Benjamin H. Kolis – författare

What is a game? You might think of cards and dice, computers, or sports. You might even think of music or theater as games. But what about Science? Games have rules, players, and objectives, but, maybe most importantly, games are fun. People play games because they think they are “fun,” and sometimes they even learn some important lessons. Classrooms are intended to teach important lessons, and sometimes people think they are fun (not nearly often enough). Brainball (Science Edition) is designed to combine the best of both worlds! Science Inquiry is the game and learning the intended outcome! Veteran science teachers Kolis and Lenz provide small step-by-step 5E’s lessons and an inquiry-based sequence to guide you through that first learning experience so that you too can play the game of Brainball (Science Edition)!

What is a game? You might think of cards and dice, computers, or sports. You might even think of music or theater as games. But what about Science? Games have rules, players, and objectives, but, maybe most importantly, games are fun. People play games because they think they are “fun,” and sometimes they even learn some important lessons. Classrooms are intended to teach important lessons, and sometimes people think they are fun (not nearly often enough). Brainball (Science Edition) is designed to combine the best of both worlds! Science Inquiry is the game and learning the intended outcome! Veteran science teachers Kolis and Lenz provide small step-by-step 5E’s lessons and an inquiry-based sequence to guide you through that first learning experience so that you too can play the game of Brainball (Science Edition)!

Higher-order thinking questions (and their answers) are considered by many to be the holy grail of teaching. Teachers know when students “get it”, but the question remains “How do you teach students to think explicitly and intentionally?” This book uses a series of diagrams to make thinking explicit by using students’ personal experiences as the foundation for their thinking. Thinking Diagrams will help the reader move beyond understanding what metacognition is to teaching students how to understand their thinking in visual form. This book is filled with contemporary and practical insights regarding helping teachers of all levels foster classrooms rich in student thinking, creativity, and learning.

Higher-order thinking questions (and their answers) are considered by many to be the holy grail of teaching. Teachers know when students “get it”, but the question remains “How do you teach students to think explicitly and intentionally?” This book uses a series of diagrams to make thinking explicit by using students’ personal experiences as the foundation for their thinking. Thinking Diagrams will help the reader move beyond understanding what metacognition is to teaching students how to understand their thinking in visual form. This book is filled with contemporary and practical insights regarding helping teachers of all levels foster classrooms rich in student thinking, creativity, and learning.

This volume of the Brainball series gives the theater classroom teacher an intentional, sequenced process for creating inclusive theatre pedagogy that maximizes students’ learning. In addition, the Brainball technique offers concrete forms of meaningful assessment applicable to the theater classroom, and connects easily to our newly published national standards in theatre arts education. Brainball is a purposeful and process-driven set of teaching strategies that gets students to “express their human experience through representative actions.” The book focuses on creating experiences that allow students to grapple with what is going on in their lives – and then work through the joys and pains through role-play activities. This book is also an excellent resource to help guide teachers in intentionally planning to get students to develop positive dispositions, collaborative teams and supportive communities where everyone contributes and everyone has an important role.

This volume of the Brainball series gives the theater classroom teacher an intentional, sequenced process for creating inclusive theatre pedagogy that maximizes students’ learning. In addition, the Brainball technique offers concrete forms of meaningful assessment applicable to the theater classroom, and connects easily to our newly published national standards in theatre arts education. Brainball is a purposeful and process-driven set of teaching strategies that gets students to “express their human experience through representative actions.” The book focuses on creating experiences that allow students to grapple with what is going on in their lives – and then work through the joys and pains through role-play activities. This book is also an excellent resource to help guide teachers in intentionally planning to get students to develop positive dispositions, collaborative teams and supportive communities where everyone contributes and everyone has an important role.

Brainball:Teaching Inquiry and Social Studies as a Team Sport is an attempt to clarify that not only is social studies a game, but that it is one of the most useful and powerful games that teachers and students will ever play. Games are the doing of theory, and maybe it would be a good idea to start doing social studies in every social studies classroom.

Brainball:Teaching Inquiry and Social Studies as a Team Sport is an attempt to clarify that not only is social studies a game, but that it is one of the most useful and powerful games that teachers and students will ever play. Games are the doing of theory, and maybe it would be a good idea to start doing social studies in every social studies classroom.

Inquiry is becoming more and more an area of interest in education. This book attempts to explain why music inquiry makes sense, what pieces are required to do music inquiry effectively (the knowledge, skills and dispositions) and then provides how to teach music inquiry in a series of day-by-day lesson plans.