Part Four--Brains on Fire!

OUR FIRST CURRICULUM

When Katie asked me to work with her to put together a school year we didn’t know what we were doing.  Neither of us had been to a workshop, and I can only think that Katie might have known something about it. I talked to her the other day to find out, but she didn’t remember knowing how to put a year together either. We wrote our first theme school curriculum anyway! 

Our first day of school: Hal IV, Katie, her son Jonathon & daughter Anna doing an inquiry--

It only took us about a month we had a very simple curriculum put together. We chose a theme for the year; five components—five major divisions; and some topics—smaller divisions within the components. We also wrote a rationale—a statement of our plan and purpose for the year theme.  

 INTEGRATED THEMATIC INSTRUCTION AND THE BRAIN

In August 1990, our curriculum was pretty much complete. Then Katie and I attended a workshop given by Karen and her sister Cynthy.  (I now know that we went to the Redlands Smiley Library, right across the street from the Redlands Bowl where we attend the Redlands' Shakespeare Festival. I didn't know where we were then because I was so new to Southern California).

Karen and Cynthy had attended a Susan Kovalik seminar for school teachers to learn how to put together a year-long theme. Susan Kovalik took the current brain research and translated it into a working classroom model called Integrated Thematic Instruction, from which Karen’s EPIC Adventures sprang.  Susan said that she would never publish a thematic year curriculum because she felt that no one could do it justice, not even herself.  But when Karen and her sister left that seminar, and wrote their very first thematic curriculum Adventure Down the Mississippi, according to the ITI model, Susan published it.  I obviously learned from the best.

The workshop Katie and I attended focused on how children learn and what we can do to enhance learning. It was at this workshop that I was first introduced to modalities—visual, auditory and kinesthetic; Bloom’s Taxomony of Cognitive Objectives—the six levels of learning; Howard Gardener’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences; brain-compatible elements of learning, and the structure of the brain. 

Here is an ultra-simple explanation of the physiological process of learning:

Learning is the result of dendrite growth on brain cells or neurons. Dendrites grow through experiences.

 

The denser the dendrite growth, the more intelligent the person. Newborns have little dendrite growth, along with older people if they let their brains atrophy. In fact if a person is put in a room with no stimulation, dendrites begin to die after just four days. 

“Numerous studies suggest that the brains of spectators, however rich the visual images, [like television], are no different from those brains which live in impoverished environments. In other words, if there is no active involvement, there is minimal activity in the brain.” (Susan Kovalik)

 

The dendrites conduct electrical stimulation between neurons, which means that when we learn our brains are literally on fire!  

 

The brain research backs up the idea of thematic instruction: we share some key points, (not the whole encyclopedia),  in a stimulating way with the children for just 11-16 minutes tops, and then get out of the way and let the kids experience something through what we call inquiries—an activity that will let them work with the key point information.

 A BRAIN WEEK

After the Karen’s workshop Katie and I put together an entire week dedicated to teaching our children how their brains work and why we would be learning in this new pattern, using the ITI model.

That first day of school Katie shared a poem she wrote called, Witty Witty Wizard, (I illustrated it).

I shared some simple brain key points with the children and then we all made our own models of a neuron, complete with dendrites. 

 Katie's daughter, Cherie, and Hal IV attach 'dendrites' to their 'neurons.'

I still remember how I felt watching the lights go on in their heads during this first magical day of thematic learning. 



The kids got it immediately! They were so excited to make their own neurons because they had just experienced a fun introduction to their brains and then could do something with that information. As I watched their excitement I couldn’t help crying. I remember thinking that this was real learning.

Jasmyn and Amber show us their dendrite-dense neurons.

Years later we wrote this in our book, A Noble Birthright: Defenders of the Title of Liberty:

“When we want to learn about something we start gathering information—writing for it, asking or looking at the library, bookstores… We might try to talk to someone who knows about what we would like to study or know how to do it. Then we read and begin to work with the information by trying out our knowledge on a project, etc. It’s natural to seek knowledge and then try to use the information in some way. It is not natural or satisfying to seek information and then answer a list of questions about it.  That would seem pointless. The process of inquiry is active and involved and very satisfying for all of us.”  

“Page 67 cannot awaken a child’s love for learning.”  (Noble Birthright, p. 14-15, 7)

After that first day and ever since, whenever a light goes off in our brains our family says, “I made a dendrite!” Just the other day Giselle told me that I had made a dendrite because of something new I understood. 

Years later, when Karen and I spoke at conferences and workshops, we called our presentation-- Brains on Fire, Hearts on Fire!  because that's what happens when real learning occurs.  

Learn about dendrites and neurons here