Book Description
"Marcia Tate has done it! This is the most practical application of the brain compatible and learning styles research I've ever seen. The twenty strategies will make learning fun again. Every teacher should explore the rich resource for teaching offered in this book!"
—William Bender, Professor
University of Georgia
"When teachers in all schools integrate Tate's 20 instructional strategies into classroom instruction, school will become a place where all children can experience success regardless of their learning style."
—Linda Aikens-Young, Principal
C.J. Hicks Elementary School, Conyers, GA
Design fascinating activities and inspire active learning with proven teaching tools!
Attention spans, subject interest, learning styles, and even levels of understanding vary from student to student. Just as every student is different, teachers have their own personalities and teaching styles. Yet years of research confirm that certain teaching tools awaken the desire to learn in students by engaging their brains. And once their brains are engaged, synthesis, and retention of information will soar!
Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites targets teachers as "growers of brain cells" and encourages them to make practical application of the findings of learning style theorists and neuroscientists. Tactile learners, spatial thinkers, and logical minds alike will become eager students as the strategies in this handbook are implemented. Imagine raising student achievement by meeting the learning needs of each student and increasing subject matter understanding, all while enjoying teaching and learning. Marcia Tate demonstrates 20 strategies, including:
- Using humor and telling stories
- Implementing problem-based instruction
- Incorporating games into lessons
- Utilizing mnemonic devices and metaphors
- And even singing and dancing while learning
Actively engaging students in the learning process is the best way for them to succeed in school—and in life. Give them an edge by growing their dendrites!
Also see:
Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites (Multimedia Kit)Â
Customer Reviews:
From 2 Points of View.......2006-08-05
First and foremost, I am sorry that two readers have not had a positive experience from this book; however, they sound like they are 90 year old teachers who have forgotten why they entered the profession of teaching in the first place. Fill out the retirement papers and go home!
In order to teach a child, we must look at the changes that have occured in the way children learn. With many more students dealing with disorders such as A.D.D. and Opositional Defiance Disorder, our classrooms have drastically changed, and students are dealing with issues today that did not exist five years ago when I was in high school. Therefore, this supports the idea that many of us did not learn the same way as our mothers; I learned in a more technologically up-to-date classroom with access to more media, etc...
The Student Point of View:
I have been a student in a classroom that uses many of the same strategies that Marcia Tate offers in her book Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites, and I absolutely loved the hands on approach that my teachers would provide after reading one of her books or attending a workshop. (Constructivism works!) My classmates were always much more involved with the activities. I can remember some of the cool experiements that my chemistry teacher did with us that if she had not followed with Tate's ideas I doubt I could have even recalled my lab partner's name.
Teacher Point of View:
Furthermore, I have just finished teaching my very first class. I can't say that I am an expert teacher (hopefully, I will be!). However, I can say that based on my evaluations and state test scores, I exceded first year teacher expectations. Also, I had fewer discipline problems than my counterparts, and many of my students went running to the principal telling him how much they had learned from my class. I am not good enough yet to have students bragging on me like that or at teaching the skills necessary to score high on those state/federal tests. But, I used several of Tate's suggestions in my classroom, and I could tell a drastic difference in my abilities. Whatever I was teaching was actually getting across to my students. Moreover, the class that I am referring to was a class of 20 students who had failed this class at least once and at most three times. I am not an experienced enough teacher to get the types of results I got from those students. These failures each became successes. I would recommend any beginning teacher or experienced teacher to read her books or take a workshop with Tate. Afterall, education is a changing process.
I love this book!! Judge it for yourself!!.......2005-01-29
I wish I had this years ago. My kids love it and soaking up everything we do. This half of the year is going great!! I've never had a class so interested in anything!
Excellent book for teachers who WANT to learn.......2004-02-23
For those great teachers out there, they will find they naturally use many of the strategies in this book. This books puts them all in one place and give you more ideas as well as the research to back them up. I do feel sorry for the rater that is having this approached forced on him or her. I am afraid to say that learner centered education is far from "trendy" nor is a constructivists approach to learning. Just throwing the books at the teachers not modeling the approach for even in teacher education, the adults should also construct meaning in their learning. I do agree with the reader that some teaching methods take more time upfront and there is a lot of pressure on teachers to hit all the standards but if retention is key, spend a little more time on the front end and they will retain it after a test rather than just for the test. This book is great if you want 20 specific ideas for injecting new way to learn in your classroom. It is not an all to nothing approach, just try one new thing while maintaining you own teaching style. Those teachers who are stuck in there own methods and fearful of sharing control of the learning with their students will have a hard time with this book.
