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FM","link":"/"}},"mindshift_62436":{"type":"posts","id":"mindshift_62436","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"mindshift","id":"62436","score":null,"sort":[1695722443000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"how-listening-to-students-stories-can-improve-math-class","title":"How listening to students’ stories can improve math class","publishDate":1695722443,"format":"standard","headTitle":"How listening to students’ stories can improve math class | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"mindshift"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003cem>View the full episode transcript\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Walking into her sophomore year math class, Taylor Paris was nervous. She’d had a rocky relationship with the subject ever since long division showed up in elementary school. “I knew I didn’t understand math concepts very well. I knew that it was something that took me a longer time (than classmates),” she recalled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So she was pleasantly surprised when one of the first assignments from teacher Sarah Strong required no calculating. Instead, Strong asked the class to write a letter to math – as if it were a person. These \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60108/using-dear-math-letters-to-overcome-dread-in-math-class\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Dear Math” letters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are a tool that Strong developed as a way to understand students’ relationship to math when they arrive in her classroom, which researchers call \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/jmetc/article/view/9187/4897\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">mathematical identity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. What Strong learns from these letters informs how she teaches individual students and whole classes throughout the year. Often that means working to disrupt the negative beliefs that students hold about their math abilities, which tend to revolve around comparisons to classmates, like “fast” and “slow” or “math person” vs. “not a math person.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong introduces the Dear Math activity by reading her own letter to math as a model. Then she gives students prompts, such as:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who is now 20, was excited to apply her writing skills in math, but also, unpack some of her deeply rooted emotions about to math. “I was finally able to write all of the things that made me sad and things that made me mad, like everything into one letter, addressing math directly,” she said. Here’s what she wrote in 10th grade: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me through every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me ‘maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Paris, having a teacher acknowledge emotions in math class was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54980/why-teachers-want-math-with-more-human-ties\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">humanizing\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating,” Paris said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong devotes a few hours to reading the letters, making notes about broad patterns and individual details. “It’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Hierarchy in math education\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong teaches at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hightechhigh.org/about/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">High Tech High\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and its Graduate School of Education in San Diego. She developed the Dear Math routine almost a decade ago, and she published a book about it, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.10publications.com/dear-math\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math And What Teachers Can Do About It\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, co-authored by her former\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">student Gigi Butterfield. In it, the teacher and former student reflect on the themes across hundreds of letters. One pervasive theme is hierarchy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Kids as young as kindergarten and first grade are defining themselves as good at math or not good at math,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/amynoelleparks\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amy Parks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an elementary math education researcher at Michigan State University. Much of that definition comes from how they rank among classmates – from timed tests, to ‘high’ and ‘low’ groups, to subtle cues in teachers’ language. “I’ve been in classrooms where teachers have had kids line up by how many questions they answered or how many things they got right,” Parks said. “These hierarchies get reinforced so often and in so many different ways it’s almost overwhelming.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many kids, the comparisons add up to a negative self-perception around math. And by the time they reach high school, that mathematical identity can feel immutable. But math class doesn’t have to be this way. “Teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mathematizing4all.com/about-the-author/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a professor and researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a stubborn cultural \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54389/3-ways-to-shape-math-into-a-positive-experience\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">myth that some of us are “math people” and some of us aren’t\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This idea gets repeated explicitly all the time, and often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aah6524\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">implicitly with gendered and racialized associations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But neuroscience shows that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youcubed.org/resources/brain-science/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">everyone is capable of learning math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and Lambert said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57997/how-to-build-students-math-confidence-with-culturally-sustaining-teaching-practices\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">it matters that kids hear that\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Students connect subjects to teachers in a pretty intense way that I think as adults we often forget. So if they feel their math teacher believes in them as a human being and believes in their competence in mathematics, that can make a huge difference,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s classroom, listening to students’ stories is the first step toward disrupting those hierarchies. She also looks for ways to highlight students’ mathematical thinking on a daily basis. One way she does this is by having multiple students write their problem-solving ideas on the whiteboard and asking other students to comment on what they like about the strategies they see. Another routine is an exit ticket that asks students to share something they learned from a classmate that day. She might share the details the next day with a student who was mentioned or with the whole class if there’s a bigger lesson in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Math is for everyone\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela Avila, another of Strong’s former students, said these kinds of practices created a sense of community: “It was never even like a question of did you get it right or wrong. It just seemed like we were always just all learning together as a class.” She had Strong as a teacher twice and wrote Dear Math letters both times. In her letter as a sophomore, her self-doubts showed up in the first sentence:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her letter as a senior, Avila wrote about her math growth over the prior two years:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Avila got to the highly competitive environment of Johns Hopkins University, however, the usual order of things returned. “I really struggled a lot with comparing myself, especially in math,” she said, discussing her freshman year. “And I just found that to be super, super counterproductive for both my learning and my self esteem.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong said her own math story has had a lot of highs and lows, too. Though she can’t protect students from the ways math is taught and talked about beyond her classroom, her hope is that before they leave high school, “they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Avila, the persistence she developed in high school did pay off in the long, emotionally tough hours of college calculus. “I feel like how you think about yourself and how fast you are to get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fast and slow\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, Strong’s former student who liked expressing her emotions in a Dear Math letter, still remembers the heart-racing stress that accompanied \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">timed multiplication tests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in third grade. In Strong’s classroom, she said, there was never a timer. When Paris needed extra support, Strong brought out old algebra textbooks to reinforce foundational concepts. She designed projects where Paris could make connections between math and art – a subject that she already loved. Most importantly, Strong helped Paris learn how to break down complex problems into smaller steps. “Which is such a simple concept, but it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math,” said Paris. “And that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Many students have this conception that they’re the only one who’s taking time to understand this concept, that everybody around them has already got it,” said Lambert, the UC Santa Barbara professor. Lambert suggested that teachers can reduce the rush of the pacing calendar by thinking of it not as going slowly but choosing where to invest time. “You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s view, this requires shifting away from math instruction that is built around the ideas the teacher wants to get to in a given period. Student-centered instruction requires a lot more listening, she said: “Listening first off to their stories and how they’re showing up to class, and then second off (listening to) the ways that they are thinking of and understanding and making sense of mathematical ideas.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who had Strong as a teacher for three years, said that time transformed her. She now works at a bridal shop, where she was recently promoted from stylist to sales manager – a role that involves a lot of math. “If I want to teach my stylists how to increase their productivity in their sales, then I need to think like a mathematician and come up with the ways that I can do that,” she explained. In tenth grade, that would have scared her. Not now. “There’s no reason for me to be afraid of math because I’ve proven to myself time and time again that I can do it,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC8301605465&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today we’re talking about math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because it involves numbers and formulas, we often think of math as straightforward and objective.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But learning math is actually packed with emotions. I met a high school teacher who starts the year with an unusual assignment. She has her students write a letter to math, describing their feelings about the subject. Here’s that teacher, Sarah Strong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Dear Math letter is a letter that students write to math as if math were personified sitting across the table from them. … And it really helps inform teachers better understand the students stories and experiences that they’re coming to class with so that teachers can better design math experiences for students to thrive and flourish in math class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’ll hear more from Sarah later in the episode. First, here’s part of a Dear Math letter from one of her former students, Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear math, Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me throughout every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me, ‘Maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head, and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The anxiety and frustration that Taylor described in her letter are familiar feelings for many young people. And by the time students get to high school, it can feel like if they don’t understand math now, they never will.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But math doesn’t have to be this way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When we get back from the break, we’ll hear more about Dear Math letters and how they help students like Taylor strengthen their mathematical identities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor Paris graduated high school a few years ago, but she still remembers the first week of tenth grade math with her teacher Sarah Strong. That’s when students wrote letters to math, as if it were a person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I remember being so excited because basically you’re writing in math, and that’s never the case.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Interdisciplinary learning allows students to think about a subject from new perspectives. For Taylor, writing the Dear Math letter gave her a chance to reflect on how her early school years shaped her relationship to math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I remember, my first, like, scariness of math was long division, because it was like so abstract to me, and everyone around me understood it and was just like, ‘Yeah, well that’s just the way it is and that’s totally fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writing about those memories was cathartic. It also helped Taylor feel connected to her teacher.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have never had a math teacher talk about emotions behind math ever. Like, truly ever … She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her teacher, Sarah Strong, also made it clear that it was okay for those feelings to surface throughout the year. Which made it possible for Taylor to focus on actually learning math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She did a great job at making me feel like I could take a really complex problem and break it down to the bare bones of it, which is such a simple concept. But it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math and that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician. And that’s what mathematicians did, was take their time and work on problems slowly to really understand every aspect.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I met Taylor, she had just been promoted from a stylist to a sales manager at a bridal shop in San Diego. That’s a fashion job that involves a lot of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So stylists are responsible for obviously, you know, the customer service side of things, but on the sales side, there is a certain goal that you need to meet or would ideally meet day to day and kind of week to day, month to day. …\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so when you think about it, sales is like one big math problem every day because there’s a question, there’s an answer that you have to get to, and then there’s variables that go into, you know, the answer to your problem, essentially.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor is 20. Not that long ago, doing a math-related job would have been unimaginable to her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you told sophomore year Taylor that I would be doing something that was directly correlated with math and numbers all the time, I would be terrified and probably laugh.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor had Sarah Strong as a math teacher from 10th grade through 12th grade. She said that those years totally changed her view of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so while I may have been scared to take a sales manager position at, you know, in my sophomore year, it makes a ton of sense for me now because what I do is help people find their wedding dress. And who would have thought that math was in finding a wedding dress?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor now sees herself as a doer of math. This is what’s called mathematical identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We did an episode featuring Chris Emdin, who talked about students’ STEM identities. Mathematical identity is one form of a STEM identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mathematical identity is a way that students see themselves as a mathematician, and therefore it connects to the ways that they enter into mathematical spaces and connect with other mathematicians around them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s teacher Sarah Strong again. She created the Dear Math activity during a bigger project where students were exploring their mathematical identities. They were using different types of math as metaphors for their experiences. And Sarah wanted to add a writing component to that project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And one of my colleagues shared with me the idea of writing letters to a thing like books or basketball, and how she’d heard of that practice. And she thought I could do Dear Math letters, and I thought that was an amazing idea. So I ran with it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters were powerful. And Sarah realized that having students write them at the beginning of the year could help her teach each class better. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s how she does it now. She introduces the assignment during the first week of school. She reads her own Dear Math letter as a model, because most students aren’t used to writing in math class. Hearing her letter also lets them know that even though she teaches math, it hasn’t always been easy for her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After reading her letter, Sarah gives her students prompts for writing their own. Questions like…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They spend 15 to 30 minutes writing in class. Anyone who wants to write more can finish at home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then Sarah reads the letters on her own. She says this is the most important step.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">‘Cause it’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She first looks for broad patterns across the class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If I’ve got a disproportionate amount of students that hate math, don’t think they’re mathematicians, that I have to be really intentional about my class design, where I am regularly noticing and calling out their mathematical strengths and giving them opportunities to see themselves as mathematicians and see each other as mathematicians.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or do I have a lot of students who, who feel like ‘I am a really strong mathematician. Ever since I was young, I get all the right answers. I’m really fast.’ Then I can note that that’s a trend in the class and be thinking how I can continue to push those students while also broadening their understanding of how they are mathematical and how important it is to also listen to other students’ ways of being mathematical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She also reads the letters for individual details about things students love and things that trip them up. She might make a few notes and …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Check in with students like, ‘Gosh, I remember you said that you had a really hard time with the idea of percents and like whenever percents come up, you panic. Well, tomorrow we’re going to need some percents in our work with exponential functions. And so I wanted to make sure that you knew that I believe that you’ve got this. If you want to do a little practice beforehand, we can do that because I want you to feel confident. I don’t want some story from sixth grade impacting your confidence in what we’re working on right now.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah said that getting to know students was always important to her. Even before she created the Dear Math assignment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would often try to connect with them in a variety of ways and I would hear their comments here and there that were both positive and negative. And I always tried to be a really good listener and understand my students’ feelings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But she wasn’t always getting a full picture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes I think I was being a little delusional before I got to hear their whole stories because I would think, ‘Oh, they had really negative experiences. They don’t like math, but now that they’re in my class, everything’s going to be fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters helped her take off her rose-colored glasses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t until I started having them write Dear Math letters that I got to hear more complete stories and gain a bigger picture for their previous experience and how those experiences were informing the ways they were showing up to my class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That knowledge enables her to help students grow as math learners throughout the year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My biggest hope is that they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nimah, it would be great if writing a Dear Math letter helped all students see themselves as capable of doing math – the way it did for Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would. But of course not every student’s math story is linear.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No… Some math stories go up and down over time, like a periodic function. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey, nice math analogy! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I got that one from Sarah Strong. She described her own math story that way. It also applies to another of her former students, Isabela Avila. Here’s the start of a Dear Math letter Isabela wrote in tenth grade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In previous math classes, Isabela felt pressure to always be fast and have the right answer. But she told me that expectation wasn’t there in Sarah Strong’s class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was never even like a question of like, did you get it right or wrong? It was just seemed like we were always just all learning together, as a class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That sense of togetherness mattered. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And like, I think that really helped me like number one, like, think highly of myself as like a problem solver and also … be confident in my ideas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela had Sarah Strong as a teacher twice, and she wrote a Dear Math letter both times. You can hear her increased confidence in the letter she wrote as a senior.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] The most mathematical growth I feel I have ever experienced was during my junior year. I felt confident in my algebra skills for the first time ever. … My mindset also shifted drastically. I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future. Sincerely, Isabela Avila.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Isabela actually got to college, the transition was rocky. She’s a pre-med major at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our like math department is known for being like notoriously hard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All around her, Isabela saw classmates who had come from elite high schools and seemed to understand calculus more easily than she did.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I really struggled a lot with like comparing myself, especially in math. And I just found that to be super, super counter-productive for both my learning and like my self esteem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes she would break down crying while doing homework, which could take eight hours to complete. In class, she didn’t participate as much as she had hoped to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I just really didn’t want to sound like I didn’t know what I was talking about or like, not that I don’t belong there, but I don’t know. It was just, everyone around me was so smart. And I know, like, tests don’t define you, but everyone around me, like, even if they were starting in calc one, they, like, got fives on like the AP calc exams and did exceptionally well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Back in high school, Isabela had written in one of her letters that she’d had a lot of highs and lows with math. Freshman year of college was definitely another low.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I talked to her during her sophomore year at Johns Hopkins, being a premed major was still very stressful. Something that helped, though, was making friends who didn’t talk about grades.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We don’t talk about, like, what score we got. We don’t talk about how we’re doing in the class. We don’t talk about — honestly we don’t talk that much about like our actual like school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she said the persistence that she developed in high school did help her get through calculus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Especially in math here in college, like, I feel like how you think about yourself and like how fast you are to like, get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, the way Isabela compared herself to her calculus classmates isn’t unique to being at a university full of high achievers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s right. Sarah Strong said those comparisons have been pervasive in students’ Dear Math letters. And according to experts, this kind of thinking starts early.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Researchers say even kindergarteners start to notice their spot in the pecking order of math ability.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It often starts with those one-minute math quizzes that so many of us remember.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of pencils scribbling and slamming down\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students might hear their classmates furiously scribbling answers and slamming their pencils down when they finish. They equate that with being “good” at math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And there are lots of other ways in school that students are ranked and sorted. In younger grades, teachers often group students by ability when they’re practicing math. In upper grades, students may get tracked into ‘regular’ and ‘advanced’ classes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some teachers will even publicly display kids’ progress in certain math skills. This can look like a bulletin board that uses paper ice cream scoops to represent how many multiplication facts each student knows.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One researcher I talked to had a lot of ideas about how to disrupt hierarchies in math education. This is Rachel Lambert, from University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think if there’s one one thing I’d like to communicate, it’s that teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel shared five tips that teachers can use to help kids stop comparing themselves to others in math. The first tip is to change the narrative about who can do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students would tell me how much it mattered to them to hear their teacher say, ‘There is no difference in who can be good at math.’ Like very clear messages around race and gender and the clear message that there is no one group of people that is better in math than other people, those students told me that was helpful to them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Changing the narrative isn’t just about what we say to kids. It’s also about how teachers talk to each other. And how they group students in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We might think as teachers – and I was a teacher for over 10 years – that kids don’t know that we might be calling them low kids or high kids when we’re having lunch with other teachers. … But they know, they always know and they know how they’re being grouped and classified and seen. … If we decide that kids are going to do well in mathematics, we do a lot of things in our teaching to set them up for success day after day. If we think kids will fail when we hand them a mathematical task, we’re doing subtle things to set them up for failure every single time we do that. So if we put them in groups that never change, we’re teaching them who they are and we’re also affecting who they become, because we’re only allowing them opportunities to do things quote-unquote at their level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel’s second tip for teachers is to stop focusing on speed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Think of it not as a matter of going slow. Think of it as investing in certain things. So you can’t hit everything on your pacing calendar. You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment and what is worth extra time, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her third tip is to normalize mistakes. It can help students learn from each other’s thinking when you have them share their mistakes. Rachel told me about a teacher who did this.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She would even put a little heart next to a mistake and she’d be, ‘This was my favorite mistake of the day.’ And she drew a little heart next to it. And the kids would go, ‘awww.’ It’s adorable.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Tip number four is to give students problems that can be approached from multiple angles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I see that some kids really love to engage in the visual aspect of a problem. Other students like to make, say, an organized list. And that doesn’t mean – there’s no such thing as learning styles; it doesn’t mean that that’s the way they’re going to approach every problem, but it does mean that a problem that draws on multiple ways of engaging can be more rich mathematically and also disrupt ideas of who’s the best at math and who isn’t.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert’s fifth and final tip is to make supports available to everyone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That is the one of the simplest interventions you can do in math to make it more equitable … And it doesn’t send any negative messages to kids because they are choosing if they want to use a calculator. They are choosing if they want to hear the directions a second time. They are choosing if they use manipulatives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Making these resources available to everyone takes the teacher’s assumptions out of the equation. And it helps kids develop the skills to recognize what they need to succeed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kara, there are some people who say math teachers should just focus on content. That activities like writing letters to math are more about self-esteem than learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These goals don’t have to be separate. Direct instruction and problem-solving practice are essential parts of math education. But like we said at the beginning, doing math involves emotions. Although we’ve heard a lot about the frustrating parts of math, it can also evoke positive emotions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kids who are absorbed in math problem-solving often express wonder and excitement.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listening to young people’s stories and honoring all of these emotions allows students to be more human in math class. And that doesn’t just make them \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">believe \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in their math abilities, it empowers them to learn math and to do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode would not have been possible without Sarah Strong. To learn more about Dear Math letters, you can read the book she wrote with her former student, Gigi Butterfield. The book is called, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math and What Teachers Can Do About It.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Taylor Paris, Isabela Avila, Rachel Lambert and Amy Parks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The MindShift team includes Nimah Gobir, Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and me, Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Chris Hoff engineered this episode.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/mindshift\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">kqed.org/mindshift\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you for listening to Season 8 of the MindShift podcast. That’s it for these deep dive episodes. We’re taking a little break, but we’ll be back soon with new episodes featuring conversations about big ideas in education. Be sure to follow the show or subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"In this math class, students write letters about their math history. The process can change their future.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1703019996,"stats":{"hasAudio":true,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":135,"wordCount":5848},"headData":{"title":"How listening to students’ stories can improve math class | KQED","description":"In this math class, students write letters about their math history. The process can change their future.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialDescription":"In this math class, students write letters about their math history. The process can change their future."},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC8301605465.mp3?updated=1695679399","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/mindshift/62436/how-listening-to-students-stories-can-improve-math-class","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003cem>View the full episode transcript\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Walking into her sophomore year math class, Taylor Paris was nervous. She’d had a rocky relationship with the subject ever since long division showed up in elementary school. “I knew I didn’t understand math concepts very well. I knew that it was something that took me a longer time (than classmates),” she recalled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So she was pleasantly surprised when one of the first assignments from teacher Sarah Strong required no calculating. Instead, Strong asked the class to write a letter to math – as if it were a person. These \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60108/using-dear-math-letters-to-overcome-dread-in-math-class\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Dear Math” letters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are a tool that Strong developed as a way to understand students’ relationship to math when they arrive in her classroom, which researchers call \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/jmetc/article/view/9187/4897\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">mathematical identity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. What Strong learns from these letters informs how she teaches individual students and whole classes throughout the year. Often that means working to disrupt the negative beliefs that students hold about their math abilities, which tend to revolve around comparisons to classmates, like “fast” and “slow” or “math person” vs. “not a math person.