Tuesday, October 5, 2010

"Never Question Ability, Always Improve Strategy"

“Never question ability, always improve strategy.”  That is my favorite quote from the book: BrainSMART 60 Strategies for Boosting Test Scores.  I received this book as part of the BrainSMART Masters Degree program (through Nova Southeastern University), but I noticed it is also available through Amazon… so just had to share!!

BrainSMART 60 Strategies for Boosting Test Scores (by Marcus Conyers and Donna Wilson), provides a wealth (60 to be exact) of research based strategies which can immediately be implemented in your classroom.  However, rather than just throwing a bunch of ideas at us, Conyers and Wilson present a research based foundation for the strategies they suggest. 

Take a look at the chapter titles:
  1. BrainSMART Student Achievement
  2. Ten Key Facts About Your Brilliant Brain
  3. The SMART Model™; The Synergy of Neuroscience and Common Sense
  4. State: The Power to Produce Results
  5. Meaning: How to Make Learning Meaningful in Your Classroom
  6. Attention: How to Gain and Sustain Focused Attention on the Real Work of Learning.
  7. Retention: Teaching with Memory in Mind
  8. Helping Students Transfer Learning from the Classroom to Success on the Test and in Life
  9. Sixty BrainSMART Strategies and Your Own BrainSMART Lesson Planning Guide
Conyers and Wilson provide the BrainSMART acronym which stands for State, Meaning, Attention, Retention, and Transfer.  These are the five components of the BrainSMART model which are fully explained in the book.  Each component has a full section of tools to help transfer that research model into success in the classroom.

You will honestly be thrilled with this book.  I’ve been greedily hoarding mine in my classroom, but I guess I’m going to have to start sharing soon.  I’ve been getting such great results by using the ideas, it would just be WRONG of me to keep it to myself!

So now I have done my good deed for the day…  the resource has been shared.   If you get the book, please let me know which strategies you like best!

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