Missing Pieces.......2003-10-15
I have been in early childhood education for 12 years. Within those 12 years, drastic changes have taken place. Year after year students come to my class with less knowledge. Everyday I try to find a new or better way to teach objectives. I have found that students need hands-on activities that help build the missing pieces of their educational foundation.
"Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites" by Dr. Marcia Tate has been extremely helpful to me. I know you can't totally do away with all worksheets, but today's students need more than that. They need movement, music, manipulatives, and visuals in order to retain what they are expected to learn.
Thanks to Dr. Tate's book, I have another resource to use instead of the regular old "paper-pencil" method.
Strongly Disagree.......2003-05-30
This workbook is being forced on us in the school where I teach. I have to say that I strongly disagree with the ideas presented, but I don't have a choice of whether or not I want to use them in my classroom. If you have a choice, I firmly urge you to do some research on teaching methods. I don't mean "brain-based" research, psychological research, or any kind of research on "how children learn." I mean look for long-term, consensus research on methods that have been proven to work in the classroom. To adopt nonconsensus science as the basis of school policy is to conduct very perilous human experimentation on a large scale without license and with little hope of practical success.
"This theory is very popular among trendy education thinkers and professors. It holds that children learn best by discovering knowledge for themselves through hands-on projects and problem solving, rather than reading something out of a textbook or taking down what the teacher says. The idea is that knowledge you acquire for yourself is more likely to be understood and retained than a piece of information handed to you by someone else.
This view of education is seductive. It sounds so natural, energetic, and ambitious. Taken in moderation, it makes sense. As we all know, the lessons we figure out for ourselves tend to sink in deepest and stick with us longest. It is also true that there are some topics, subjects, and assignments where discovery learning is important. A lab experiment in science, for example, is a form of discovery learning. So is making a map of the school grounds, and collecting and classifying leaves. A good education obviously includes such activities. Virtually no one believes that learning should consist only of listening to teachers and reading from textbooks.
But discovery learning has real limitations in practice when schools try to turn it into the main way children learn academic lessons. First, it is truly inefficient. Having children figure out mathematical operations, for example, by playing games and making things takes a lot of time. There are not enough hours in the school year for students to unearth all there is to know on their own. When you rely on children to "construct" knowledge or skills-rather than systematically introducing material to them-learning can become a disorganized and time-consuming process. Mathematics is a highly structured body of knowledge and does not lend itself to haphazard learning. Second, unless the teacher is ready with corrections, a lot of things one "discovers" for oneself turn out to be wrong. Third, in some places discovery learning becomes a vehicle to reject the idea that there are important skills and information that all children should learn.
To many in the education establishment, the mental process of searching for answers is far more important than mastering any particular body of knowledge. What matters most to them is "learning how to learn." Schools are enthusiastic about making sure students acquire "higher-order thinking skills." Learning goals typically call for teaching kids to "think critically" and "solve problems." Give children the skills to find information and reflect upon it, the argument goes, and they'll become "lifelong learners." There's no need to force them into demonstrating specific knowledge. The problem with this rationale, of course, is that skills don't help students much without knowledge to apply them to. Modern education philosophy seems to have forgotten that knowledge makes you smarter. People we think of as creative geniuses are "brilliant" in large part because they have devoted long years to mastering knowledge in a particular field; what they know has become second nature, and their minds are free to focus and invent."
-The Educated Child
"Watching schools implement untested theories about "kinesthetic," or other intelligences when they can't teach reading looks suspiciously like one more fad. The hard truth is that today's youngsters, as never before, must hone their academic skills. Knowledge pays and pays handsomely; ignorance costs more than we can afford, individually or socially. Schools may want to teach English, mathematics, or physics by using music, dance, or football, but they cannot be permitted to lose sight of their academic mission."
-10 Traits of Highly Successful Schools
Book Description
This important resource offers diagnostic tools, remedial techniques, sample lessons, and worksheets to quickly identify students with learning deficits, improve their academic performance, and bolster their self-esteem. Includes assessment forms, problem-specific solutions, and intervention techniques.
Customer Reviews:
Ongoing Professional Development.......2007-10-18
I represent a private, non-profit organization that provides evaluation and tutoring services for children K-8. We strongly believe in professional development in order to maintain a high level of competency in the field of education. When our teachers have an opening in their schedule, they select books like this to review, to reflect and to write a summary, which is submitted to me for review and professional credit. Our entire teaching staff has found this book to be a good resource.
Very Useful Book.......2007-04-11
I found this book to be useful and very informative concerning special education. It covered testing, laws, terms and definitions. I've been using it to study for the Praxis Special Ed exams and feel that I will be well prepared.
