Chapter
Three: Finding Freedom, Finding the Joy
In the third chapter of his book, From Brain to Mind Zull focuses on how
learning takes place through action but learning is driven by emotion. Zull
opens with a narrative about a time when he had to teach himself a theory and
the struggles that came with teaching himself. Zull stumbled upon the
realization that the struggle is worth it because in the end he felt true
happiness in overcoming a difficult task and learning something on his own
accord. I feel Zull would approve of the idea of students working on their own,
and teachers differentiating their instruction to meet the needs of their
students. For me, my two most impactful
sections were, “Mistakes and Joyful Education,” and “Do Front Cortex Things,”
because as a secondary teacher I can immediately imagine an impact on our
students if our school implemented this philosophy.
In the section “Mistakes and Joyful
Education” Zull espouses the idea that students should struggle, and be allowed
to struggle. In fact, he even states teachers should be concerned if a student
is not making any mistakes. I love the
idea of trial and error in education. I feel as long as a student is not
demoralized with repeated failures it is so beneficial for them to learn how to
overcome failure and learn the joys of success and hard work.
This past school year I was working with a student on
a story in which they had to write about the day in the life of a middle school
student who was the opposite gender of them. So boys had to write about a
girl’s day and vice versa. The goal in my mind was to teach them how author’s
use different perspectives in their writing and how when you write you need to
use details and other clues to help the reader picture the story. This young male student wrote a very generic
story about a girl, and normally he is a very strong writer but this was not
his best writing. During a conference I asked him what was going on, and he
said that he didn’t know “girl stuff” and wanted me to help him. So I told him
no. This was shocking to him. But I told him if he kept trying I would help.
Eventually after another draft or two, he was able to flesh out his character. At the end of the year I usually give the
kids a survey to fill out and he said that this story was his favorite because
he worked so hard on it. I think Zull would say that it was his favorite
because he found the joy in his work. He expected me to tell him what to write
and instead he found it himself and gained confidence as a writer.
The second takeaway for me in chapter three was the
section “Do Front Cortex Things.” This
past year I have been lucky enough to be put in an unofficial coaching role in
my school. I still have classes but I lead professional developments and work
with teachers on a variety of subjects. One piece of advice I keep telling
teachers is, “choice, choice, choice.” I have seen the benefits in my own room,
and this year I was able to see the benefits in other disciplines as well. I
try hard to allow my students a choice in an existing framework as Zull
mentioned and I have really seen my students flourish. This past year I made my AP students do an
independent literature project in which they were required to read additional
novels outside of the class novel and write about it, and discuss it with peers
in the class. I was hesitant that I would receive a lot of pushback from my
students because of the additional workload of yet another book and paper, but
was pleasantly surprised to find out most of the enjoyed the assignment. As the
year went on they regularly commented on how they liked reading at their own
pace, and having the ability to pick a text from a list, instead of being told
what to read. When reading this chapter, it was hard not to think of my AP
class, and how well they responded to the choice and how it will (hopefully)
positively impact their AP scores.
I know creating an environment where students can
struggle, sometimes fail, and have choice can be challenging and sometimes even
daunting but the benefits far out way the work.
I always feel as though my fall and early winter are chaotic because I
am establishing my routines and creating a safe environment for kids to fail.
But I have noticed each year as I get better at teaching my late winter and
spring slow down and my colleagues speeds up. Students get bored in other
classes and behavior issues arise. This is not to say I have no behavior
problems or that I am a master teacher but I truly feel that a lot of my
successes have come from giving students choices in what they work on, and
allowing them to work through failures. I understand now that Zull would back
this assertion because the brain is actually rewarding my students and
intrinsically motivating them to do better and learn more.
Throughout this
chapter I kept thinking of my struggling learners. Specifically, how we
(meaning educators) eliminate options for them, and try to spoon feed them
answers because school is too hard, or they are behaviorally difficult. I
wonder how we can take the ideas Zull presents and apply it to students who
struggle at an early age and try to “catch” them before they fall through the
cracks? I don’t have an answer but I do
feel a new sense of purpose for the upcoming year in trying to figure out a way
to reach my struggling learners.
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