# data[].attributes.headline
Thank you to Ms. Cynthia for her support of our students and gardens! 

# data[].attributes.subject
Thank you to Ms. Cynthia for her support of our students and gardens! 

# data[].attributes.headline
Welcome, Liam! Bryn's new family member! 

# data[].attributes.subject
Welcome, Liam! Bryn's new family member! 

# data[].attributes.headline
Move-a-Thon! Thank you PTA, students and staff! 

# data[].attributes.subject
Move-a-Thon! Thank you PTA, students and staff! 

# data[].attributes.body
Thanks to our awesome PE team for their partnership and celebration!

# data[].attributes.headline
Teachers are amazing! Thank you for all the magic & opportunity you create! (a cool video with one story)

# data[].attributes.subject
Teachers are amazing! Thank you for all the magic & opportunity you create! (a cool video with one story)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Their assignment? Reinvent the world of fitness so everyone can participate. #k5evening

RENTON, Wash. - Steve Ferreira doesn't take "no" for an answer.

"Nope!" he said, with his usual broad smile.

He's a top-level athlete and an advocate for people with disabilities. Now, with the help of some students and their teacher, Creed Tremaine Nelson, Ferreira has also become a bit of an inventor.

"This should be fun," said Ferreira, as he prepared to strap himself into a largely untested piece of exercise equipment.

Ferreira was born with cerebral palsy, a condition that makes it difficult to move and speak. But he communicates just fine with the manufacturing and design students here at Renton's Lindbergh High.

Nelson, Ferreira and the students have teamed up to create fitness equipment that can make exercise accessible.

"He comes in and within five minutes he's won over the whole class," Nelson said. "They absolutely love this guy."

Senior Gabby Politsch called Ferreira "a pretty cool dude."

"Seeing that we're actually helping someone it puts a lot more passion into our work," said classmate Lucas Pone.

Together, they're creating prototypes of fitness equipment that can be used by people of every type of ability.

"It's kind of ridiculous that gyms these days don't have any accessible equipment," Ferreira said.

Despite the medals he's earned in para-athletics, Ferreira has felt the burn of ignorance at the gym.

"An employee said to me, 'Why are you here? You're in a wheelchair,'" Ferreira said. "People with disabilities can work out. My wheelchair is just how I get around. It doesn't define me for who I am."

To advance the cause of accessible fitness, he's also working with mechanical engineering professor Tyler Susko and his students at the University of California Santa Barbara to create adaptable machines that can be used for modified or conventional workouts.

"What is currently available on an exercise machine that exists in a typical gym right now, and how would we modify that?" Susko said.

Ferreira's dream is that one day soon, people with disabilities will be able to exercise side-by-side with everyone else.

"Trying to do this for gyms that could be able to use this throughout the country," Nelson said.

And Steve Ferreira's not planning to take "no" for an answer.

"This is how I live my life," he said, "I may not be perfect but I can still be like you."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Renton man, students are advocating by innovating

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Their assignment? Reinvent the world of fitness so everyone can participate. #k5evening RENTON, Wash. - Steve Ferreira doesn't take "no" for an answer. "Nope!" he said, with his usual broad smile. He's a top-level athlete and an advocate for people with disabilities.

# data[].attributes.body
We will miss you at KDE

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Our awesome PE teachers, Curt & Amanda being celebrated for their partnership with Kids Heart Challenge.  Thank you for all you do! 

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Here is a link of Ms. Thordarson's class performing "Ida Red, Ida Blue" while practicing a new rhythm (ti-tipi) and a new vocabulary word (ostinato)!

