The setting for this anticipation? I was reading him "The Lorax," which he has heard many times before. When we caught our first glimpse of the Onceler in his lerkim on top of his store, I wondered aloud, “Who do those green arms belong to?”
Why does my grandson claim he doesn’t know, when he certainly does? Why is he so excited about finding out what he’s pretending he doesn’t know?
I suddenly remembered the explanation in the professional book I was reading about how our brains are wired to seek patterns, and when we match a new experience to the pattern we had predicted it would fit, it sparks a dopamine release. In small children, this looks like the joy they get in matching each newly experienced reading of the same book to the pattern they’ve come to expect.
It will take more variation from the original pattern as kids get older, but the same behavior and response is definitely there. In literature I recognize it in the shock of pleasure as I recognize foreshadowing, a word I’ve just learned, the revelation of something I’d suspected, a connection with something I’ve experienced, or the perfectly appropriate conclusion. In writing it happens when I find just the right idea, word, phrase, sentence, quote, example, or organization to communicate what I want to say—and especially when I get a response from a reader confirming that it was, indeed, just right.
The marvelous thing about this dopamine shot is it's a 3-for-1 when it comes to learning. Not only does it make learning fun by giving immediate pleasure and satisfaction, it also sets the brain up for more learning by making the brain want to repeat the experience and by creating an even more conducive state for learning: “Concomitant effects include enhanced attentive focus, motivation, curiosity, memory, persistence and perseverance” (10). And who doesn’t want that in their classroom?
That’s just one example of the insights in Upgrade Your Teaching: Understanding by Design Meets Neuroscience by Jay McTighe and Jury Willis, M.D. There are many more where that comes from. Having read and discussed the original Understanding by Design several times and helped with the revision of two schools’ curricula based on the model, and being aware of some of the new brain research coming out with specific application to learning and schools, I was really interested in seeing how this book would bring the two together. It was well worth the read.
In fact, if you haven’t read Understanding by Design, you could read this instead—then you’d get an introduction to both. The first two chapters are an overview of neuroscience and Understanding by Design (UbD) respectively. Chapters 3 - 6 go into more depth about using the UbD framework to plan curriculum, assessment, and instruction that fit how the brain works best. The curriculum chapter focuses on goals both for and by students; the assessment chapter on both formative and summative assessment; and the two instruction chapters on teaching for memory acquisition, meaning making, and transfer and on lesson planning. The final chapter adds to the topics previously included in UbD to include how it and brain science address recent discussion of the social and emotional factors that affect learning (SEL) in “Creating a Brain-Friendly Classroom Climate.” All of the chapters feature not only clear explanations but also specific examples of how to apply the principles.
The first chapter’s neuroscience overview is important because it sets the stage for the rest of the book. All subsequent chapters reference how the elements of UbD and SEL address and utilize the brain’s wiring to enhance learning and minimize interference. Topics the first chapter introduces are the brain’s attention filter; the amygdala; fixed/growth mindsets; pattern-seeking; dopamine; neuroplasticity; short-term, long-term, and concept memory construction; and the video game model. The video game model is a brain-based explanation for why kids find this kind of learning addictive: video games provide desirable goals, achievable challenges, constant assessment with specific feedback, acknowledgement of progress and achievement. The rest of the book applies this content to teaching vis a vis UbD. (You can actually read chapters 1 and 3 from this link.)
I love learning why the things that work well in my class do, and how to intentionally do them better and more. I could also add after reading this book, I love the dopamine dose that comes from encountering a new lesson or student issue, recognizing how it may fit a pattern I’ve encountered before, and experiencing success in my response. In fact, now that I think about it, I’m sure it was a little dose of dopamine that caused the joy I felt in recognizing my grandson’s response as an example of what I’d just read.
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