Marilee Sprenger

Becoming a Wiz at Brain-Based Teaching

Topics by Marilee Sprenger:

From Attention to Retention: Seven Steps For Memory and Transfer

For our students to perform well on high stakes tests and for them to go out into the world with conceptual understandings, we must get information into long-term memory. Teachers always want a recipe, and this process provides a step-by-step progression to facilitate students’ ability to receive information in immediate memory, work with it in active working memory, store it in long-term memory, and retrieve and manipulate it in unanticipated situations. Using higher-level cognitive processes, critical thinking skills, and research based strategies, student achievement should improve as memory becomes transferable.

Differentiation Through Learning Styles and Memory

This Marilee Sprenger workshop provides an essential overview of how the brain processes, stores, and retains information, and how teachers can guide students in accessing this information by utilizing their individual learning styles and strengths. This class gives educators practical strategies and applications for accessing these "sensory pathways," connecting learned content to the real world.
Included:

1. Suggestions and examples for creating a learning environment that addresses students' diverse learning needs-physical, social/emotional, and cognitive
2. Simple activities for helping students discover the best ways to retrieve information (e.g., mind mapping, debating, role playing, mnemonics, metaphors, rhymes, songs, repetition, and more)
3. Practical instructional strategies that address different learning strengths-visual, verbal, and kinesthetic
4. Memory profiles of sensory and memory pathways preferred by learners
5. Specific designs for differentiation in the classroom-starting with strengths and expanding outward

Beyond Translation: Applying Brain Research in the Classroom

The fields of neuroscience and education have found a common ground. Educators who have a background in the neurobiology of learning and memory have a distinct advantage in their classrooms. Take this opportunity to listen to a teacher and ASCD author who has been applying the research in her classrooms since 1989. It is one thing to talk about brain-compatible learning, but using it with students requires a different kind of understanding. Creating stress-free environments, enhancing complex cognitive skills, and understanding memory become essential. Receiving, encoding, storing, and retrieving information make sense as the memory pathways are defined. Assessing student learning becomes the simple task of accessing the same lanes that were used for teaching.

The Brain and Beyond: What Is Brain-Compatible Learning?

How have advances in the medical field affected the field of education in recent years? Is brain-compatible learning the latest educational trend or will it actually help teachers move away from instructional fads? The results of brain research have confirmed much of what experienced educators have long known and used in their classrooms. How we interpret and use this new information will determine its effectiveness. The fields of neuroscience and education have found some common ground. Educators who have a background in the neurobiology of learning and memory have a distinct advantage in their classrooms. Building better brain research based classrooms offers the opportunity to increase test scores, decrease stress, and foster a love of learning.

Memory Lane is a Two-way Street

Current research is revealing more information about how and what the brain learns and remembers. What is the truth about our memories? How can we help our students improve theirs? We continue to be concerned about higher-level thinking, but how can our students analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and apply what they know, if they don't know anything? Learn how memory works and how to apply that knowledge to help students become successful learners. Receiving, encoding, storing, and retrieving information makes sense as the memory pathways are defined. Assessing student learning becomes the simple task of accessing the same lanes that were used for teaching. Strategies that can be implemented immediately will be shared.

Brain Compatible Teaching: What educators need to know about brain research

We've learned more about the brain and how it functions in the past two decades than in all of recorded history. Today's imaging techniques allow us to look at the specific brain areas a person uses when recalling a noun versus a verb, or when listening to music versus composing a song. The more we understand about the brain, the better we'll be able to educate it. By following the brain-based teaching principles we can create an enriched, brain-compatible environment and effectively counter such existing negative influences as stress, sleep deprivation, and poor nutrition. Reflect upon the myths and mysteries of the brain, classroom environmental considerations, and the role of emotions in learning.

Matching Instruction and Assessment Using Memory Pathways

Understanding how memory works provides an advantage for every educator. This Marilee Sprenger presentation gives participants the opportunity to gain an understanding of the different types of memory, how to access each for instruction, and how to create assessments that match. Receiving, encoding, storing, and retrieving information can make more sense to our students when knowledge of memory and transfer are utilized.

Objectives:

• Understand neural memory and how networks are set in the brain as patterns.
• Learn the brain’s ten rules of memory.
• Understand and utilize memory pathways for instruction and assessment.
• Understand the memory transfer process and use strategies to aid in transfer.

Becoming a Wiz at Brain-Based Teaching

This user-friendly presentation discusses expert findings about brain growth, structure, and functions to help teachers and administrators foster a love of learning in all students. By creating an enriched, brain-compatible environment, educators can effectively counter such existing negative influences as stress, sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, and genetic predisposition to disorders in order to cultivate successful lifelong learning.

Workshop Features:

• Straightforward discussion about memory pathways, learning styles, and multiple intelligences
• Extensive examples from real school situations where brain research has been applied
• Tactics for immediately putting brain-based information to work in the classroom
• Concrete techniques for using music, teams, rapport building, and brain-state changes to stimulate student learning

The Developing Brain

Dramatic developments in the cognitive neurosciences are providing us with an unprecedented understanding of both the organization and growth of the brain. This presentation will cover new discoveries, basic needs, and promising theories of how the brain develops from birth to adolescence. Current research suggests that every child’s brain has specific needs for optimal growth.

The Adolescent Brain

Research in understanding the adolescent brain has brought new information. An awareness how this brain is developing and the implications of that development can affect a change in teaching strategies and in achievement. Working with this brain, rather than in opposition to it, can make a difference in motivation, attention, and learning.

• Three major changes in the adolescent brain
• Adolescent needs
• Adolescent dangers

The Emotional Brain: The Power of Emotional Intelligence

Productive is the ability of leaders and groups to be intelligent about emotions. Learn about self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Neurological research suggests that being attuned to our feelings helps us find the meaning in data and make better decisions. Create harmony, get commitment, and meet challenges for your learning organization.

Comments:

                        "We need presenters who are still in the trenches. Marilee speaks to us as if she is right in

                        our classrooms with us!"                   

                                                                        Martin, TN

                        "I thought I was ready to retire, that there was nothing that would inspire me. But now I am

                        armed and ready to spend more years teaching."

                                                                        Kalamazoo, MI

                        "Probably the best keynote speaker I have heard"

                                                                        Virginia Beach, VA

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