Promote health and wellness by incorporating: 1. Intentional physical movements that cross the midline of the body. 2. Brain breaks that maintain an academic focus. 3. Music and dance to enhance learning, retention, and JOY.
The best kinds of physical activity are those that accomplish three things.
Activate both hemispheres of the brain.
Cross the midline of the body.
Move every 20-25 minutes to maximize efficiency of learning.
Intentional physical movement is an effective way to combat boredom, sleepiness, isolation, and even obesity (Benes, Finn, Sullivan, &Yan, 2016). We can also give class a reset, activate the primacy effect, that is that recall is more efficient for items presented early (Innocenti, Cappa, Feurra, Giovannelli, et al, 2013), and give our learners an opportunity for safe, silly, energizing fun. Short movement breaks, lasting from 10 seconds to 3 minutes, infuse energy and life into any class.
Kagan Structures
Using Kagan Structures that involve movement provide the added benefit of simultaneous engagement, positive interdependence, equal participation, and individual accountability (Kagan & Kagan, 2009). PRO-TIP: The first time a new structure is introduced, it should be non-content. After this, use the structures to alternate team-building or class-building with content review and reinforcement. Click the image below to access student instructions for the Kagan structures I use the most. I print these on table tent cards or project them on my screen to remind students what to do.
Click image to access student instructions for the Kagan Structures I use the most.
I have collected Brain Breaks the incorporate the types of movements I had learned about during a Brain Gyms® training in 1996. Brain Gyms® emphasize physical movements that cross the midline of the body so as to develop gross motor coordination and integration across the corpus callosum, the neural tissue which connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Some of these activities my students embraced the most include Clap Touch (Klatsch und Zeh) and House - Tree - Rock (Haus-Baum-Stein). In Klatsch und Zeh, partners clap right hands, touch left toes, clap left hands, touch right toes as fast as they can for 1 minute. I have them count the number of claps in German to practice numbers. For Haus-Baum-Stein, I play music while students walk around the room. When I say, “Haus-Baum-Stein”, form a group of three. Quickly, one person must be a house (hands joined in a point above head), another must be a tree (arms out like branches) and the third must be a rock (crouched on the floor). These could be modified for content and for grade level as well. For example, instead of House-Tree-Rock, challenge chemistry students to build an atom with a proton, neutron, and electron. Instead of counting in German for Clap Touch, a geography class could list landforms, bodies of water, countries, or capital cities. For more ideas on using Brain Breaks with academic content for world language classes, visit the blogs of Martina Bex at The Comprehensible Classroom and Annabelle Allen at Fluency Matters or join the Facebook Group IFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching.
The power of music to enhance learning and memory has been well documented if not completely understood (Thaut, Peterson, & McIntosh, 2005). The use of rhythm and rhyme has a long history in passing stories, legends, and culture from one generation to the next. The body involuntarily responds physiologically to music and even non-musical centers of brain activity are affected by music training. Music also serves to bring people together, creating common bonds and fellowship. The use of music and dance, specifically singing songs with associated actions, has been a very effective way for me to get students moving and learning at the same time. Adding rhythm and melody makes verbal expression less intimidating, lowering the learners inhibitions and elevating joy (Finset, 2015). In my classes I have used music and simple dance motions to help students learn and retain vocabulary, phrases, processes, and cultural concepts. For science classes and world language classes alike, the songs that get stuck in your head are the ones that find their way into long term memory. Take advantage of this by setting concepts to music.
Use songs from Rhythm, Rhyme, Results to reinforce lessons in any content area. The rap is catchy and fun - or should I say "sic and fresh" (my students love when I try to speak their lingo. It's so "cringy"). The lyrics stay with my learners so after hearing the lab safety rap (Johansen, 2007) a few times, they can sing along. Reminding them to put on goggles is easier when they are singing about it!
For Chemistry and AP Chemistry I use the songs from Mark Rosengarten to review and reinforce content. Just before the final exam, an honors chemistry student asked me to quickly review electrochemistry. I said, "it starts at the anode..." and the rest of my class began to sing "electrons are lost there" (Rosengarten, 2009) and then they finished the song for me while I showed a diagram of an electrochemical cell. After singing the song, they did not need my help to label the diagram and answer questions about it.
In German classes, we get a high energy dance break with songs that reinforce content or from culturally relevant popular songs. Some class favorites include "Wackel mit dem Po" and "Alles blau" from Uwe Kind & LingoTech (2010 and 2017). These songs contain vocabulary and grammatical structures in the target language so while we get a chance to stand up and move our bodies, we also learn more German. There are also popular German songs that help review target structures. Das Fliegerlied (the airplane song) prompts dancers to fly, jump, swim, and more. The more traditional Zillertaller Hochzeitsmarsch (Austrian wedding march) has no lyrics, but the dance moves are simpler, high energy, and the song is shorter. The added benefit to learning dances like these is, should any student find themselves at an Oktoberfest or Karneval celebration, they will know some of the dance moves and will be able to participate in the fun.
Bring the stress level down and facilitate relaxation and mindfulness with yoga. In German classes, yoga in the target language also teaches vocabulary words for body parts and commands. Even just a few yoga poses after sitting for a while can move the blood from the legs back up to the brain to improve concentration and focus, which is useful in any class. When content is particularly complex and demanding, a yoga break can help students manage the high cognitive load.
References
Benes, S., Finn, K.E., Sullivan, E.C., & Yan, Z. (2016). Teachers' perceptions of using movement in the classroom. Physical Educator, 73(1), 110-135.
Dennison, P. E., & Dennison, G. E. (1994). Brain gym (Teachers ed. rev.), California: Edu Kinesthetics, Inc.
Finset, A. (2015). Where words fail, music speaks. Patient Education and Counseling, 98(11), 1293-1294.
High, J. 2010. Second Language Learning Through Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing.
Kind, U. (2010). Uwe Kind & LingoTech YouTube Channel. Retrieved June 8, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSxVWwSznSyOctmVLBEKEWw
Johansen, J. (2007, September 7). Lab Safety 101 SSP [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ PSdY4gEfCHY
Innocenti, I., Cappa, S., Feurra, M., Giovannelli, F., Santarnecchi, E., Bianco, G., . . . Rossi, S. (2013). TMS interference with primacy and recency mechanisms reveals bimodal episodic encoding in the human brain. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 25(1), 109-16.
Kagan, S., & Kagan, M. (2009). Kagan Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing.
Öxel, E. (2016). Fliegerlied. On Fasching 2016 [MP3 file]. Hitmix.de
Paivio, Allan. (2014). Intelligence, dual coding theory, and the brain. Intelligence, 47, 141.
Thaut, M. H., Peterson, D. A. and McIntosh, G. C. (2005), Temporal entrainment of cognitive functions. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1060: 243-254. doi:10.1196/annals.1360.017