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong introduces the Dear Math activity by reading her own letter to math as a model. Then she gives students prompts, such as:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who is now 20, was excited to apply her writing skills in math, but also, unpack some of her deeply rooted emotions about to math. “I was finally able to write all of the things that made me sad and things that made me mad, like everything into one letter, addressing math directly,” she said. Here’s what she wrote in 10th grade: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me through every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me ‘maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Paris, having a teacher acknowledge emotions in math class was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54980/why-teachers-want-math-with-more-human-ties\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">humanizing\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating,” Paris said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong devotes a few hours to reading the letters, making notes about broad patterns and individual details. “It’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Hierarchy in math education\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong teaches at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hightechhigh.org/about/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">High Tech High\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and its Graduate School of Education in San Diego. She developed the Dear Math routine almost a decade ago, and she published a book about it, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.10publications.com/dear-math\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math And What Teachers Can Do About It\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, co-authored by her former\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">student Gigi Butterfield. In it, the teacher and former student reflect on the themes across hundreds of letters. One pervasive theme is hierarchy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Kids as young as kindergarten and first grade are defining themselves as good at math or not good at math,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/amynoelleparks\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amy Parks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an elementary math education researcher at Michigan State University. Much of that definition comes from how they rank among classmates – from timed tests, to ‘high’ and ‘low’ groups, to subtle cues in teachers’ language. “I’ve been in classrooms where teachers have had kids line up by how many questions they answered or how many things they got right,” Parks said. “These hierarchies get reinforced so often and in so many different ways it’s almost overwhelming.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many kids, the comparisons add up to a negative self-perception around math. And by the time they reach high school, that mathematical identity can feel immutable. But math class doesn’t have to be this way. “Teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mathematizing4all.com/about-the-author/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a professor and researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a stubborn cultural \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54389/3-ways-to-shape-math-into-a-positive-experience\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">myth that some of us are “math people” and some of us aren’t\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This idea gets repeated explicitly all the time, and often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aah6524\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">implicitly with gendered and racialized associations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But neuroscience shows that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youcubed.org/resources/brain-science/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">everyone is capable of learning math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and Lambert said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57997/how-to-build-students-math-confidence-with-culturally-sustaining-teaching-practices\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">it matters that kids hear that\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Students connect subjects to teachers in a pretty intense way that I think as adults we often forget. So if they feel their math teacher believes in them as a human being and believes in their competence in mathematics, that can make a huge difference,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s classroom, listening to students’ stories is the first step toward disrupting those hierarchies. She also looks for ways to highlight students’ mathematical thinking on a daily basis. One way she does this is by having multiple students write their problem-solving ideas on the whiteboard and asking other students to comment on what they like about the strategies they see. Another routine is an exit ticket that asks students to share something they learned from a classmate that day. She might share the details the next day with a student who was mentioned or with the whole class if there’s a bigger lesson in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Math is for everyone\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela Avila, another of Strong’s former students, said these kinds of practices created a sense of community: “It was never even like a question of did you get it right or wrong. It just seemed like we were always just all learning together as a class.” She had Strong as a teacher twice and wrote Dear Math letters both times. In her letter as a sophomore, her self-doubts showed up in the first sentence:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her letter as a senior, Avila wrote about her math growth over the prior two years:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Avila got to the highly competitive environment of Johns Hopkins University, however, the usual order of things returned. “I really struggled a lot with comparing myself, especially in math,” she said, discussing her freshman year. “And I just found that to be super, super counterproductive for both my learning and my self esteem.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong said her own math story has had a lot of highs and lows, too. Though she can’t protect students from the ways math is taught and talked about beyond her classroom, her hope is that before they leave high school, “they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Avila, the persistence she developed in high school did pay off in the long, emotionally tough hours of college calculus. “I feel like how you think about yourself and how fast you are to get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fast and slow\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, Strong’s former student who liked expressing her emotions in a Dear Math letter, still remembers the heart-racing stress that accompanied \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">timed multiplication tests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in third grade. In Strong’s classroom, she said, there was never a timer. When Paris needed extra support, Strong brought out old algebra textbooks to reinforce foundational concepts. She designed projects where Paris could make connections between math and art – a subject that she already loved. Most importantly, Strong helped Paris learn how to break down complex problems into smaller steps. “Which is such a simple concept, but it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math,” said Paris. “And that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Many students have this conception that they’re the only one who’s taking time to understand this concept, that everybody around them has already got it,” said Lambert, the UC Santa Barbara professor. Lambert suggested that teachers can reduce the rush of the pacing calendar by thinking of it not as going slowly but choosing where to invest time. “You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s view, this requires shifting away from math instruction that is built around the ideas the teacher wants to get to in a given period. Student-centered instruction requires a lot more listening, she said: “Listening first off to their stories and how they’re showing up to class, and then second off (listening to) the ways that they are thinking of and understanding and making sense of mathematical ideas.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who had Strong as a teacher for three years, said that time transformed her. She now works at a bridal shop, where she was recently promoted from stylist to sales manager – a role that involves a lot of math. “If I want to teach my stylists how to increase their productivity in their sales, then I need to think like a mathematician and come up with the ways that I can do that,” she explained. In tenth grade, that would have scared her. Not now. “There’s no reason for me to be afraid of math because I’ve proven to myself time and time again that I can do it,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC8301605465&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today we’re talking about math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because it involves numbers and formulas, we often think of math as straightforward and objective.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But learning math is actually packed with emotions. I met a high school teacher who starts the year with an unusual assignment. She has her students write a letter to math, describing their feelings about the subject. Here’s that teacher, Sarah Strong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Dear Math letter is a letter that students write to math as if math were personified sitting across the table from them. … And it really helps inform teachers better understand the students stories and experiences that they’re coming to class with so that teachers can better design math experiences for students to thrive and flourish in math class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’ll hear more from Sarah later in the episode. First, here’s part of a Dear Math letter from one of her former students, Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear math, Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me throughout every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me, ‘Maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head, and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The anxiety and frustration that Taylor described in her letter are familiar feelings for many young people. And by the time students get to high school, it can feel like if they don’t understand math now, they never will.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But math doesn’t have to be this way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When we get back from the break, we’ll hear more about Dear Math letters and how they help students like Taylor strengthen their mathematical identities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor Paris graduated high school a few years ago, but she still remembers the first week of tenth grade math with her teacher Sarah Strong. That’s when students wrote letters to math, as if it were a person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I remember being so excited because basically you’re writing in math, and that’s never the case.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Interdisciplinary learning allows students to think about a subject from new perspectives. For Taylor, writing the Dear Math letter gave her a chance to reflect on how her early school years shaped her relationship to math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I remember, my first, like, scariness of math was long division, because it was like so abstract to me, and everyone around me understood it and was just like, ‘Yeah, well that’s just the way it is and that’s totally fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writing about those memories was cathartic. It also helped Taylor feel connected to her teacher.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have never had a math teacher talk about emotions behind math ever. Like, truly ever … She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her teacher, Sarah Strong, also made it clear that it was okay for those feelings to surface throughout the year. Which made it possible for Taylor to focus on actually learning math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She did a great job at making me feel like I could take a really complex problem and break it down to the bare bones of it, which is such a simple concept. But it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math and that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician. And that’s what mathematicians did, was take their time and work on problems slowly to really understand every aspect.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I met Taylor, she had just been promoted from a stylist to a sales manager at a bridal shop in San Diego. That’s a fashion job that involves a lot of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So stylists are responsible for obviously, you know, the customer service side of things, but on the sales side, there is a certain goal that you need to meet or would ideally meet day to day and kind of week to day, month to day. …\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so when you think about it, sales is like one big math problem every day because there’s a question, there’s an answer that you have to get to, and then there’s variables that go into, you know, the answer to your problem, essentially.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor is 20. Not that long ago, doing a math-related job would have been unimaginable to her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you told sophomore year Taylor that I would be doing something that was directly correlated with math and numbers all the time, I would be terrified and probably laugh.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor had Sarah Strong as a math teacher from 10th grade through 12th grade. She said that those years totally changed her view of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so while I may have been scared to take a sales manager position at, you know, in my sophomore year, it makes a ton of sense for me now because what I do is help people find their wedding dress. And who would have thought that math was in finding a wedding dress?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor now sees herself as a doer of math. This is what’s called mathematical identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We did an episode featuring Chris Emdin, who talked about students’ STEM identities. Mathematical identity is one form of a STEM identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mathematical identity is a way that students see themselves as a mathematician, and therefore it connects to the ways that they enter into mathematical spaces and connect with other mathematicians around them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s teacher Sarah Strong again. She created the Dear Math activity during a bigger project where students were exploring their mathematical identities. They were using different types of math as metaphors for their experiences. And Sarah wanted to add a writing component to that project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And one of my colleagues shared with me the idea of writing letters to a thing like books or basketball, and how she’d heard of that practice. And she thought I could do Dear Math letters, and I thought that was an amazing idea. So I ran with it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters were powerful. And Sarah realized that having students write them at the beginning of the year could help her teach each class better. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s how she does it now. She introduces the assignment during the first week of school. She reads her own Dear Math letter as a model, because most students aren’t used to writing in math class. Hearing her letter also lets them know that even though she teaches math, it hasn’t always been easy for her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After reading her letter, Sarah gives her students prompts for writing their own. Questions like…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They spend 15 to 30 minutes writing in class. Anyone who wants to write more can finish at home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then Sarah reads the letters on her own. She says this is the most important step.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">‘Cause it’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She first looks for broad patterns across the class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If I’ve got a disproportionate amount of students that hate math, don’t think they’re mathematicians, that I have to be really intentional about my class design, where I am regularly noticing and calling out their mathematical strengths and giving them opportunities to see themselves as mathematicians and see each other as mathematicians.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or do I have a lot of students who, who feel like ‘I am a really strong mathematician. Ever since I was young, I get all the right answers. I’m really fast.’ Then I can note that that’s a trend in the class and be thinking how I can continue to push those students while also broadening their understanding of how they are mathematical and how important it is to also listen to other students’ ways of being mathematical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She also reads the letters for individual details about things students love and things that trip them up. She might make a few notes and …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Check in with students like, ‘Gosh, I remember you said that you had a really hard time with the idea of percents and like whenever percents come up, you panic. Well, tomorrow we’re going to need some percents in our work with exponential functions. And so I wanted to make sure that you knew that I believe that you’ve got this. If you want to do a little practice beforehand, we can do that because I want you to feel confident. I don’t want some story from sixth grade impacting your confidence in what we’re working on right now.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah said that getting to know students was always important to her. Even before she created the Dear Math assignment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would often try to connect with them in a variety of ways and I would hear their comments here and there that were both positive and negative. And I always tried to be a really good listener and understand my students’ feelings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But she wasn’t always getting a full picture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes I think I was being a little delusional before I got to hear their whole stories because I would think, ‘Oh, they had really negative experiences. They don’t like math, but now that they’re in my class, everything’s going to be fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters helped her take off her rose-colored glasses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t until I started having them write Dear Math letters that I got to hear more complete stories and gain a bigger picture for their previous experience and how those experiences were informing the ways they were showing up to my class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That knowledge enables her to help students grow as math learners throughout the year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My biggest hope is that they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nimah, it would be great if writing a Dear Math letter helped all students see themselves as capable of doing math – the way it did for Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would. But of course not every student’s math story is linear.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No… Some math stories go up and down over time, like a periodic function. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey, nice math analogy! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I got that one from Sarah Strong. She described her own math story that way. It also applies to another of her former students, Isabela Avila. Here’s the start of a Dear Math letter Isabela wrote in tenth grade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In previous math classes, Isabela felt pressure to always be fast and have the right answer. But she told me that expectation wasn’t there in Sarah Strong’s class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was never even like a question of like, did you get it right or wrong? It was just seemed like we were always just all learning together, as a class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That sense of togetherness mattered. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And like, I think that really helped me like number one, like, think highly of myself as like a problem solver and also … be confident in my ideas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela had Sarah Strong as a teacher twice, and she wrote a Dear Math letter both times. You can hear her increased confidence in the letter she wrote as a senior.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] The most mathematical growth I feel I have ever experienced was during my junior year. I felt confident in my algebra skills for the first time ever. … My mindset also shifted drastically. I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future. Sincerely, Isabela Avila.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Isabela actually got to college, the transition was rocky. She’s a pre-med major at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our like math department is known for being like notoriously hard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All around her, Isabela saw classmates who had come from elite high schools and seemed to understand calculus more easily than she did.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I really struggled a lot with like comparing myself, especially in math. And I just found that to be super, super counter-productive for both my learning and like my self esteem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes she would break down crying while doing homework, which could take eight hours to complete. In class, she didn’t participate as much as she had hoped to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I just really didn’t want to sound like I didn’t know what I was talking about or like, not that I don’t belong there, but I don’t know. It was just, everyone around me was so smart. And I know, like, tests don’t define you, but everyone around me, like, even if they were starting in calc one, they, like, got fives on like the AP calc exams and did exceptionally well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Back in high school, Isabela had written in one of her letters that she’d had a lot of highs and lows with math. Freshman year of college was definitely another low.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I talked to her during her sophomore year at Johns Hopkins, being a premed major was still very stressful. Something that helped, though, was making friends who didn’t talk about grades.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We don’t talk about, like, what score we got. We don’t talk about how we’re doing in the class. We don’t talk about — honestly we don’t talk that much about like our actual like school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she said the persistence that she developed in high school did help her get through calculus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Especially in math here in college, like, I feel like how you think about yourself and like how fast you are to like, get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, the way Isabela compared herself to her calculus classmates isn’t unique to being at a university full of high achievers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s right. Sarah Strong said those comparisons have been pervasive in students’ Dear Math letters. And according to experts, this kind of thinking starts early.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Researchers say even kindergarteners start to notice their spot in the pecking order of math ability.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It often starts with those one-minute math quizzes that so many of us remember.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of pencils scribbling and slamming down\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students might hear their classmates furiously scribbling answers and slamming their pencils down when they finish. They equate that with being “good” at math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And there are lots of other ways in school that students are ranked and sorted. In younger grades, teachers often group students by ability when they’re practicing math. In upper grades, students may get tracked into ‘regular’ and ‘advanced’ classes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some teachers will even publicly display kids’ progress in certain math skills. This can look like a bulletin board that uses paper ice cream scoops to represent how many multiplication facts each student knows.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One researcher I talked to had a lot of ideas about how to disrupt hierarchies in math education. This is Rachel Lambert, from University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think if there’s one one thing I’d like to communicate, it’s that teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel shared five tips that teachers can use to help kids stop comparing themselves to others in math. The first tip is to change the narrative about who can do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students would tell me how much it mattered to them to hear their teacher say, ‘There is no difference in who can be good at math.’ Like very clear messages around race and gender and the clear message that there is no one group of people that is better in math than other people, those students told me that was helpful to them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Changing the narrative isn’t just about what we say to kids. It’s also about how teachers talk to each other. And how they group students in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We might think as teachers – and I was a teacher for over 10 years – that kids don’t know that we might be calling them low kids or high kids when we’re having lunch with other teachers. … But they know, they always know and they know how they’re being grouped and classified and seen. … If we decide that kids are going to do well in mathematics, we do a lot of things in our teaching to set them up for success day after day. If we think kids will fail when we hand them a mathematical task, we’re doing subtle things to set them up for failure every single time we do that. So if we put them in groups that never change, we’re teaching them who they are and we’re also affecting who they become, because we’re only allowing them opportunities to do things quote-unquote at their level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel’s second tip for teachers is to stop focusing on speed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Think of it not as a matter of going slow. Think of it as investing in certain things. So you can’t hit everything on your pacing calendar. You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment and what is worth extra time, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her third tip is to normalize mistakes. It can help students learn from each other’s thinking when you have them share their mistakes. Rachel told me about a teacher who did this.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She would even put a little heart next to a mistake and she’d be, ‘This was my favorite mistake of the day.’ And she drew a little heart next to it. And the kids would go, ‘awww.’ It’s adorable.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Tip number four is to give students problems that can be approached from multiple angles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I see that some kids really love to engage in the visual aspect of a problem. Other students like to make, say, an organized list. And that doesn’t mean – there’s no such thing as learning styles; it doesn’t mean that that’s the way they’re going to approach every problem, but it does mean that a problem that draws on multiple ways of engaging can be more rich mathematically and also disrupt ideas of who’s the best at math and who isn’t.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert’s fifth and final tip is to make supports available to everyone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That is the one of the simplest interventions you can do in math to make it more equitable … And it doesn’t send any negative messages to kids because they are choosing if they want to use a calculator. They are choosing if they want to hear the directions a second time. They are choosing if they use manipulatives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Making these resources available to everyone takes the teacher’s assumptions out of the equation. And it helps kids develop the skills to recognize what they need to succeed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kara, there are some people who say math teachers should just focus on content. That activities like writing letters to math are more about self-esteem than learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These goals don’t have to be separate. Direct instruction and problem-solving practice are essential parts of math education. But like we said at the beginning, doing math involves emotions. Although we’ve heard a lot about the frustrating parts of math, it can also evoke positive emotions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kids who are absorbed in math problem-solving often express wonder and excitement.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listening to young people’s stories and honoring all of these emotions allows students to be more human in math class. And that doesn’t just make them \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">believe \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in their math abilities, it empowers them to learn math and to do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode would not have been possible without Sarah Strong. To learn more about Dear Math letters, you can read the book she wrote with her former student, Gigi Butterfield. The book is called, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math and What Teachers Can Do About It.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Taylor Paris, Isabela Avila, Rachel Lambert and Amy Parks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The MindShift team includes Nimah Gobir, Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and me, Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Chris Hoff engineered this episode.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/mindshift\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">kqed.org/mindshift\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you for listening to Season 8 of the MindShift podcast. That’s it for these deep dive episodes. We’re taking a little break, but we’ll be back soon with new episodes featuring conversations about big ideas in education. Be sure to follow the show or subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/mindshift/62436/how-listening-to-students-stories-can-improve-math-class","authors":["11487"],"categories":["mindshift_192","mindshift_21130","mindshift_193"],"tags":["mindshift_21794","mindshift_20994","mindshift_21792","mindshift_21611","mindshift_21341","mindshift_392","mindshift_20893","mindshift_21795","mindshift_21796","mindshift_46","mindshift_21640","mindshift_21793","mindshift_47","mindshift_20852","mindshift_21642"],"featImg":"mindshift_62441","label":"mindshift"},"mindshift_61863":{"type":"posts","id":"mindshift_61863","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"mindshift","id":"61863","score":null,"sort":[1687352538000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"anti-dopamine-parenting-can-curb-a-kids-craving-for-screens-or-sweets","title":"'Anti-dopamine parenting' can curb a kid's craving for screens or sweets","publishDate":1687352538,"format":"standard","headTitle":"‘Anti-dopamine parenting’ can curb a kid’s craving for screens or sweets | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"mindshift"},"content":"\u003cp>Back when my daughter was a toddler, I would make a joke about my phone: “It’s a drug for her,” I’d say to my husband. “You can’t even \u003cem>show \u003c/em>it to her without causing a tantrum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She had the same reaction to cupcakes and ice cream at birthday parties. And as she grew older, another craving set in: cartoons on my computer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every night, when it was time to turn off the screen and get ready for bed, I would hear an endless stream of “But Mamas.” “But Mama, just five more minutes. But Mama, after this one show … but Mama … but Mama … but Mama.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given these intense reactions to screens and sweets, I assumed that my daughter loves them. Like, \u003cem>really \u003c/em>loves them. I assumed that they brought her immense joy and pleasure. And thus, I felt really guilty about taking these pleasures away from her. (To be honest, I feel the same way about my own “addictions,” like checking social media and email more than a hundred times a day. I do that because they give me pleasure, right?)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what if those assumptions are wrong? What if my daughter’s reactions aren’t a sign of \u003cem>loving \u003c/em>the activity or the food? And that, in fact, over time she may even come to dislike these activities despite her pleas to continue?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past few years, neuroscientists have started to better understand what’s going on in kids’ brains (and adult brains, too) while they’re streaming cartoons, playing video games, scrolling through social media, and eating rich, sugar-laden foods. And that understanding offers powerful insights into how parents can better manage and limit these activities. Personally, I call the strategy “anti-dopamine parenting” because the ideas come from learning how to counter a tiny, powerful molecule that’s essential to nearly everything we do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, smartphones and sugary foods do have something in common with drugs: They trigger surges of a neurotransmitter\u003ca href=\"https://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/a/a_03/a_03_cl/a_03_cl_que/a_03_cl_que.html\"> deep inside your brain\u003c/a> called dopamine. Although drugs cause much bigger spikes of dopamine than, say, social media or an ice cream cone, these smaller spikes still influence our behavior, especially in the long run. They shape our habits, our diets, our mental health and how we spend our free time. They can also cause much conflict between parents and children.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>This is your child’s brain on cartoons (or video games or cupcakes)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Dopamine is a part of an ancient neural pathway that’s critical for keeping us alive. “These mechanisms evolved in our brain to draw us to things that are essential to our survival. So water, safety, social interactions, sex, food,” says neuroscientist \u003ca href=\"https://en.samaha-lab.com/\">Anne-Noël Samaha\u003c/a> at the University of Montreal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, scientists thought dopamine drew us to these vital needs by providing us with something that’s not as critical: pleasure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s this idea, especially in the popular media, that dopamine increases pleasure. That, when dopamine levels increase, you feel the sensation of ‘liking’ whatever you’re doing and savoring this pleasure,” Samaha says. Pop psychology has dubbed dopamine the “molecule of happiness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But over the past decade, research indicates dopamine does \u003cem>not \u003c/em>make you feel happy. “In fact, there’s a lot of data to refute the idea that dopamine is mediating pleasure,” says Samaha.