Institute/Session Summary:

This is intended to be a practical and interactive session that will demonstrate how to incorporate current brain research principles into effective teaching strategies in developmental reading courses. I will discuss some of the common skills taught in developmental reading courses and specifically address ways to create lessons that build neural pathways for reading. As a developmental reading instructor, I am constantly looking for ways to effectively teach my students. This session will provide other instructors with ideas that can be taken home and put to practice in the classroom.

• Participants will leave the session with at least one usable idea to take to their classroom.
• Participants will have some basic guidelines for attempting to create their own neuronal building activities.
• Participants will have the chance to collaborate with colleagues and begin the process of developing a lesson plan for their own use.

This is a very relevant and timely topic. Dr. Janet Zadina Ph.D. (Tulane University School of Medicine) states in her workshop, “Using Brain Research to Enhance and Energize Instruction,” that when a student first experiences a concept a pathway is “fired”. A potential neuronal network can be formed if the firing is followed by meaningful practice. Eventually the student understands the concept and the process is said to be “wired.” We, as instructors, are trying to understand how to effectively reach and engage our students. Our developmental students are not “wired” as readers. Most of us who teach them, love to read. We are “wired” to read. We need to collaborate and have the opportunity to “put our brains together,” so to speak, and develop effective strategies to reach these unwired readers and get the process started. Then they will be much more receptive to the lessons that follow.

Dr. Zadina has also stated that learning does not take place while the instructor is talking. Learning takes place as the students reassemble the concepts and synthesize the information through relevant practice. This session will provide the opportunity for the instructors to reassemble and put into practice the various concepts they have been taught for effectively building those neuronal networks. Although this session is inspired by what I have learned through Dr. Zadina’s presentation of the above workshop, as well as her talk on the Mystery of Attention, participants will benefit from this session even if they have never heard any of Dr. Zadina’s presentations.

The session will unfold in this manner:

1. Brief introduction of the brain research principle being used in this session: For effective learning, you need to build a neuronal pathway and then name it. In other words, allow the students to experience the concept, perhaps even define it. Only after this has happened will the instructor then identify the concept with specific terminology.
2. Participants engage in a learning activity that demonstrates this principle. They will complete a task that demonstrates a reading concept without using written words.
3. We will discuss the activity and I will relate the processes of the activity to the way that the brain learns new information.
4. The rest of the session will allow for discussion of the activity itself and also allow the group to brainstorm ideas for additional activities for other reading concepts. These additional activities can involve visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or tactile learning. If there are any instructors of other courses such as writing, math, or tutors in other content areas in the session, they will be able to group together and decide how they could apply the ideas to their content area.
5. V. As the session ends, we will sum up the ideas generated and the principles learned.

To keep things convenient for the CRLA planning committee, I can track ideas generated on a flip chart. Following the session I can type up all the ideas and E-mail them to all participants. If CRLA wants me to make a list available to the group at large, that could also be done.

I will prepare a handout for all who attend. This will include all the information necessary to implement the classroom activity that I will demonstrate for them.

Note: My comments referencing Dr. Janet Zadina’s workshop are based on my notes from her lecture at North Harris College, April 10, 2007. If there are any inaccuracies in those paraphrases, any error should be attributed to me.

Presenter1 Name: Ursula Sohns
Presenter1 Institution: North Harris College
Presenter1 Bio: Ursula Sohns has an M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Houston. She teaches developmental reading at North Harris College in Houston Texas. This college is part of the five campus system of the North Harris Montgomery County College District (NHMCCD).