In October 2014, veteran high school teacher Alexis Wiggins accepted a position as a learning coach. To better understand the challenges she would face in helping her new colleagues improve student learning outcomes, she "became" a student for two days. During that time, she came to the bottom-numbing realization that, in high school, students spend the majority of the day in their seats. "Students move almost never," Wiggins writes in A Sobering Lesson Learned.<FOOTNOTE>*Read Alexis Wiggins's blog at https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/10/10/a-veteran-teacher-turned-coach-shadows-2-students-for-2-days-a-sobering-lesson-learned</FOOTNOTE> "And never is exhausting."
Wiggins posted her observations online and more than 650,000 people read the essay; many of the readers who commented supported ideas such as making time for stretch breaks in instructional blocks or allowing students to play makeshift basketball at the beginning and end of class. Incorporating movement into the daily schedule may mean sacrificing some content coverage, Wiggins acknowledged. But if students were anything like her, they would be too tired after sitting all day to absorb most of the content anyway.
Fish Gotta Swim
Simple biology can explain Wiggins's physical response to classroom-induced inertia. Decades of studies have shown that moderate exercise can enhance learning—and that any kind of movement is beneficial. Even standing up can elevate heart rates, sending much-needed oxygen to the brain.
Sitting for long periods of time "is biologically incompatible" with effective brain function, agrees Michael Kuczala, the director of instruction for the Regional Training Center in Randolph, N.J. "The brain wants the body to move," says Kuczala, who has written extensively about kinesthetic instructional approaches. Because the brain responds to novelty and active learning, the brain can "stay connected" for longer periods of time when instruction includes movement. "Movement is important because it makes for a better learner," explains Kuczala.
Making It Personal
Despite the growing body of research that reinforces the movement-learning link, many high school teachers "struggle to integrate movement into the classroom," says Kenneth McKee, a National Board–certified teacher who now works as an instructional coach in Asheville, N.C. Many teachers are unclear about what "qualifies" as movement; others are concerned about "challenging students" and classroom management. What's ironic, he notes, is that "incorporating movement could mitigate some of the behaviors teachers find challenging."
Still, McKee understands the hesitation. He spent nine years teaching middle school English and concedes that he did not encourage enough movement in his classroom. He noticed, though, that his students "came alive" when they were more active.
McKee's account resonated with other teachers when they worked together to modify the instructional framework for the Buncombe County (N.C.) Schools. McKee found additional ways to help teachers understand his message. For example, he asked them to reflect on how they felt when they attended a long meeting. Did they fidget? Were they uncomfortable? "That discomfort distracts from learning," McKee says.
Kuczala also believes that teachers need to experience for themselves how movement can increase motivation and engagement. In the workshops he leads, teachers complete the same activities they will use with their students. The experience "changes teachers," Kuczala asserts. "They begin to feel and understand that we don't just learn from the neck up. We learn from the feet up."
Compelled to Move
Cathy Carr Zavacki has been teaching high school chemistry for 15 years. When she participated in a movement course, she found it unlike much of her previous professional development experiences. "We never sat down," Zavacki recalls, adding that the course "just flew by." It was then that she knew she needed to incorporate more movement in her classroom.
Zavacki began by explaining the purpose of using movement to her students. "Many secondary students are used to the paper and pencil form of taking notes," she says. So when they are asked to perform an activity, students "may not jump up and down with excitement when you 'make them' act like a magnesium ion."
When they do join in, however, there are visible benefits. "When I look around the room, I see students actively engaged with each other, teaching each other the material. If I ask students to act out the different phases of energy, for example, students will ask their peers clarifying questions: 'Why did you move left and not right?' 'Do solids come before liquids?' This gives me an immediate opportunity to assess who understands the material and who does not," says Zavacki. "Having them up and moving allows me to see the entire class at one time, making my job more efficient."