# data[].attributes.headline
A mini "Informance" (performing IN the classroom) with Mrs. Ankomah. 

# data[].attributes.subject
A mini "Informance" (performing IN the classroom) with Mrs. Ankomah. 

# data[].attributes.headline
A thank you note from a Kodiak who is leaving Kennydale. 

# data[].attributes.subject
A thank you note from a Kodiak who is leaving Kennydale. 

# data[].attributes.headline
Jena Machin has accepted a position at Hilltop Heritage Elementary for the 2023-24 SY.  We thank Jena for her service to Kennydale and wish her the best at her new school. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Jena Machin has accepted a position at Hilltop Heritage Elementary for the 2023-24 SY.  We thank Jena for her service to Kennydale and wish her the best at her new school. 

# data[].attributes.body
Check out the artwork of our students!

# data[].attributes.headline
First day of Ramadan is 3/22! Thanks for the share, Kat! 

# data[].attributes.subject
First day of Ramadan is 3/22! Thanks for the share, Kat! 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We can't seem to find the page you're looking for.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor.

Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Watch and Share Youtube Videos Safely - For Teachers and Family

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We can't seem to find the page you're looking for. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch.

# data[].attributes.headline
Patrol is back! Thanks to Amy, Debbie & students! 

# data[].attributes.subject
Patrol is back! Thanks to Amy, Debbie & students! 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Heart Heroes Celebrate World Teacher Day!

# data[].attributes.body
Thanks, Min-Shu!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It is common for teachers to assess students' understanding and mastery of the academic standards taught in class through reading assessments, math benchmarks, exit tickets, student writing samples, classroom observations, and student-led projects, among several others. We use these tools to assess students' strengths and identify any gaps in their academic learning. In addition, standards serve as a guide for what is (in general terms) developmentally appropriate for students to learn.

So, what about HEART skills? It is possible to generate and use SEL data to inform students' growth and teachers' instruction? Here's the quick summary: If we want to understand students' social and emotional skills and how much progress we are making in helping them learn and apply these skills, we need to use data. Otherwise, how would you know that what you're doing is working? Or that you are meeting students' needs?

In an earlier post, I discussed how SEL cannot be solely focused on teaching social and emotional competencies once a week; SEL should be part of the school fabric (from the way teachers greet students in the morning, to the procedures for handling student misbehavior), and it should incorporate SEL data that helps school teams improve instruction and the learning environment at the school. Dr. Denham, Psychology Professor and member of the research advisory group at CASEL, explains that a well-designed SEL initiative includes clear goals and benchmarks (i.e. SEL standards), and tools for universal and targeted screening and progress monitoring. Let's look at these two elements in more detail.
1. SEL goals and benchmarks
This refers to the SEL content you teach- the what. As you know, I created the HEART in Mind model to provide educators with a research-based and practical framework that would help teachers effectively implement SEL in the classroom. In this model, intrapersonal , interpersonal and cognitive skills are represented by the acronym HEART and are organized to show you a developmentally appropriate progression of skill development. In Teaching with the HEART in Mind, my new book, you will find indicators of mastery for each one of the HEART skills by grade level. This will help you understand the varying expectations we may have for students based on their grade level, and identify your students' strengths and areas for growth.

Let's look at the indicators of mastery for the first competency in the HEART in Mind model, Honor your Emotions:
Beginner (kindergarten through second grade)

Uses a variety of emotion words

Connects emotions with bodily sensations

Describes how emotions are linked to behavior

Advanced Beginner (third through fifth grade)

Describes a range of emotions

Identifies the reasons behind their emotions

Expresses how they feel to others

Strategic Learner (sixth to eighth grade)

Recognizes the different degrees of intensity in their emotions

Identifies the complexity and meaning of feelings

Demonstrates when and how feelings can be communicated appropriately

Emerging Expert (ninth through 12th grade)

Analyzes factors that create difficult emotions, such as stress or fear

Generates ways to interpret and communicate emotions

Applies strategies to use emotions effectively

Practicing Expert (college and beyond)

Identifies how emotions affect decision-making and interprets their meaning

Evaluates how expressing emotions affects others and communicates accordingly

Generates ways to use emotions to accomplish personal goals

As you can see, these indicators of mastery describe what students should know and be able to do in each level. If you teach and infuse SEL in your classroom, you have probably noticed that students have different levels of skill development. You may have students who enter kindergarten knowing basic emotions and having strategies to calm themselves, while other learners may need additional instruction and support to develop these skills. By having these indicators, you can more effectively plan your instruction and monitor if students are reaching their SEL goals.

