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Diane Dahl's Blog (12)

Printable Bookmarks with Thinking Skills/Thinking Stems/Summaries

I’ve blogged about the successful use of thinking skills in promoting reading comprehension and the huge increase I saw in reading levels here: Reading Levels Jump 5 Months in just 2.5 Months!

I started thinking how great it…

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Added by Diane Dahl on April 28, 2011 at 7:34pm — 2 Comments

Important Metacognitive Thinking Strategies Demonstrated

I've learned through the BrainSMART program that one of the most powerful tools you can give your students is thinking skills. When you or I read (or do math, science, and even everyday life situations), we automatically make predictions, inferences, questions, schema, etc to help us understand and make decisions. Most of us weren’t explicitly taught these skills…we simply figured them out over time. Just imagine the… Continue

Added by Diane Dahl on March 5, 2011 at 5:52pm — No Comments

Wildly Successful Metacognition Lesson!

(To see the post with accompanying photos, please visit my blog at http://www.fortheloveofteaching.net. I can't get the pictures on the ning to look right.)

Today my class was featured in an article in The Edmond Sun. The reporter discussed our growing class brain in…

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Added by Diane Dahl on February 26, 2011 at 7:06pm — No Comments

It's Good Reader Boy! 3:30 Weekdays...

I’ve wanted to come up with a clever way for students to remember their thinking for reading strategies. A list just seems too boring. One thing I’ve learned in BrainSMART is to connect information to parts of the body to make it more memorable. So I came up with this…

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Added by Diane Dahl on February 11, 2011 at 9:46pm — 4 Comments

Student Blogs as a Brain-Based Strategy

Student Blogs as a Brain Based Strategy

I’ve had a wiki for my 2^nd grade classes for a few years now. So I couldn’t see the point in having students blog on top of that. However, a comment by Angie Rumsey on an Edupln blog post had me reverse my thinking and start my students…

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Added by Diane Dahl on January 22, 2011 at 11:01pm — 2 Comments

The Impact of Negative Stress on Learning

The Impact of Stress on Learning

Stress causes changes in the body-brain system and actually inhibits learning. John Medina states on his website Brain Rules that, “Stress damages virtually every kind of cognition that exists. It damages memory and executive function.” This has tremendous implications for teachers.

What Happens in the Brain

You are probably already aware of the physical…

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Added by Diane Dahl on January 17, 2011 at 2:41pm — 2 Comments

Metacognitive Strategies for Reading Comprehension

Students who are taught reading comprehension strategies aremore successful readers. Whilesome students may eventually learn some of these strategies on their own, theycan be taught quite effectively in the early elementary grades. Here are ten reading…

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Added by Diane Dahl on January 10, 2011 at 9:55pm — 10 Comments

The Brain, Processing Speed, and Fluency

The Brain, Processing Speed, and Fluency

More amazing things I’m learning in the BrainSMART graduate program...

Reading is not a natural act for the…

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Added by Diane Dahl on December 9, 2010 at 2:13pm — No Comments

A Brain-Friendly Comprehension Strategy

A Brain Friendly Comprehension Strategy

Sometimes, you just can’t appreciate the potential of a brain-friendly strategy until you try it. Today, I tried the “Oprah Winfrey” interview to help students think more critically

about a story we read. I was…

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Added by Diane Dahl on December 1, 2010 at 9:05pm — 2 Comments

A Fun Way to Build Student Vocabulary

A Fun and Effective way to Build Student Vocabulary

I have to share another fabulous technique I’ve learned in the brilliant BrainSMART program. This technique revolves around vocabulary building.

Why Vocabulary Matters…

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Added by Diane Dahl on November 24, 2010 at 10:51am — No Comments

Strategy to Improve Attention Span

Strategy to Improve Attention Span

If you’ve followed my blog For the Love of Teaching for long, you know I love to blog about things I’m learning in the BrainSMART Masters degree program. I’ve recently discovered something new…

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Added by Diane Dahl on November 22, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments

Student Created Readers Theater

Student Created Readers Theater

I’m trying to create more brain-friendly lessons based on what I am learning in my BrainSMART classes. One point of research suggests that students do much better when their subjects are integrated as much as possible. That gave me another bright idea…… Continue

Added by Diane Dahl on November 22, 2010 at 8:00am — No Comments