Brain Stickiness

There is no teflon in the house, but there is teflon in the brains that come here to work with me.


My friend told me this week, while I gushed over new strategies on the forefront of the marriage of pharmacology, and alternative modalities, I learned at an ADD Conference last Saturday, that I need to come back in the next lifetime as a brain researcher. I have come to trust medication more than I would have ever predicted, yet I grow more MIStrustful of "Big Pharma."


"But I don't trust the AMA,", I responded, "because doctors only have, like 16 hours of credits on nutrition, and maybe 12 on stress and the body-mind connection, PLUS they have not healed me as much as my own brain and bodywork have." 
"Well", she said, "that is why they need you."


I have been watching TED Talks lately, because they have short time frames for my short sometimes attention span, uber smart people, yet not ones who live in a laboratory and never see daylight or controversial conversations, plus TED is the place I would speak about ADHD, brain health, schools for LD kids, academic skill-building in the ideal setting, and how to coach a kid who hates reading and writing, if I only knew the right "TED" people.


I tried the Seattle area TED Talks with no response. I am fighting my beliefs that I do not have enough degrees, or that I have too many wrinkles, to keep pursuing this goal. I seems you must present some newfangled idea, creative, original, and life-changing, to qualify. Nothing like a high bar to reduce me to inertia. Just like my kids I tutor! So I will practice what I preach, not give up, and keep searching for what it takes to present. I probably need to really practice what I teach, and "narrow my topic."


I said today to one of my 8-year-olds, "Maybe we could create a scrapbook of your summer trip and you could write little captions." Oh No. That did not go over like it did with my 11-year old girl who did that last summer. She took it and ran with it, practicing starting sentences with interesting beginnings. Instead, for him, it was like presenting a "high bar."

Or

"Let's aim for writing great 5-paragraph essays this school year!" Students are eavesdropping on this goal-setting brainstorm in my living room, while I talk to their parent, usually a mom, and meanwhile, their handwriting, grammar, spelling, keyboarding, thesaurus use, sentence length, and sense of organization is paltry. I calmly reassure them, in my most Glenda the Good Witch voice, that we will work just on sentences for a long time and then only when they are ready, essays. Gosh, I know of NO child or teen who lights up when that word is spoken. And then I deliver the hypocritical news, when they tell of some daunting assignment, like writing about why their school is the best, and give THREE reasons grade, that 5-paragraph essays are not how most magazines or newspapers are actually written.


Speaking of entrenched beliefs, I listened to a talk tonight by Joe Dispenzia, who is an articulate geek who makes sense of the chemicals in the brain, and motivation, learning, and habits. Nothing trivial there. The limbic brain, or mammalian brain, or emotional brain, regulates "internal chemical order." Of course, if the frontal cortex is compromised, as in anxiety-ridden, ADHD-ers, or traumatized people or children, there is less of a dance step integration possible. I just could not help think of my struggling writers, and whether changing their thinking could incur tangible changes in their output and flow. 


My current belief is that the "stickiness' of one's brain is directly related to how healthy the nutrients you put in are, plus the dopamine, plus the amount of explicit instruction you get, and much more. 


Changing Your Brain: The 3 Brains that Allow us to go from Thinking, to Doing, to Being


Oh Yeah! I am supposed to place bullet points in my post in order to follow the rules of BLOGGING! I always forget.

• Nerve cells that fire together wire together. 
• If learning is making new synaptic connections, then remembering is maintaining and sustaining those connections. 
• Warning: Many moving images of dendrites and synapses in the youtube video. Kidding.

http://www.drjoedispenza.com/

Love the resources on his website. Who can argue with the Meditation called, "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself?"

Remedial Reading and Writing for incoming College Students

Okay, I cannot stand to read blogs that simply cut and paste what other people have written, and tack on a single sentence response of their own. Talk about lacking personal voice!So here I will fitfully, boldly, and guiltily do the same. I do know one of the authors, William Tierney, from my years at Cal State. I abridged the post so as to prevent concentration dilution on your part. The parts in bold are what I am always beating my drum about. 

Remediation in College

Remediation is a massive bottleneck in higher education. Half of the students who show up at community colleges are not college-ready and must complete one or more catch-up courses before they can enter college-level study. 