Excellent Resource for the LD .......2007-03-09
I am a preservice teacher and am studying special education. I saw this book on Amazon and was intrigued by the low price. I was so surprised when I received it. It is a wonderful resource for anyone who works with students with LD. It covers the whole gambit from identification, to characteristics, to strategies. It really is a complete handbook and for the price you can't find a better deal. I have found this resource much more useful than my textbooks on LD that cost me upwards 70-80 dollars. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book!
Great resource!.......2006-07-11
As a new resource teacher for my school this was one of the better books I found to help me with real life solutions to teaching learning disabled children. This was a great book for explanations of various learning disabilities and set exercises to use in class for all age groups. I work mostly one on one, but found the activities and strategies easily adaptable for individual use.
Superb Book.......2005-07-07
The best resource book I have come across in many a year. Photocopiable resources covering all areas of the curriculum. Excellent lesson suggestions and outlines.I have found this book so helpful for maths, spelling, writing, handwriting and reading.
Book Description
For teachers, counselors and parents, this comprehensive new resource is filled with up-to-date information and practical strategies to help kids with attention deficits learn to control and change their own behaviors and build the academic, social, and personal skills necessary for success in school and in life. The Kit first explains ADD/ADHD behavior, its biological bases and basic characteristics and describes procedures used for diagnosis and various treatment options. It then details a proven set of training exercises and programs in which teachers, counselors and parents work together to monitor and manage the child's behavior to achieve the desired results.
Customer Reviews:
Through and comprehensive.......2006-12-06
There's certainly no dearth of information or misinformation on ADHD available to the public. However, compiling a comprehensive knowledge base for the newly initiated is a challenge. I came across this book after reading nearly everything the public library had to offer on ADHD. In this book Dr. Flick succinctly puts together an excellent resource on all the evidence-based information on ADHD. He also includes sections on "alternative" treatments that will appeal to some but is careful to indicate where science meets the marketting.
If you're new to ADHD this tome may be a little intimidating. The writing is here is a bit more dry than some other good sources on the subject like Barkley, Rosenthal, Phelan or Hallowell. Also as with all books on ADHD published before 2000-2002 some of the details on medication are out of date. The only serious omission is an explicit section on choosing good professionals to help you manage ADHD. But if you read and assimilate all the information in this book you should become a good judge of whether or not every member of your treatment team is functioning well.
If you are only buying one book on ADHD to keep on your shelf at home this is it.
ADD parent not satisfied!.......2005-09-12
I purchased this *kit* based on the fact it had ideas, activities ... etc. Maybe me having ADD I missed some info on it? When I got it I was surprised to find it was a book! Not a *kit* at all. So I will probably never use it ... unless I was to purchase a copier machine and print off items as needed. I have read some of it and it had good ideas and info. Just not what I had purchased it for at all! =(
what a great resourse.......2005-08-30
this book is an excellent resource. I used it in a class I took and scored an A...
Highly organized and lots of great ideas and methods to get started.
A Must for Parents with ADHD kids.......2005-03-04
This book is an excellent reference for any parent with children having ADHD. It covers so much information, and provides actual ideas and behavior modification plans to start on immediately. Going through the exercises is also very helpful in helping parents understand more clearly the difficulties they are experiencing with their children, and what behaviors they should try to eliminate, which need to be ignored, etc. The book was fairly objective in regards to providing the different treatment options available for ADHD. It should be read by parents of children both on and/or off medication, so that a good solid behavior modification plan get get into place.
brilliant but where was the section on diet????.......2004-10-03
brilliant book but it was like a whole chapter was missing! nothing at all on diet and nutrition, the fundermentals of ADHD. great book but with the diet mentioned, such as the Feingold diet etc this book would be like an ADHD Bible.the strategies etc were superb, well done but please consider THE DIET!
Customer Reviews:
LEARNING STRATEGIES HANDBOOK.......2007-04-14
This book teaches you how to teach learning strategies. This books is not only excellent for ESL students but all of these strategies work equally well for low SES students and all students. This is a book you will refer back to again and again.
Teach your students not just English, but how to learn.......2001-01-16
If you are interested in teaching your students not only ESL, but how to learn, this book is for you. Based on the CALLA method to teaching (as described in Ana Chamot's Calla Handbook) the concept behind this text is to show how to teach students various strategies on how to become better learners and improve memory. With these skills, students are more apt to use higher order thinking skills in the classroom. In this particular book, you will find out how to implement the CALLA system step by step; there are all sorts of charts and reproducible forms for students and teachers to use.