Did you notice that the indicators also include adults? As an educator, you can use the HEART in Mind model to develop your own social and emotional skills. As I have written before, adult SEL capacity is essential to cultivate resilience, teach SEL effectively and be able to create the supportive classroom environment you want for your students.

For a complete list of indicators of mastery, check out Teaching with the HEART in Mind!
2. Tools for Assessing SEL
Assessment data are an essential component of SEL implementation. It can serve many functions, including universal and targeted screening, progress monitoring for SEL benchmarks, and as a planning tool for curriculum development and instruction. SEL measures can also support equitable outcomes; since a systematic data analysis can reveal disparities in the degree to which schools are meeting students' needs. Teachers can use SEL data to make effective instructional decisions generally and, specifically, to guide the integration of SEL in the classroom. In addition, when SEL data are used along academic scores, discipline reports, attendance, teacher observations and parent input, schools can easily identify the challenges that students face, and act to ensure adequate levels of support to meet the needs of all students.

SEL assessments should NOT be used for tracking or labeling students; they should be used to help teachers identify strengths in their students and areas that need to be further developed. The insights gain from SEL data should support creating richer learning environments, where students feel safe and supported to practice the skills they're trying to learn and equipped to navigate the world outside of school.

In Teaching with the HEART in Mind, I have included a self-assessment for adult skills that educators can use to reflect on their HEART skills and make an action plan to grow their social and emotional capacity! Give it a try.

If you'd like to read more about how schools use SEL assessments in practice, let me know. I'll send you a recently published case study that describes how a school uses assessment data to build positive school climate and strengthen the skills of students and teachers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It is common for teachers to assess students' understanding and mastery of the academic standards taught in class through reading assessments, math benchmarks, exit tickets, student writing samples, classroom observations, and student-led projects, among several others. We use these tools to assess students' strengths and identify any gaps in their academic learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Some things we are doing. Some things we can add. 

# data[].attributes.headline
Thanks for sharing your ideas this morning! 

# data[].attributes.subject
Thanks for sharing your ideas this morning! 

# data[].attributes.body
The student on the right is Talan G. He attended KDE. Recently, he MC'd an event and did a great job. Go Talan!

# data[].attributes.body
We welcome four new students who have recently immigrated from Afghanistan. This podcast shares some of the experiences of our students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A look at what ordinary Afghans have lost, and gained, since August 15, 2021, when the Taliban abruptly took over the country.

DANIEL ESTRIN, HOST:

Afghanistan has experienced momentous change since the Taliban took control nearly one year ago. There's food insecurity and economic crisis, and education is off-limits to girls 13 to 18 years old. NPR's Diaa Hadid is in Kabul. And a quick warning that we're going to hear gunfire in this conversation.

Thank you so much for joining us, Diaa.

DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Thank you, Daniel.

ESTRIN: What have you seen in Kabul?

HADID: Well, today we just came back from a protest held by women on a Kabul street. This is rare. They were marking what's nearly the first year of the Taliban's rule by demanding their freedoms. And they were chanting, have a listen.

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Chanting in Non-English language).

HADID: They're shouting on a main street of Kabul, bread, work, freedom, political participation. It's remarkable because the Taliban have harshly clamped down on dissent since they seized power. And, in fact, they disperse this protest after just a few minutes by firing in the air. This is what it sounded like.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUN SHOTS)

HADID: And, you know, this isn't the first time they've used guns to end protests, but this was unusual. It was heavy firing. It came from multiple gunmen. But just a street away, life was continuing. And that life is hard for many people. You can see laborers sleeping in their wheelbarrows by the side of the road, waiting for work. There's people begging everywhere - men, women and children. They're hungry.

