tasks at once? Speak with students and parents about the possibilities of more errors and more time used as a result of multitasking. What are some options for solving these problems?
5. Ask your colleagues what they are teaching students about the dangers of technology including addictions. If necessary, create a school plan to disseminate this important information.

Chapter 2: Recent Research on the Brain: We Need Low Tech, Too

1. Which formal barriers do you see as the biggest obstacles to education reform? Why?
2. Check out the links below for some of the latest research on mirror neurons online. What implications does this research have for behaviors in your classroom and school? NOVA: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01.html The Society for Neuroscience: http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=brainBriefings_MirrorNeurons
3. Metacognition is defined as thinking about thinking. What are some ways that you can encourage this process with your students?
4. Are your students getting enough physical exercise? Think about how you can promote aerobic exercise for students who are not participating in any active activities.
5. Does your school provide training in the arts? If music, art, or movement programs have been cut in your school, discuss the importance of these areas with your colleagues and create ways to provide them through your content areas.

Chapter 3: Do Brain-Based Principles Apply in the Digital Age?

1. How do you provide multifaceted experiences for your students? Discuss this idea with your colleagues. Consider ways of adding more multifaceted experiences into your current practices.
2. Do all the teachers in your school use the same graphic organizers in their classroom? If not, discuss the possibilities of using the same organizers to train students' brains to look for information that the organizers indicate. Could you use software or an online program to create new ones?
3. Chunking information is a common practice. Can you think of three areas in which you chunk information for students and can clearly see the benefits of doing so? Share your ideas with colleagues on chunking information for different content.
4. Chapter 3 highlights the importance of lowering stress in the classroom. Are there practices you currently use to alleviate stress with your students? What could you incorporate into your day that would lower stress in your classroom?
5. Chapter 3 also focuses on how brain development corresponds to students' ages. With your students, do you see any behaviors that correlate to their level of development?

Part 2: Desk Space, MySpace, My Style

Chapter 4: Environments for Learning

1. List the ways that your school encourages healthy lifestyles. What other ways can you add?
2. Chapter 4 stresses the importance of sleep, good nutrition, and exercise for students. How can you share this information with parents and students and make it meaningful?
3. The brain likes choice. What choices do you offer your students? Brainstorm with colleagues about possible situations in which you can offer more choices.
4. The importance of formative assessment in brain-compatible and differentiated classrooms cannot be stressed enough. What formative assessment methods do you use in your classroom?
5. Consider how you could use entrance and exit cards in your classroom. Is there a way to include technology in this practice?
6. Look at the list of ways to connect to families and the community in this chapter. What would you add to this list?

Chapter 5: Social Networking Through Teams

1. Have you used "home base" or "support" teams in your classroom? List the benefits of this practice. Share with colleagues how you set up your teams.
2. Chapter 5 points out that the process of choosing teams may be random or selected. Which method do you prefer? List the criteria on which you make your selections.
3. How could you foster more team spirit in your classroom? Explain why this is an important element in the teaming process.
4. Keeping teams motivated can be a challenge. List ways that you have used or would try to keep students' motivation up.
5. Share with colleagues your teaming experiences. Which steps outlined in this chapter do you use or would you add to make your teams more powerful?

Chapter 6: Understanding Learning Styles

1. Which learning style do you prefer? Many teachers teach to their own preference because it feels comfortable. Examine your teaching practice. If you find yourself teaching toward your learning preference, create ways that you can branch out to other styles.
2. Are your lessons set up for all learning styles? Kinesthetic learners are often left out due to space or time limitations. How can you do more for your students who need to move?
3. Enhancing your visual teaching makes sense based on current research on vision and the brain. How could you add more visuals and visualization to your teaching?
4. Determine the learning styles of students who are having difficulty in your classroom. Check to see if you are honoring those styles by providing ways for these students to receive information in their preferred format. Can you list ways to focus more on these styles?
5. There are many learning style assessments available online. Check out the links below for examples of the latest online assessments. Keep in mind that a written assessment or an online assessment may affect results for some learners.

