10/14/2016
Dr. Suzi D’Annolfo
(Know and Understand)
Characteristics of Adolescents
(inclusive of ages 11-18)
2. The current brain research about the
adolescent brain and the implication
for teaching and learning
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Objective: Bridge theory to
practice by
Creating an environment for teaching and
learning maximizing students’ points of
reference (personalization)
2. Synthesizing adolescent brain research to
develop strategies that will impact teaching
and learning and address 21st century skills
and student outcomes
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10/14/2016
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 ROUND THE CLOCK LEARNING BUDDY
1. Put your name on the top of the clock
2. Follow the directions for meeting people
(introduce yourself, firm handshake, eye
contact, speak clearly)
3. Make an appointment with six different
people in the room by entering each other’s
names on your appointment clock
Use the following times for appointments:
7:00; 8:00; 9:00; 10:00; 11:00; and 12:00
MULTIPLE POINTS
OF
REFERENCE
Learn Names
Build Relationships
 Set tone and conditions for year ahead
 Establish routines
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“No significant learning can occur
without students having a significant
relationship” Dr. James Comer (Yale)
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Food and water
Shelter
Safety
Need for affiliation – a sense of belonging
To be cared for (respected; loved)
To have a voice
To have a teacher who is interested in them
and understands the points of reference each
student brings to the classroom
Trust (takes time; varies with students’ PoR)
Each student’s name
One thing about each student (hook)
 “Best way for me to learn” card
 How they see themselves
 What they want people to notice
about them
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Venn Diagram activity
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Socioeconomic status
Family dynamics
Nationality
Student’s transience rate
Parents’ jobs
Home responsibilities
After school work schedule
Previous school experiences
Religious affiliation
English Language Learner status (ELL)
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Technology access and proficiency
Personal interests (sports, music, television,
movies, books, hobbies, other)
Physical health/maturity
Behavior/discipline concerns
Social-emotional learning strengths and
challenges
Existence of Individualized Education Plan
(IEP)
Challenges such as Tourette syndrome,
Asperger ‘ssyndrome, ADHD
Vision or hearing problems
Immigrants or refugees
Traumatic-event history
Gifted/advanced learner
LGBTQ identity and transitions
Leadership qualities
Multiple intelligences – how am I smart?
Myers-Briggs personality profile
 When
we affirm to each
student, “Yes, you exist; I
accept all that you are, and I
value time in your company,” it
opens the door.
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When students from the most
unpromising circumstances, or not,
and grow up to be successful, the
question is often asked, “How did you
get to be who you are?”
 The answer most often begins with
the same four words:
“There was this teacher……..
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 Who
was the best teacher you had
and why? (Elementary, middle, High
school?)
 Who
was the worst teacher you
had and why? (Elementary, middle, high
school?)
What does today’s
information have to do with
my preparation to be a
teacher and my impact on
student learning?
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10/14/2016
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The brain goes through more changes
during adolescence than any other
time except birth to age 2
“ It appears that the brain changes
characteristic of adolescence are
among the most dramatic and
important to occur during the human
life span” (Steinberg, Brain and
Cognition)
LIMBIC SYSTEM: (Amygdala ) – emotional brain
PRE-FRONTAL CORTEX: Executive control system
 Reasoning, decision making, judgments
 Responsible for cognitive processing
 Higher order thinking skills (HOTS)
CORTEX - novelty
MIDBRAIN – hunt for pleasure
LOWER BRAIN – avoid harm
GENDER DEVELOPMENT
ROOT CAUSES
 Risk
Taking
 Sensation seeking
 Preference for being with
peers
 Reward seeking
 Romantic and sexual attraction
to others
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10/14/2016
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Nature has built into the teen brain a
propensity to seek out friends, link up
with partners, and affiliate with
groups of their peers as preparation
for adulthood, when bonds of
friendship, group affiliations, and
relationships with significant others
will form a major part of their social
world.
You are hardwiring your brain in
adolescence. Do you want to hardwire it for sports and playing music
and doing mathematics—or for lying
on the couch in front of the
television?”
“
Jay Giedd quoted in “Adolescent Brains Are
Works in Progress”
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The teenager’s brain is still developing, and
depending on the experiences adolescents
encounter between the ages of 11 and 18,
the brain will wire itself accordingly and
become more or less structurally and
functionally “fixed” in place for the
remainder of their lives. Experiences
adolescents have during this time of life
have huge consequences for their adult
lives.
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1.
Neurogenesis (creation of new
neurons or brain cells) is four-five
times higher among adolescents
than it is among adults.
The environment plays an important
role in generating new neurons
during adolescence.
2. Synaptic pruning: key change that
occurs during adolescence, allowing
unnecessary brain connections to be
eliminated while important
connections are maintained.
Environmental enrichment has a direct
effect on the growth of dendrites in
the brain
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Myelination (myelin insulates nerve fibers,
making electrical transmission of messages
quicker, more efficient, and able to connect
to areas of the brain that had previously been
more diffusely connected.
Myelination increases during adolescence
Environmental influences, including the
repetition of new learning skills, can facilitate
this repeated activation; thus leading to more
myelination.
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10/14/2016
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Between 11-18 the teenage brain is still developing
The brain wires itself according to its experiences
and environmental influences, particularly those
associated with higher-order thinking, executive
functioning, and social and emotional learning
It becomes more or less structurally and
functionally “fixed” for the remainder of their lives
(we never lose it completely, but it’s never better
than in adolescence.)
