Thank you!

Many thanks for reading my blog on kinesthetic learning in literacy education! Please stay tuned for more updates. Check out my videos and pages to gain ideas on how to implement kinesthetic learning into your classroom. Please also refer to the sources I noted throughout my posts. I think they are wonderful.  On your mark, get set, GO!

"Great ideas originate in the muscles." ~Thomas Edison

Simulation Video #3: To Kill a Mockingbird

CIRCLE UP! Today's video simulation uses the "Round Robin Monologue" action strategy. This is a spontaneous monologue technique, which seems particularly effective because it allows the students to be free and open right "in the moment" of comprehension/exploration. It can used as a pre, during, and post reading strategy, modified to fit any stage of the process. The students stand in a circle and are asked to think up a reaction sentence to a prompt. Then, the students turn to the inside of the circle while saying their statement. The "ripple" effect makes for a multidimensional, complex cycle of answers. It is reflective of the complex nature of interior monolgues all humans experience. For today's lesson, the activity was used as a pre-reading strategy for Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. The prompt was "A father is...". After the activity, I explained how we will study Atticus Finch and fatherhood in the book. We will do another round robin monolgue at the end of our unit.

Check it out @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvMFx_rcIEg

Movement to Satisfy Needs (What it's All About!)

Education theorist William Glasser developed Choice Theory, which I've been studying this semester in Cohort. The premise of his theory is that everything in life is behavior, and that almost all behavior is chosen. His theory is one of internal control. It is driven by our genes to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. Most advocates of this theory would argue the most important need is love and belonging. When individuals feel they belong, they feel connected to a community. They feel like they're making a contribution and have established a closeness with the individuals in their environment.

When needs are not addressed in the classroom, it results in frustration and a lack of motivation in students. Glasser's internal control theory illustrates humans to be competent, to make choices, to have fun, to be capable. Movement in the literacy classroom can help educators fulfill these essential needs of students. Here is a breakdown I created that will explain further:

• Freedom: Movement allows for less restriction and an increase in endorphins. It supports brain function and fosters creativity. Allowing students to make choices about their body and mind interactions will give them a sense of freedom.
• Survival: The need for survival can tie back into the "fright or flight" method. Our bodies are designed to react to stimuli around us. Without the ability to move freely, our bodies may feel less protected.
• Love and Belonging: A movement-orientated classroom allows for an increase in belonging and trust. Many of the activities require creativity, risk, and challenge, more so than any individual worksheet would require. Trust builds with the interactive activities.
• Power: Students gain a sense of power with the enhanced competence through movement activities. It matches most students' preferred learning style; this makes the content seem more accessible to them.
• Fun: Movement is simply fun. Our first human form of communication (as newborns) was movement. It's how we genuinely react to our environment. It's the most raw form of communication, and it feels good! It can be silly, which is needed in more classrooms (as long as it stays appropriate).

Using Movement for Differentiated Instruction

I've been learning about differentiated instruction in Cohort this semester, and I now see how kinesthetic learning ties in. I love making those connections. Effective modern classrooms are characterized by the uniqueness and diversity of the students. They make a community, celebrating each individual and capitalizing on his or her strengths.

Kuczala and Lengel state that 85% of all students rely on kinesthetic learning to understand material. Students do encompass all four learning styles (kinesthetic, aural, visual, and read/write), but the kinesthetic style dominates in classrooms. And more often than not, typical classroom instruction relies too heavily on read/write learning. Predominately kinesthetic learners also hold the highest correlation to dropout rates in secondary schools.

In response to this high percentage, it seems imperative that literacy teachers incorporate movement into their instruction. It will help increase variety in the classroom and meet the needs of all learners. The content does not need to be differentiated, in fact it should not be. But the paths to reach deep understanding of that content do not have to be identical for each student. It is up to the teacher to provide those opportunities.

It seems there could also be more opportunities for collaborative learning with kinesthetic activities too. With the whole group engaged, and physically demonstrating knowledge, it seems more difficult for a student to fall through the cracks. It also allows for more peer-to-peer scaffolding and mentoring in classroom activities.

Simulation Video #2: The Outsiders

Lights, camera, action! The students and I did another action strategy simulation today in class. The activity is called "Step by Step". After doing research on the brain-body connection, I can definitely see how this reading strategy could enhance students' understanding of the text. It's all about making that material connect to their personal thoughts and emotions. Since the students are moving, thinking, visualizing the material, it seems like a sure-fire way to deepen understanding. In this video, Jill is concerned about the character of Darry in S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. She is placing blame on him for events that occurred in the novel. I used the "Step by Step" kinesthetic learning activity to address this concern. This strategy guides student imagination when comprehending text. It will help student better understand the author's motives and character actions. And it creates relevance with students; they physically must move through the situations from the book.

Check it out @ http://youtu.be/5AyY5WJ6uRg

The Brain-Body Connection

One interesting facet of kinesthetic learning reseach is the research-based evidence of the brain-body connection. I have done exploration of this topic in my academic dance classes, and would love to continue that exploration into my literacy classroom. I came across a great source called The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning Through Movement by Michael S. Kuczala and Traci Lengel. The authors discuss the brain-body connection and its implications on educational activities (see the link at the bottom of this post).

