And another closer to SC

• Clayton County, Georgia Public Schools

• Effort led by systems staff development director

  • The brain friendly way
    • Teach sorbet with the real thing, not Websters
      • Then, connect with ice cream, yogurt, slushy
    • Small group learning
    • Word wheels

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In Clayton County Georgia Public Schools, staff development coordinator Bobbi Ford demonstrates ways to teach reading in a brain friendly way. Ford says that vocabulary words must be placed in context for students to understand and remember them. To teach a word like sorbet, for example, Ford puts the dictionary aside and brings in a pint of the smooth stuff, tossing out synonyms like ice cream, yogurt, and slushy. She also encourages small group learning, activities in which kids teach one another, and word wheels that relate words like minute to kid-friendly jargon like teensy-weensy and super small. It sounds like a lot more work, but changing instruction is not so difficult when teachers see the payoff. (Covino 2002, 26).

Covino, Jennifer K. "Mind matters: what brain-based research means for educators and for the future of math, language arts, foreign languages, the arts, and special education." District Administration. 38, no. 2 (Feb. 2002): 25-27.