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, studies now show that \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27977239/\">dopamine primarily generates\u003c/a> another feeling: desire. “Dopamine makes you \u003cem>want \u003c/em>things,” Samaha says. A surge of dopamine in your brain makes you seek out something, she explains. Or continue doing what you’re doing. It’s all about motivation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it goes even further: Dopamine tells your brain to pay particular attention to whatever triggers the surge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s alerting you to something important, Samaha says. “So you should stay here, close to this thing, because there’s something here for you to learn. That’s what dopamine does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And here’s the surprising part: You might not even \u003cem>like \u003c/em>the activity that triggers the dopamine surge. It might not be pleasurable. “That’s relatively irrelevant to dopamine,” Samaha says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, studies show that over time, people can end up \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26407959/\">\u003cem>not \u003c/em>liking the activities\u003c/a> that trigger big surges in dopamine. “If you talk to people who spend a lot of time shopping online or, going through social media, they don’t necessarily feel good after doing it,” Samaha says. “In fact, there’s a lot of evidence that it’s quite the opposite, that you end up feeling worse after than before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>“A hijacked neural pathway”\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>What does this all mean for your kids? Say my daughter, who’s now 7 years old, is watching cartoons after dinner. While she’s staring into the technicolor images, her brain experiences spikes in dopamine, over and over again. Those spikes keep her watching (even if she’s actually really tired and \u003cem>wants \u003c/em>to go to bed).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then I come into the room and say, “Time’s up, Rosy. Close the app and get ready for bed.” And although\u003cem> I’m\u003c/em> ready for Rosy to quit watching, her brain isn’t. It’s telling her the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The dopamine levels are still high,” Samaha explains. “And what does dopamine do? It tells you something important is happening, and there’s a need somewhere that you have to answer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what am I doing? I’m preventing her from fulfilling this need, which her brain may elevate as being critical to her survival. In other words, a neural pathway made to ensure humans go seek out water when they’re thirsty is now being used to keep my 7-year-old watching yet another episode of a cartoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not finishing this “critical” task can be incredibly frustrating for a kid, Samaha says, and “an agitation arises.” The child may feel irritated, restless, possibly enraged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the spike in dopamine holds a child’s attention so strongly, parents are setting themselves up for a fight when they try to get them to do any other activity that triggers smaller spikes, such as helping parents clean up after dinner, finishing homework or playing outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So I tell parents, ‘It’s not you versus your child, but rather it’s you versus a hijacked neural pathway. It’s the dopamine you’re fighting. And that’s not a fair fight,'” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.thescreentimeconsultant.com/about-emily\">Emily Cherkin\u003c/a>, who spent more than a decade teaching middle school and now coaches parents about screens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This response can happen to children at any age, even toddlers, says Dr. \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.stanford.edu/anna-lembke\">Anna Lembke\u003c/a>, who’s a psychiatrist at Stanford University and author of the book \u003cem>Dopamine Nation\u003c/em>. “Absolutely. This happens at the earliest ages. So screens and sweets are, in and of themselves, alluring and potentially intoxicating.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armed with this knowledge, parents have more power to reduce the stress and negative consequences of these dopamine-surging activities. Here are some strategies to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Tip 1: Wait 5 minutes\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Dopamine surges are potent, says neuroscientist \u003ca href=\"https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/berridge.html\">Kent Berridge\u003c/a> at the University of Michigan, but they are fast. “They have a short half-life,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you take away the cue [triggering the dopamine] and you can wait two to five minutes, a lot of the urge usually goes away,” says Berridge, who’s been instrumental in deciphering dopamine’s role in the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, when you stop the cartoons at 30 minutes or cut off the cake at one slice, you may hear a bunch of whining, protest and tears, but that reaction will likely be brief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here’s the key. You have to put the dopamine trigger out of sight, says Lembke at Stanford. Because seeing the laptop or extra leftover cake can start the cycle of wanting over again.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Tip 2: Look for the “Goldilocks” activities\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Of course, not all of these activities and foods will be as enticing or intoxicating to every child, Lembke explains. “Our brains are all wired a little bit differently from one individual to the next.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And remember, dopamine motivates children to act and stay focused. The key, she says, is to figure out which activities give your child the right amount of dopamine. Not too little and not too much — the Goldilocks amount. And to do that, she says, pay attention to how your kid feels after the activity stops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the child feels even better after the activity, that means we’re getting a healthy source of dopamine,” Lembke says. Not too little. But also not too much. And there’s low risk the activity will become problematic for the child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, my daughter doesn’t have (much of) a problem turning off audiobooks or putting away art projects. Same goes for video-calling with friends, coloring, reading and, of course, playing outside with friends. These activities make her behavior better afterward, not worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What about the opposite — when a child feels worse after an activity or snack, and their behavior declines? Then, Lembke says, there’s a high risk that the activity could hook the child into a compulsive loop. “Once they start engaging often and for long periods of time, they may really lose control,” she explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People have this idea that, ‘Oh, well, if I let my kid play as many video games as they want or be on social media as much as they want, they’ll get tired of it.’ And in fact, the opposite happens,” Lembke says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research indicates that over time, some people’s brains can actually become \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5171207/\">more sensitive\u003c/a> to the dopamine triggered by a particular activity. And therefore, the more time a person spends engaged with this activity, the more they may crave it — even if the activity becomes unpleasurable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, Lembke says, parents really need to be careful and thoughtful with these activities. They need to limit the frequency and duration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to …\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Tip 3: Make microenvironments\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Create places in your home where the child can’t access or see problematic devices, Lembke recommends. For example, have only one room in the house where children can use the phone or tablet. Keep these devices out of bedrooms, the kitchen, the dining room and the car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, create times in your schedule where the child cannot see or access this device. Narrow down usage to only a small time each day, if possible. Or take a weekly “\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/02/12/584389201/smartphone-detox-how-to-power-down-in-a-wired-world\">tech Sabbath\u003c/a>,” where everyone in the family takes a 24-hour break from their phones and tablets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for problematic foods, keep them out of the house. For example, the family eats ice cream only on special trips to the ice cream parlor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lembke calls these “microenvironments” — both physical and chronological. And they can have profound power over our brains, she says. “It’s amazing how when we know we can’t go on a device, the craving goes away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because here’s the tricky aspect of dopamine: Our brains can start to predict when dopamine spikes are imminent, Lembke explains. We identify signals in the environment that point to it. These environmental cues can actually \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3325516/\">trigger \u003c/a>a surge of dopamine in the brain \u003cem>before \u003c/em>the child even begins eating or using a screen. These spikes can be larger than the ones experienced during the activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a child, a signal could be a tablet sitting on a shelf, walking into the living room where they usually use a device, or even simply the time of day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These environmental signals can make it tough, even painful, for kids to start breaking their habits, Lembke says. But that pain usually dissipates in a few days or weeks. Give children time to adjust.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Tip 4: Try a habit makeover\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Instead of cutting out an activity altogether, look for a version that’s more purposeful, says neuroscientist \u003ca href=\"https://neurobiology.northwestern.edu/people/core-faculty/yevgenia-kozorovitskiy.html\">Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy\u003c/a> at Northwestern University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kozorovitskiy, who has two tween boys, ages 11 and 12, says prohibiting video games altogether isn’t realistic for her family. But she does think carefully about which games they’re playing. “They will sometimes want to play this adventure game that’s really complex and cognitively wonderful,” she explains. “It requires exploration, discovery and strategy. And they play it together, physically. They’re speaking about strategy, exchanging plans and using advanced social and language skills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I tried this strategy with my daughter. One night we switched the cartoons for a language learning app. I told her that having an activity that’s more purposeful will actually be more pleasurable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, she expressed great disappointment in this swap out, with tears and “But Mamas.” But I stayed strong and calm, and I waited. After a few minutes, just as Kent Berridge said, the craving seemed to pass even more quickly than I expected. She easily switched gears to learning a bit of Spanish each night — with very little fuss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I also started to put in place a piece of advice I heard from all the experts: Enrich your child’s life off the screens. We had a neighbor teach her how to crochet. As a family, we started going for more walks after dinner. We bought a new pet (or actually \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/04/28/1171721872/the-wonder-of-chickens-and-their-egg-song-made-me-a-better-person-and-parent\">15 new pets\u003c/a>) for her to take care of. And we started having more friends over on the weekends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And guess what happened? After using the language app for a few weeks, she lost interest in the screens altogether. She hasn’t watched a cartoon since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I’ll tell you this: I will think very carefully before introducing a new app, device or even a new dessert into our lives. The battle against dopamine is just too hard for me to fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Anti-dopamine+parenting%27+can+curb+a+kid%27s+craving+for+screens+or+sweets&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Dopamine is a part of our brain's survival mechanism. It is also part of why sugary foods and social media hook kids. The latest neuroscience can help parents help their kids manage behavior. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1687359061,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":54,"wordCount":2437},"headData":{"title":"'Anti-dopamine parenting' can curb a kid's craving for screens or sweets | KQED","description":"Dopamine is a part of our brain's survival mechanism. It is also part of why sugary foods and social media hook kids. The latest neuroscience can help parents help their kids manage behavior.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialDescription":"Dopamine is a part of our brain's survival mechanism. It is also part of why sugary foods and social media hook kids. The latest neuroscience can help parents help their kids manage behavior."},"nprImageCredit":"Meredith Miotke ","nprByline":"Michaeleen Doucleff","nprImageAgency":"for NPR","nprStoryId":"1180867083","nprApiLink":"http://api.npr.org/query?id=1180867083&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004","nprHtmlLink":"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/06/12/1180867083/tips-to-outsmart-dopamine-unhook-kids-from-screens-sweets?ft=nprml&f=1180867083","nprRetrievedStory":"1","nprPubDate":"Mon, 12 Jun 2023 08:11:00 -0400","nprStoryDate":"Mon, 12 Jun 2023 05:00:32 -0400","nprLastModifiedDate":"Mon, 12 Jun 2023 09:55:01 -0400","nprAudio":"https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2023/06/20230612_me_anti-dopamine_parenting_can_curb_a_kids_craving_for_screens_or_sweets.mp3?orgId=1&topicId=1128&aggIds=1176326550&d=380&p=3&story=1180867083&ft=nprml&f=1180867083","nprAudioM3u":"http://api.npr.org/m3u/11181638694-93b9a5.m3u?orgId=1&topicId=1128&aggIds=1176326550&d=380&p=3&story=1180867083&ft=nprml&f=1180867083","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/mindshift/61863/anti-dopamine-parenting-can-curb-a-kids-craving-for-screens-or-sweets","audioUrl":"https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2023/06/20230612_me_anti-dopamine_parenting_can_curb_a_kids_craving_for_screens_or_sweets.mp3?orgId=1&topicId=1128&aggIds=1176326550&d=380&p=3&story=1180867083&ft=nprml&f=1180867083","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Back when my daughter was a toddler, I would make a joke about my phone: “It’s a drug for her,” I’d say to my husband. “You can’t even \u003cem>show \u003c/em>it to her without causing a tantrum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She had the same reaction to cupcakes and ice cream at birthday parties. And as she grew older, another craving set in: cartoons on my computer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every night, when it was time to turn off the screen and get ready for bed, I would hear an endless stream of “But Mamas.” “But Mama, just five more minutes. But Mama, after this one show … but Mama … but Mama … but Mama.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given these intense reactions to screens and sweets, I assumed that my daughter loves them. Like, \u003cem>really \u003c/em>loves them. I assumed that they brought her immense joy and pleasure. And thus, I felt really guilty about taking these pleasures away from her. (To be honest, I feel the same way about my own “addictions,” like checking social media and email more than a hundred times a day. I do that because they give me pleasure, right?)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what if those assumptions are wrong? What if my daughter’s reactions aren’t a sign of \u003cem>loving \u003c/em>the activity or the food? And that, in fact, over time she may even come to dislike these activities despite her pleas to continue?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past few years, neuroscientists have started to better understand what’s going on in kids’ brains (and adult brains, too) while they’re streaming cartoons, playing video games, scrolling through social media, and eating rich, sugar-laden foods. And that understanding offers powerful insights into how parents can better manage and limit these activities. Personally, I call the strategy “anti-dopamine parenting” because the ideas come from learning how to counter a tiny, powerful molecule that’s essential to nearly everything we do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, smartphones and sugary foods do have something in common with drugs: They trigger surges of a neurotransmitter\u003ca href=\"https://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/a/a_03/a_03_cl/a_03_cl_que/a_03_cl_que.html\"> deep inside your brain\u003c/a> called dopamine. Although drugs cause much bigger spikes of dopamine than, say, social media or an ice cream cone, these smaller spikes still influence our behavior, especially in the long run. They shape our habits, our diets, our mental health and how we spend our free time. They can also cause much conflict between parents and children.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>This is your child’s brain on cartoons (or video games or cupcakes)\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Dopamine is a part of an ancient neural pathway that’s critical for keeping us alive. “These mechanisms evolved in our brain to draw us to things that are essential to our survival. So water, safety, social interactions, sex, food,” says neuroscientist \u003ca href=\"https://en.samaha-lab.com/\">Anne-Noël Samaha\u003c/a> at the University of Montreal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, scientists thought dopamine drew us to these vital needs by providing us with something that’s not as critical: pleasure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s this idea, especially in the popular media, that dopamine increases pleasure. That, when dopamine levels increase, you feel the sensation of ‘liking’ whatever you’re doing and savoring this pleasure,” Samaha says. Pop psychology has dubbed dopamine the “molecule of happiness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But over the past decade, research indicates dopamine does \u003cem>not \u003c/em>make you feel happy. “In fact, there’s a lot of data to refute the idea that dopamine is mediating pleasure,” says Samaha.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, studies now show that \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27977239/\">dopamine primarily generates\u003c/a> another feeling: desire. “Dopamine makes you \u003cem>want \u003c/em>things,” Samaha says. A surge of dopamine in your brain makes you seek out something, she explains. Or continue doing what you’re doing. It’s all about motivation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it goes even further: Dopamine tells your brain to pay particular attention to whatever triggers the surge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s alerting you to something important, Samaha says. “So you should stay here, close to this thing, because there’s something here for you to learn. That’s what dopamine does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And here’s the surprising part: You might not even \u003cem>like \u003c/em>the activity that triggers the dopamine surge. It might not be pleasurable. “That’s relatively irrelevant to dopamine,” Samaha says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, studies show that over time, people can end up \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26407959/\">\u003cem>not \u003c/em>liking the activities\u003c/a> that trigger big surges in dopamine. “If you talk to people who spend a lot of time shopping online or, going through social media, they don’t necessarily feel good after doing it,” Samaha says. “In fact, there’s a lot of evidence that it’s quite the opposite, that you end up feeling worse after than before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>“A hijacked neural pathway”\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>What does this all mean for your kids? Say my daughter, who’s now 7 years old, is watching cartoons after dinner. While she’s staring into the technicolor images, her brain experiences spikes in dopamine, over and over again. Those spikes keep her watching (even if she’s actually really tired and \u003cem>wants \u003c/em>to go to bed).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then I come into the room and say, “Time’s up, Rosy. Close the app and get ready for bed.” And although\u003cem> I’m\u003c/em> ready for Rosy to quit watching, her brain isn’t. It’s telling her the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The dopamine levels are still high,” Samaha explains. “And what does dopamine do? It tells you something important is happening, and there’s a need somewhere that you have to answer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what am I doing? I’m preventing her from fulfilling this need, which her brain may elevate as being critical to her survival. In other words, a neural pathway made to ensure humans go seek out water when they’re thirsty is now being used to keep my 7-year-old watching yet another episode of a cartoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not finishing this “critical” task can be incredibly frustrating for a kid, Samaha says, and “an agitation arises.” The child may feel irritated, restless, possibly enraged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the spike in dopamine holds a child’s attention so strongly, parents are setting themselves up for a fight when they try to get them to do any other activity that triggers smaller spikes, such as helping parents clean up after dinner, finishing homework or playing outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So I tell parents, ‘It’s not you versus your child, but rather it’s you versus a hijacked neural pathway. It’s the dopamine you’re fighting. And that’s not a fair fight,'” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.thescreentimeconsultant.com/about-emily\">Emily Cherkin\u003c/a>, who spent more than a decade teaching middle school and now coaches parents about screens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This response can happen to children at any age, even toddlers, says Dr. \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.stanford.edu/anna-lembke\">Anna Lembke\u003c/a>, who’s a psychiatrist at Stanford University and author of the book \u003cem>Dopamine Nation\u003c/em>. “Absolutely. This happens at the earliest ages. So screens and sweets are, in and of themselves, alluring and potentially intoxicating.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armed with this knowledge, parents have more power to reduce the stress and negative consequences of these dopamine-surging activities. Here are some strategies to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Tip 1: Wait 5 minutes\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Dopamine surges are potent, says neuroscientist \u003ca href=\"https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/berridge.html\">Kent Berridge\u003c/a> at the University of Michigan, but they are fast. “They have a short half-life,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you take away the cue [triggering the dopamine] and you can wait two to five minutes, a lot of the urge usually goes away,” says Berridge, who’s been instrumental in deciphering dopamine’s role in the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, when you stop the cartoons at 30 minutes or cut off the cake at one slice, you may hear a bunch of whining, protest and tears, but that reaction will likely be brief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here’s the key. You have to put the dopamine trigger out of sight, says Lembke at Stanford. Because seeing the laptop or extra leftover cake can start the cycle of wanting over again.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Tip 2: Look for the “Goldilocks” activities\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Of course, not all of these activities and foods will be as enticing or intoxicating to every child, Lembke explains. “Our brains are all wired a little bit differently from one individual to the next.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And remember, dopamine motivates children to act and stay focused. The key, she says, is to figure out which activities give your child the right amount of dopamine. Not too little and not too much — the Goldilocks amount. And to do that, she says, pay attention to how your kid feels after the activity stops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the child feels even better after the activity, that means we’re getting a healthy source of dopamine,” Lembke says. Not too little. But also not too much. And there’s low risk the activity will become problematic for the child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, my daughter doesn’t have (much of) a problem turning off audiobooks or putting away art projects. Same goes for video-calling with friends, coloring, reading and, of course, playing outside with friends. These activities make her behavior better afterward, not worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What about the opposite — when a child feels worse after an activity or snack, and their behavior declines? Then, Lembke says, there’s a high risk that the activity could hook the child into a compulsive loop. “Once they start engaging often and for long periods of time, they may really lose control,” she explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People have this idea that, ‘Oh, well, if I let my kid play as many video games as they want or be on social media as much as they want, they’ll get tired of it.’ And in fact, the opposite happens,” Lembke says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research indicates that over time, some people’s brains can actually become \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5171207/\">more sensitive\u003c/a> to the dopamine triggered by a particular activity. And therefore, the more time a person spends engaged with this activity, the more they may crave it — even if the activity becomes unpleasurable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, Lembke says, parents really need to be careful and thoughtful with these activities. They need to limit the frequency and duration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to …\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Tip 3: Make microenvironments\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Create places in your home where the child can’t access or see problematic devices, Lembke recommends. For example, have only one room in the house where children can use the phone or tablet. Keep these devices out of bedrooms, the kitchen, the dining room and the car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, create times in your schedule where the child cannot see or access this device. Narrow down usage to only a small time each day, if possible. Or take a weekly “\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/02/12/584389201/smartphone-detox-how-to-power-down-in-a-wired-world\">tech Sabbath\u003c/a>,” where everyone in the family takes a 24-hour break from their phones and tablets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for problematic foods, keep them out of the house. For example, the family eats ice cream only on special trips to the ice cream parlor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lembke calls these “microenvironments” — both physical and chronological. And they can have profound power over our brains, she says. “It’s amazing how when we know we can’t go on a device, the craving goes away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because here’s the tricky aspect of dopamine: Our brains can start to predict when dopamine spikes are imminent, Lembke explains. We identify signals in the environment that point to it. These environmental cues can actually \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3325516/\">trigger \u003c/a>a surge of dopamine in the brain \u003cem>before \u003c/em>the child even begins eating or using a screen. These spikes can be larger than the ones experienced during the activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a child, a signal could be a tablet sitting on a shelf, walking into the living room where they usually use a device, or even simply the time of day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These environmental signals can make it tough, even painful, for kids to start breaking their habits, Lembke says. But that pain usually dissipates in a few days or weeks. Give children time to adjust.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Tip 4: Try a habit makeover\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Instead of cutting out an activity altogether, look for a version that’s more purposeful, says neuroscientist \u003ca href=\"https://neurobiology.northwestern.edu/people/core-faculty/yevgenia-kozorovitskiy.html\">Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy\u003c/a> at Northwestern University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kozorovitskiy, who has two tween boys, ages 11 and 12, says prohibiting video games altogether isn’t realistic for her family. But she does think carefully about which games they’re playing. “They will sometimes want to play this adventure game that’s really complex and cognitively wonderful,” she explains. “It requires exploration, discovery and strategy. And they play it together, physically. They’re speaking about strategy, exchanging plans and using advanced social and language skills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I tried this strategy with my daughter. One night we switched the cartoons for a language learning app. I told her that having an activity that’s more purposeful will actually be more pleasurable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, she expressed great disappointment in this swap out, with tears and “But Mamas.” But I stayed strong and calm, and I waited. After a few minutes, just as Kent Berridge said, the craving seemed to pass even more quickly than I expected. She easily switched gears to learning a bit of Spanish each night — with very little fuss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I also started to put in place a piece of advice I heard from all the experts: Enrich your child’s life off the screens. We had a neighbor teach her how to crochet. As a family, we started going for more walks after dinner. We bought a new pet (or actually \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/04/28/1171721872/the-wonder-of-chickens-and-their-egg-song-made-me-a-better-person-and-parent\">15 new pets\u003c/a>) for her to take care of. And we started having more friends over on the weekends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And guess what happened? After using the language app for a few weeks, she lost interest in the screens altogether. She hasn’t watched a cartoon since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I’ll tell you this: I will think very carefully before introducing a new app, device or even a new dessert into our lives. The battle against dopamine is just too hard for me to fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Anti-dopamine+parenting%27+can+curb+a+kid%27s+craving+for+screens+or+sweets&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/mindshift/61863/anti-dopamine-parenting-can-curb-a-kids-craving-for-screens-or-sweets","authors":["byline_mindshift_61863"],"categories":["mindshift_21385"],"tags":["mindshift_21581","mindshift_21474","mindshift_767","mindshift_21678","mindshift_46","mindshift_20568","mindshift_21116","mindshift_20816","mindshift_21679"],"featImg":"mindshift_61864","label":"mindshift"},"mindshift_61695":{"type":"posts","id":"mindshift_61695","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"mindshift","id":"61695","score":null,"sort":[1685048326000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"how-a-little-more-silence-in-childrens-lives-helps-them-grow","title":"How a little more silence in children's lives helps them grow","publishDate":1685048326,"format":"standard","headTitle":"How a little more silence in children’s lives helps them grow | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"mindshift"},"content":"\u003cp>A group of small children sits cross-legged with their teacher, Steve Mejía-Menendez, on a round carpet. He’s a pre-K teacher at Lee Montessori Public Charter School’s campus in Southeast Washington, D.C., and although I’m here to meet him, I almost don’t spot him because he’s eye level with his students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mr. Steve, as he’s known here, is talking a few students through a geometry lesson when another student approaches to ask an unrelated question. This kind of distraction happens all the time in classrooms around the United States. Mr. Steve doesn’t lose focus. He uses American Sign Language to say “wait” — palms facing up, fingers wiggling — and the child waits quietly. When the lesson arrives at a natural stopping point, the student is invited to ask his question, and Mr. Steve silently responds by nodding his head along with his fist, which is sign language for “yes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blink, and you could miss the whole interaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn’t a school for students with hearing disabilities, but Mr. Steve uses ASL as part of a broader approach to minimize noise in the classroom. And it’s noticeably quiet. No one is talking louder than what’s often referred to in Montessori schools as “the hum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Silence is kind of a peak achievement in a child’s ability to control themselves,” Mejía-Menendez says. “We create the conditions for children to concentrate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike this classroom, the city outside is full of noise. And studies show that too much noise, particularly loud noise, can \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3757288/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hurt a child’s cognitive development\u003c/a>, notably for language-based skills such as reading. That’s because if noise is just, well, noise, it distracts developing brains and makes it more difficult for children to concentrate. But when their environment is quiet enough for them to pay attention to sounds that are important or particularly interesting to them, it is a powerful teaching tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Young children’s] brains are craving sound-to-meaning connections, so it’s very important that the sounds around them be nourishing and meaningful,” says Nina Kraus, a neurobiologist at Northwestern University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She believes turning down the noise in our lives starts with embracing — even enjoying — silence.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Our noisy world shapes our brains\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Silence is difficult to find and to create — for adults and kids alike. Around the world, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/08/10/633201540/are-you-listening-hear-what-uninterrupted-silence-sounds-like\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fans of silence\u003c/a> have begun to \u003ca href=\"https://www.quietparks.org/quiet-places\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">catalog the world’s disappearing quiet places\u003c/a>. But Lee Montessori is in Washington, D.C., a city that is surround-sound cacophony: busy highways, screeching commuter trains, jarring car horns, waterways with the blare of boat whistles and the seemingly constant whir of presidential and military helicopters and the drone of commercial airplanes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But teachers do what they can. Inside this bright elementary school, there are no disruptive public address announcements. Students even wear special classroom shoes made of cloth and soft rubber soles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hearing brain is vast,” Kraus, the neurobiologist, says. “Our experience with sound really does shape us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61703\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61703\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1300\" height=\"811\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1.jpg 1300w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1-800x499.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1-160x100.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1-768x479.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(LA Johnson/NPR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In fact, she has written an entire book about that topic, called \u003cem>Of Sound Mind\u003c/em>. The brain processes auditory input faster than visual input, Kraus explains, and when we have the space to listen, our brains prioritize what we tune in to and reward paying attention through a release of dopamine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, if you’re a teenager excited to be learning the guitar, musical tones will get preferential treatment. If you’re learning to play basketball, the bounce of the dribbling ball and your coach calling out plays will get your attention. There are certain sounds, like the sound of your own name, that your brain is unconsciously conditioned to respond to, even when you’re asleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when sounds are out of our control and not important to us, they shift into the category of noise: a neighbor’s dog barking at a squirrel, a faulty car alarm, the drone of a highway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the sounds we are exposed to aren’t helping us learn a new skill or stay safe at a busy intersection, the brain can get distracted and have trouble focusing.