Thus, adolescents’ experiences (positive or
negative) hold huge consequences for their adult
lives
 In
the functioning of adolescents
by instituting brain-friendly
practices in the classroom that
get to the deeper developmental
needs of adolescents
 And embrace the tremendous
opportunity we have to transform
the neuroplastic adolescent brain
Just because kids are
in their seats
doesn’t mean
they’re present
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Enthusiasm
Interest
Enjoyment
Satisfaction Vitality
Pride
Zest
Boredom
Worry
Anxiety
Shame
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Self-blame
Sadness
Disinterest
Frustration
Anger
How do I feel? (emotional
engagement)
Am I interested?
Is this important? (perceived
importance)
Can I do this? (perception of
efficacy)
(see detailed handout)
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10/14/2016
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Opportunities to choose
Self-awareness activities
Peer learning connections
Affective Learning
Learning through the body
Metacognitive strategies
Expressive arts activities
Real world experiences
(Graphic organizer: Brainstorming Ideas)
Provide Homework Options
Let students pick the books they read
Use student polling
Allow students to create their own projects
Set aside time for passion projects
Permit students to learn at their own rate
Involve students in decisions about school
policy
Provide opportunities for independent study
More control in how their learning is assessed
Erickson suggests adolescence
represents a critical time for the
formation of identity as they are
exposed to new ideas, role
models, friends, and experiences
that have a significant effect on
their explorations of selfformation
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10/14/2016
Dweck’s research on mindset suggests
that students’ beliefs about self,
including such attributes as
intelligence and capability, lead to
self-judgment or self-development,
and that these outcomes in turn can
significantly affect their engagement
and achievement in school.
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Use self-awareness assessments
Have students create
autobiographies
Let students keep their own journals
Connect content to students’
personal lives
Teach students mindfulness
mediation
Adolescents prefer their own company to the
company of children or adults
Peer affiliation is an evolutionary adaptation
that prepares adolescents for the social
cooperation necessary for survival
Neuroimaging shows unique pattern of brain
activation in response to events that involve
social processing of peer relationships
Students are more engaged in learning when
they can interact with their peers
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Establish small learning communities
Engaging students in collaborative
projects
Incorporating peer teaching
Peer mentoring
Peer assessment
Peer mediation
Creating classroom simulations that
involve peer interactions.
During adolescence, human emotions assume a
level of importance not seen since early
childhood and not to be seen ever again.
When students participate in learning activities
that interest them, and do so in low-stress, highengagement states, their brains are in the
physiological state that results in low filter, high
information transport. This condition is
enhanced by choice, personal interest, prior
experience and intrinsic motivation in which
student feels invested.
Be emotionally supportive of your students
(greet them at the door; acknowledge
feelings; give encouragement)
Bring more emotional expression into your
teaching style
Integrate controversy into your lessons
Inject more humor into the classroom
Engage your students’ imagination
Become more aware of adolescent culture
EMOTIONS ARE FUNdamental to learning
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10/14/2016
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“The greater the duration of time in the
chair, the greater the depth of student
despair.”
Eric Jensen, Learning with the Body in Mind
Moderate to vigorous physical exercise is
associated with reduced stress,
increased levels of academic
achievement and improved attention and
behavior in the classroom
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Provide exercise breaks during
class
Integrate drama into the
curriculum
Use physical movement to teach
academic concepts
Engage students in hands-on
activities
Piaget suggests that adolescence brings with
it a totally new kind of thinking that is
qualitatively different from childhood
cognition and referred to this new way of
thinking as the formal operational stage of
cognitive development:
To
To
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think abstractly for the first time
create hypotheses like a scientist
be able to manipulate abstract symbols
think about thinking
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Engage in critical thinking
Demonstrate how to use metacognitive
skills
Help them learn goal setting behaviors
Show them how to think clearly about their
emotions
Teach them how their brains work and why
mindset is important
Break out of conventional thought
processes to inquire about fundamental
issues
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Artistic expression provides an
opportunity for teens to:
channel turbulent energies,
emerging modes of thinking,
 consolidate their identities
 find a sense of meaning for
themselves in a complex and
changing world
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 organize
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Creative writing
Visual composition
Drama and dance
Digital media projects
Musical performances
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Adolescents prefer the challenges & excitement of
real-world experiences to sitting in a classroom
day after day
Real-world learning presents adolescents with
opportunities to wire their brains under conditions
of “hot” cognition, which helps secure connections
between the rational prefrontal cortex and the
emotional limbic system
Engaging in real-world experiences helps boost
students’ academic achievement, motivation, civic
engagement and sense of social responsibility
Play, passion, purpose (Innovators – Wagner)
PROBLEM SOLVING
COLLABORATION
ADAPTABILITY
SELF-DIRECTION
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION & LITERACY
INFORMATION LITERACY
CURIOSITY AND IMAGINATION
Through the eyes of
the learner
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 Sensitive
to their needs and
the existence within which
they must operate
(compassionate, honest,
understanding, eventempered, fair and caring)
 Challenges
them to learn
but is safe from ridicule and
failure (informed, patient,
nonthreatening, motivated,
challenging, encouraging,
and positive)
 The
instruction is informed
yet entertaining and
engaging (creative, funny,
friendly interesting, happy
and different)
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10/14/2016
 Professionals
 Models
from whom they
may learn (motivated,
intense, wise and
dedicated)
 Model their passion
Create your own
MIND MAP
that reflects your synthesis of
what you learned today specific to
the impact on your classroom
environment and strategies for
teaching and learning
Armstrong, Thomas (2016). The Power of the
Adolescent Brain
Gardner, Howard (2006) Five Minds for the
Future
Marzano and Pickering (2011). The Highly
Engaged Classroom
Sousa, David (ed.) (2010). Mind, Brain and
Education
Wagner, Tony (2012). Creating Innovators
Willis, Judith (2007) Strategies for the Brain-
Friendly Classroom in an Inclusive Setting
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