ESTRIN: Wow. Those are vivid images. How are the Taliban governing?

HADID: Well, the one big achievement of the Taliban after a year has largely held, and that is by winning this conflict and driving out American forces. They've ended decades of war in Afghanistan. But they mostly shied away from the media since the strike on the al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Kabul. Let's not forget, it was al-Qaida that carried out the 9/11 attacks and the reason why the U.S. invaded Afghanistan almost 20 years ago. And we can see that security is deteriorating. There's been ISIS attacks in Kabul. And in addition to that, the economy is in tatters. There's a hunger crisis. And those problems are likely to continue because the international community has placed sanctions on the government that's crippled commerce and trade here.

ESTRIN: Yeah. Many countries refuse to recognize the Taliban government.

HADID: Yeah, that's right. And the international community's unlikely to recognize them any time soon because hardliners in the Taliban are increasingly dominating decision-making. And they're refusing to budge on the most basic international demands, like letting all girls go to secondary school. So for now, the U.N. is largely keeping Afghanistan afloat by spending billions of dollars on food aid. They say they'll need more money to prevent famine this winter, but donors appear unwilling to engage because of the Taliban's refusal to budge on so many issues.

ESTRIN: Very briefly, how are the Taliban supporters feeling right now?

HADID: Well, you know, they say the Taliban takeover is this David versus Goliath victory. And they're happy that, in their view, the country has an Islamic government. But even there, there is criticism. Many Taliban loyalists are worried that the government's mismanagement could squander their victory.

ESTRIN: NPR's Diaa Hadid in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Thank you so much for this reporting.

HADID: You're welcome, Daniel.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What daily life in Afghanistan looks like, 1 year after the Taliban takeover

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A look at what ordinary Afghans have lost, and gained, since August 15, 2021, when the Taliban abruptly took over the country.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Mrs. Dugan's student competing at the state level in Reflections Art. 

# data[].attributes.headline
Kodiak Student Anjali B Headed to State! 

# data[].attributes.subject
Kodiak Student Anjali B Headed to State! 

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Math & STEM resources from Kelley Lowery (see recent email) 

# data[].attributes.headline
Lunar New Year celebration at The Wing Museum on Saturday! 

# data[].attributes.subject
Lunar New Year celebration at The Wing Museum on Saturday! 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Celebrate the Year of the Rabbit at Wing Luke Museum's annual Lunar New Year Fair! LQ Lion Dance will perform a live lion dance in front of the Wing Museum entrance to bring good luck for the new year. After the lion dance, take part in a variety of family-friendly activities including craft-making, games, art, exploration of a new Lunar New Year exhibit, and a special story time where you can learn all about lion dancing! Indoor activities require paid museum admission. More info: 2023 Lunar New Year Fair - Wing Luke Museum and Wing Luke Museum

Find more Lunar New Years events in the Puget Sound region

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lunar New Year lion dance at The Wing Museum - Greater Seattle on the Cheap

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Celebrate the Year of the Rabbit at Wing Luke Museum's annual Lunar New Year Fair! LQ Lion Dance will perform a live lion dance in front of the Wing Museum entrance to bring good luck for the new year. After the lion dance, take part in a variety of family-friendly activities including craft-making, games, art, [...]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Mathematics educators have long known that engaging students in visual representations of mathematics is extremely helpful for their learning. When youcubed offered " How Close to 100 " as an activity for learning math facts with visual representations, teachers across the world were thrilled and responded with thousands of tweets showing students learning by playing the game.

Research shows the importance of visual thinking for mathematicians.