Every summer for the past decade, we have conducted a writing program for college-bound, low-income minority students. More than 80 percent of them have never written a formal five-page paper. Instead, they’ve churned out short essay after short essay after short essay. When asked to develop an idea or argument beyond two or three pages, they look dumbfounded.

IThe Education Commission of the States reports that only 17 percent of students enrolled in remedial English nationally go on to earn a college degree. That’s a shameful return on what the Gates Foundation estimates to be a $2.3 billion annual investment in remedial programs nationally.

What works? Our 10 years of teaching remedial writing, as well as other research, points to four ways to get students to write better.

• Set specific and understandable goals. Abstract test scores – “You score in the 85th percentile” -- don’t help students, especially first-generation learners, know if they are underprepared to write in college. If students somehow discover they are not good writers, they have no idea what they need to do to improve. 

• Teach students how to revise. What students need to understand is how to make the essay they just wrote better. A teacher’s general comments at the end of an essay, the usual practice, are like an autopsy report: They may tell the student why the paper is weak, but they do not help the writer fix the problem. 

• Teach summarizing, not analyzing: Critical thinking in and of itself is not a precursor of good writing. Putting thinking into words, sentences and paragraphs is the endgame, and that crucially involves the ability to summarize material, a more concrete and therefore teachable skill. If students are able to summarize what they have read, they can better grasp how to put together their own arguments.

These sorts of solutions are not rocket science, but they are, unfortunately, controversial. Adopting them would mean focusing on writing as process rather than as product, an unsettling break for those accustomed to exams and assignments without revision opportunities. But the current remedial writing programs have the dubious distinction of being the first stop on the way to dropping out of college. 

Teaching Boys Who Would Rather Build Forts All Day

This weekend I head north to Vancouver to give a presentation to 115 specialists, as part of the

Canadian Academy of Therapeutic Tutors.

They expect me to illuminate them on the latest and greatest in magic tricks for teaching writing. Not that I am anxious, or nervous. (Hah!)

One of my students (age 7) asked how I was going to do a presentation when I didn't know how to speak Canadian.

Since my last BLOG I started a new little contract-y job, with a Foster Care Agency, and they really do that middle word: CARE. Social Workers who use every ounce of their compassionate bloodstream, and their graduate school smarts, to help these kids feel an anchor. Ahem, a small detail, however, is that these kids struggle with reading. So I come in with my virtual Super Woman cape and assess them, even though the school has supposedly done so, only to find that (surprise!) schools aren't doing the best interventions, or dong much at all. So my pen and my sword pursue best interventions, with elaborate write-ups, and grave predictions about their future, and the schools do not exactly call me up to attend any of their parties or potlucks. I will also be doing mini trainings for the foster parents on how to help their kids in a more pointed way than having them read People magazine over and over.

Lately, while not burning data CDs for my Vancouver-ites, lumbering to Pilates class in the rain, writing long e-mails to parents of the kids I tutor, and stressing about whether I am eating enough greens, or worrying about the futures of foster children...I am....

....Listening to Andrew Pudewa (don't ask me to pronounce his name, but I have exchanged many emails with him over the years) talk about Boys and Writing - an audio of one of his presentations, which are for sale on his website. I am too cheap to spend the hundreds on his curriculum, but I have pored over the Institute for Excellence in Writing materials at conferences, heard powerful stories from homeschoolers, and scratched my head about why I haven't seen the curriculum in classrooms, or on special ed. teachers shelves. Here is a 2 minute clip of him, to get a sense of his wisdom.

Teaching Boys and Other Children who Would Rather Make Forts All Day

What a relief to hear that he is promoting the same strategies that I have fallen upon through my own trial and error, with fort-making boys, over the years. He is BIG ON VERBS.

Here is his website, and the page with some freebies is under Downloads.

I am making tiny progress with the six boys, ages 10-13, who would rather have dental surgery than write.

• One has Inspiration, and a new MAC, and that makes his willingness dial move up to "10."

• Another has new medication, so now he actually uses my 25 pages of writing tools instead of forgetting they are there in his binder, on his desk at home. One of these pages is a reminder about using strong verbs, of course.

• Yet another has taken on my "Think like a reporter" mantra and asks himself often whether he has the 5 W's and H in his writing for school, or for me.

