The Whole Brain Solution: Thinking Tools to Help Students Observe, make Connections and Solve Problems
Publication Type:
Web ArticleYear of Publication:
2003Abstract:
Mary K. Tedrow, a Virginia teacher, says that Armstrong has “collected teaching strategies and grouped them into chapters reflecting the kind of thinking accomplished (observing, making analogies, connecting, asking questions).
Citation: Armstrong, T. (2003). The whole brain solution: thinking tools to help students observe, make connections and solve problems. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers (Pembroke Publishers).
Full Text:
By Tricia Armstrong
2003 (166 pp./paperback)
Pembroke Publishers (Stenhouse)
ISBN: 1-55138-156-7
$19.00
Reviewed by Mary K. Tedrow
Millbrook High School
Frederick County, VA
What is going on in Canada? In my sideline as a freelance writer for a parent newsletter, very frequently the resources I find that are based on the latest educational theories, or are hands-on, student-empowered exercises, or return the responsibility for learning to the student come out of Canada or the United Kingdom. And here are two titles that reinforce the idea that the real reform in education is going on to our north. The Whole Brain Solution and Thinking Visually are two new titles from Pembroke Publishers in, you guessed it, Ontario, Canada.
If you've been reading up on brain research and are wondering how to incorporate strategies that make the most out of what we know about how we learn, The Whole Brain Solution is a good resource. Subtitled Thinking tools to help students observe, make connections, and solve problems it is not a theory book, but one of practical application. I plan to use selections from the book when my students need to connect old knowledge to new or think in divergent ways.
Tricia Armstrong has collected teaching strategies and grouped them into chapters reflecting the kind of thinking accomplished (observing, making analogies, connecting, asking questions). The lesson plans and reproducible handouts included are open-ended enough to adapt to any subject area. For some activities, Armstrong has included specific suggestions for making cross-curricular changes.
Many of the activities move the responsibility for learning to the student by examining thinking and setting goals for improvement. Students are introduced to the value of an open mind and how we should never consider that learning is 'done.' Some of the activities are ones I remember as "brain teasers" from my own childhood, but it is good to have these mind exercises all in one place.
I wouldn't recommend reading The Whole Brain Solution from front to back. It's a great resource to have on the shelf when you're ready to incorporate brain theory into your classroom.
Interestingly, one of Armstrong's activities in the chapter on Connecting is Mind-Mapping the subject of the second title Thinking Visually.
If you're already convinced of the value of mapping as a means for organizing thinking and helping kids use their visual, auditory and kinesthetic skills, skip the first chapter. It is heavy in theory and reads like a master's thesis. But if you aren't sure that mind mapping is sound educationally, be sure to read Chapter 1. The best teachers know why they do what they do before implementing new exercises in the classroom.
If you're like me and have been unable to teach mapping because you cannot use it yourself, start with Chapter two and work through the exercises. The book is designed like a good professional development class where the reader/teacher learns by becoming the student and experiencing the activity. The same activities can be done step by step with students who are learning to map on their own. Some of the exercises I found redundant, but strong classroom teachers can make choices based on how much reinforcement a group of students need before going on to the next step.
I confess I have not tried mapping with my students because I am still struggling with the amount of time it might take from the AP curriculum I am currently teaching. I do plan to use the activities on the importance of nouns in reading comprehension. This would be a valuable lesson for my college bound students who will be faced with heavy reading demands.
Teaching the mapping to students at any level to increase comprehension, ownership, and cement subject knowledge would clearly be a gift to students who have not yet learned how to learn on their own. So perhaps in the spring.
