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Maximizing the Brain-Body Connection: Moving Through the Curriculum

-Dale Carnegie

STUDENTS typically get to move around between classes every fifty minutes or so, but for many of them, that's physically, neurally, and biochemically inadequate. Their brains would work better if they moved more. The adolescent body is not designed to sit in a chair for six hours a day. In today's classrooms, sitting is what students do the most. Quite often, teachers "teach to the students' heads," and everything from the shoulders down gets ignored in the learning process. This tendency in schools can be dealt with first by reframing learning toward brain-friendly movement innovations, then focusing on specific boy-girl needs in movement, then altering the classroom in subtle but significant ways.

As you begin this chapter, please know that we as authors and practitioners are aware of how much content you have to teach-we will provide, not pie-in-the-sky movement and hands-on interactive projects that would distract from good learning, but instead, body-brain connection activities that can improve both academic performance and behavior.

The Importance of Physical Movement in Learning

There are many links between the body and the brain. Cells and chemicals throughout the body are stimulated when the body moves. When learning is paired with movement, we anchor learning in the body through procedural memory. When the body learns a concept, the brain is less likely to forget it. This is especially true for boys.

Although movement is important for all students, boys generally need more movement while learning than do girls. For many adolescent boys, movement is necessary at intervals for keeping the brain stimulated and controlling impulsive behavior. The increased blood flow and oxygen to the brain, along with the release of neurotransmitters, helps these students learn concepts and procedures better, retain them longer, and cause less of a distraction in the classroom with unfocused activity.

Generally speaking, elementary school classrooms offer more movement opportunities than secondary school classrooms. Certainly, younger students' neurological systems are less mature and attention spans are shorter-they just cannot sit as long as older students can, no matter how firmly the teacher directs them to do so. Primary teachers have no choice but to let students get up and do jumping jacks or change activities frequently. If they don't, the little ones will be rolling around on the floor and poking each other.

Although older students may often appear to tolerate the "sit-n-git" lecture, appearances can be very misleading. Students who are sitting quietly in their seats may be somewhere else entirely in their minds. Boys' brains might go to a biological rest state and be mentally absent during an entire class. Girls' brains may not go into as deep a rest or "zoned out" state, but they can be absent as they mentally wander to someplace far from the classroom. Both of these occurrences are much more likely when a teacher stands in front of the class and lectures for an entire class period. Just because we can get students to sit at their desks for the entire period does not mean that we should.

Among the many reasons movement is good for both the adolescent body and mind, for both boys and girls, is this one: our teenagers today are more sedentary than those living in any other period in history. This state of contemporary life has led to an epidemic of overweight children. More hidden is the effect on learning brains. When you utilize strategies to integrate more movement into your classroom, you will be helping the learning brains of your students in some very profound ways-and you will be rescuing this generation of children from an epidemic of sedentary life that is not a good fit with adolescent hormones or development.

Synaptic connections. During adolescent development, many neural pathways between brain cells do not form except through physical engagement. And remember, during adolescence there are significant numbers of new dendrites, creating the potential for many new neural pathways and making this a window of opportunity we can't afford to ignore.

Motor control. During adolescence, the growing brain "prunes" cells to shed the connections that are not being utilized. If the brain doesn't get to "move around" through physical activity during adolescence, it may not develop the healthy habits needed to promote an overall healthy lifestyle throughout life.

Points to Ponder Jar

Use a "Points to Ponder" jar to stop periodically and shift gears-perhaps when you can sense that the energy level of your students is really low, when you want to reengage the group before covering some important content, or when you just want to give everyone a break! Start with these and add your own (and get your students to contribute):

• How do they get deer to cross at those little yellow signs?
• Do Lipton Tea employees get to take coffee breaks?
• How can you have a "civil" war?

You get the idea. Just pull a slip of paper with a Point to Ponder from the jar on your desk at some unexpected moment. Most of these will result in everyone having a good laugh-another very positive thing for the learning brain, as laughter releases endorphins, which elicit a sense of well-being. Following this brain break, it will be easier for both boys and girls to refocus on the content you are delivering.

Brain integration. Movement, especially cross-lateral (left and right) movement, aids in the healthy development and integration of both hemispheres. This can be especially helpful to adolescents as they navigate the developmental waters of connecting thinking and feeling areas of the brain.

Attention and reward. Certain neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, are stimulated by physical activity and novelty; movement thus helps the brain keep boredom states at bay and helps control impulsive acting out (thereby improving classroom behavior).

Circulation and respiration. Increasing blood flow and oxygen to the brain increases the brain's ability to pay attention, solve problems, and retain information. An alert and engaged brain uses nearly 50 percent of the oxygen in the body to stay alert and engaged.

What are some negative stressors in your school environment that might be having an effect on your boys and your girls specifically? Brainstorm with your students. Hear what they have to say. Then teach them the functions of the brain we are now looking at that pertain to body-brain connections and movement. See if their eyes light up when you ask them to come up with safe, reasonable ways of not only minimizing negative stressors but also enjoying more movement in your classroom during learning.

Stress. Negative stress, or distress, reduces the number of new neurons that a brain generates each day. Physical movement decreases the likelihood of distress, while also reducing aggression, avoidance, and apprehension about learning. Sometimes movement activities result in spontaneous laughter. Laughter not only mitigates potentially harmful chemicals but also promotes the release of endorphins in the brain, which help students enjoy learning.

Note: research has shown that girls are more subject to depression during adolescence, so mitigating stress can help promote better mental health for girls.

Wisdom of Practice

Teachers working across all content areas are recognizing the importance of getting their students moving, both in body and mind. The following examples from creative teachers are just a few ways of making this strategy come to life in the classroom.

At Cherry Creek PREP Alternative High School, teachers teach lessons on anger management, conflict resolution, and communication modes. After each lesson, students are given different scenarios to read and then act out. Groups act out a negative example (how not to handle the situation) and then an example of what to do using the skills they have learned.

Seventh-grade science teacher Leonard Jones makes movement a regular part of his classroom routine. After teaching a new concept, Leonard has his students take on various roles and use pantomime to demonstrate their understanding. For example, Leonard's students each play a part of a cell and demonstrate the various functions.

Tracy Brennan, International Baccalaureate English teacher, helps her students develop a deeper understanding of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Macbeth by having them act out various scenes. Even literature not written in the dramatic genre is interpreted through dramatic enactments. She has found this to increase retention of content among her students.

History teacher Mary Lott has students create a time line across the classroom. Mary tapes historical events to each student's back so that the students cannot see which historical event they represent. Without talking, students work together to put themselves in chronological order along the time line. They can then take the signs off their backs, check their accuracy, and share with the rest of the class something important about their event.

Special education teacher Julianne Pion does brain integration activities with her students daily. Students trace figure eights on paper with a crayon and in the air with their arm and head as...