Annotated Bibliography 2

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Annotated Bibliography 2

Jewell, Mary. (2015). LTELs: Lesson Chunking and Brain Breaks on the Road to a Growth Mindset. Web log. Retrieved from http://edge.ascd.org/blogpost/ltels-lesson-chunking-and-brain-breaks-on-the-road-to-a-growth-mindset

This teacher’s blog post shares strategies in initiating brain breaks paired with “lesson chunking”, she suggests that together they demonstrate the goal of working toward a growth mindset. I find this blog post useful to my inquiry in that she has ideas that comes from her lived experiences in the classroom using brain breaks and lesson chunking, which I am not familiar with. The one thing that is not clear to me is her reference to “LTELs”; I don’t know what this acronym represents. However, her ideas are inspirational because it incorporates the two main parts of my inquiry, brain breaks and mindset.

Schwartz, Katrina. (2015). How To Weave Growth Mindset Into School Culture. In MindShift. KQED News. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/10/02/how-to-weave-growth-mindset-into-school-culture/

I have learned that growth mindset is a rapidly growing approach to teaching and learning. Throughout my research I have come across many teachers that have incorporated this way of thinking and being into their own pedagogy in one way or another. According to this article, growth mindset is a chance for students to challenge themselves and to grow from that challenge and from being uncomfortable; my inquiry is about the benefit of brain breaks, many students have never participated in brain breaks and they may be left feeling uncomfortable in participating. I want to explore the pairing of the growth mindset and various types of brain breaks that can help students grow in their learning.

Smith, Mike. (2013). Brain Break 1. YouTube. YouTube.com. Retrieved on February 23, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7jWtL7XLAk

In this video the teacher incorporates a physical activity with subject content; this brain break covers math and skip counting as well as spelling. I think that the marriage of these two activities is a brilliant strategy in that it allows students extra practice on challenging content but in a fun way. In the video the teacher, Mike Smith, gets his students to do squats and count the number of squats by threes with a goal to count to eighteen; in addition, the teacher also uses the physical exercise of elbow to opposite knee to spell words from the spelling list, I think that this process of incorporating physical movement with cognitive development helps with retention. I can see myself using this strategy to reinforce concepts that I want my students to remember. The teacher also demonstrates brain breaks that would help calm students after engaging in the physical breaks; I like how the diverseness of these activities are practical and teacher led rather than just showing a video for students to follow along to. I think this will engage the students more to see their teacher participating too.

 

Smith, Mike. 2013. Brain Break 2. YouTube. YouTube.com. Retrieved on February 23, 2017, from .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFkVjzKoqLA

This video demonstrated to me that a brain break could consist of activities that can be fun and engaging without having to be physically strenuous or meditative. In this brain break, the teacher demonstrates the activity first, then gets the students to pair up and try the activity. This give the teacher time to walk around and assess student engagement. I plan on using this activity in my classroom because it gets the students a chance to do a small brain twister using the physical body and he brain simultaneously.

WisconsinDPI. (2011). Classroom Yoga. YouTube. YouTube.com. Retrieved on February 23, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeXuf7sOpzA

The students in this video are a bit younger so the teacher uses words that are catered to that age group; I find that yoga in the classroom is a hook in itself. In order to incorporate any form of activity like yoga I think it would have to be established early in the year and that it should be a part of the daily classroom routine. Yoga has the ability to relax or energize so knowing your individual students is critical for the success of this type of brain break.

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