What's YOUR Learning Style?: http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/ Ageless Learner: http://agelesslearner.com/assess/learningstyle.html

Chapter 7: The Digital Native and Intelligence

1. Gardner's Multiple Intelligence theory has changed the way many teachers teach. How has it changed yours? How could you incorporate this way of learning for your students?
2. Do you know your personal intelligence strengths? Think back to your own experiences in school. If your teachers would have used the Multiple Intelligence theory, would this have made learning easier for you? In what ways? Can you incorporate these insights into your own teaching?
3. Create your own intelligences assessment or find an assessment online. Keep in mind that we all possess the eight intelligences to some degree. Reassure your students that they can develop any intelligence they choose.
4. If you use learning centers in your classroom, you may want to set up one center for each of the eight intelligences. Students could try out each center and find where they are most comfortable.
5. What are your favorite teaching strategies? Do they fall into categories for each intelligence? List and add strategies that will meet the needs of each intelligence.

Part 3: Music, Mind Maps, and Memory

Chapter 8: The Digital Brain and Music

1. List the ways that you use music or could use music in your classroom.
2. Is music part of your school's curriculum? How could you encourage your students to be more involved in music other than their own?
3. Have you used music with classroom content to aid students' memory? Search online for songs that fit your content, or encourage students to create songs that help them remember material.
4. Consider the types of music that you enjoy. Would you be more motivated if you played that music when students enter your classroom? Remember that emotions are contagious and if you are "pumped up" for teaching, your students will be ready to learn.
5. Discuss the types of music your students are familiar with. Let them bring in appropriate music to share with the class.
6. Challenge your students to come up with "theme" music for your next unit or chapter. Encourage them to do Internet searches and discover music that complements different eras or content matter.

Chapter 9: Visual Tools

1. Chapter 9 describes how to use mind maps with students. If you have used this visual tool, consider how successful it was with your students in regards to motivation and memory. Discuss with colleagues how to use this tool and other visual tools that work.
2. The ability to visualize can aid students' memory. You can use games such as Pictionary to help students learn to visualize content from your lessons.
3. Mind mapping has been successful with students who have reading difficulties. Try mind maps with your students to help them capture details from stories and chapters.

Chapter 10: Flashbulbs and Flash Drives: Understanding How Memory Works

1. Explain the differences among immediate, working, and long-term memory.
2. Consider ways to improve your students' memories such as memorizing poetry. Try a few strategies and determine if they work.
3. Name and define the five long-term memory systems.
4. Examine some of your lesson plans to see if they access different memory systems.
5. Review the list of digital strategies to engage students on p. 124. Try some of these strategies and add them to your list.

Part 4: Balancing Digital Desires with Digital Natives' Needs

Chapter 11: The Balancing Act

1. List ways that you incorporate social emotional learning into your classrooms. Observe other teachers in your building who use these strategies well.
2. Our digital students seem to need constant connections. How do you provide reflection time so they have some moments where connectivity is not necessary?
3. Discuss with students how checking their digital devices can be distracting to others. Ask them to share how they feel when others stop paying attention to them while they check their e-mail or text messages.
4. Have you considered mindfulness strategies for your students? Check your schedule and find some moments for meditation, mindfulness, or quiet time.
5. Does your school have interactive white boards? You can see how other teachers are using Google Interactive White Boards to motivate digital natives on YouTube. If they are available to you, take some professional development courses to discover how to use them.

Chapter 12: The Present and the Future of Learning

1. Add two or three possible creative assignments to the list on p. 142 that would work in your classroom with your content.
2. Explain two ways that you teach synthesis in your classroom. Can you add to that list by considering your content or creating new strategies?
3. Empathy is a must in the 21st century. How do you teach empathy to your students?
4. Think about the future of learning and education. How can you enhance what you are currently doing by using digital devices?

Brain-Based Teaching in the Digital Age was written by Marilee Sprenger. This 170-page, 7" x 9" book (Stock #110018; ISBN-13: 978-1-4166-0918-6) is available from ASCD for $18.95 (ASCD member) or $23.95 (nonmember). Copyright © 2010 by 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.