• The Step-Up-to-Writing summary equation is what one 5th grader is hanging his hat on, because it gives such clear parameters for the many summaries that I assign, since we also work on finding the Main Idea.

Identify the item. THEN Use a verb and a bit more. THEN Finish your thought.

The article on sharks

describes the reasons

why there are more attacks today

Verbs for summaries:

explains describes gives compares tells

shows lists provides presents demonstrates

_________________________________________________________________________

And a little humor, or spice, or I am not sure - help me out here!

Why Johnny Can't Write

Video that revisits the Newsweek Cover Story December 8, 1975

If this were a student's paper, I would ask, "Where is your thesis?" It is 7 minutes of garbled reporter speak, and while the essence of the video isn't clear, to me it spoke to how this "alarm" is not new, and we cannot simply blame it on the digital age, or our texting teenagers, but a whole host of things.

If anyone can decipher the "Main Idea", let me know.

Writing Tantrums

It hurts to hear of the battles that can occur in the car on the way here.

The short descriptor, from mom, usually, upon entering my living room/waiting room, in earshot of the student, goes something like this:

"Now, it is nothing personal, Kendra, but _______ just whines or comes down with a psychosomatic illness before coming to his session. I tell him that he needs to learn some strategies to help him write, since he can't go through life hoping people with just read his mind." (she borrowed this from me)

Sorry, guys, I just don't hear about meltdowns with my girls, or at least they whine more directly, with me one-on-one, and with eye contact!

So when I drill down with the boys, once we have sequestered ourselves in my office, I discover that their "self-talk" (that was about 9 blogs ago) is dragging its voice along the rungs of the sewers (are there rungs in sewers?), and speaking severely limiting lies about their creativity, talent, expression, skill, and future success to the inhabitant of this inner voice, aka my student.

Ah...self-talk. Steven Graham, the consumate researcher on writing, says that changing self-talk via checklists and charts gives rise to self-regulation, and, "voila!" writing fluency. He makes it sound so easy.

I have read his articles and books, but got up the courage to call him this month and after many VMs, the famous guy was available for a 7-minute window! May I never be THAT popular or disorganized that I can't find a slot of 15 minutes to speak, learn, and teach, thus leave a tiny legacy. He did not give advice about the tantrums.

Back to the "I don't want to go to Kendra's, where I have to do that thing I am least proficient at...."

I am between a rock and a hard place, now. Who wants to hear some buttering-up lecture about self-worth and their progress made, when the truth is that it just feels hard to keep all the components of writing in their brain psyche? I am powerless, even with all my research-based factoids and curriculums dripping off my shelves. I despise that cheerleader "I Can"paraphenalia, but there is actually some research that points to results from the use of it. Something like:

I wish I could tell a story about when it was like that for me, but I loved writing as a kid, and the more I wrote, the more I was motivated to find tricks of the trade, and reasons for using commas, and ways to describe my incestuous, insincere uncle in words fit for my diary, and in ones fit for a school assignment.

So I tell a story about something I know THEY struggled with at one time. Today, it was Lacrosse. My tiny, but quite athletic, 4th grade boy - who I have worked with for a year - and whose dyslexia has improved greatly, has become quite the reader. He forgets how hard reading used to be. He also forgets that he did not want to try Lacrosse at this time last year. Now he isgung-ho to start up the season and has a rare confidence for a 10-year old who is smaller than every other boy on his team.

What else helps is that I point out EACH session, the small and incremental things they have done well. I have to pinch myself to remember.

TIP OF THE MONTH:

Regarding Research Papers:

I told two 5th graders this month, who tend to "SURF" instead of take notes, and read images, instead of read text, and forget that they are forming the foundation of a research paper, that THEY got to choose the topic of, to get a timer, and:

Surf and Read for 10 minutes

Write and Take Notes for 10 Minutes

Hyperfocus, and Writing Despite Your Distractions

I spend a lot of time reading websites about ADD, or ADHD, and figuring out the nuances of the differences, but lately the terms have morphed into one amorphous diagnosis, which supposedly will be categorized in the new DSM 5 as just ADHD, a blanket label, doing away with the well-known 3 subtypes. This is easier on insurance companies, and harder on parents of AD__ whatever kids, and those of us with the need for specificity of our brain's workings, so as to treat and coach it correctly.