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>It takes brainpower to ignore sound\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When the world was a lot quieter, our brains paid attention to every little leaf rustle or snap of a twig as a tool for survival, Kraus explains. And when our brains are processing sounds that trigger questions like “Am I in trouble here?” or “Can I ignore this?”, \u003ca href=\"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01183/full\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">there is less room to focus\u003c/a> on the task in front of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider a modern equivalent: When you’re listening to someone tell you something and your phone dings — Ding! “Is that important?” — you just lost track of where you were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Your brain has to work overtime to ignore sounds. Inside the cochlea — the spiral cavity of the inner ear that produces nerve impulses in response to sound vibrations — there are inner hair cells and outer hair cells that interact to amplify or deamplify the vibrations. Say you are listening to a piece of music on the radio, but traffic noise is in the background. Kraus says your brain will tell the outer hair cells to slow down and deamplify the traffic noise to protect your ears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61705\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61705\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1300\" height=\"811\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a.jpg 1300w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a-800x499.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a-160x100.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a-768x479.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(LA Johnson/NPR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So when there is even just a moderate level of background noise, like traffic or a truck idling, our brains process more slowly. Kraus uses the analogy of a DJ sitting at a mixing board in your brain, assessing and adjusting sounds that come in all day long. The more that DJ has to do, the less operating power is available for your brain, making it harder to process new information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can become physically exhausting as well. People who have trouble hearing often experience listening fatigue.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Noise is especially distracting to young brains\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>“We can close our eyes, we can avert our gaze, but we hear in 360 degrees,” says Emily Elliott, a psychology professor at Louisiana State University who studies memory and cognition and is one of the authors of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6520208/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study\u003c/a> about how auditory distraction affects a young child’s ability to perform serial recall tasks. Elliott and her colleagues devised a test in which they gave young children a visual task of memorizing a series of items on a screen. Then they told the children that sounds would be playing but not to pay attention to them, because they weren’t relevant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In general, performance goes down when you’re asked to remember a series of things in order in the presence of irrelevant or distracting auditory stimuli,” Elliott found. “So that tells us that [the sound is] somehow being processed in the cognitive system, because you can’t just willfully go, ‘I’m going to not listen.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elliott and her team found that the critical ingredient of distraction is sound that changes in some noticeable way. “It could be music with lyrics,” she says. “Music with lyrics is more distracting than music without lyrics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also found that children under age 7 in particular are bad at memorization because their brains are not yet able to employ a key tactic known as rehearsal. That’s where you repeat things to yourself to remember them. And not only will they not remember a list of things, but they’re also not aware that they won’t remember them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when you’re giving a young child directions or teaching a new topic and a distracting noise is present, the odds of the child remembering any of what you’ve told the child are pretty low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001391657500700406\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study of New York City schoolchildren in the 1970s\u003c/a> found that students in classrooms next to noisy elevated train tracks performed significantly poorer on reading tests than their peers on the other side of the building. After the study was published, the city took steps to soundproof the classrooms and minimize the noise coming from the tracks, and a year later, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/26/nyregion/student-scores-rise-after-nearby-subway-is-quieted.html?auth=login-google1tap&login=google1tap\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">students’ test scores were the same\u003c/a> on both sides of the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61704\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61704\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1300\" height=\"811\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a.jpg 1300w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a-800x499.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a-160x100.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a-768x479.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(LA Johnson/NPR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In another study by neurologist Kraus and her team, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/44/17221\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mapped the brain activity\u003c/a> of 66 ninth-graders from Chicago Public Schools while asking them to perform reading and memory tasks. Then they monitored the children’s electrical brain activity while watching a movie and listening to disruptive sounds. They found that the students who grew up under circumstances associated with noisier environments performed poorer on the reading and memory tasks and that those students had what she calls “noisier” brains — meaning a lot of neurons were firing all the time, even when the brain wasn’t engaged in a task. You can think of that excess electrical activity as static.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And if there’s too much static, it makes it hard to make sense of all of the information that you want to be processing,” Kraus says. According to Kraus, more static in a child’s brain means it’s harder for that child to listen and stay focused wherever they are.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How silence and some types of noise can benefit children\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Kraus believes silence can be a benefit to children. When she and her team monitored kids with “noisy brains” under scalp electrodes, they found that periods of silence helped lessen the static.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her team has also \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/07/22/486452431/from-mozart-to-mr-rogers-literacy-music-and-the-brain\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found that making meaningful sounds\u003c/a>, like playing a musical instrument or singing, builds and strengthens neural connections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other research has found that \u003cem>pure silence\u003c/em> can be healing. In \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4087081/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one study\u003c/a> on mice, scientists tracked brain cell growth among mice that were exposed to white noise, mice pup sounds, classical music and ambient sounds, and they compared those mice with mice that were left in silence. The mice that were left in silence had the most significant brain cell growth, leading researchers to conclude that the act of listening to silence regenerates nerve cells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But absolute silence is rare outside a controlled lab environment. Even in the middle of the woods, you’ll hear natural sounds of birdsong, the running water of a stream, leaves rustling and insects buzzing. These types of sounds could be described as noise, but they are calming to us. And if we try, we can find and re-create these natural sound environments in the middle of a city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to being a researcher, Elliott, the psychology professor, is also a mother of three. She learned early on as a parent to put white noise machines in her kids’ bedrooms so that if one of them woke up screaming in the middle of the night, they didn’t all wake up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“White noise is fascinating because it masks lots of variability in sound,” she says. “It takes out some of the frequency ranges and presents something that sounds like a continuous, steady sound.” In other words, it mimics running water in a stream, and our brains tune it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This type of noise becomes a benefit in this situation, because it’s masking the variability of the other sounds that would be a distraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Get cozy with the sounds of silence\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Creating enough quiet to help hear meaningful sound is easier said than done. Some blame, in part, a culture that promotes constant stimulus. “There is some expectation that you need to be loud and flashy to capture your child’s attention. Everything has to be a fun fair,” says Ellen Doherty, chief creative officer for Fred Rogers Productions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the company that inherited the mantle of \u003cem>Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood\u003c/em>, the children’s television program developed in the 1960s and known for its calm and reassuring tone. It’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fredrogers.org/productions/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">still producing\u003c/a> media for children, including Doherty’s series of shorts, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6E13QocOsQ\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Through the Woods\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which is deliberately quiet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three-minute shorts are about a kid walking through the woods, wondering, observing and experiencing. Instead of background music, you hear birds chirping, the wind blowing and leaves rustling. The sound designers do a believable job of making viewers feel like they are in the woods. But Doherty says this kind of programming goes against the grain of expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take our shows to focus groups and ask parents, ‘Would your child watch this?'” Doherty says. “And so often, parents say to us that if it’s not bright and flashy, ‘my kid won’t watch that.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doherty calls that type of show the fun fair. She believes you can have good shows with music and bright colors that aren’t distracting but actually work to teach learning skills such as how to manage emotions or calm yourself down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My metric,” says Doherty, “is \u003cem>does this need to exist\u003c/em>?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that we need to be able to honor silence,” Kraus says. “And there’s something almost mystical there. You know, may we have a moment of silence? It’s really a time to kind of get into yourself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using Doherty’s question, “Does this need to exist?” as a guide, we might begin to think of silence as a chance to learn and look forward to making our lives quieter.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by Emily Harris and Steve Drummond; visual design and development by LA Johnson; research by LA Johnson; fact-checked by Will Chase; copyedited by Preeti Aroon.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+a+little+more+silence+in+children%27s+lives+helps+them+grow&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Studies show too much noise, particularly loud, irregular noise, can hurt a child's brain development, because if sound is irregular, it distracts our brains and makes concentration more difficult.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1685050697,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":46,"wordCount":2349},"headData":{"title":"How a little more silence in children's lives helps them grow | KQED","description":"Studies show too much noise, particularly loud, irregular noise, can hurt a child's brain development, because if sound is irregular, it distracts our brains and makes concentration more difficult.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialDescription":"Studies show too much noise, particularly loud, irregular noise, can hurt a child's brain development, because if sound is irregular, it distracts our brains and makes concentration more difficult."},"nprImageCredit":"LA Johnson","nprByline":"LA Johnson","nprImageAgency":"NPR","nprStoryId":"1072791328","nprApiLink":"http://api.npr.org/query?id=1072791328&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004","nprHtmlLink":"https://www.npr.org/2023/05/24/1072791328/more-silence-less-noise-children-lives-helps-them-grow-brain-development-memory?ft=nprml&f=1072791328","nprRetrievedStory":"1","nprPubDate":"Wed, 24 May 2023 10:07:00 -0400","nprStoryDate":"Wed, 24 May 2023 05:01:15 -0400","nprLastModifiedDate":"Wed, 24 May 2023 10:07:01 -0400","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/mindshift/61695/how-a-little-more-silence-in-childrens-lives-helps-them-grow","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A group of small children sits cross-legged with their teacher, Steve Mejía-Menendez, on a round carpet. He’s a pre-K teacher at Lee Montessori Public Charter School’s campus in Southeast Washington, D.C., and although I’m here to meet him, I almost don’t spot him because he’s eye level with his students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mr. Steve, as he’s known here, is talking a few students through a geometry lesson when another student approaches to ask an unrelated question. This kind of distraction happens all the time in classrooms around the United States. Mr. Steve doesn’t lose focus. He uses American Sign Language to say “wait” — palms facing up, fingers wiggling — and the child waits quietly. When the lesson arrives at a natural stopping point, the student is invited to ask his question, and Mr. Steve silently responds by nodding his head along with his fist, which is sign language for “yes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blink, and you could miss the whole interaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn’t a school for students with hearing disabilities, but Mr. Steve uses ASL as part of a broader approach to minimize noise in the classroom. And it’s noticeably quiet. No one is talking louder than what’s often referred to in Montessori schools as “the hum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Silence is kind of a peak achievement in a child’s ability to control themselves,” Mejía-Menendez says. “We create the conditions for children to concentrate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike this classroom, the city outside is full of noise. And studies show that too much noise, particularly loud noise, can \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3757288/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hurt a child’s cognitive development\u003c/a>, notably for language-based skills such as reading. That’s because if noise is just, well, noise, it distracts developing brains and makes it more difficult for children to concentrate. But when their environment is quiet enough for them to pay attention to sounds that are important or particularly interesting to them, it is a powerful teaching tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Young children’s] brains are craving sound-to-meaning connections, so it’s very important that the sounds around them be nourishing and meaningful,” says Nina Kraus, a neurobiologist at Northwestern University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She believes turning down the noise in our lives starts with embracing — even enjoying — silence.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Our noisy world shapes our brains\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Silence is difficult to find and to create — for adults and kids alike. Around the world, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/08/10/633201540/are-you-listening-hear-what-uninterrupted-silence-sounds-like\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fans of silence\u003c/a> have begun to \u003ca href=\"https://www.quietparks.org/quiet-places\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">catalog the world’s disappearing quiet places\u003c/a>. But Lee Montessori is in Washington, D.C., a city that is surround-sound cacophony: busy highways, screeching commuter trains, jarring car horns, waterways with the blare of boat whistles and the seemingly constant whir of presidential and military helicopters and the drone of commercial airplanes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But teachers do what they can. Inside this bright elementary school, there are no disruptive public address announcements. Students even wear special classroom shoes made of cloth and soft rubber soles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hearing brain is vast,” Kraus, the neurobiologist, says. “Our experience with sound really does shape us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61703\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61703\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1300\" height=\"811\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1.jpg 1300w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1-800x499.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1-160x100.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-1-768x479.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(LA Johnson/NPR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In fact, she has written an entire book about that topic, called \u003cem>Of Sound Mind\u003c/em>. The brain processes auditory input faster than visual input, Kraus explains, and when we have the space to listen, our brains prioritize what we tune in to and reward paying attention through a release of dopamine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, if you’re a teenager excited to be learning the guitar, musical tones will get preferential treatment. If you’re learning to play basketball, the bounce of the dribbling ball and your coach calling out plays will get your attention. There are certain sounds, like the sound of your own name, that your brain is unconsciously conditioned to respond to, even when you’re asleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when sounds are out of our control and not important to us, they shift into the category of noise: a neighbor’s dog barking at a squirrel, a faulty car alarm, the drone of a highway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the sounds we are exposed to aren’t helping us learn a new skill or stay safe at a busy intersection, the brain can get distracted and have trouble focusing.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>It takes brainpower to ignore sound\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When the world was a lot quieter, our brains paid attention to every little leaf rustle or snap of a twig as a tool for survival, Kraus explains. And when our brains are processing sounds that trigger questions like “Am I in trouble here?” or “Can I ignore this?”, \u003ca href=\"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01183/full\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">there is less room to focus\u003c/a> on the task in front of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider a modern equivalent: When you’re listening to someone tell you something and your phone dings — Ding! “Is that important?” — you just lost track of where you were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Your brain has to work overtime to ignore sounds. Inside the cochlea — the spiral cavity of the inner ear that produces nerve impulses in response to sound vibrations — there are inner hair cells and outer hair cells that interact to amplify or deamplify the vibrations. Say you are listening to a piece of music on the radio, but traffic noise is in the background. Kraus says your brain will tell the outer hair cells to slow down and deamplify the traffic noise to protect your ears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61705\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61705\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1300\" height=\"811\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a.jpg 1300w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a-800x499.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a-160x100.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-NPR-2a-768x479.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(LA Johnson/NPR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So when there is even just a moderate level of background noise, like traffic or a truck idling, our brains process more slowly. Kraus uses the analogy of a DJ sitting at a mixing board in your brain, assessing and adjusting sounds that come in all day long. The more that DJ has to do, the less operating power is available for your brain, making it harder to process new information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can become physically exhausting as well. People who have trouble hearing often experience listening fatigue.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Noise is especially distracting to young brains\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>“We can close our eyes, we can avert our gaze, but we hear in 360 degrees,” says Emily Elliott, a psychology professor at Louisiana State University who studies memory and cognition and is one of the authors of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6520208/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study\u003c/a> about how auditory distraction affects a young child’s ability to perform serial recall tasks. Elliott and her colleagues devised a test in which they gave young children a visual task of memorizing a series of items on a screen. Then they told the children that sounds would be playing but not to pay attention to them, because they weren’t relevant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In general, performance goes down when you’re asked to remember a series of things in order in the presence of irrelevant or distracting auditory stimuli,” Elliott found. “So that tells us that [the sound is] somehow being processed in the cognitive system, because you can’t just willfully go, ‘I’m going to not listen.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elliott and her team found that the critical ingredient of distraction is sound that changes in some noticeable way. “It could be music with lyrics,” she says. “Music with lyrics is more distracting than music without lyrics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also found that children under age 7 in particular are bad at memorization because their brains are not yet able to employ a key tactic known as rehearsal. That’s where you repeat things to yourself to remember them. And not only will they not remember a list of things, but they’re also not aware that they won’t remember them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when you’re giving a young child directions or teaching a new topic and a distracting noise is present, the odds of the child remembering any of what you’ve told the child are pretty low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001391657500700406\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study of New York City schoolchildren in the 1970s\u003c/a> found that students in classrooms next to noisy elevated train tracks performed significantly poorer on reading tests than their peers on the other side of the building. After the study was published, the city took steps to soundproof the classrooms and minimize the noise coming from the tracks, and a year later, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/26/nyregion/student-scores-rise-after-nearby-subway-is-quieted.html?auth=login-google1tap&login=google1tap\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">students’ test scores were the same\u003c/a> on both sides of the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61704\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61704\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1300\" height=\"811\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a.jpg 1300w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a-800x499.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a-160x100.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/LA-Johnson-3a-768x479.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(LA Johnson/NPR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In another study by neurologist Kraus and her team, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/44/17221\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mapped the brain activity\u003c/a> of 66 ninth-graders from Chicago Public Schools while asking them to perform reading and memory tasks. Then they monitored the children’s electrical brain activity while watching a movie and listening to disruptive sounds. They found that the students who grew up under circumstances associated with noisier environments performed poorer on the reading and memory tasks and that those students had what she calls “noisier” brains — meaning a lot of neurons were firing all the time, even when the brain wasn’t engaged in a task. You can think of that excess electrical activity as static.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And if there’s too much static, it makes it hard to make sense of all of the information that you want to be processing,” Kraus says. According to Kraus, more static in a child’s brain means it’s harder for that child to listen and stay focused wherever they are.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How silence and some types of noise can benefit children\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Kraus believes silence can be a benefit to children. When she and her team monitored kids with “noisy brains” under scalp electrodes, they found that periods of silence helped lessen the static.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her team has also \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/07/22/486452431/from-mozart-to-mr-rogers-literacy-music-and-the-brain\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found that making meaningful sounds\u003c/a>, like playing a musical instrument or singing, builds and strengthens neural connections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other research has found that \u003cem>pure silence\u003c/em> can be healing. In \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4087081/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one study\u003c/a> on mice, scientists tracked brain cell growth among mice that were exposed to white noise, mice pup sounds, classical music and ambient sounds, and they compared those mice with mice that were left in silence. The mice that were left in silence had the most significant brain cell growth, leading researchers to conclude that the act of listening to silence regenerates nerve cells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But absolute silence is rare outside a controlled lab environment. Even in the middle of the woods, you’ll hear natural sounds of birdsong, the running water of a stream, leaves rustling and insects buzzing. These types of sounds could be described as noise, but they are calming to us. And if we try, we can find and re-create these natural sound environments in the middle of a city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to being a researcher, Elliott, the psychology professor, is also a mother of three. She learned early on as a parent to put white noise machines in her kids’ bedrooms so that if one of them woke up screaming in the middle of the night, they didn’t all wake up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“White noise is fascinating because it masks lots of variability in sound,” she says. “It takes out some of the frequency ranges and presents something that sounds like a continuous, steady sound.” In other words, it mimics running water in a stream, and our brains tune it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This type of noise becomes a benefit in this situation, because it’s masking the variability of the other sounds that would be a distraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Get cozy with the sounds of silence\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Creating enough quiet to help hear meaningful sound is easier said than done. Some blame, in part, a culture that promotes constant stimulus. “There is some expectation that you need to be loud and flashy to capture your child’s attention. Everything has to be a fun fair,” says Ellen Doherty, chief creative officer for Fred Rogers Productions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the company that inherited the mantle of \u003cem>Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood\u003c/em>, the children’s television program developed in the 1960s and known for its calm and reassuring tone. It’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fredrogers.org/productions/\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">still producing\u003c/a> media for children, including Doherty’s series of shorts, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6E13QocOsQ\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Through the Woods\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which is deliberately quiet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three-minute shorts are about a kid walking through the woods, wondering, observing and experiencing. Instead of background music, you hear birds chirping, the wind blowing and leaves rustling. The sound designers do a believable job of making viewers feel like they are in the woods. But Doherty says this kind of programming goes against the grain of expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take our shows to focus groups and ask parents, ‘Would your child watch this?'” Doherty says. “And so often, parents say to us that if it’s not bright and flashy, ‘my kid won’t watch that.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doherty calls that type of show the fun fair. She believes you can have good shows with music and bright colors that aren’t distracting but actually work to teach learning skills such as how to manage emotions or calm yourself down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My metric,” says Doherty, “is \u003cem>does this need to exist\u003c/em>?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that we need to be able to honor silence,” Kraus says. “And there’s something almost mystical there. You know, may we have a moment of silence? It’s really a time to kind of get into yourself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using Doherty’s question, “Does this need to exist?” as a guide, we might begin to think of silence as a chance to learn and look forward to making our lives quieter.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by Emily Harris and Steve Drummond; visual design and development by LA Johnson; research by LA Johnson; fact-checked by Will Chase; copyedited by Preeti Aroon.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+a+little+more+silence+in+children%27s+lives+helps+them+grow&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/mindshift/61695/how-a-little-more-silence-in-childrens-lives-helps-them-grow","authors":["byline_mindshift_61695"],"categories":["mindshift_193"],"tags":["mindshift_767","mindshift_21454","mindshift_46","mindshift_21637","mindshift_21639","mindshift_21638"],"featImg":"mindshift_61696","label":"mindshift"},"mindshift_61372":{"type":"posts","id":"mindshift_61372","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"mindshift","id":"61372","score":null,"sort":[1683084613000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"how-arts-education-builds-better-brains-and-better-lives","title":"How arts education builds better brains and better lives","publishDate":1683084613,"format":"standard","headTitle":"How arts education builds better brains and better lives | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"mindshift"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>From the book \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/697351/your-brain-on-art-by-susan-magsamen-and-ivy-ross/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Your Brain on Art”\u003c/a> by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. Copyright © 2023 by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. Reprinted by arrangement with \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC\u003c/a>. All rights reserved.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think of how much is learned in the early years of a life: crawling, walking, talking. These learned skills are sculpting the circuitry of the brain though plasticity. As you get a little older and begin to practice skills, neurons connect and those activities become easier. Practice a song, and soon you know it “by heart,” which, technically speaking, is “by brain.” Learn a dance, and soon you can perform its steps without consciously thinking because the neurons connect to dendrites and over time that builds a habit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-61419 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/your-brain-on-art-160x243.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/your-brain-on-art-160x243.jpeg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/your-brain-on-art.jpeg 296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">Your unique life circumstances and surroundings also help to form your brain connections. The brains of humans are born immature for a reason. By delaying the maturation and growth of brain circuits, initial learning about the environment and the world around us can influence the developing brain in ways that support more complex learning. This is why the environment, and engagement from the moment you are born, is so critical. A more enriched environment contributes to better neural connections — as evidenced by research from \u003ca href=\"https://video.kqed.org/video/cjrqud-my-love-affair-brain-life-and-science-dr-marian-diamond/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marian Diamond\u003c/a> and many others since. Impoverished environments too often result in reduced synaptic circuitry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s been a lot of interest in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/tag/arts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how the arts specifically enhance learning\u003c/a> through plasticity. One \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0013225\">study\u003c/a> from 2010 looked at the adult brains of professional musicians, and the findings offer insights into childhood brain development. Researchers saw that musical expertise had an effect on the structural plasticity of the brain in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is an area of the brain that facilitates the storage and retrieval of information. The ability to learn and play music is very complex, and it marshals the hippocampus and its many connections to other brain areas. When compared with nonmusicians, the musicians had formed more neural connections and gray matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Originally, neuroscientists hypothesized that the hippocampi of musicians had more gray matter than nonmusicians because they were born that way, already equipped with the tools they needed to learn and play music. But now neuroscientists hypothesize the opposite: Because they practiced their instrument and mastered their art over the years, musicians built more robust synaptic connections in their brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Art enhances the ability of the hippocampus and the other areas of your brain to perform the tasks that they were designed to do by increasing the synaptic circuits. This helps not only in the playing of music but in any life activity where learning and memory are needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words: Practicing music increases synapses and gray matter. The results of the study correlate with the findings in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.laphil.com/press/releases/1672\">YOLA study\u003c/a> in Los Angeles. The researcher found that children receiving music instruction had changes in the size of the brain regions that are engaged in processing sound. It got bigger. And “the young musicians also showed a stronger connectivity in the corpus callosum, an area that allows communication between the two hemispheres of the brain,” according to the findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These neurological benefits extend beyond music. The National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, has been studying and supporting studies that examine the effect that the arts have on young brains for decades, offering insight into how the arts support emotional resilience in children and adolescents as they learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2015, Melissa Menzer, a program analyst in the Office of Research and Analysis at the NEA, performed a literature review focused on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/arts-in-early-childhood-dec2015-rev.