When planning for student experiences in the classroom, consider the following information:

Average Retention Rate after 24 hours Lecture Reading Audio-Visual Demonstration Discussion Group Practice by Doing Teach Others / Use New Learning 5 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 50 % 75 % 90 % How the Brain Learns David Sousa

Consider these when building student choice into class projects, activities, labs and other experiences … How will students show what they know?

Multiple Intelligence Bodily Kinesthetic role play, exercise, drama, mime, activities, simulations, games, sports Spatial mind-maps, movement, sense of body and distance, drawings, poster charts, memory maps Intrapersonal reflective, thinking, visualization, metacognition, journal writing, self-discovery Mathematical/Logical analysis, prediction, reasoning, problem-solving, proving, cause-effect Naturalist classifying, environment, minerals, insects, plants Verbal-Linguistic stories, debate, humor, dialogs, speech, reading Interpersonal cooperation, partners, teams, pairs, groups, win-win competition Musical-Rhythmic rhymes, music, songs, listening, raps, humming, concert reading

If you are considering activities that will engage students in the writing process, think about these:

Accurate Complete Coherent Evidence Constructed Response Story Word families Hand Signals Role Play Word Pictures Cubing Concept Mapping Charts, Graphs & Tables Pictures Group Reports/ WhiteBoarding Summarizing Multiple Views Comic Strip Word Sort/ Prediction Who or What am I? S.U.B.J.E.C.T. acronym Games Songs, poems Journal Writing Double/Triple Entry

SEED IDEAS assist in… Source How to Think Like Einstein and Thinker Toys …Thinking Ambidextrously …Getting out and staying out of old furrows or ruts …Pulling us out of a rut and giving us a whole new perspective for making new connections, forming new patterns of thinking, and deepening understanding …Freeing your natural brilliance to create new connections and deepen your understanding A LIST OF POSSIBLE SEED IDEAS ON NEXT SLIDE… Try making up one of your own! PLANTING SEEDS… …Marry the concepts to be learned to the seed idea. …Use joke to express the connection …Create a picture to join the ideas …Experience the concept for learning from the point of view of the seed idea …Use the characteristics of the seed idea to form new patterns of thinking about the concept for learning …Consider how the seed idea can be differentiated…example: nail—how is one nail different from another and what new connections to the concept for learning can be made? …Compare and contrast the concept for learning with the seed idea—open or focused. How is concept for learning like…the seed idea? * If the relationship between the seed idea and concept for learning is strong, then the seed idea is inside the rut and may not pull you out.

Possible seed ideas