Diagnostic Criteria for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

I wrote a complimentary email to an author whose blog won Blog of the Year for 2011, which I realize is hardly a Grammy, but she does have more traffic on her site now. I asked to do a guest blog a couple of weeks ago, and she chose the topic, "How to Write Despite Your Distractions." It has not been posted yet, so here is the post I submitted to her, on this site: Being Human at Electric Speed

Writing Despite Your Distractions

There is not an APP for that!

Sending in the Police: Book Ends

Find a very supportive but very laser sharp honest friend who you can call right before you start writing, and right afterwards. Ideally you do this with them actually on the other end, not via Voice Mail. You are putting an accountability “lock” on your writing time, by committing to someone besides yourself, in real time. I borrowed this from friends who are in Debtors Anonymous, who avoid balancing their checkbook. They do a back-to-back phone call whenever they have to do a short task, or a long one, involving an uncomfortable financial necessity.

Giving Permission: OK! 5 Minutes Then!

When your “Irish Setter” mind can only hold you by a leash and pull you towards Facebook, cleaning the hallway, or eating the leftovers in the fridge, tell that dog that he can indulge only with a timer set for 5 minutes. Your rebellious kid sees writing as discipline, something to do at an uncomfortable desk in 4^th grade, or even a diet of salad and lean chicken. That kid wants to stir up trouble, run around exploring or destroying something, or make up games - instead of ideas and characters and eloquent sentences. So you, the parent, allow a 5 minute only break, or breather, or you can do this before beginning. But it works best when ice cream in the freezer is calling, WHILE you are writing. Set a loud timer and affix to you or be sure you will hear it, and do something childlike for that time frame and stick to the time. I like pounding the bed with a tennis racket, walking outside, pulling up dirt, or chewing something that a “mom” would say “No” to. This is a trick I learned from a therapist as an addiction recovery strategy, except I am doing it backwards. Her advice is to ward off the craving, urge, or addictive pull, for a mere 5 minutes, to retrain the compulsive brain.

( Dr. Cat’s Helping Handbook: A Compassionate Guide to Being Human - http://www.drcat.org/html/retail.html)

Moving them aside: Tech Tips and Mantras

Mental distractions or an impulsive mind can wreak havoc on the life of a writer. Yet as any ADHD expert will tell you, on the flip side of every impulse chemistry in our brains is the capacity to focus like a laser. (this is why parents say, “Why, Joey cannot possibly have ADHD. He sits and plays video games for hours!”) I digress.

There are several software nannies that track your productivity and stand guard against you playing with the wrong neighborhood gang, i.e. surfing when supposed to be writing. The best known is probably https://www.rescuetime.com/ Experiment with them – some people bond with a nanny and others, not so much.

Okay, I saved the woo-woo for last. I listen to chanting or affirmation music in the background, and when I feel myself tempted to distract myself and leave the page I am producing material on, I actually sing along or speak along, with the affirmations, which are actually at times related to breathing in and affirming my prosperity from doing what I love to do. This is effective at changing the spin cycle of my mind, and potentially alters the chemical make-up of my brain, temporarily. When all is said and done, or written and revised, it sure feels better to have been actively at my computer instead of passively at it, watching kitten videos.

And one more blog that is worthy of note, and has FREE books on it!

Bryan's adderworld is a site dripping with tips and honesty, and he is someone that actually replies to all the comments people write on his blog. Commendable. He has 4 freebie ebook publications, and this post on writing from over a year ago is pertinent to my own blog.

Hyperfocusing and Writing

There is some argument about whether we have this gift of hyperfocus, have to work our way into it, or muscle our way laboriously, or whether some of us just don't possess it in our package of ADD tricks. A sample here of one of the responses to his post:

Bryan – you’ll be interested to know that Ned Hallowell uses writing, very consciously, as a form of “treatment” for his ADHD. When he is writing a book (over the long period of time it takes) he finds it gives him a special focus and also more structure.

That said, my observation is that people don’t control their hyperfocus very often. Rather, for Ned, I think it’s a matter of setting aside time without other distractions because he has a project in which he’s interested and that he knows has a deadline. He also just loves to write, so it’s a very pleasurable activity for him. And you, as you say (and me, too).

You might consider that what you’re describing is something called “flow” – when you get immersed into something you love. Perhaps that’s another word for hyperfocus???