Inspired by watching her students "become the science," Zavacki joined the Regional Training Center team so that she could share strategies with other secondary teachers. An activity she recommends for teachers of any subject is to have students create a movement or series of movements to act out the definitions of terms. "Every subject has some vocabulary with it," Zavacki explains. "I know I would remember acting out lackadaisical much better than memorizing it and using it in a sentence once or twice."
Rachel Grandis, who teaches Spanish at Buncombe County Early College (BCEC), regularly employs the vocabulary activity. "Total physical response is big in foreign language instruction," she asserts. "If students make a movement while saying the word in Spanish, the vocabulary sticks with them." Grandis assigns her students the responsibility of creating the action for a particular word—such as miming cracking an egg against a pan for huevo. "There is always one student who comes up with an idea."
A Shared Commitment to Active Engagement
For Grandis, using movement in her high school classes reflects a belief shared by the staff: that learning is not a passive activity and that students should be actively engaged. Grandis plans for movement every day; when she lectures, she makes sure to start the class with movement and plans a movement break in the middle of class.
On "story-telling days," however, students are moving for most of the period. Grandis starts by telling a story. Students then work in groups to retell the story while speaking in Spanish. "Students have many ways to retell the story—they can use white boards or iPads, or they can act out the story," she explains.
Chris Gilbert teaches English at BCEC. Like Grandis, he happily incorporates movement into his daily lessons. "I know I get easily disconnected and bored if I sit too long," he says. Gilbert started using movement with simple activities. "I would give students a stretch break, let them walk around and take a breath. It energized them." He has since moved on to incorporate strategies that elementary school teachers have relied on for years, such as having students rotate to different stations set up around the classroom. The results, he notes, can be astounding.
In a unit that addressed the Holocaust, for example, students read Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, Night. Gilbert decided to send students on a "gallery walk" to analyze primary source photographs. "Each station featured a different image from the Holocaust," Gilbert explains. Students were given 20 minutes to complete the rotation and used a graphic organizer to jot down their responses to a series of prompts, such as "How did the image make you feel?" and "What connections can you make to the book?"
"It turned out to be a powerful lesson. Students had the freedom to browse and linger on the images they were most drawn to. We then had a rich class discussion." Although Gilbert had allotted 35 minutes for the activity, he needed to extend the discussion time by more than an hour.
Setting up stations in the classroom helps students direct their own learning, agrees McKee. It takes a little more planning to use these stations effectively, he notes, but teachers are willing to allocate the time once they realize the benefits.
McKee enjoys helping teachers plan for movement, and that includes ensuring teachers have the resources and support they need to address their students' physiological needs.
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They Love to MOVE IT, MOVE IT!
Short breaks for movement can heighten concentration, improve behavior, and enhance learning, so give your students opportunities to be physically active throughout the day. Here are some activities to get the blood flowing.
Periodically ask students to stand up and stretch for just a few minutes. Simple stretches can include stretching arms overhead and bending left and right. Have students step to the right of their desks. Then, ask them to touch the floor with their fingertips. Have them stand on their toes to engage the calf muscles.
Have students act out important content. In a geometry class, for example, have the entire class stand and act out radius, diameter, and circumference. One arm stretched out to the side demonstrates radius. Both arms stretched out shows diameter. Forming a circle with the arms shows circumference.
Have students stand and remain standing as they complete this activity. Ask each student to find a partner with whom they can compare notes about that day's lesson. Each student should identify something he recorded but his partner did not—and vice versa. Students can then identify what information they both recorded. Variation: Have each pair of students report the information they gave and received to the entire class.
The teacher prepares a series of signs; each sign displays an "answer" to a review question. One of the answers is wrong, another answer is partially correct, and the answer on the third sign is correct. Students "vote with their feet" by standing under the sign they believe has the correct answer.
Source: Adapted from The Art and Science of Teaching: A Comprehensive Framework for Effective Instruction (pp. 111–112), by Robert J. Marzano, 2007, Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Copyright 2007 by ASCD.