When researchers have considered the brains of mathematicians, and compared them with similarly high achieving academics who worked in non-mathematical fields, they find something fascinating (Amalric & Dehaene, 2016). We might assume that when people are thinking numerically, they are thinking "with language" and that high-level mathematical reasoning would draw from language processing areas of the brain. What the researchers found was that the brain activity that separated mathematicians from other academics came from visual areas of the brain - and this was true whatever the mathematical content. It was not only subjects like geometry or topology that caused activity in the visual brain areas, but algebra and calculations, with minimal use of any language areas. This led the researchers to offer the possible explanation that the mathematicians' achievement in math came from early childhood experiences with "number and shape."

Visual mathematics is an important part of mathematics for its own sake and new brain research tells us that visual mathematics even helps students learn numerical mathematics.

In a ground breaking new study Joonkoo Park & Elizabeth Brannon (2013), found that the most powerful learning occurs when we use different areas of the brain. When students work with symbols, such as numbers, they are using a different area of the brain than when they work with visual and spatial information, such as an array of dots. The researchers found that mathematics learning and performance was optimized when the two areas of the brain were communicating (Park & Brannon, 2013). (for math questions that encourage this use of visual and symbolic representations see our Tasks). Additionally, they found that training students through visual representations improved students' math performance significantly, even on numerical math, and that the visual training helped students more than numerical training.

What is Visual Mathematics?

At youcubed we provide many different mathematics tasks that engage students in visual mathematics. Through decades of work with students, teachers, high-tech companies, politicians and others we have learned that people are excited and inspired when they see mathematics as pictures, not just symbols. For example, consider how you might solve 18 x 5, and ask others how they would solve 18 x 5. Here are some different visual solutions of this problem.

Each of these visuals highlights the mathematics inside the problem and helps students develop understanding of multiplication. Pictures help students see mathematical ideas, which aids understanding. Visual mathematics also facilitates higher-level thinking, enables communication and helps people see the creativity in mathematics.

Mathematics is a subject that allows for precise thinking, but when that precise thinking is combined with creativity, openness, visualization, and flexibility, the mathematics comes alive.

Teachers can create such mathematical excitement in classrooms with any mathematics question by asking students for the different ways they see and can solve the problems and by encouraging discussion of different ways of seeing problems.

For an example of visualizing algebra see here.

When we don't ask students to think visually, we miss an incredible opportunity to increase students' understanding and to enable important brain crossing.

This extract contains excerpts from Jo Boaler's book Mathematical Mindsets, and her new, forthcoming book: Mathematical Diversity.

References:

Amalric, M., & Dehaene, S. (2016). Origins of the brain networks for advanced mathematics in expert mathematicians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(18), 4909-4917

Park, J., & Brannon, E. (2013). Training the approximate number system improves math proficiency. Association for Psychological Science, 1-7.

Mathematics educators have long known that engaging students in visual representations of mathematics is extremely helpful for their learning. When youcubed offered " How Close to 100 " as an activity for learning math facts with visual representations, teachers across the world were thrilled and responded with thousands of tweets showing students learning by playing the game.

Research shows the importance of visual thinking for mathematicians.

When researchers have considered the brains of mathematicians, and compared them with similarly high achieving academics who worked in non-mathematical fields, they find something fascinating (Amalric & Dehaene, 2016). We might assume that when people are thinking numerically, they are thinking "with language" and that high-level mathematical reasoning would draw from language processing areas of the brain. What the researchers found was that the brain activity that separated mathematicians from other academics came from visual areas of the brain - and this was true whatever the mathematical content. It was not only subjects like geometry or topology that caused activity in the visual brain areas, but algebra and calculations, with minimal use of any language areas. This led the researchers to offer the possible explanation that the mathematicians' achievement in math came from early childhood experiences with "number and shape."

Visual mathematics is an important part of mathematics for its own sake and new brain research tells us that visual mathematics even helps students learn numerical mathematics.

In a ground breaking new study Joonkoo Park & Elizabeth Brannon (2013), found that the most powerful learning occurs when we use different areas of the brain. When students work with symbols, such as numbers, they are using a different area of the brain than when they work with visual and spatial information, such as an array of dots. The researchers found that mathematics learning and performance was optimized when the two areas of the brain were communicating (Park & Brannon, 2013). (for math questions that encourage this use of visual and symbolic representations see our Tasks). Additionally, they found that training students through visual representations improved students' math performance significantly, even on numerical math, and that the visual training helped students more than numerical training.