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social and emotional benefits of arts participation during early childhood\u003c/a>. A literature review is when an investigator gathers and synthesizes the published studies and data from other researchers in order to identify what can be gleaned from the full body of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menzer was specifically interested in studies focused on the social and emotional benefits of arts participation in early childhood, including music-based activities like singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, drama/theatre, and the visual arts and crafts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Included in that literature review was a reference to a 2011 NEA report indicating that “in study after study, arts participation and arts education have been associated with improved cognitive, social, and behavioral outcomes in individuals across the lifespan, in early childhood, in adolescence and young adulthood, and in later years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Children who regularly participated in dance classes had increased those mood-boosting neurochemicals we’ve mentioned, which resulted in social-emotional, physiological, and cognitive development, but it also offered a path for safe exploration and expression of feelings and emotions. It also helps to build strong spatial cognition in children, which has been associated with increased skills in math, science, and technology later in life. And perhaps most vital for childhood development, Menzer found a research study indicating that children who regularly attend a dance group develop stronger prosocial behavior, like cooperation, while overcoming anxious and aggressive behaviors, when compared with kids who didn’t dance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2015 NEA literature review also found that when kids are engaged in the arts in the pivotal age range of 0–8, they were better able to collaborate with peers and communicate with parents and teachers. \u003ca href=\"https://www.laphil.com/press/releases/1672\">The studies cited\u003c/a> in the literature review reflect similar results that other researchers are finding when studying El Sistema students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other studies of arts in education over the years have proven that students involved in arts are good academically. Students with access to arts education are five times less likely to drop out of school and four times more likely to be recognized for high achievement. They score higher on the SAT, and on proficiency tests of literacy, writing, and English skills. They are also less likely to have disciplinary infractions. And when arts education is equitable so that all kids have equal access, the learning gap between low- and high-income students begins to shrink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One word you’ll often hear in research and education circles is “transfer.” It refers to the way that one skill — learning an instrument, for instance, or engaging in the act of painting or drawing — transfers over into other aspects of our lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, psychologist Ellen Winner and professor Lois Hetland, chair of art education at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a senior research affiliate in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, were two of the first to \u003ca href=\"https://pz.harvard.edu/projects/the-studio-thinking-project\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study the ways in which learning an art translates into other life skills\u003c/a>. Hetland and Winner developed a qualitative ethnographic meta-analysis of skills being learned, specifically through the visual arts. Beyond improving the skill of the art form being taught, they wanted to quantify what else individuals were learning in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They concluded in their book, \u003ca href=\"https://pz.harvard.edu/resources/studio-thinking-2-the-real-benefits-of-visual-arts-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education\u003c/a>, that, through the visual arts, individuals were taught to observe and see with acuity; to envision by creating mental images and using their imagination; to express themselves and find their individual voice; to reflect about decisions and make critical and evaluative judgments; to engage and persist, by working even through frustration; and to explore and take risks and profit from their mistakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-61373 alignleft\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-800x1120.jpg\" alt=\"Ivy Ross author photo\" width=\"157\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-800x1120.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-1020x1428.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-160x224.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-768x1075.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-1097x1536.jpg 1097w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-1463x2048.jpg 1463w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-1920x2688.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-scaled.jpg 1829w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 157px) 100vw, 157px\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.ivyarts.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ivy Ross\u003c/a> is the Vice President of Design for Hardware Products at Google, where she leads a team that has created over 50 products, winning over 225 design awards. An artist with work in over 10 international museums, Ivy is also a National Endowment for Arts grant recipient and was ninth on Fast Company’s list of the 100 most creative people in business in 2019.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-61374 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-800x1120.jpg\" alt=\"Susan Magsamen author photo\" width=\"154\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-800x1120.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-1020x1428.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-160x224.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-768x1075.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-1097x1536.jpg 1097w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-1463x2048.jpg 1463w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-1920x2688.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-scaled.jpg 1829w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 154px) 100vw, 154px\">\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/susanmagsamen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Susan Magsamen\u003c/a> is the Founder and Director of the International Arts +\u003c/em>\u003cem> Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at the Pedersen Brain Science Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she is a faculty member in the department of neurology. She is also the Co-Director of the NeuroArts Blueprint with Aspen Institute.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"“Your Brain on Art” by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross explores how arts education can enhance the plasticity of the brain and improve cognitive, social and emotional development in children.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1683086002,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":21,"wordCount":1340},"headData":{"title":"How arts education builds better brains and better lives | KQED","description":"“Your Brain on Art” by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross explores how arts education can enhance the plasticity of the brain and improve cognitive, social and emotional development in children.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/mindshift/61372/how-arts-education-builds-better-brains-and-better-lives","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>From the book \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/697351/your-brain-on-art-by-susan-magsamen-and-ivy-ross/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Your Brain on Art”\u003c/a> by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. Copyright © 2023 by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. Reprinted by arrangement with \u003ca href=\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC\u003c/a>. All rights reserved.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think of how much is learned in the early years of a life: crawling, walking, talking. These learned skills are sculpting the circuitry of the brain though plasticity. As you get a little older and begin to practice skills, neurons connect and those activities become easier. Practice a song, and soon you know it “by heart,” which, technically speaking, is “by brain.” Learn a dance, and soon you can perform its steps without consciously thinking because the neurons connect to dendrites and over time that builds a habit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-61419 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/your-brain-on-art-160x243.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/your-brain-on-art-160x243.jpeg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/your-brain-on-art.jpeg 296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">Your unique life circumstances and surroundings also help to form your brain connections. The brains of humans are born immature for a reason. By delaying the maturation and growth of brain circuits, initial learning about the environment and the world around us can influence the developing brain in ways that support more complex learning. This is why the environment, and engagement from the moment you are born, is so critical. A more enriched environment contributes to better neural connections — as evidenced by research from \u003ca href=\"https://video.kqed.org/video/cjrqud-my-love-affair-brain-life-and-science-dr-marian-diamond/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marian Diamond\u003c/a> and many others since. Impoverished environments too often result in reduced synaptic circuitry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s been a lot of interest in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/tag/arts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how the arts specifically enhance learning\u003c/a> through plasticity. One \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0013225\">study\u003c/a> from 2010 looked at the adult brains of professional musicians, and the findings offer insights into childhood brain development. Researchers saw that musical expertise had an effect on the structural plasticity of the brain in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is an area of the brain that facilitates the storage and retrieval of information. The ability to learn and play music is very complex, and it marshals the hippocampus and its many connections to other brain areas. When compared with nonmusicians, the musicians had formed more neural connections and gray matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Originally, neuroscientists hypothesized that the hippocampi of musicians had more gray matter than nonmusicians because they were born that way, already equipped with the tools they needed to learn and play music. But now neuroscientists hypothesize the opposite: Because they practiced their instrument and mastered their art over the years, musicians built more robust synaptic connections in their brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Art enhances the ability of the hippocampus and the other areas of your brain to perform the tasks that they were designed to do by increasing the synaptic circuits. This helps not only in the playing of music but in any life activity where learning and memory are needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words: Practicing music increases synapses and gray matter. The results of the study correlate with the findings in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.laphil.com/press/releases/1672\">YOLA study\u003c/a> in Los Angeles. The researcher found that children receiving music instruction had changes in the size of the brain regions that are engaged in processing sound. It got bigger. And “the young musicians also showed a stronger connectivity in the corpus callosum, an area that allows communication between the two hemispheres of the brain,” according to the findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These neurological benefits extend beyond music. The National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, has been studying and supporting studies that examine the effect that the arts have on young brains for decades, offering insight into how the arts support emotional resilience in children and adolescents as they learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2015, Melissa Menzer, a program analyst in the Office of Research and Analysis at the NEA, performed a literature review focused on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/arts-in-early-childhood-dec2015-rev.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social and emotional benefits of arts participation during early childhood\u003c/a>. A literature review is when an investigator gathers and synthesizes the published studies and data from other researchers in order to identify what can be gleaned from the full body of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menzer was specifically interested in studies focused on the social and emotional benefits of arts participation in early childhood, including music-based activities like singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, drama/theatre, and the visual arts and crafts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Included in that literature review was a reference to a 2011 NEA report indicating that “in study after study, arts participation and arts education have been associated with improved cognitive, social, and behavioral outcomes in individuals across the lifespan, in early childhood, in adolescence and young adulthood, and in later years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Children who regularly participated in dance classes had increased those mood-boosting neurochemicals we’ve mentioned, which resulted in social-emotional, physiological, and cognitive development, but it also offered a path for safe exploration and expression of feelings and emotions. It also helps to build strong spatial cognition in children, which has been associated with increased skills in math, science, and technology later in life. And perhaps most vital for childhood development, Menzer found a research study indicating that children who regularly attend a dance group develop stronger prosocial behavior, like cooperation, while overcoming anxious and aggressive behaviors, when compared with kids who didn’t dance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2015 NEA literature review also found that when kids are engaged in the arts in the pivotal age range of 0–8, they were better able to collaborate with peers and communicate with parents and teachers. \u003ca href=\"https://www.laphil.com/press/releases/1672\">The studies cited\u003c/a> in the literature review reflect similar results that other researchers are finding when studying El Sistema students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other studies of arts in education over the years have proven that students involved in arts are good academically. Students with access to arts education are five times less likely to drop out of school and four times more likely to be recognized for high achievement. They score higher on the SAT, and on proficiency tests of literacy, writing, and English skills. They are also less likely to have disciplinary infractions. And when arts education is equitable so that all kids have equal access, the learning gap between low- and high-income students begins to shrink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One word you’ll often hear in research and education circles is “transfer.” It refers to the way that one skill — learning an instrument, for instance, or engaging in the act of painting or drawing — transfers over into other aspects of our lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, psychologist Ellen Winner and professor Lois Hetland, chair of art education at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a senior research affiliate in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, were two of the first to \u003ca href=\"https://pz.harvard.edu/projects/the-studio-thinking-project\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study the ways in which learning an art translates into other life skills\u003c/a>. Hetland and Winner developed a qualitative ethnographic meta-analysis of skills being learned, specifically through the visual arts. Beyond improving the skill of the art form being taught, they wanted to quantify what else individuals were learning in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They concluded in their book, \u003ca href=\"https://pz.harvard.edu/resources/studio-thinking-2-the-real-benefits-of-visual-arts-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education\u003c/a>, that, through the visual arts, individuals were taught to observe and see with acuity; to envision by creating mental images and using their imagination; to express themselves and find their individual voice; to reflect about decisions and make critical and evaluative judgments; to engage and persist, by working even through frustration; and to explore and take risks and profit from their mistakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-61373 alignleft\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-800x1120.jpg\" alt=\"Ivy Ross author photo\" width=\"157\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-800x1120.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-1020x1428.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-160x224.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-768x1075.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-1097x1536.jpg 1097w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-1463x2048.jpg 1463w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-1920x2688.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Ivy-Ross-author-photo-scaled.jpg 1829w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 157px) 100vw, 157px\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.ivyarts.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ivy Ross\u003c/a> is the Vice President of Design for Hardware Products at Google, where she leads a team that has created over 50 products, winning over 225 design awards. An artist with work in over 10 international museums, Ivy is also a National Endowment for Arts grant recipient and was ninth on Fast Company’s list of the 100 most creative people in business in 2019.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-61374 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-800x1120.jpg\" alt=\"Susan Magsamen author photo\" width=\"154\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-800x1120.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-1020x1428.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-160x224.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-768x1075.jpg 768w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-1097x1536.jpg 1097w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-1463x2048.jpg 1463w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-1920x2688.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/04/Susan-Magsamen-author-photo-scaled.jpg 1829w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 154px) 100vw, 154px\">\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/susanmagsamen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Susan Magsamen\u003c/a> is the Founder and Director of the International Arts +\u003c/em>\u003cem> Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at the Pedersen Brain Science Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she is a faculty member in the department of neurology. She is also the Co-Director of the NeuroArts Blueprint with Aspen Institute.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/mindshift/61372/how-arts-education-builds-better-brains-and-better-lives","authors":["4354"],"categories":["mindshift_20579","mindshift_21504"],"tags":["mindshift_1036","mindshift_20854","mindshift_950","mindshift_21018","mindshift_21036","mindshift_46","mindshift_21038","mindshift_943","mindshift_20616"],"featImg":"mindshift_61569","label":"mindshift"},"mindshift_61026":{"type":"posts","id":"mindshift_61026","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"mindshift","id":"61026","score":null,"sort":[1676602854000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"10-things-to-know-about-how-social-media-affects-teens-brains","title":"10 things to know about how social media affects teens' brains","publishDate":1676602854,"format":"standard","headTitle":"MindShift | KQED News","labelTerm":{"site":"mindshift"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://988lifeline.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> by dialing or texting 9-8-8.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>The statistics are sobering. In the past year, nearly 1 in 3 teen girls reports \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/02/13/1156663966/teen-girls-and-lgbtq-youth-plagued-by-violence-and-trauma-survey-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">seriously considering suicide\u003c/a>. One in 5 teens identifying as LGBTQ+ say they attempted suicide in that time. Between 2009 and 2019, depression rates doubled for all teens. And that was \u003cem>before\u003c/em> the COVID-19 pandemic. The question is: \u003cem>Why now\u003c/em>?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Our brains, our bodies, and our society have been evolving together to shape human development for millennia... Within the last twenty years, the advent of portable technology and social media platforms is changing what took 60,000 years to evolve,\" Mitch Prinstein, the chief science officer at the American Psychological Association (APA), told the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. \"We are just beginning to understand how this may impact youth development.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prinstein's \u003ca href=\"https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2023-02-14%20-%20Testimony%20-%20Prinstein.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">22-page testimony\u003c/a>, along with dozens of useful footnotes, offers some much-needed clarity about the role social media may play in contributing to this teen mental health crisis. For you busy parents, caregivers and educators out there, we've distilled it down to 10 useful takeaways:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>1. Social interaction is key to every child's growth and development.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Humans are social creatures, and we learn through social interaction. In fact, said Prinstein, \"numerous studies have revealed that children's interactions with peers have enduring effects on their occupational status, salary, relationship success, emotional development, mental health, and even on physical health and mortality over 40 years later. These effects are stronger than the effects of children's IQ, socioeconomic status, and educational attainment.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This helps explain why social media platforms have grown so big in a relatively short period of time. But is the kind of social interaction they offer \u003cem>healthy\u003c/em>?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>2. Social media platforms often traffic in the wrong kind of social interaction.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>What's the right kind, you ask? According to Prinstein, it's interactions and relationship-building \"characterized by support, emotional intimacy, disclosure, positive regard, reliable alliance (e.g., 'having each other's backs'), and trust.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is, social media platforms often (though not always) emphasize metrics over the \u003cem>humans \u003c/em>behind the \"likes\" and \"followers,\" which can lead teens to simply post things about themselves, true or not, that they hope will draw the most attention. And these cycles, Prinstein warned, \"create the exact opposite qualities needed for successful and adaptive relationships (i.e., disingenuous, anonymous, depersonalized). In other words, social media offers the 'empty calories of social interaction,' that appear to help satiate our biological and psychological needs, but do not contain any of the healthy ingredients necessary to reap benefits.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, research has found that social media can actually \u003ca>make some teens feel lonelier.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>3. It's not all bad.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The APA's chief science officer made clear, social media and the study of it are both too young to arrive at many conclusions with absolute certainty. In fact, when used properly, social media can feed teens' need for social connection in healthy ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Research suggests that young people form and maintain friendships online. These relationships often afford opportunities to interact with a more diverse peer group than offline, and the relationships are close and meaningful and provide important support to youth in times of stress.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What's more, Prinstein pointed out, for many marginalized teens, \"digital platforms provide an important space for self-discovery and expression\" and can help them forge meaningful relationships that may buffer and protect them from the effects of stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>4. Adolescence is a \"developmentally vulnerable period\" when teens crave social rewards – without the ability to restrain themselves.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>That's because, as children enter puberty, the areas of the brain \"associated with our craving for 'social rewards,' such as visibility, attention, and positive feedback from peers\" tend to develop well before the bits of the brain \"involved in our ability to inhibit our behavior, and resist temptations,\" Prinstein said. Social media platforms that reward teens with \"likes\" and new \"followers\" can trigger and feed that craving.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>5. \"Likes\" can make bad behavior look good.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Hollywood has long grappled with parent groups who worry that violent or overly sexualized movies can have a negative effect on teen behavior. Well, similar fears, about teens witnessing bad behavior on social media, might be well-founded. But it's complicated. Check this out:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Research examining adolescents' brains while on a simulated social media site, for example, revealed that when exposed to illegal, dangerous imagery, activation of the prefrontal cortex was observed suggesting healthy inhibition towards maladaptive behaviors,\" Prinstein told lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, that's good. The prefrontal cortex helps us make smart (and safe) decisions. Hooray for the prefrontal cortex! Here's the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prinstein said, when teens viewed these same illegal and/or dangerous behaviors on social media alongside icons suggesting they'd been \"liked\" by others, the part of the brain that keeps us safe stopped working as well, \"suggesting that the 'likes' may reduce youths' inhibition (i.e., perhaps increasing their proclivity) towards dangerous and illegal behavior.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, bad behavior feels bad... until other people start liking it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>6. Social media can also make \"psychologically disordered behavior\" look good.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Prinstein spoke specifically about sites or accounts that promote eating disordered behaviors and nonsuicidal self-injury, like self-cutting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Research indicates that this content has proliferated on social media sites, not only depicting these behaviors, but teaching young people how to engage in each, how to conceal these behaviors from adults, actively encouraging users to engage in these behaviors, and socially sanctioning those who express a desire for less risky behavior.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>7. Extreme social media use can look a lot like addiction.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\"Regions of the brain activated by social media use overlap considerably with the regions involved in addictions to illegal and dangerous substances,\" Prinstein told lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He cited a litany of research that says, excessive social media use in teens often manifests some of the same symptoms of more traditional addictions, in part because teen brains just don't have the kind of self-control toolbox that adults do.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>8. The threat of online bullying is real.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Prinstein warned lawmakers that \"victimization, harassment, and discrimination against racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities is frequent online and often targeted at young people. LGBTQ+ youth experience a heightened level of bullying, threats, and self-harm on social media.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And online bullying can take a terrible physical toll, Prinstein said: \"Brain scans of adults and youths reveal that online harassment activates the same regions of the brain that respond to physical pain and trigger a cascade of reactions that replicate physical assault and create physical and mental health damage.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/yv/bullying-suicide-translation-final-a.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u003c/a>, \"youth who report any involvement with bullying behavior are more likely to report high levels of suicide-related behavior than youth who do not report any involvement with bullying behavior.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/nyregion/nj-teen-suicide-bullying-school.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a 14-year-old New Jersey girl took her own life\u003c/a> after she was attacked by fellow students at school and a video of the assault was posted on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>9. It's hard not to compare yourself to what you see in social media.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Even adults feel it. We go onto social media and compare ourselves to everyone else out there, from the sunsets in our vacation pics to our waistlines – but \u003cem>especially\u003c/em> our waistlines and how we look, or feel we \u003cem>should \u003c/em>look, based on who's getting \"likes\" and who's not. For teens, the impacts of such comparisons can be amplified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Psychological science demonstrates that exposure to this online content is associated with lower self-image and distorted body perceptions among young people. This exposure creates strong risk factors for eating disorders, unhealthy weight-management behaviors, and depression,\" Prinstein testified.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>10. Sleep is more important than those \"likes.\"\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Research suggests more than half of adolescents are on screens right before bedtime, and that can keep them from getting the sleep they need. Not only is poor sleep linked to all sorts of downsides, including poor mental health symptoms, poor performance in school and trouble regulating stress, \"inconsistent sleep schedules are associated with changes in structural brain development in adolescent years. In other words, youths' preoccupation with technology and social media may deleteriously affect the size of their brains,\" Prinstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by: \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348780034/nicole-cohen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Nicole Cohen\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nVisual design and development by: \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348775569/la-johnson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>LA Johnson \u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=10+things+to+know+about+how+social+media+affects+teens%27+brains&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Eye-opening testimony from a top scientist offers a useful primer on the role social media may play in the teen mental health crisis. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1676602854,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":32,"wordCount":1426},"headData":{"title":"10 things to know about how social media affects teens' brains | KQED","description":"Eye-opening testimony from a top scientist offers a useful primer on the role social media may play in the teen mental health crisis.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"nprByline":"Cory Turner","nprImageAgency":"Tracy J. Lee for NPR","nprStoryId":"1157180971","nprApiLink":"http://api.npr.org/query?id=1157180971&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004","nprHtmlLink":"https://www.npr.org/2023/02/16/1157180971/10-things-to-know-about-how-social-media-affects-teens-brains?ft=nprml&f=1157180971","nprRetrievedStory":"1","nprPubDate":"Thu, 16 Feb 2023 12:01:00 -0500","nprStoryDate":"Thu, 16 Feb 2023 12:01:01 -0500","nprLastModifiedDate":"Thu, 16 Feb 2023 12:01:01 -0500","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/mindshift/61026/10-things-to-know-about-how-social-media-affects-teens-brains","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://988lifeline.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> by dialing or texting 9-8-8.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>The statistics are sobering. In the past year, nearly 1 in 3 teen girls reports \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/02/13/1156663966/teen-girls-and-lgbtq-youth-plagued-by-violence-and-trauma-survey-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">seriously considering suicide\u003c/a>. One in 5 teens identifying as LGBTQ+ say they attempted suicide in that time. Between 2009 and 2019, depression rates doubled for all teens. And that was \u003cem>before\u003c/em> the COVID-19 pandemic. The question is: \u003cem>Why now\u003c/em>?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Our brains, our bodies, and our society have been evolving together to shape human development for millennia... Within the last twenty years, the advent of portable technology and social media platforms is changing what took 60,000 years to evolve,\" Mitch Prinstein, the chief science officer at the American Psychological Association (APA), told the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. \"We are just beginning to understand how this may impact youth development.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prinstein's \u003ca href=\"https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2023-02-14%20-%20Testimony%20-%20Prinstein.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">22-page testimony\u003c/a>, along with dozens of useful footnotes, offers some much-needed clarity about the role social media may play in contributing to this teen mental health crisis. For you busy parents, caregivers and educators out there, we've distilled it down to 10 useful takeaways:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>1. Social interaction is key to every child's growth and development.