Research-based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning: Insights from a Neurologist And Classroom Teacher 
asked by anton584 on October 31, 2006 11:13 PM
Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning is the first book for educators written by an author who is both a neurologist and a classroom teacher. Dr. Willis used her neurology expertise to examine the past two decades of learning-centered brain research. Using her background and experience as a clinical neurologist and neuroscience researcher, she sifted through the abundance of neuroimaging and brain mapping information. She assessed what information was both valid and relevant to education. She then employed her training and experience as a classroom teacher to provide strategies for implementing the best of this research in the classroom. She brings this knowledge to life in a comprehensive and accessible style.
Teachers will be introduced to strategies that will work in their own classrooms. These strategies will help teachers improve student memory, learning, and test-taking success. Teachers will also learn how to captivate and hold students' attention.
Dr. Willis takes a reader-friendly approach to neuroscience, describing instructional strategies that are adaptable for grades K through 12. Through statistical data, individual student stories, and her own experiences using these strategies with elementary and middle school students, Dr. Willis provides teachers with a wealth of information they will want to start using in their classrooms before finishing the book.
The book includes learning strategies that have come from research about how stress and emotion affect learning. Willis describes assessment techniques that not only assess authentically and with diversity, but also teach while assessing. This book will become one that teachers will return to again and again to pick up new strategies to make their own.
Reviews
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This book also helped me find the missing pieces of the puzzle. I don't usually read my mom's books but I read this one. It is interesting and fun to read.
reviewed by daddyadd on November 1, 2006 5:36 PM
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I bought this book because I know there is a great deal of information out there claiming to be "brain-based" research or teaching strategies and I wanted to know what to believe. When I saw that the author was both a neurologist and a classroom teacher I hoped that the book would show me which research was valid and important. I was more than satisfied
Do you know that feeling of trying to find a piece of the puzzle, when you are working with a child? If you could just find that last piece everything would come together and that child would be successful? Well, this book gives you the strategies to find that last piece. I thought I would use the book as a reference, but when I started reading Willis's book her writing style was so easy to connect with that I read the book cover to cover. It is the kind of book that you read, then are able to use the strategies presented. Then you continue on and practice new techniques. You might reread a chapter because you know that you are learning something valuable for children. It also confirmed that many things that I am presently doing are right on track.
You know this author is writing for the purpose of truly helping children because you can feel her excitement when discussing brain based science strategies. Now that I know more about how the brain processes information, I feel more able to explain my teaching strategies to others. When I started teaching over twenty years ago I didn't think that words like "amygdala" and "reticular activating system" would be part of my vocabulary. Willis's book demonstrated the importance of teaching in sync with how these parts of the brain work. I know the educators who design curriculum and tests will read this book and realize that we can do more to motivate students and help them connect with the knowledge we can offer them.
I see how these strategies also help to get student's attention and keep their focus. I highly recommend Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning for teachers, special education specialists, speech therapists, administrators, and resource specialists in all grades elementary through high school. The research is current and well presented and the strategies are coherently connected to the research. The "Gray Matter" sections go into interesting details about the structure and function of the parts of the brain involved in learning and the Glossary is comprehensive. This book really helped me find the missing pieces of the puzzle. That's what teaching is all about.
Judy Gamboa
Resource Teacher
Marana School District
Learning Disability Association of Arizona- Board Member-2006
Do you know that feeling of trying to find a piece of the puzzle, when you are working with a child? If you could just find that last piece everything would come together and that child would be successful? Well, this book gives you the strategies to find that last piece. I thought I would use the book as a reference, but when I started reading Willis's book her writing style was so easy to connect with that I read the book cover to cover. It is the kind of book that you read, then are able to use the strategies presented. Then you continue on and practice new techniques. You might reread a chapter because you know that you are learning something valuable for children. It also confirmed that many things that I am presently doing are right on track.
You know this author is writing for the purpose of truly helping children because you can feel her excitement when discussing brain based science strategies. Now that I know more about how the brain processes information, I feel more able to explain my teaching strategies to others. When I started teaching over twenty years ago I didn't think that words like "amygdala" and "reticular activating system" would be part of my vocabulary. Willis's book demonstrated the importance of teaching in sync with how these parts of the brain work. I know the educators who design curriculum and tests will read this book and realize that we can do more to motivate students and help them connect with the knowledge we can offer them.
I see how these strategies also help to get student's attention and keep their focus. I highly recommend Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning for teachers, special education specialists, speech therapists, administrators, and resource specialists in all grades elementary through high school. The research is current and well presented and the strategies are coherently connected to the research. The "Gray Matter" sections go into interesting details about the structure and function of the parts of the brain involved in learning and the Glossary is comprehensive. This book really helped me find the missing pieces of the puzzle. That's what teaching is all about.
Judy Gamboa
Resource Teacher
Marana School District
Learning Disability Association of Arizona- Board Member-2006
reviewed by bestseller on November 3, 2006 9:51 PM
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Dr. Willis is a unique blend of common sense, humor and brains. Judy is a rarity being both a "brain" doctor, and a classroom teacher. She cares about her students, and works tirelessly with her students and on-going research. This book gives you interesting medical facts, then applies it directly to classroom strategies.
I've always taught using a multi-sensory approach, but now I know why I do it! This book will back up what you know--and what you do in the classroom. I've had a lot of fun "surprising" the brains of my students using Judy's ideas. Now I have this book, my own neurologist/teacher in my backpack of tricks.
PS I love the glossary!
Joan P. Brown
I've always taught using a multi-sensory approach, but now I know why I do it! This book will back up what you know--and what you do in the classroom. I've had a lot of fun "surprising" the brains of my students using Judy's ideas. Now I have this book, my own neurologist/teacher in my backpack of tricks.
PS I love the glossary!
Joan P. Brown
reviewed by mountaindew on November 5, 2006 4:07 AM