What is Visual Mathematics?

At youcubed we provide many different mathematics tasks that engage students in visual mathematics. Through decades of work with students, teachers, high-tech companies, politicians and others we have learned that people are excited and inspired when they see mathematics as pictures, not just symbols. For example, consider how you might solve 18 x 5, and ask others how they would solve 18 x 5. Here are some different visual solutions of this problem.

Each of these visuals highlights the mathematics inside the problem and helps students develop understanding of multiplication. Pictures help students see mathematical ideas, which aids understanding. Visual mathematics also facilitates higher-level thinking, enables communication and helps people see the creativity in mathematics.

Mathematics is a subject that allows for precise thinking, but when that precise thinking is combined with creativity, openness, visualization, and flexibility, the mathematics comes alive.

Teachers can create such mathematical excitement in classrooms with any mathematics question by asking students for the different ways they see and can solve the problems and by encouraging discussion of different ways of seeing problems.

For an example of visualizing algebra see here.

When we don't ask students to think visually, we miss an incredible opportunity to increase students' understanding and to enable important brain crossing.

This extract contains excerpts from Jo Boaler's book Mathematical Mindsets, and her new, forthcoming book: Mathematical Diversity.

References:

Amalric, M., & Dehaene, S. (2016). Origins of the brain networks for advanced mathematics in expert mathematicians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(18), 4909-4917

Park, J., & Brannon, E. (2013). Training the approximate number system improves math proficiency. Association for Psychological Science, 1-7.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Visual Math Improves Math Performance - YouCubed

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mathematics educators have long known that engaging students in visual representations of mathematics is extremely helpful for their learning. When youcubed offered "How Close to 100" as an activity for learning math facts with visual representations, teachers across the world were thrilled and responded with thousands of tweets showing students learning by playing the game.

# data[].attributes.body
Vivek's 3 month old, Fira!

# data[].attributes.body
I saw Emily Waites (our former ML teacher) in Taipei in December. She's still in Thailand teaching 3rd Grade, but she and Eric were travelling in Taiwan for Christmas break

# data[].attributes.body
Rachel Larson's (counselor) one year old!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Classroom Resources for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | NEA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lesson Plans, Activity Ideas & Other Resources for Teaching MLK Day

# data[].attributes.body
Honoring Kara Trifonov's grandfather. RIP George Duff

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Remembering longtime Seattle business leader George Duff

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
George Duff, who helped create what is now the Seattle Convention Center and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's third runway and ensured the Seattle Mariners stayed in town, died at his Mercer Island home on New Year's Day. He was 91. Originally from Detroit, Duff was president of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce from 1968 to 1995.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Great show for our budding theater-goers!

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Tyrell and her tweens survive another Christmas with the in-laws

# data[].attributes.body
https://crtandthebrain.com/the-neuroscience-of-call-and-response/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In my last , I talked about call and response as the first tool in our instructional CR toolkit.

Whether you use call and response for academic review or to promote thinking, it is important to understand the neuroscience behind the tool so that it doesn't seem so mysterious or magical.

Instead, it can help you understand how to use it with more creativity and flexibility. It sounds nerdy, but the science behind cultural responsiveness is really important because it gives us insight into how culture wires our brain for learning.

Why does a technique like call and response work for children of color? It has to do with the fact that their cultural roots are deeply connected to the primary ways learning happened in an oral culture. Our forefathers and foremothers knew how the brain worked without calling it "brain-based learning." They understood the need to make sure children remembered what was told to them.