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Humans are social creatures, and we learn through social interaction. In fact, said Prinstein, \"numerous studies have revealed that children's interactions with peers have enduring effects on their occupational status, salary, relationship success, emotional development, mental health, and even on physical health and mortality over 40 years later. These effects are stronger than the effects of children's IQ, socioeconomic status, and educational attainment.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This helps explain why social media platforms have grown so big in a relatively short period of time. But is the kind of social interaction they offer \u003cem>healthy\u003c/em>?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>2. Social media platforms often traffic in the wrong kind of social interaction.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>What's the right kind, you ask? According to Prinstein, it's interactions and relationship-building \"characterized by support, emotional intimacy, disclosure, positive regard, reliable alliance (e.g., 'having each other's backs'), and trust.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is, social media platforms often (though not always) emphasize metrics over the \u003cem>humans \u003c/em>behind the \"likes\" and \"followers,\" which can lead teens to simply post things about themselves, true or not, that they hope will draw the most attention. And these cycles, Prinstein warned, \"create the exact opposite qualities needed for successful and adaptive relationships (i.e., disingenuous, anonymous, depersonalized). In other words, social media offers the 'empty calories of social interaction,' that appear to help satiate our biological and psychological needs, but do not contain any of the healthy ingredients necessary to reap benefits.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, research has found that social media can actually \u003ca>make some teens feel lonelier.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>3. It's not all bad.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The APA's chief science officer made clear, social media and the study of it are both too young to arrive at many conclusions with absolute certainty. In fact, when used properly, social media can feed teens' need for social connection in healthy ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Research suggests that young people form and maintain friendships online. These relationships often afford opportunities to interact with a more diverse peer group than offline, and the relationships are close and meaningful and provide important support to youth in times of stress.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What's more, Prinstein pointed out, for many marginalized teens, \"digital platforms provide an important space for self-discovery and expression\" and can help them forge meaningful relationships that may buffer and protect them from the effects of stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>4. Adolescence is a \"developmentally vulnerable period\" when teens crave social rewards – without the ability to restrain themselves.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>That's because, as children enter puberty, the areas of the brain \"associated with our craving for 'social rewards,' such as visibility, attention, and positive feedback from peers\" tend to develop well before the bits of the brain \"involved in our ability to inhibit our behavior, and resist temptations,\" Prinstein said. Social media platforms that reward teens with \"likes\" and new \"followers\" can trigger and feed that craving.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>5. \"Likes\" can make bad behavior look good.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Hollywood has long grappled with parent groups who worry that violent or overly sexualized movies can have a negative effect on teen behavior. Well, similar fears, about teens witnessing bad behavior on social media, might be well-founded. But it's complicated. Check this out:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Research examining adolescents' brains while on a simulated social media site, for example, revealed that when exposed to illegal, dangerous imagery, activation of the prefrontal cortex was observed suggesting healthy inhibition towards maladaptive behaviors,\" Prinstein told lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, that's good. The prefrontal cortex helps us make smart (and safe) decisions. Hooray for the prefrontal cortex! Here's the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prinstein said, when teens viewed these same illegal and/or dangerous behaviors on social media alongside icons suggesting they'd been \"liked\" by others, the part of the brain that keeps us safe stopped working as well, \"suggesting that the 'likes' may reduce youths' inhibition (i.e., perhaps increasing their proclivity) towards dangerous and illegal behavior.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, bad behavior feels bad... until other people start liking it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>6. Social media can also make \"psychologically disordered behavior\" look good.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Prinstein spoke specifically about sites or accounts that promote eating disordered behaviors and nonsuicidal self-injury, like self-cutting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Research indicates that this content has proliferated on social media sites, not only depicting these behaviors, but teaching young people how to engage in each, how to conceal these behaviors from adults, actively encouraging users to engage in these behaviors, and socially sanctioning those who express a desire for less risky behavior.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>7. Extreme social media use can look a lot like addiction.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\"Regions of the brain activated by social media use overlap considerably with the regions involved in addictions to illegal and dangerous substances,\" Prinstein told lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He cited a litany of research that says, excessive social media use in teens often manifests some of the same symptoms of more traditional addictions, in part because teen brains just don't have the kind of self-control toolbox that adults do.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>8. The threat of online bullying is real.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Prinstein warned lawmakers that \"victimization, harassment, and discrimination against racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities is frequent online and often targeted at young people. LGBTQ+ youth experience a heightened level of bullying, threats, and self-harm on social media.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And online bullying can take a terrible physical toll, Prinstein said: \"Brain scans of adults and youths reveal that online harassment activates the same regions of the brain that respond to physical pain and trigger a cascade of reactions that replicate physical assault and create physical and mental health damage.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/yv/bullying-suicide-translation-final-a.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u003c/a>, \"youth who report any involvement with bullying behavior are more likely to report high levels of suicide-related behavior than youth who do not report any involvement with bullying behavior.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/nyregion/nj-teen-suicide-bullying-school.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a 14-year-old New Jersey girl took her own life\u003c/a> after she was attacked by fellow students at school and a video of the assault was posted on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>9. It's hard not to compare yourself to what you see in social media.\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Even adults feel it. We go onto social media and compare ourselves to everyone else out there, from the sunsets in our vacation pics to our waistlines – but \u003cem>especially\u003c/em> our waistlines and how we look, or feel we \u003cem>should \u003c/em>look, based on who's getting \"likes\" and who's not. For teens, the impacts of such comparisons can be amplified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Psychological science demonstrates that exposure to this online content is associated with lower self-image and distorted body perceptions among young people. This exposure creates strong risk factors for eating disorders, unhealthy weight-management behaviors, and depression,\" Prinstein testified.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>10. Sleep is more important than those \"likes.\"\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Research suggests more than half of adolescents are on screens right before bedtime, and that can keep them from getting the sleep they need. Not only is poor sleep linked to all sorts of downsides, including poor mental health symptoms, poor performance in school and trouble regulating stress, \"inconsistent sleep schedules are associated with changes in structural brain development in adolescent years. In other words, youths' preoccupation with technology and social media may deleteriously affect the size of their brains,\" Prinstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by: \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348780034/nicole-cohen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Nicole Cohen\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nVisual design and development by: \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348775569/la-johnson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>LA Johnson \u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=10+things+to+know+about+how+social+media+affects+teens%27+brains&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/mindshift/61026/10-things-to-know-about-how-social-media-affects-teens-brains","authors":["byline_mindshift_61026"],"categories":["mindshift_21445","mindshift_21280","mindshift_21385","mindshift_20874"],"tags":["mindshift_21093","mindshift_767","mindshift_21339","mindshift_46","mindshift_30","mindshift_21159"],"featImg":"mindshift_61027","label":"mindshift"},"mindshift_60868":{"type":"posts","id":"mindshift_60868","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"mindshift","id":"60868","score":null,"sort":[1674471657000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"many-students-are-using-study-strategies-that-dont-work-and-better-options-exist","title":"Many students are using study strategies that don't work — and better options exist","publishDate":1674471657,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Many students are using study strategies that don’t work — and better options exist | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":21847,"site":"mindshift"},"content":"\u003cp>Daniel Willingham is a University of Virginia psychologist who frequently engages in pop culture battles armed with academic research. He has made it a personal crusade to persuade teachers that the idea of \u003ca href=\"http://www.danielwillingham.com/learning-styles-faq.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">learning styles is a myth\u003c/a>. (Research evidence shows that we all learn through a variety of ways: visually, aurally and kinesthetically.) For years, he has complained that teachers aren’t heeding research about reading instruction, and that many educators are misguided when it comes to teaching \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/scientific-research-on-how-to-teach-critical-thinking-contradicts-education-trends/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">critical thinking\u003c/a>. Now, Willingham has shifted his focus from teachers to students. In his new book, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Outsmart-Your-Brain/Daniel-T-Willingham/9781982167172\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make it Easy\u003c/a>,” he points out all the wrong ways that students do homework, take notes in class or study for tests. (This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Q: You have almost 100 research-based tips on how to be a better student and almost all of them are just the opposite of what I did when I was in school. Don’t read over your notes to study for a test. Don’t use a highlighter when reading class assignments. Don’t combat procrastination through to-do lists. I’ve been studying wrong my whole life. Why is effective studying so counterintuitive? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: Students are doing things that feel really effective at the moment. It’s not like these strategies are completely fruitless. They’ve made it to college with them. But they don’t know the counterfactual; they don’t know what would happen if they engaged in other strategies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Q: It’s interesting that students may feel something is working even when it isn’t.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: Right! The most dramatic example, which I write about in the book, is reading over your notes. It’s the most common study strategy and it’s bad in two ways. It’s not very good for memory. But it also increases this feeling of familiarity. And to me, probably the most surprising idea in the book is that you can think you know things. A strong feeling of familiarity leads people to judge that they know something. But it’s not the kind of knowing that’s going to be expected in the classroom. On a test, you need to connect information; you need to be able to explain it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC5796443433&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the best ways to study is to probe your memory. Create your own practice tests. Flashcards, I think, get a bad rap because there’s this idea that it’s just rote and it’s only going to be appropriate for learning vocabulary or something. But doing flashcards is essentially testing yourself so I think it’s a great idea. There’s no reason you can’t pose and answer conceptual questions in a flashcard format, including essay questions. This is getting you thinking about themes and connecting big ideas, and that’s going to be useful for studying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t5pr11Vj2E]\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Q: A decade ago, you wrote the book, “When Can You Trust the Experts?” In it, you showed readers how to evaluate whether a claim or an educational practice is based on evidence. If you were to apply the skeptical approach to your current book on study tips, what would you say? Why should we trust your reading of the research here?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: That’s a great question. Initially I thought about trying to be super clear about the evidentiary status of each of these tips. They vary. I thought I would do a grading system, like a number of ducks between one and five, to show how much research evidence there is behind each one. But I decided that would bog things down too much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is a bibliography that describes the citations. You could ferret out the evidence for any particular tip based on what’s there. Candidly, I don’t make it super easy for the reader. The bottom line is that I’m kind of asking people to “trust the expert.” Sorry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Q: What’s a tip that has a lot of evidence and what’s a tip that doesn’t?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: The idea that probing memory is an effective way to help cement things into memory seems to be a fundamental attribute of learning. That’s been very, very broadly tested across different subjects and different ages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A tip that doesn’t have much evidence behind it is tip number four, where I say to be thoughtful about when to read. To my knowledge, there have been no experiments done on this at all. Instructors will almost always say come to class having done the reading. And that makes perfect sense. If they are lecturing in a way that assumes that you have done the reading and have to a certain extent mastered it, they are going to go beyond it. But sometimes it’s really not true at all. It’s frequently easier to listen than it is to read. If things aren’t perfectly clear, you can ask the instructor questions. You can’t query the author in the same way. So that’s the sort of thinking behind why I give this tip. It may make sense to do the reading after the lecture instead of before. But I don’t know of any direct evidence that it will be more effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Q: I love that the cognitive scientist is giving us permission to procrastinate our assigned reading.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: Hold on, Jill. Let’s call this being strategic about deploying our time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmhYnvm0kPg]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Q: And for students who don’t want to read your book, you’ve made several \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOxkrOhWjOgIEJDaNqHlrVQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>TikTok videos on some of your study tips\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>! More seriously, you’ve written two books that explain research on reading, “The Reading Mind” and “Raising Kids Who Read.” What was your reaction to “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Sold A Story\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>,” Emily Hanford’s podcast about why schools aren’t teaching reading properly despite decades of research?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: As someone who’s been writing about the science of reading for a long time, I can’t help but be excited and grateful to Emily Hanford for this reporting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think she basically got the research right. The idea that I think didn’t come across as clearly as it might have is that the importance of phonics instruction varies depending on what else the child brings to the table. Children who come to school with very strong phonemic awareness and very strong oral language skills frequently need less explicit reading instruction and phonics. Children who do not have those tools usually need more. The reason I think it’s so important is that it helps us understand how you could be an educator and downplay the importance of phonics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I also saw complaints that “Sold A Story” didn’t talk about other important aspects of reading, like background knowledge. When something’s really complex, you don’t tackle the whole thing. But what does concern me is that it may lead to the impression that people like Emily think that all you need to do is fix phonics, and then you’re home free. So people who are not very receptive to this message now, may eventually say, “Well see, reading hasn’t been fixed. So therefore, you were wrong all along.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC5796443433&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-one-expert-on-what-students-do-wrong/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Daniel Willingham\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"In his new book, “Outsmart Your Brain,” University of Virginia psychologist Daniel Willingham points out all the wrong ways that students do homework, take notes in class or study for tests, and he offers almost 100 research-based tips on how to be a better student.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1700528855,"stats":{"hasAudio":true,"hasVideo":true,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":24,"wordCount":1334},"headData":{"title":"Many students are using study strategies that don't work — and better options exist | KQED","description":"In his new book UVA psychologist Daniel Willingham offers almost 100-research-based tips on how to be a better student.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialDescription":"In his new book UVA psychologist Daniel Willingham offers almost 100-research-based tips on how to be a better student."},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC5796443433.mp3?updated=1684894148","nprByline":"Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/mindshift/60868/many-students-are-using-study-strategies-that-dont-work-and-better-options-exist","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Daniel Willingham is a University of Virginia psychologist who frequently engages in pop culture battles armed with academic research. He has made it a personal crusade to persuade teachers that the idea of \u003ca href=\"http://www.danielwillingham.com/learning-styles-faq.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">learning styles is a myth\u003c/a>. (Research evidence shows that we all learn through a variety of ways: visually, aurally and kinesthetically.) For years, he has complained that teachers aren’t heeding research about reading instruction, and that many educators are misguided when it comes to teaching \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/scientific-research-on-how-to-teach-critical-thinking-contradicts-education-trends/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">critical thinking\u003c/a>. Now, Willingham has shifted his focus from teachers to students. In his new book, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Outsmart-Your-Brain/Daniel-T-Willingham/9781982167172\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make it Easy\u003c/a>,” he points out all the wrong ways that students do homework, take notes in class or study for tests. (This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Q: You have almost 100 research-based tips on how to be a better student and almost all of them are just the opposite of what I did when I was in school. Don’t read over your notes to study for a test. Don’t use a highlighter when reading class assignments. Don’t combat procrastination through to-do lists. I’ve been studying wrong my whole life. Why is effective studying so counterintuitive? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: Students are doing things that feel really effective at the moment. It’s not like these strategies are completely fruitless. They’ve made it to college with them. But they don’t know the counterfactual; they don’t know what would happen if they engaged in other strategies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Q: It’s interesting that students may feel something is working even when it isn’t.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: Right! The most dramatic example, which I write about in the book, is reading over your notes. It’s the most common study strategy and it’s bad in two ways. It’s not very good for memory. But it also increases this feeling of familiarity. And to me, probably the most surprising idea in the book is that you can think you know things. A strong feeling of familiarity leads people to judge that they know something. But it’s not the kind of knowing that’s going to be expected in the classroom. On a test, you need to connect information; you need to be able to explain it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC5796443433&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the best ways to study is to probe your memory. Create your own practice tests. Flashcards, I think, get a bad rap because there’s this idea that it’s just rote and it’s only going to be appropriate for learning vocabulary or something. But doing flashcards is essentially testing yourself so I think it’s a great idea. There’s no reason you can’t pose and answer conceptual questions in a flashcard format, including essay questions. This is getting you thinking about themes and connecting big ideas, and that’s going to be useful for studying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/-t5pr11Vj2E'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/-t5pr11Vj2E'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Q: A decade ago, you wrote the book, “When Can You Trust the Experts?” In it, you showed readers how to evaluate whether a claim or an educational practice is based on evidence. If you were to apply the skeptical approach to your current book on study tips, what would you say? Why should we trust your reading of the research here?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: That’s a great question. Initially I thought about trying to be super clear about the evidentiary status of each of these tips. They vary. I thought I would do a grading system, like a number of ducks between one and five, to show how much research evidence there is behind each one. But I decided that would bog things down too much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is a bibliography that describes the citations. You could ferret out the evidence for any particular tip based on what’s there. Candidly, I don’t make it super easy for the reader. The bottom line is that I’m kind of asking people to “trust the expert.” Sorry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Q: What’s a tip that has a lot of evidence and what’s a tip that doesn’t?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: The idea that probing memory is an effective way to help cement things into memory seems to be a fundamental attribute of learning. That’s been very, very broadly tested across different subjects and different ages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A tip that doesn’t have much evidence behind it is tip number four, where I say to be thoughtful about when to read. To my knowledge, there have been no experiments done on this at all. Instructors will almost always say come to class having done the reading. And that makes perfect sense. If they are lecturing in a way that assumes that you have done the reading and have to a certain extent mastered it, they are going to go beyond it. But sometimes it’s really not true at all. It’s frequently easier to listen than it is to read. If things aren’t perfectly clear, you can ask the instructor questions. You can’t query the author in the same way. So that’s the sort of thinking behind why I give this tip. It may make sense to do the reading after the lecture instead of before. But I don’t know of any direct evidence that it will be more effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Q: I love that the cognitive scientist is giving us permission to procrastinate our assigned reading.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: Hold on, Jill. Let’s call this being strategic about deploying our time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/JmhYnvm0kPg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/JmhYnvm0kPg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Q: And for students who don’t want to read your book, you’ve made several \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOxkrOhWjOgIEJDaNqHlrVQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>TikTok videos on some of your study tips\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>! More seriously, you’ve written two books that explain research on reading, “The Reading Mind” and “Raising Kids Who Read.” What was your reaction to “\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cstrong>Sold A Story\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>,” Emily Hanford’s podcast about why schools aren’t teaching reading properly despite decades of research?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A: As someone who’s been writing about the science of reading for a long time, I can’t help but be excited and grateful to Emily Hanford for this reporting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think she basically got the research right. The idea that I think didn’t come across as clearly as it might have is that the importance of phonics instruction varies depending on what else the child brings to the table. Children who come to school with very strong phonemic awareness and very strong oral language skills frequently need less explicit reading instruction and phonics. Children who do not have those tools usually need more. The reason I think it’s so important is that it helps us understand how you could be an educator and downplay the importance of phonics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I also saw complaints that “Sold A Story” didn’t talk about other important aspects of reading, like background knowledge. When something’s really complex, you don’t tackle the whole thing. But what does concern me is that it may lead to the impression that people like Emily think that all you need to do is fix phonics, and then you’re home free. So people who are not very receptive to this message now, may eventually say, “Well see, reading hasn’t been fixed. So therefore, you were wrong all along.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC5796443433&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-one-expert-on-what-students-do-wrong/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Daniel Willingham\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/mindshift/60868/many-students-are-using-study-strategies-that-dont-work-and-better-options-exist","authors":["byline_mindshift_60868"],"programs":["mindshift_21847"],"categories":["mindshift_21504","mindshift_21130","mindshift_21848"],"tags":["mindshift_20552","mindshift_20556","mindshift_46","mindshift_20725","mindshift_20823","mindshift_21421","mindshift_20736"],"featImg":"mindshift_60872","label":"mindshift_21847"},"mindshift_60468":{"type":"posts","id":"mindshift_60468","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"mindshift","id":"60468","score":null,"sort":[1670928949000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"how-everyday-noise-can-inhibit-learning-and-how-teachers-can-reduce-it","title":"How everyday noise can inhibit learning – and how teachers can reduce it","publishDate":1670928949,"format":"standard","headTitle":"MindShift | KQED News","labelTerm":{"site":"mindshift"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s no surprise that loud, unwanted sounds can be disruptive and even damaging to ears. However, even background noise like the air conditioning running, the refrigerator humming and delivery vans idling outside can be cause for concern. According to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://brainvolts.northwestern.edu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nina Kraus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a neurobiology professor at Northwestern University who studies sound, ongoing noises that people claim to “tune out” are unlikely to harm ears, but they can still have a profound effect on the brain. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Repeated exposure to noisy environments has many negative impacts including increased stress, problems with memory and difficulty concentrating, writes Kraus in her book \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262545075/of-sound-mind/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World.”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students’ developing brains are particularly susceptible to noisy environments. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1976-21562-001\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A study on New York City public schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> showed that students in a classroom facing loud train tracks had lower reading levels than students in a classroom shielded from the noise. Learners in the room exposed to the sounds of the trains were on average three to eleven months behind their peers. When the New York Transit Authority installed padding on the railroad tracks and the school made updates to the classroom to reduce the noise, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494481800400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the reading level disparity disappeared\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Repeated exposure to noise doesn't just affect language tasks like reading, it also has a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3757288/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">negative impact on students’ ability to do visual tasks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, such as recalling images or concentrating on objects. In one \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013916503256260\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">experiment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, researchers asked subjects to track a moving ball on a computer with a mouse while other balls moved around the screen. Those who were exposed to long-term noise had more difficulty completing the task.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There are sounds that people think of as being safe, but they really aren't, ” says Kraus. “Even if we're not paying attention to noise, it is having an effect on us and it is having an effect on us on multiple levels. And one is very much our ability to think.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sonic Solutions for the Classroom \u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With lockers slamming and chatty students, educators can’t have complete control over the sounds in a school. Yet opportunities to reduce noise can be found all around the school building. “There are so many noises that we do have a choice about,” says Kraus, who urges schools to become more aware of the sounds that students are encountering every day and consider which sounds they can eliminate or reduce.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Changing out buzzing light fixtures, installing quiet HVAC systems and updating insulation in the walls and ceiling are large-scale solutions that can minimize noise in school buildings. There are also simpler changes to students’ sonic environment that can make a meaningful difference for learners. For example, some schools have gotten rid of their \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/59617/students-can-get-to-class-without-bells-but-schools-need-to-adapt\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">school bells\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in an effort \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2017/saved-by-the-peace-and-quiet-at-a-growing-number-of-california-schools/587211\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to eliminate extra noise\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58835/how-the-difference-between-sound-and-noise-can-influence-our-ability-to-learn\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Improving the soundscape for learners\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> can be as simple as closing the door to the classroom or shutting the windows when students need to concentrate. “Schools are notoriously reverberant and not very friendly with respect to dampening sound,” says Kraus about echoey hallways and classrooms. She suggests laying down rugs if possible because they absorb sound and keep chairs from scraping noisily across the floor. Additionally, teachers can choose to decorate their walls with wall hangings or student work that uses fabric or fiber to dampen sounds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So much of our experience as people happens without our conscious awareness and yet these forces are there,” says Kraus. “And sound is, from an evolutionary standpoint, a tremendously important part of how we connect with the world.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Repeated exposure to noisy environments has many negative impacts including increased stress, memory problems, and difficulty concentrating. Students’ developing brains are particularly susceptible to sound.\r\n","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1670366611,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":11,"wordCount":616},"headData":{"title":"How everyday noise can inhibit learning – and how teachers can reduce it - MindShift","description":"For teachers looking to improve student performance, neurobiologist Nina Kraus provides tips on how to control noise in the classroom.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","path":"/mindshift/60468/how-everyday-noise-can-inhibit-learning-and-how-teachers-can-reduce-it","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s no surprise that loud, unwanted sounds can be disruptive and even damaging to ears. However, even background noise like the air conditioning running, the refrigerator humming and delivery vans idling outside can be cause for concern. According to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://brainvolts.northwestern.edu/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nina Kraus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a neurobiology professor at Northwestern University who studies sound, ongoing noises that people claim to “tune out” are unlikely to harm ears, but they can still have a profound effect on the brain. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Repeated exposure to noisy environments has many negative impacts including increased stress, problems with memory and difficulty concentrating, writes Kraus in her book \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262545075/of-sound-mind/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World.”