Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites: 20 Instructional Strategies That Engage the Brain

You can invest time and effort into perfecting your lesson plans, encouraging good student behaviour, and ensuring your classroom accommodates every learning style. But if your students don’t remember what you teach them, what’s the point?

Banish this concern forever when you use the strategies in this thoroughly updated third edition of Marcia Tate’s bestselling Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites, which details twenty definitive brain-compatible techniques to maximise retention and minimise forgetting in learners of all ages.

Tate’s techniques are drawn from the latest neuroscientific research and learning style theory and are described step-by-step for immediate application in your classroom. Learn how to: 

• Incorporate interactive fun to your existing lessons, including field trips, games, humour, and even music and rap
• Use graphic organisers and word webs to solidify lessons visually
• Facilitate innovative methods of project-based learning

You’ll also benefit from new sample lesson plans, activities, and illustrations that reflect the latest research on how students’ brains develop and function. With this book, your students will retain the information from your classroom for years to come.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Introduction

Strategy 1: Brainstorming and Discussion

Strategy 2: Drawing and Artwork

Strategy 3: Field Trips

Strategy 4: Games

Strategy 5: Graphic Organizers, Semantic Maps, and Word Webs

Strategy 6: Humor

Strategy 7: Manipulatives, Experiments, Labs, and Models

Strategy 8: Metaphors, Analogies, and Similes

Strategy 9: Mnemonic Devices

Strategy 10: Movement

Strategy 11: Music, Rhythm, Rhyme, and Rap

Strategy 12: Project-Based and Problem-Based Learning

Strategy 13: Reciprocal Teaching and Cooperative Learning

Strategy 14: Role Plays, Drama, Pantomimes, and Charades

Strategy 15: Storytelling

Strategy 16: Technology

Strategy 17: Visualization and Guided Imagery

Strategy 18: Visuals

Strategy 19: Work Study and Apprenticeships

Strategy 20: Writing and Journals

Resource A: Brain-Compatible Lesson Plan

Resource B: Graphic Organizers

Bibliography

Index