Over thousands of years, most indigenous oral cultures perfected these methods to ensure cultural information was transmitted from generation to generation. Today, these methods are deeply ingrained in the way learning happens at home for many children of color, even if most adults aren't always conscious of it. If asked about it, they'd probably say "That's just the way we did it when I was a kid." Add to tradition, the socio-political contexts that made it illegal or difficult for some to learn to read during and after slavery. Or the limited access early immigrants had to formal education. Many margnalized racial groups had to continue to rely on their oral traditions for everyday learning.

So, let's break down the neuroscience of call and response to better understand how it works. It draws on three aspects of brain's learning process: attention activation, firing and wiring, and mirror neurons.
Attention Activation
Attention is the first step in learning. We cannot learn, remember, or understand what we don't first give our attention to. The "call" from the teacher that begins the process alerts the student's brain that something is about to happen. The brain becomes curious and begins to pay attention in a different way. The "call" part of call and response triggers the student's Reticular Activating System or RAS for short.

The RAS is that part of our brain that controls our ability to become mentally alert and focused, among other things. What gets the RAS really going is novelty (something new,surprising or puzzling), physical sensation, and high personal relevance - in that order.

Activating the RAS is critical in a culture structured around an oral tradition where you transmit information from one person to another.

It's located in our older, emotional brain and doesn't respond well to words or verbal commands. That's why you can't simply tell a student to pay attention. You have to entice the brain with something that makes it curious or emotional (in a positive way).

This is why call and response is done in an lively, energetic way. It activates our RAS and helps us generate mental energy and focus.

The take away here is to ritualize how you activate students' RAS to turn on their attention. Start a round of call and response with a physical signal - a flip of the light switch, a specific number of hand claps, a chime, or a train whistle to activate their RAS and let them know it's time to pay attention.
Firing and Wiring Together
Remembering is the next critical part of the learning process. Call and response is designed to help the brain remember. Remembering seems like something we do that's effortless, right? But, in reality, remembering is more complicated and fragile than we imagine. Call and response helps strengthen a student's ability to retrieve important information that has been learned earlier.

Every time a student engages in call and response, the information reviewed is driven deeper into his long term memory. This makes it easier for him to retrieve this information whenever he wants. When processing information, brain cells called neurons communicate with each other through a cascade of electro-chemical reactions. This is referred to as "firing" because of the electrical current involved. If you give enough focus and concentration on something, the brain will start to fire neurons in new patterns. This new pattern is called a neural pathway and is the beginning of a new memory.

When call and response is connected with rhythm or chanting, it helps neurons fire and "wire together," meaning the rhythm gets permanently associated and connected to the information being remembered, making it easier to retrieve. It's the same reason we remember the ABC song or those catchy School House Rock episodes. The music or catchy jingle is wired together permanently with the information the creators wanted us to learn.
Mirror Neurons
We are social creatures who are hardwired for connecting. That's why there's wisdom in call and response as a communal learning activity. But there's science behind it as well. The human brain contains a special class of cells, called mirror neurons , that fire when a person sees or hears a relevant or emotionally charged action being carried out by others.

Mirror neurons seem to be an extension of socio-cultural learning theory that says people learn most effectively in a social context.

Sociocultural theory grew from the work of seminal psychologist Lev Vygotsky. According to Vygotsky, "Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals."

Kendra Cherry author of the Everything Psychology Book

You might be tempted to think that call and response provides kids who don't know the material a chance to hide in the crowd. But when we remember the presence of mirror neurons, it's easy to reframe call and response as an opportunity for those students to learn from their peers in the moment. The brain is firing and wiring as they hear the right responses from others.

When planning your units and daily lessons, ask yourself how are you making the most of the RAS system or mirror neurons. Remember that getting students actively involved in the learning traditions of their culture help develop strong neural pathways that become the framework for deep background knowledge and understanding.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Neuroscience of Call and Response - Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In my last , I talked about call and response as the first tool in our instructional CR toolkit. Whether you use call and response for academic review or to promote thinking, it is important to understand the neuroscience behind the tool so that it doesn't seem so mysterious or magical.