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students’ developing brains are particularly susceptible to noisy environments. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1976-21562-001\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A study on New York City public schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> showed that students in a classroom facing loud train tracks had lower reading levels than students in a classroom shielded from the noise. Learners in the room exposed to the sounds of the trains were on average three to eleven months behind their peers. When the New York Transit Authority installed padding on the railroad tracks and the school made updates to the classroom to reduce the noise, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494481800400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the reading level disparity disappeared\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Repeated exposure to noise doesn't just affect language tasks like reading, it also has a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3757288/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">negative impact on students’ ability to do visual tasks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, such as recalling images or concentrating on objects. In one \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013916503256260\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">experiment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, researchers asked subjects to track a moving ball on a computer with a mouse while other balls moved around the screen. Those who were exposed to long-term noise had more difficulty completing the task.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There are sounds that people think of as being safe, but they really aren't, ” says Kraus. “Even if we're not paying attention to noise, it is having an effect on us and it is having an effect on us on multiple levels. And one is very much our ability to think.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sonic Solutions for the Classroom \u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With lockers slamming and chatty students, educators can’t have complete control over the sounds in a school. Yet opportunities to reduce noise can be found all around the school building. “There are so many noises that we do have a choice about,” says Kraus, who urges schools to become more aware of the sounds that students are encountering every day and consider which sounds they can eliminate or reduce.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Changing out buzzing light fixtures, installing quiet HVAC systems and updating insulation in the walls and ceiling are large-scale solutions that can minimize noise in school buildings. There are also simpler changes to students’ sonic environment that can make a meaningful difference for learners. For example, some schools have gotten rid of their \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/59617/students-can-get-to-class-without-bells-but-schools-need-to-adapt\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">school bells\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in an effort \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2017/saved-by-the-peace-and-quiet-at-a-growing-number-of-california-schools/587211\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to eliminate extra noise\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58835/how-the-difference-between-sound-and-noise-can-influence-our-ability-to-learn\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Improving the soundscape for learners\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> can be as simple as closing the door to the classroom or shutting the windows when students need to concentrate. “Schools are notoriously reverberant and not very friendly with respect to dampening sound,” says Kraus about echoey hallways and classrooms. She suggests laying down rugs if possible because they absorb sound and keep chairs from scraping noisily across the floor. Additionally, teachers can choose to decorate their walls with wall hangings or student work that uses fabric or fiber to dampen sounds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So much of our experience as people happens without our conscious awareness and yet these forces are there,” says Kraus. “And sound is, from an evolutionary standpoint, a tremendously important part of how we connect with the world.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/mindshift/60468/how-everyday-noise-can-inhibit-learning-and-how-teachers-can-reduce-it","authors":["11721"],"categories":["mindshift_21504"],"tags":["mindshift_767","mindshift_21078","mindshift_21454","mindshift_46"],"featImg":"mindshift_60474","label":"mindshift"},"mindshift_60253":{"type":"posts","id":"mindshift_60253","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"mindshift","id":"60253","score":null,"sort":[1668682818000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"play-is-crucial-for-middle-schoolers-too","title":"Play is crucial for middle schoolers, too","publishDate":1668682818,"format":"standard","headTitle":"MindShift | KQED News","labelTerm":{"site":"mindshift"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CHANTILLY, Va. — In Fairfax County, Virginia, thousands of middle school students experience what most of their peers leave behind in elementary school — recess.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The break is only 15 minutes long. But at Rocky Run Middle School, about 25 miles west of the nation’s capital, the seventh and eighth graders make the most of one of the few stretches of time in school that they can truly call their own. Fairfax County schools, a district of around 181,000 students, has taken an unusual step in mandating recess for all its middle school students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a day in early fall, a large group of students tossed their backpacks in a messy pile and made a beeline towards the school’s blacktop for pickup basketball and soccer games. A kickball game started up on the baseball field, with a teacher handling pitching duties to keep the action moving. Smaller groups of students headed to the school’s gym, while others peeled off towards the cafeteria to play board games, get in some extra study time with their Chromebooks, or just chat with their friends.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s a break after all this other stuff you have to do,” said 12-year-old Colin Bigley, a seventh grader playing the board game Sorry! with three friends. “Playing outside is also nice. You have the option of what you’re going to do.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aminah Naqvi, a 13-year-old eighth grader, loves the social time. She was hanging out with friends on the blacktop, shooting baskets. “You might not get to see your friends if you don’t have the same lunch,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even the school’s principal, Amy Goodloe, agrees that play is important. “There’s really high value for students and, I will underscore, teachers to have that break in the day,” she said. “We underestimate how important that is as a partner to academic learning.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60298\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60298\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play4-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, made a 15-minute recess break mandatory for middle school. At Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, Virginia, dozens of students took the opportunity to get some fresh air. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Fairfax County is an exception. In most communities, opportunities for play and playful learning tend to recede in middle school, replaced by direct instruction, competitive sports and tightly structured academic time. Educators and researchers say students pay the price. Young adolescents go through profound \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31449373/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">physical, emotional and physiological changes\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">;\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> play inside and outside the classroom can provide one way \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.ucsc.edu/dist/a/409/files/2017/07/MSBT-Report-8.28.18-19gf2qp.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for kids to develop healthy bonds with friends and become more self-confident\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I teach at a K-8 school, and when I look at these seventh and eighth graders, they’re no different than the kindergarteners,” said Robert Lane, a STEM teacher at the Sierra Verde STEAM Academy in Glendale, Arizona. “They get excited when I bring out Play Doh and googly eyes.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lane’s class is entirely built around playful learning. For example, the modeling clay and other crafts were used as part of a stop-motion animation project in his classroom. Other activities for the school’s older students included creating cardboard roller coasters to be judged by the school’s second graders and building a robot that can move without wheels.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60295\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60295\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play1-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Middle school students in Robert Lane’s STEM class dig through a box of supplies for a class project. Lane, a teacher at Sierra Verde STEAM Academy in Glendale, Arizona, says play is just as popular with older students as it is with the younger ones he works with. \u003ccite>(Image courtesy of Robert Lane)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I break them into groups where they don’t know each other and they just go all in,” said Lane, who also hosts a podcast as “Mr. Lane the STEM Guy.” The activities also give his students a chance to learn how to cooperate, accept failure when it happens, and solve problems as a team, he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I want these kids to have all these soft skills as they get ready to go to high school and to college,” Lane said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to developing soft skills, recess is a tool that can get adolescents moving more at a time of life when they become much more sedentary.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60296\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60296\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play2-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Robert Lane’s STEM class at Sierra Verde STEAM Academy in Glendale, Arizona, playful learning takes the place of lectures and workbooks. Lane says this type of work builds so-called “soft” skills like cooperation and resilience. \u003ccite>(Image courtesy of Robert Lane)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/182251\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A 2008 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> used accelerometers to capture the activity levels of youth from ages 9 to 15. Nine-year-olds, on average, engaged in three hours of moderate to vigorous activity on weekends and weekdays, well above the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/children/what_counts.htm\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">recommendation of 60 minutes a day\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers found that activity levels plunged as children reached adolescence. By age 15, they were getting an average of 49 minutes on weekdays and 35 minutes on weekends. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With benefits that appear so clear, why does middle school seem to mark an end to both unstructured play time and playful learning? There are several competing challenges, both logistical and social.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Middle schools generally have more students than elementary schools, and the students themselves are taller and heavier. It’s challenging for school leaders to find enough space and teacher supervision to manage hundreds of children during a break time. The supervision is particularly important because, while middle schoolers crave time with their friends, unstructured time like recess, lunchtime and passing between classes often offers \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://violence.chop.edu/bullying-schools\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fertile opportunities for bullying\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60301\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60301\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play7-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Unstructured play and playful learning is usually left behind by middle school, but experts say adolescents need opportunities for play just as much as younger students. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fairfax County educators had to come up with new solutions. “The logistics were a little bit hard to figure out,” said Cynthia Conley, the principal of Washington Irving Middle School in Springfield, Virginia. Irving, with about \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108:13:::NO::P0_CURRENT_SCHOOL_ID,P0_EDSL:151,0\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1,200 students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, is one of the Fairfax County schools that has added recess to its schedule. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We have four lunch shifts, and we had to figure out how to have four breaks,” said Conley. To accommodate all the students on break at any given time, administrators have opened up several different recess areas for students, including the gym, the blacktop, and the library, which features chess sets, card games, and an exercise bike with a built-in bookstand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“As soon as their feet hit the outside they are shooting, throwing, whatever they have in mind,” Conley said. “I’ve heard people say, why do they need a break. If you can, find me an adult who doesn’t need a 15-minute break during their work day. Everybody takes a break, to look away from the screen a little bit.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60304\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60304\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play10-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, Virginia, provides several popular games, such as Connect 4, for students who want to play indoors during their 15-minute recess period. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An additional challenge is that middle school students don’t think like younger students. Some athletic equipment won’t be enough to engage all, or even most of them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rebecca London, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has studied what happens when educators add break or recess time for middle school students. In the middle schools she observed, the sports activities were often dominated by older boys. Younger boys and girls, even athletes, tended to spend break times walking and talking unless schools made an extra effort to set up activities that would attract them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One powerful way to do that is for adults to play alongside students, even if adolescents sometimes act as if they want to get away from adults.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60303\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60303\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play9-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adolescents often respond warmly when adults play along with them, and the adult presence often creates a safe space for those who are more shy or less athletic, say researchers. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“As soon as the adults start playing, the kids want to play,” London said. “Kids inherently crave that. It’s an opportunity for kids to be seen as an expert or a leader.” A warm adult presence also makes the situation feel safer for students who may not be sports stars. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For all those reasons, it’s great to have adults out there leading games, connecting with students in different ways,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fairfax County piloted a middle school recess break for the 2021-22 school year. Last April, the school board \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://wjla.com/news/local/an-important-break-recess-will-soon-be-required-at-all-fairfax-county-middle-schools\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">voted to make the break mandatory\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for all the district’s middle schools, starting in 2022-23. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CCLKUS53985E/%24file/P2100.3%20Wellness%20Policy03.24.2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">District policy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for elementary students requires at least 30 minutes of recess a day over two segments. There is no recess policy in the district for high school students. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60302\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60302\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play8-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students watch a kickball game during recess at Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, Virginia. Fairfax County schools implemented a recess period for all of its middle schools, starting in the 2022-23 school year. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Advocates for the change say it filled a real need. “All of our students need some time to rejuvenate,” said Ricardy Anderson, one of the champions of the recess policy on the school board and a former middle school principal. “We have middle school students that get into the building at 7:15 in the morning and they don’t leave the building until 2:30.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anderson said that’s why it’s essential for students “to have a little bit of freedom to do what they’d like to do — to be free of the noise of the cafeteria. just to get some fresh air, just to have a little break in the day. The outdoors component is even more critical.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Parents of elementary school children are often the driving force behind recess policies, but London, the sociology professor, hasn’t seen that same level of energy behind break times for older students. She thinks the isolation kids experienced during the first phase of the pandemic makes break time even more crucial. “It’s going to take a long time before these kids are fully recovered,” she said. “We may need even more play for older kids.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60297\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60297\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play3-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two students work on a stop-motion animation project in Robert Lane’s STEM class at Sierra Verde STEAM Academy in Glendale, Arizona. \u003ccite>(Image courtesy of Robert Lane)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lane, at the Sierra STEAM Academy, said that another barrier may be parents and school administrators who may not see the importance of playful learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Teachers are under so much pressure to get to a certain point,” he said, and they’re also under a microscope. Parents might not understand why class time is spent on playful learning as opposed to more clearly academic pursuits, for example. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Seventh and eighth graders spend a quarter each year engaged in hands-on projects in his classroom, adding up to a semester of active learning. These activities allow students to explore their passions and also understand why failure is part of learning, Lane said. “That’s a K-8 thing, campus-wide. We don’t get frustrated. We come back, we play smarter. And the seventh and eighth graders, they crave it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60305\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60305\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play11-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Because Rocky Run Middle has to accommodate hundreds of students during its mandatory recess period, administrators open several spaces, including the gym. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite the difficulties that may come with figuring out how to squeeze play into upper grades, London said school leaders have the benefit of a set of opinionated experts — the students themselves.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If you’re going to start a recess, you should ask your students what they want to do in that time,” he said. “You can even create a school climate task force; the students who volunteer to help think about that time can be tapped as leaders. They know what they need.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/play-is-crucial-for-middle-schoolers-too/\">middle school and play\u003c/a> was produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger Report newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Unstructured time and playful learning are as essential for middle school students as they are for younger children, say researchers and educators. Play offers an opportunity for students to bond with their friends and learn “soft skills” that will serve them well in college and beyond. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1668552826,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":35,"wordCount":2138},"headData":{"title":"Play is crucial for middle schoolers, too - MindShift","description":"Play for middle school students offers an opportunity for physical activity and learning “soft skills” that will serve them well in college and beyond.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"disqusIdentifier":"60253 https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=60253","disqusUrl":"https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2022/11/17/play-is-crucial-for-middle-schoolers-too/","disqusTitle":"Play is crucial for middle schoolers, too","nprByline":"Christina A. Samuels, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","path":"/mindshift/60253/play-is-crucial-for-middle-schoolers-too","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CHANTILLY, Va. — In Fairfax County, Virginia, thousands of middle school students experience what most of their peers leave behind in elementary school — recess.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The break is only 15 minutes long. But at Rocky Run Middle School, about 25 miles west of the nation’s capital, the seventh and eighth graders make the most of one of the few stretches of time in school that they can truly call their own. Fairfax County schools, a district of around 181,000 students, has taken an unusual step in mandating recess for all its middle school students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a day in early fall, a large group of students tossed their backpacks in a messy pile and made a beeline towards the school’s blacktop for pickup basketball and soccer games. A kickball game started up on the baseball field, with a teacher handling pitching duties to keep the action moving. Smaller groups of students headed to the school’s gym, while others peeled off towards the cafeteria to play board games, get in some extra study time with their Chromebooks, or just chat with their friends.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s a break after all this other stuff you have to do,” said 12-year-old Colin Bigley, a seventh grader playing the board game Sorry! with three friends. “Playing outside is also nice. You have the option of what you’re going to do.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aminah Naqvi, a 13-year-old eighth grader, loves the social time. She was hanging out with friends on the blacktop, shooting baskets. “You might not get to see your friends if you don’t have the same lunch,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even the school’s principal, Amy Goodloe, agrees that play is important. “There’s really high value for students and, I will underscore, teachers to have that break in the day,” she said. “We underestimate how important that is as a partner to academic learning.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60298\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60298\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play4-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, made a 15-minute recess break mandatory for middle school. At Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, Virginia, dozens of students took the opportunity to get some fresh air. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Fairfax County is an exception. In most communities, opportunities for play and playful learning tend to recede in middle school, replaced by direct instruction, competitive sports and tightly structured academic time. Educators and researchers say students pay the price. Young adolescents go through profound \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31449373/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">physical, emotional and physiological changes\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">;\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> play inside and outside the classroom can provide one way \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.ucsc.edu/dist/a/409/files/2017/07/MSBT-Report-8.28.18-19gf2qp.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for kids to develop healthy bonds with friends and become more self-confident\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I teach at a K-8 school, and when I look at these seventh and eighth graders, they’re no different than the kindergarteners,” said Robert Lane, a STEM teacher at the Sierra Verde STEAM Academy in Glendale, Arizona. “They get excited when I bring out Play Doh and googly eyes.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lane’s class is entirely built around playful learning. For example, the modeling clay and other crafts were used as part of a stop-motion animation project in his classroom. Other activities for the school’s older students included creating cardboard roller coasters to be judged by the school’s second graders and building a robot that can move without wheels.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60295\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60295\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play1-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Middle school students in Robert Lane’s STEM class dig through a box of supplies for a class project. Lane, a teacher at Sierra Verde STEAM Academy in Glendale, Arizona, says play is just as popular with older students as it is with the younger ones he works with. \u003ccite>(Image courtesy of Robert Lane)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I break them into groups where they don’t know each other and they just go all in,” said Lane, who also hosts a podcast as “Mr. Lane the STEM Guy.” The activities also give his students a chance to learn how to cooperate, accept failure when it happens, and solve problems as a team, he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I want these kids to have all these soft skills as they get ready to go to high school and to college,” Lane said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to developing soft skills, recess is a tool that can get adolescents moving more at a time of life when they become much more sedentary.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60296\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60296\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play2-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Robert Lane’s STEM class at Sierra Verde STEAM Academy in Glendale, Arizona, playful learning takes the place of lectures and workbooks. Lane says this type of work builds so-called “soft” skills like cooperation and resilience. \u003ccite>(Image courtesy of Robert Lane)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/182251\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A 2008 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> used accelerometers to capture the activity levels of youth from ages 9 to 15. Nine-year-olds, on average, engaged in three hours of moderate to vigorous activity on weekends and weekdays, well above the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/children/what_counts.htm\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">recommendation of 60 minutes a day\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers found that activity levels plunged as children reached adolescence. By age 15, they were getting an average of 49 minutes on weekdays and 35 minutes on weekends. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With benefits that appear so clear, why does middle school seem to mark an end to both unstructured play time and playful learning? There are several competing challenges, both logistical and social.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Middle schools generally have more students than elementary schools, and the students themselves are taller and heavier. It’s challenging for school leaders to find enough space and teacher supervision to manage hundreds of children during a break time. The supervision is particularly important because, while middle schoolers crave time with their friends, unstructured time like recess, lunchtime and passing between classes often offers \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://violence.chop.edu/bullying-schools\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fertile opportunities for bullying\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60301\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60301\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play7-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Unstructured play and playful learning is usually left behind by middle school, but experts say adolescents need opportunities for play just as much as younger students. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fairfax County educators had to come up with new solutions. “The logistics were a little bit hard to figure out,” said Cynthia Conley, the principal of Washington Irving Middle School in Springfield, Virginia. Irving, with about \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108:13:::NO::P0_CURRENT_SCHOOL_ID,P0_EDSL:151,0\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1,200 students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, is one of the Fairfax County schools that has added recess to its schedule. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We have four lunch shifts, and we had to figure out how to have four breaks,” said Conley. To accommodate all the students on break at any given time, administrators have opened up several different recess areas for students, including the gym, the blacktop, and the library, which features chess sets, card games, and an exercise bike with a built-in bookstand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“As soon as their feet hit the outside they are shooting, throwing, whatever they have in mind,” Conley said. “I’ve heard people say, why do they need a break. If you can, find me an adult who doesn’t need a 15-minute break during their work day. Everybody takes a break, to look away from the screen a little bit.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60304\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60304\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play10-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, Virginia, provides several popular games, such as Connect 4, for students who want to play indoors during their 15-minute recess period. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An additional challenge is that middle school students don’t think like younger students. Some athletic equipment won’t be enough to engage all, or even most of them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rebecca London, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has studied what happens when educators add break or recess time for middle school students. In the middle schools she observed, the sports activities were often dominated by older boys. Younger boys and girls, even athletes, tended to spend break times walking and talking unless schools made an extra effort to set up activities that would attract them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One powerful way to do that is for adults to play alongside students, even if adolescents sometimes act as if they want to get away from adults.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60303\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60303\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play9-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adolescents often respond warmly when adults play along with them, and the adult presence often creates a safe space for those who are more shy or less athletic, say researchers. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“As soon as the adults start playing, the kids want to play,” London said. “Kids inherently crave that. It’s an opportunity for kids to be seen as an expert or a leader.” A warm adult presence also makes the situation feel safer for students who may not be sports stars. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For all those reasons, it’s great to have adults out there leading games, connecting with students in different ways,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fairfax County piloted a middle school recess break for the 2021-22 school year. Last April, the school board \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://wjla.com/news/local/an-important-break-recess-will-soon-be-required-at-all-fairfax-county-middle-schools\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">voted to make the break mandatory\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for all the district’s middle schools, starting in 2022-23. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CCLKUS53985E/%24file/P2100.3%20Wellness%20Policy03.24.2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">District policy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for elementary students requires at least 30 minutes of recess a day over two segments. There is no recess policy in the district for high school students. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60302\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60302\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play8-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students watch a kickball game during recess at Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, Virginia. Fairfax County schools implemented a recess period for all of its middle schools, starting in the 2022-23 school year. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Advocates for the change say it filled a real need. “All of our students need some time to rejuvenate,” said Ricardy Anderson, one of the champions of the recess policy on the school board and a former middle school principal. “We have middle school students that get into the building at 7:15 in the morning and they don’t leave the building until 2:30.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anderson said that’s why it’s essential for students “to have a little bit of freedom to do what they’d like to do — to be free of the noise of the cafeteria. just to get some fresh air, just to have a little break in the day. The outdoors component is even more critical.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Parents of elementary school children are often the driving force behind recess policies, but London, the sociology professor, hasn’t seen that same level of energy behind break times for older students. She thinks the isolation kids experienced during the first phase of the pandemic makes break time even more crucial. “It’s going to take a long time before these kids are fully recovered,” she said. “We may need even more play for older kids.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60297\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60297\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play3-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two students work on a stop-motion animation project in Robert Lane’s STEM class at Sierra Verde STEAM Academy in Glendale, Arizona. \u003ccite>(Image courtesy of Robert Lane)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lane, at the Sierra STEAM Academy, said that another barrier may be parents and school administrators who may not see the importance of playful learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Teachers are under so much pressure to get to a certain point,” he said, and they’re also under a microscope. Parents might not understand why class time is spent on playful learning as opposed to more clearly academic pursuits, for example. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Seventh and eighth graders spend a quarter each year engaged in hands-on projects in his classroom, adding up to a semester of active learning. These activities allow students to explore their passions and also understand why failure is part of learning, Lane said. “That’s a K-8 thing, campus-wide. We don’t get frustrated. We come back, we play smarter. And the seventh and eighth graders, they crave it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60305\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60305\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Samuels-MS-Play11-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Because Rocky Run Middle has to accommodate hundreds of students during its mandatory recess period, administrators open several spaces, including the gym. \u003ccite>(Tom Sandner for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite the difficulties that may come with figuring out how to squeeze play into upper grades, London said school leaders have the benefit of a set of opinionated experts — the students themselves.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If you’re going to start a recess, you should ask your students what they want to do in that time,” he said. “You can even create a school climate task force; the students who volunteer to help think about that time can be tapped as leaders. They know what they need.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/play-is-crucial-for-middle-schoolers-too/\">middle school and play\u003c/a> was produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger Report newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/mindshift/60253/play-is-crucial-for-middle-schoolers-too","authors":["byline_mindshift_60253"],"categories":["mindshift_192","mindshift_21345"],"tags":["mindshift_767","mindshift_21078","mindshift_21473","mindshift_21214","mindshift_21184","mindshift_145","mindshift_46","mindshift_498"],"featImg":"mindshift_60300","label":"mindshift"},"mindshift_60255":{"type":"posts","id":"mindshift_60255","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"mindshift","id":"60255","score":null,"sort":[1668596451000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"in-elementary-classrooms-demand-grows-for-play-based-learning","title":"In elementary classrooms, demand grows for play-based learning","publishDate":1668596451,"format":"standard","headTitle":"MindShift | KQED News","labelTerm":{"site":"mindshift"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">OKLAHOMA CITY — Two third-graders sat on the floor of their classroom and lined up a row of dominoes along the edge of a low-lying table. They positioned themselves at each end of the row of rectangles, leaned in, and blew. The dominoes tumbled forward, crashing into each other. The girls flung their heads back and laughed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In another part of the room, two students spontaneously connected a set of wooden orbs to sticks to mimic planets circling a sun.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s a solar system,” one of the students said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The third-graders in Crystal O’Brien’s class darted from station to station — laughing, arguing, playing. But it wasn’t indoor recess — play is one of the ways students learn every day in O’Brien’s science and social studies class at Shidler Elementary School. Throughout the day, O’Brien weaves free and structured play into her class time. During structured play, O’Brien guides the topic and provides parameters. But during free play, she only asks them to connect something they learned that day to their chosen play activity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They are able to choose whatever materials they want to play with in the room, but I encourage them to think about what we've been doing in our science block when they're playing,” O’Brien said. “And sometimes they'll just naturally do that. They'll tell me, ‘Look, this is an example of gravity. This is an unbalanced force. This is a chain reaction.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While play-based learning remains relatively rare in elementary classrooms, Oklahoma City is among a small number of school districts across the country experimenting with increased play time for children as old as 8 or 9. In Watertown, New York, for example, educators have been teaching through play in pre-K and kindergarten for years, said former Superintendent Patti LaBarr, but the district recently shifted to encouraging play for older elementary students, too. And in Austin, Texas, one school official has started training elementary teachers to use Lego Education products toys as a play-based learning tool during class time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60270\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60270\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Gilreath-Play-Elementary4-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A third grade student sets the last domino down in a row along the edge of a table while playing in Crystal O’Brien’s classroom at Shidler Elementary School in Oklahoma City. \u003ccite>(Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The growing focus on play in older grades is not always easy, as teachers contend with pressure to meet standardized testing mandates and a lack of support from some administrators. But educators who have turned to play-based learning say the approach is particularly helpful now, as pandemic disruptions have left students with social, emotional and behavioral gaps.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It can be difficult to explain what play-based learning looks like, said Mara Krechevsky, senior researcher at Project Zero, an education research group in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Over the past seven years, Krechevsky and her research team have been working on a project called the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.pz.harvard.edu/projects/pedagogy-of-play\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pedagogy of Play\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, studying play-based learning at schools in Boston, Denmark, South Africa and Colombia.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Through their research, Krechevsky’s group came up with three basic tenets for playful learning: students should be able to help lead their own learning, explore the unknown, and find joy. Under this framework, play time doesn’t have to be the reward for completing work and learning. Play can actually be the work, Krechevsky said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Much of the impetus for the shift in Oklahoma City comes from Stephanie Hinton, who started overseeing pre-K through second grade at Oklahoma City Public Schools a few years ago. She knew she wanted to encourage hands-on, playful learning as much as possible. The approach worked for her as a teacher, and it’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.13730\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">backed up by research\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Shidler Elementary, most students qualify for free and reduced lunch and test scores have \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oklaschools.com/school/988/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">historically been low\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It’s the kind of school where, typically, it’s difficult to get everyone on board with play-based learning, Hinton said. Despite those challenges, play has begun to catch on in its classrooms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There is this push for skill and drill in schools and communities where we're not passing the test,” Hinton said. It can be easy to think the solution is assigning more schoolwork and sending home more worksheets, Hinton added. That’s because worksheets are black and white — either the student knows the answer to the questions on the assignment or they don’t. But Hinton said regurgitating answers on a piece of paper isn’t a sign of understanding.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not authentic, it’s not true learning,” she said. \"And we know from research that when it comes down to it, it hasn’t engaged enough of the brain to make it permanent learning.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60269\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60269\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Gilreath-Play-Elementary3-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crystal O’Brien, center, plays with her third grade students during free play time in her classroom at Shidler Elementary School in Oklahoma City. Free play, which is when O’Brien lets students play any way they want, is a regular part of their class time. \u003ccite>(Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But letting kids learn through play is hard to grasp for educators who have been trained to follow the rules and structure of a traditional school setting, said Peg Drappo, who runs the pre-K program in Watertown City School District in New York. Watertown began to increase its focus on playful learning in 2015, when the district received a federal grant that helped expand play in its pre-K program. In the seven years since, Drappo and the district’s superintendent have been helping teachers of the older grades who approached them about adding play to their own classrooms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when she was an elementary school principal several years ago, Drappo didn’t understand what playful learning was supposed to look like. Now, when she speaks at conferences on play-based learning, she tells a story about visiting a kindergarten classroom when she was a principal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The kids were all over the place, all over the floor doing things — just like a kindergarten classroom should be. But I did not know this world of pre-K and play, so I said to [the teacher], ‘I'll come back to your classroom when you're teaching,’” Drappo said. “Now when I walk into a classroom and it’s loud and a teacher apologizes, I say, ‘Stop apologizing. This is how it’s supposed to sound.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60271\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60271\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Gilreath-Play-Elementary5-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of third graders in Crystal O’Brien’s class at Shidler Elementary School in Oklahoma City play with toys during a part of class time in which they are allowed to play however they want. At other times of the day, O’Brien guides the students through playful lessons. \u003ccite>(Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Oklahoma, playful learning has support from lawmakers as well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before becoming a teacher, Oklahoma state Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, a Democrat, thought all students were taught lessons through play. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I became a teacher back in 2012 and I realized it’s [play] not even accepted anymore as a way to learn, even in the younger grades,” Rosecrants said. “Some schools do it great, but I'm talking about the way that I learned — going outside, playing, discovering — that type of thing was not something that was focused on in any of the public schools I went to [as a teacher].” (Rosecrants left teaching in 2017 when he was elected to represent Norman, Oklahoma in the state house.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a middle school teacher, Rosecrants said, he rebelled against the idea that students should learn via memorization, drills, and worksheets. In 2021, the Oklahoma legislature \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2021-22%20ENR/hB/HB1569%20ENR.PDF\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">passed a law\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that encourages the use of play in pre-K through third grade classrooms. The law, which was written by Rosecrants with bi-partisan assistance, also forbids administrators from prohibiting educators’ use of a play-based approach to teaching.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I've had a lot of teachers who asked me to print it out so they can post it in their classroom, because administrators will come in and be like, ‘Hey, we gotta hit this standard, what are you doing?’ And they're like, ‘Well, we're hitting this standard, but we're [doing it] with blocks,’” Rosecrants said. “I want to add a piece to [the law] probably this year … to require training for play-based learning for all administrators in pre-K through third grade.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60273\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60273\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Gilreath-Play-Elementary8-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Educators at Blake Manor Elementary School say that students learn important math and problem-solving skills while they build, code and play with robots. \u003ccite>(Jackie Mader/The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some schools are trying to increase play by turning to STEM-focused activities, like building robots with Lego Education products. Manor Independent School District, a district of about 9,000 students just east of Austin, Texas, launched a robotics program around a decade ago, in an attempt to bring more playful learning to students in the early years of elementary school. For several years, robotics was mostly confined to an after-school program.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jacob Luevano, the innovative teaching strategist at Manor ISD, said he has been working to train teachers to integrate robotics into their classrooms. “I think now more than ever, we need [playful learning] in the classrooms,\" Luevano said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So far, Luevano has had more success in getting robotics activities introduced to classrooms in kindergarten through second grade than in upper elementary, which he attributes, in part, to the pressure of standardized testing that starts in third grade. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60272\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60272\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Gilreath-Play-Elementary7-800x562.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"562\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student at Blake Manor Elementary School in Manor, Texas, works on a Lego Robotics program during a morning meeting of the school's robotics club. The Manor Independent School District is trying to increase play opportunities for students by using Lego Robotics. \u003ccite>(Jackie Mader/The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As children recover from the isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic, active, playful learning is more important than ever because it strengthens social and emotional skills, said Hinton in Oklahoma City. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This isn't just about play. This is about building relationships, and social-emotional learning,” Hinton said. “Sometimes when an adult is losing their mind about something, I think: I wonder what your play behaviors were like as a child?” It helps, she clarifies, if children have already experienced losing in a cooperative setting — whether at Monopoly, Hi Ho! Cherry-O or another game. “How you handle that, it says a lot about where you are in your social emotional development,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In O’Brien’s classroom in Oklahoma City, there are no desks. Instead, students sit at round tables or on a rug in front of the whiteboard, depending on the activity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Recently, the class learned about static electricity. O’Brien set up stations with different items — balloons, tissue, paper — to show the kids how static electricity works. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I asked them to figure out how they could make these different materials move without directly touching them,” O’Brien said. After that, she led a discussion on what the students discovered and presented them with some technical, scientific terms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year is O’Brien’s first back at Shidler Elementary. She left the district in 2021 to get a master’s degree in early childhood education and work at a private preschool in Colorado that uses the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/parenting/reggio-emilia-preschool.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reggio Emilia approach\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to teaching, an approach born in Italy that encompasses significant play.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like other play-based programs, Reggio Emilia is most often seen in private and affluent preschool classrooms. When O’Brien made the decision to return to Shidler Elementary, she was partly on a mission to bring play-based learning to a public setting. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not something that should just be for the elite, and I think all children can benefit from learning this way,” O’Brien said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/in-elementary-classrooms-demand-grows-for-play-based-learning/\">play-based learning\u003c/a> was produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger Reporter newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jackie Mader contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Correction: This story has been updated to note that Manor ISD in Texas is using LEGO Education products.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"As students returned from remote learning with gaps in social emotional skills, elementary schools across the United States have started teaching more students through play — an approach to learning typically confined to preschools.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1668710811,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":37,"wordCount":2122},"headData":{"title":"In elementary classrooms, demand grows for play-based learning - MindShift","description":"As students returned from remote learning with gaps in social emotional skills, elementary schools across the United States have started teaching more students through play — an approach to learning typically confined to preschools.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"disqusIdentifier":"60255 https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/?p=60255","disqusUrl":"https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2022/11/16/in-elementary-classrooms-demand-grows-for-play-based-learning/","disqusTitle":"In elementary classrooms, demand grows for play-based learning","nprByline":"Ariel Gilreath, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","path":"/mindshift/60255/in-elementary-classrooms-demand-grows-for-play-based-learning","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">OKLAHOMA CITY — Two third-graders sat on the floor of their classroom and lined up a row of dominoes along the edge of a low-lying table. They positioned themselves at each end of the row of rectangles, leaned in, and blew. The dominoes tumbled forward, crashing into each other. The girls flung their heads back and laughed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In another part of the room, two students spontaneously connected a set of wooden orbs to sticks to mimic planets circling a sun.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s a solar system,” one of the students said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The third-graders in Crystal O’Brien’s class darted from station to station — laughing, arguing, playing. But it wasn’t indoor recess — play is one of the ways students learn every day in O’Brien’s science and social studies class at Shidler Elementary School. Throughout the day, O’Brien weaves free and structured play into her class time. During structured play, O’Brien guides the topic and provides parameters. But during free play, she only asks them to connect something they learned that day to their chosen play activity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They are able to choose whatever materials they want to play with in the room, but I encourage them to think about what we've been doing in our science block when they're playing,” O’Brien said. “And sometimes they'll just naturally do that. They'll tell me, ‘Look, this is an example of gravity. This is an unbalanced force. This is a chain reaction.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While play-based learning remains relatively rare in elementary classrooms, Oklahoma City is among a small number of school districts across the country experimenting with increased play time for children as old as 8 or 9. In Watertown, New York, for example, educators have been teaching through play in pre-K and kindergarten for years, said former Superintendent Patti LaBarr, but the district recently shifted to encouraging play for older elementary students, too. And in Austin, Texas, one school official has started training elementary teachers to use Lego Education products toys as a play-based learning tool during class time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60270\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60270\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Gilreath-Play-Elementary4-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A third grade student sets the last domino down in a row along the edge of a table while playing in Crystal O’Brien’s classroom at Shidler Elementary School in Oklahoma City. \u003ccite>(Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The growing focus on play in older grades is not always easy, as teachers contend with pressure to meet standardized testing mandates and a lack of support from some administrators. But educators who have turned to play-based learning say the approach is particularly helpful now, as pandemic disruptions have left students with social, emotional and behavioral gaps.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It can be difficult to explain what play-based learning looks like, said Mara Krechevsky, senior researcher at Project Zero, an education research group in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Over the past seven years, Krechevsky and her research team have been working on a project called the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.pz.harvard.edu/projects/pedagogy-of-play\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pedagogy of Play\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, studying play-based learning at schools in Boston, Denmark, South Africa and Colombia.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Through their research, Krechevsky’s group came up with three basic tenets for playful learning: students should be able to help lead their own learning, explore the unknown, and find joy. Under this framework, play time doesn’t have to be the reward for completing work and learning. Play can actually be the work, Krechevsky said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Much of the impetus for the shift in Oklahoma City comes from Stephanie Hinton, who started overseeing pre-K through second grade at Oklahoma City Public Schools a few years ago. She knew she wanted to encourage hands-on, playful learning as much as possible. The approach worked for her as a teacher, and it’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.13730\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">backed up by research\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Shidler Elementary, most students qualify for free and reduced lunch and test scores have \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oklaschools.com/school/988/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">historically been low\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It’s the kind of school where, typically, it’s difficult to get everyone on board with play-based learning, Hinton said. Despite those challenges, play has begun to catch on in its classrooms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There is this push for skill and drill in schools and communities where we're not passing the test,” Hinton said. It can be easy to think the solution is assigning more schoolwork and sending home more worksheets, Hinton added. That’s because worksheets are black and white — either the student knows the answer to the questions on the assignment or they don’t. But Hinton said regurgitating answers on a piece of paper isn’t a sign of understanding.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not authentic, it’s not true learning,” she said. \"And we know from research that when it comes down to it, it hasn’t engaged enough of the brain to make it permanent learning.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60269\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60269\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Gilreath-Play-Elementary3-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crystal O’Brien, center, plays with her third grade students during free play time in her classroom at Shidler Elementary School in Oklahoma City. Free play, which is when O’Brien lets students play any way they want, is a regular part of their class time. \u003ccite>(Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But letting kids learn through play is hard to grasp for educators who have been trained to follow the rules and structure of a traditional school setting, said Peg Drappo, who runs the pre-K program in Watertown City School District in New York. Watertown began to increase its focus on playful learning in 2015, when the district received a federal grant that helped expand play in its pre-K program. In the seven years since, Drappo and the district’s superintendent have been helping teachers of the older grades who approached them about adding play to their own classrooms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when she was an elementary school principal several years ago, Drappo didn’t understand what playful learning was supposed to look like. Now, when she speaks at conferences on play-based learning, she tells a story about visiting a kindergarten classroom when she was a principal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The kids were all over the place, all over the floor doing things — just like a kindergarten classroom should be. But I did not know this world of pre-K and play, so I said to [the teacher], ‘I'll come back to your classroom when you're teaching,’” Drappo said. “Now when I walk into a classroom and it’s loud and a teacher apologizes, I say, ‘Stop apologizing. This is how it’s supposed to sound.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60271\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60271\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Gilreath-Play-Elementary5-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of third graders in Crystal O’Brien’s class at Shidler Elementary School in Oklahoma City play with toys during a part of class time in which they are allowed to play however they want. At other times of the day, O’Brien guides the students through playful lessons. \u003ccite>(Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Oklahoma, playful learning has support from lawmakers as well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before becoming a teacher, Oklahoma state Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, a Democrat, thought all students were taught lessons through play. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I became a teacher back in 2012 and I realized it’s [play] not even accepted anymore as a way to learn, even in the younger grades,” Rosecrants said. “Some schools do it great, but I'm talking about the way that I learned — going outside, playing, discovering — that type of thing was not something that was focused on in any of the public schools I went to [as a teacher].” (Rosecrants left teaching in 2017 when he was elected to represent Norman, Oklahoma in the state house.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a middle school teacher, Rosecrants said, he rebelled against the idea that students should learn via memorization, drills, and worksheets. In 2021, the Oklahoma legislature \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2021-22%20ENR/hB/HB1569%20ENR.PDF\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">passed a law\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that encourages the use of play in pre-K through third grade classrooms. The law, which was written by Rosecrants with bi-partisan assistance, also forbids administrators from prohibiting educators’ use of a play-based approach to teaching.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I've had a lot of teachers who asked me to print it out so they can post it in their classroom, because administrators will come in and be like, ‘Hey, we gotta hit this standard, what are you doing?’ And they're like, ‘Well, we're hitting this standard, but we're [doing it] with blocks,’” Rosecrants said. “I want to add a piece to [the law] probably this year … to require training for play-based learning for all administrators in pre-K through third grade.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60273\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60273\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Gilreath-Play-Elementary8-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Educators at Blake Manor Elementary School say that students learn important math and problem-solving skills while they build, code and play with robots. \u003ccite>(Jackie Mader/The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some schools are trying to increase play by turning to STEM-focused activities, like building robots with Lego Education products. Manor Independent School District, a district of about 9,000 students just east of Austin, Texas, launched a robotics program around a decade ago, in an attempt to bring more playful learning to students in the early years of elementary school. For several years, robotics was mostly confined to an after-school program.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jacob Luevano, the innovative teaching strategist at Manor ISD, said he has been working to train teachers to integrate robotics into their classrooms. “I think now more than ever, we need [playful learning] in the classrooms,\" Luevano said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So far, Luevano has had more success in getting robotics activities introduced to classrooms in kindergarten through second grade than in upper elementary, which he attributes, in part, to the pressure of standardized testing that starts in third grade. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60272\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-60272\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/Gilreath-Play-Elementary7-800x562.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"562\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student at Blake Manor Elementary School in Manor, Texas, works on a Lego Robotics program during a morning meeting of the school's robotics club. The Manor Independent School District is trying to increase play opportunities for students by using Lego Robotics. \u003ccite>(Jackie Mader/The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As children recover from the isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic, active, playful learning is more important than ever because it strengthens social and emotional skills, said Hinton in Oklahoma City. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This isn't just about play. This is about building relationships, and social-emotional learning,” Hinton said. “Sometimes when an adult is losing their mind about something, I think: I wonder what your play behaviors were like as a child?” It helps, she clarifies, if children have already experienced losing in a cooperative setting — whether at Monopoly, Hi Ho! Cherry-O or another game. “How you handle that, it says a lot about where you are in your social emotional development,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In O’Brien’s classroom in Oklahoma City, there are no desks. Instead, students sit at round tables or on a rug in front of the whiteboard, depending on the activity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Recently, the class learned about static electricity. O’Brien set up stations with different items — balloons, tissue, paper — to show the kids how static electricity works. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I asked them to figure out how they could make these different materials move without directly touching them,” O’Brien said. After that, she led a discussion on what the students discovered and presented them with some technical, scientific terms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This year is O’Brien’s first back at Shidler Elementary. She left the district in 2021 to get a master’s degree in early childhood education and work at a private preschool in Colorado that uses the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/parenting/reggio-emilia-preschool.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reggio Emilia approach\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to teaching, an approach born in Italy that encompasses significant play.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like other play-based programs, Reggio Emilia is most often seen in private and affluent preschool classrooms. When O’Brien made the decision to return to Shidler Elementary, she was partly on a mission to bring play-based learning to a public setting. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not something that should just be for the elite, and I think all children can benefit from learning this way,” O’Brien said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/in-elementary-classrooms-demand-grows-for-play-based-learning/\">play-based learning\u003c/a> was produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger Reporter newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jackie Mader contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Correction: This story has been updated to note that Manor ISD in Texas is using LEGO Education products.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/mindshift/60255/in-elementary-classrooms-demand-grows-for-play-based-learning","authors":["byline_mindshift_60255"],"categories":["mindshift_192","mindshift_21345"],"tags":["mindshift_767","mindshift_21078","mindshift_20720","mindshift_21101","mindshift_21214","mindshift_21184","mindshift_46","mindshift_498"],"featImg":"mindshift_60268","label":"mindshift"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.","airtime":"SUN 2pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/possible-5gxfizEbKOJ-pbF5ASgxrs_.1400x1400.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.possible.fm/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"Possible"},"link":"/radio/program/possible","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"}},"1a":{"id":"1a","title":"1A","info":"1A is home to the national conversation. 1A brings on great guests and frames the best debate in ways that make you think, share and engage.","airtime":"MON-THU 11pm-12am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/1a.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://the1a.org/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/1a","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=1188724250&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/1A-p947376/","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510316/podcast.xml"}},"all-things-considered":{"id":"all-things-considered","title":"All Things Considered","info":"Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. 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We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. 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Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.","airtime":"MON-FRI 3am-9am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2021/10/ME_1400.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/morning-edition"},"onourwatch":{"id":"onourwatch","title":"On Our Watch","tagline":"Police secrets, unsealed","info":"For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/OOW_Tile_Final.png","imageAlt":"On Our Watch from NPR and KQED","officialWebsiteLink":"/podcasts/onourwatch","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"1"},"link":"/podcasts/onourwatch","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw","npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/onourwatch","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/On-Our-Watch-p1436229/","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"}},"on-the-media":{"id":"on-the-media","title":"On The Media","info":"Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. 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