Book Description
"Study Strategies Made Easy" was designed by leading educational specialists to teach valuable study skills to students in grades six through twelve. "Study Strategies Made Easy" will teach students more than what to learn. It will teach students how to learn, and that is the true key to acquiring knowledge. Strategies focus on organizational skills, time management, improving reading comprehension, vocabulary development, communication, how to study for tests effectively, memorization and more. Contains self-tests and reproducible forms to be used by individual students and valuable information for teachers and parents who work with students in developing study strategies. "Study Strategies Made Easy" is the result of exhaustive research and is successfully being used in leading schools and learning centers throughout the United States and Canada.
Customer Reviews:
One of the better books on study skills..........2004-10-24
Among the ten books I have read for this age group, this book is in the top group. It is oriented around learning styles, which may not be immediately understandable or useful to kids who are struggling (it often takes an adult to explain learning styles to a youngster and help the young person practice the understanding), but the sections on communication, reading comprehension, note-taking, homework, memorization, and test-taking were all very good.
One item which is missing from most books of this sort is the concept of "desire." A youngster has to want to improve in order to make gains.
If I were teaching a study skills class to early high schoolers, I probably would use this book. For middle schoolers, I would use Laurie Rozakis' Super Study Skills. For late high schoolers and early college-age students, I would use William Luckie's Study Power.
Good Enough.......2002-10-13
This book does a good job of describing study strategies. However, I think that the book, SURVEY OF 300 A+ STUDENTS: A+ STUDENTS DESCRIBE THEIR ACADEMIC STRATEGIES, by Kenneth Green (from Harvard) is a bit better (which I think deserves 5 stars).
Every student should have this book!.......1999-08-18
Study strategies are often overlooked in school, yet they are the tools students need to succeed. The authors have included many strategies to help kids stay organized, take tests, do research reports, take notes, and study. I would highly recommend this for middle and high school students.
I use this book in my classroom!.......1999-03-23
As a high school English teacher I have always wanted to have a book I could give my students to learn study skills. Study Strategies Made Easy provides practical information and important study skills such as planning for long term reports, how to study for tests, note-taking, organization, and how to improve you memory. These strategies, and the others in this wonderful book, give students the edge they need to be successful.
Book Description
Based on the belief that students learn more effectively through hands-on reinforcement, Practicing College Learning Strategies stresses the critical-thinking, note-taking, and test-taking skills needed for successful completion of the first semester of college and beyond. Class discussion is complemented by a concise presentation of materials and practice, including hands-on activities to enhance the learning strategies presented. In addition, new information on brain research helps students understand the cognitive reasons for why the strategies work.
Note-taking and reading strategies now appear in two chapters, Processing Information from Lectures and Processing Information from Textbooks.
- New! Brain Bytes throughout the text show students how memory strategies work and provide tools to maximize retention, to improve job performance, school achievement, and personal success.
- New! What's Your Advice? exercises at the end of every chapter ask students to synthesize and evaluate what they learn in the form of advice to others.
- New! Students to explore the Internet on Virtual Field Trips to find more about learning strategies introduced in the text.
- New! Chapter openers show more than one variation in concept map design.
- New! Revised memory principles and strategies in Chapter 4 tie memory information to brain research and neuroscience, helping students to better understand how they learn.
- New! Updated coverage of research in Chapter 11 includes using Internet resources and electronic databases.
Book Description
E-learning--the delivery of training and performance support directly to employees' desktops--is exploding in growth and complexity. The 2002 ASTD E-Learning Handbook gives readers the very juiciest, most practical, most recent articles and reference information from leading experts and gurus. Covering E-Learning best practices and useful reviews of the literature, the book gives guidance on getting better results for dollars committed to E-Learning and provides a directory of contact information for key E-Learning organizations, sources, conference schedules, and more.
Books:
- Writing from Sources
- Yookoso! Invitation to Contemporary Japanese Student Edition with Online Learning Center Bind-In Card
- You the Healer: The World-Famous Silva Method on How to Heal Yourself and Others
- 20,000 Secrets of Tea: The Most Effective Ways to Benefit from Nature's Healing Herbs
- A Grammar Book for You and I (Oops, Me): All the Grammar You Need to Succeed in Life (Capital Ideas) (Capital Ideas)
- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- Airport Operations
- All I Need to Know About Manufacturing I Learned in Joe's Garage: World Class Manufacturing Made Simple
- All Together Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 7)
- Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing, The (4th Edition) (MyCompLab Series)
Books Index
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- Flash and Filigree
General
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"Sit and Get" Won't Grow Dentrites: 20 Professional Learning Strategies That Engage the Adult Brain
Shouting Won't Grow Dendrites: 20 Techniques for Managing a Brain-Compatible Classroom
Reading and Language Arts Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites: 17 Literacy Strategies that Engage the Brain
Top Tunes for Teaching: 977 Song Titles & Practical Tools for Choosing the Right Music Every Time
30 Reflective Staff Development Exercises for Educators
