REAL: “Real” texts and nonfiction are more closely connected to real life and functionality. Boys who liked fantasy found these texts helpful in understanding or acting in their real lives-they saw these texts as more “realistic” than texts that were ostensibly more factual.

It seems like anything with Jeff Wilhelm’s name on it is something I like or am intrigued by. 

A Few Features That Contribute to Flow | Scholastic.com

SHORT: Short texts give an immediate sense of accomplishment and competence.

VISUAL: Visual descriptions or graphics provide assistance to meet the challenge of seeing, understanding, and experiencing the text.

CHALLENGING: Texts filled with weird and wonderful facts were fun for the boys to export and to talk about, and challenged their previous ideas about the world.

EDGY: We discovered that texts that challenge the status quo were exportable.

CURRENT: News and Web sites helped them keep track of something important to them, like sporting events. It is worth repeating that it was not the text features themselves the boys enjoyed. Rather it was how the text features connected or contributed to the context of the reading.

HUMOR: When you laugh, you immerse yourself in the immediate experience. (Interestingly, none of our boys could remember ever reading anything that they thought was funny for their school assignments.)

(Smith and Wilhelm, 2002)

Source: scholastic.com

Teacher’s reference shelf: Teaching Teens with ADD and ADHD

Dendy, C.A.Z. (2000). Teaching teens with ADD and ADHD: A quick reference guide for teachers and parents. Bethesda, MD: Woodbine Press.

Bookcover: Teaching teens with ADDThis guide for parents and teachers presents information in seventy-five clear, well-organized summaries each only one-to-two pages long.  A section on executive function and adolescents with ADHD is clear enough to share with the students themselves, and provides the background understanding that adults need to support these students for academic success.  A thorough section of summaries covers academic and management strategies for teachers working with this group of students, including: modifying testing and grading, using technology, modifying assignments, modifying the level of supervision, coaching parents to help students at home, and designing homework that is appropriate for these students.  Additional summaries for teachers explain the most common problems with math and written expression. 

concept mapping for the New Age

Period piece. found this gem while looking up spatial relations at the library.

Radiant Thinking (from ‘to radiate,’ meaning ‘to spread or move in directions, or from a given centre’) refers to associative thought processes that proceed from or connect to a central point. The other meanings of ‘radiant’ are also relevant: ‘shining brightly,’ ‘the look of bright eyes beaming with joy and hope’ and ‘the focal point of a meteoric shower’ – similar to the ‘burst of thought.’

The Mind map book: How to use radiant thinking to maximize your brain’s untapped potential. (Buzan & Buzan, 1990, p. 57).

For each of the students I worked with, a card and envelope with a different color of mouse. The envelops show the mouse exploring the elephant’s body, the card shows her later, in the process of describing the mysteriousSomething.

The brain is adapted to the river of knowledge

Beautiful bit from David Brooks article in The New Yorker:

During the question-and-answer period, though, a woman asked the neuroscientist how his studies had changed the way he lived. He paused for a second, and then starting talking about a group he had joined called the Russian-American Folk Dance Company. It was odd, given how hard and scientific he had sounded. “I guess I used to think of myself as a lone agent, who made certain choices and established certain alliances with colleagues and friends,” he said. “Now, though, I see things differently. I believe we inherit a great river of knowledge, a flow of patterns coming from many sources. The information that comes from deep in the evolutionary past we call genetics. The information passed along from hundreds of years ago we call culture. The information passed along from decades ago we call family, and the information offered months ago we call education. But it is all information that flows through us. The brain is adapted to the river of knowledge and exists only as a creature in that river.

Our thoughts are profoundly molded by this long historic flow, and none of us exists, self-made, in isolation from it. “And though history has made us self-conscious in order to enhance our survival prospects, we still have deep impulses to erase the skull lines in our head and become immersed directly in the river. I’ve come to think that flourishing consists of putting yourself in situations in which you lose self-consciousness and become fused with other people, experiences, or tasks. It happens sometimes when you are lost in a hard challenge, or when an artist or a craftsman becomes one with the brush or the tool. It happens sometimes while you’re playing sports, or listening to music or lost in a story, or to some people when they feel enveloped by God’s love. And it happens most when we connect with other people. I’ve come to think that happiness isn’t really produced by conscious accomplishments. Happiness is a measure of how thickly the unconscious parts of our minds are intertwined with other people and with activities. Happiness is determined by how much information and affection flows through us covertly every day and year.

Source: newyorker.com