Here's a summary of what I learned:

• The brain learns by processing sensory information from its surrounding environment. Rote memorization of facts is not reflective of how the brain memory process works. Information needs to pass through both short-term and then long-term memory stages. This can only be done with a profound sense of interest or emotional connection to the information.
• Movement expidates this process by engaging the whole brain in an attentive process. In other words, movemet is brain-friendly. It involved more sensory engagement, makes recall easier, and engages whole brain learning for a more clear and total picture of learning. Many traditional classroom activities only incorporate either the right or left hemisphere.
• Movement forces and promotes immediate rehearsal of information, which is critical for memory. It builds a multisensory opportunity for learning which promotes better storage of information.
• Physical experiences hold better than semantic memory ones (reading a chapter in a textbook).
• A study done by Cindy Hess (2004) at the Action Learning Lab found that motor development provides the framework that the brain uses to "sequence the patterns needed for academic success." 
• Further research found that kinesthetic learning activities can accomplish all of the following: increase motivation levels, create positive learning states, raise test scores, prepare brain for learning, increase student attention, improve students' recall time.
• Movement actually improves brain function. It is "exercise" for cognitive development (the physical benefits are then a by-product). It creates an environment where new cells can grow and thrive, also known as neurogenesis.
• Getting more oxygen to the brain improves the learning state of the student.

Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=u3PJV-POIuMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=kinesthetic+learning&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false

Simulation Video #1: Romeo & Juliet

I'm doing a little happy dance right now. No, it's not a kinesthetic learning activity--I am just excited about how cool my simulation turned out! Although my "students" were college-age, it was so benefical to construct and implement an action strategy on my own regard. I myself am a kinesthetic learner, so I usually learn best by "doing" and applying concepts hands-on.

For this simulation, my students were 10th graders studying Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.  The action strategy was called "Good Angel, Bad Angel". Ally is on the left playing Juliet Capulet. Carlie and Josie are Juliet's bad/good angels on either side. Each of the angels tells Juliet what to do about marrying Paris. This is a "hotseat" enactment technique. It can also be done with larger groups--the group members would need to collaborate and decide what is the best advice to give. Then a designated student would act as the main character. This strategy works well to enhance understanding of character motives It also helps students better make connections between the text and their personal thoughts/emotions.

Check it out @ http://youtu.be/ErV75DJfANs

Jeffrey Wilhelm=Kinesthetic Guru!

The following list of action strategies are from Jeffery D. Wilhelm's book Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension. It seems Wilhelm is quite a big name in the realm of kinesthetic learning in literacy education! He will be a go-to person for this personal research journey. He presents a plethora of unique and seemingly effective ideas. After combing through his book, I have compiled a list of favorites. You can find the document under "Caitlin's Pages" on the right sidebar. The tab is labeled "Favorite Action Strategies!" I have added short descriptions to help you better understand the main concepts.

Here is the souce citation, if you'd like to check out his book on your own:
Wilhelm, Jeffery D. Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension: Role Plays, Text-Structure Tableaux, Talking Statues, and Other Enactment Techniques That Engage Students With Text. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2002.

He wrote a supplementary title called You Gotta BE the Book (Teacher College Press).

Link to First Article on Kinesthetic Learning

The link at the bottom is to an article I found on implementing kinesthetic learning into the classroom. I especially liked how the author layed out feasible steps to organizing a kinesthetic learning activity. It labels educators wrong in thinking kinesthetic learning is simply incorporating simple little things into already planned out lessons (i.e. walking to the front to get papers). There were several important questions from this source, that would prove helpful to hang out to! They are listed below:

First, how could students misinterpret the rules? If

they do, how will you get them back on track? Second, how many times will the activity

be performed? Is there a purpose in repeating the activity? Will repeated the activity

result in the same outcome? Lastly, are there variations of the activity that will highlight

nuisances of a concept or introduce a more advanced topic?


Link to article: http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/jvt002/Teaching/ASEE2008-Tranquillo-FinalPaper.pdf

The article also brought up valuable assessment/evaluation strategy ideas for kinesthetic learning. I was glad to see this, because I did have reservations about how to assess (either formally or informally) action strategies. They are less likely to produce a tangile product, like a written activity or objective test. One idea this author had was post-processing and why it is important. I added a quote about it below.

"Post-processing may take many forms including minute papers, out-of-class assignments

or class discussions. If a discussion is to be conducted, it is helpful to have an outline of

questions, prepared in advance, to keep the dialog moving forward. One simple question

is to ask for modifications to the activity that may have analogies to the concept. An

interesting variation is to split the class into groups. Each group develops their own

interpretation of the meaning of the activity, which they share and discuss with another

group."

Welcome!

Hi All! Welcome to my blog on kinesthetic movement in literacy education. I will be doing research on action strategies, kinesthetic activites, and movement techniques in the English Education field. I am excited to learn more about this learning style, and will offer you some great examples of what I find. I hope you've stretched a little, because it's time to move into action!