How Your Child Learns Best: Brain-Friendly Strategies You Can Use to Ignite Your Child's Learning and Increase School Success [Paperback]

Judy Willis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

Brain-Based Strategies You Can Use Today to Enhance Your Child's Love of Learning

How Your Child Learns Best is a groundbreaking guide for parents that combines the latest brain research with the best classroom practices to reveal scientifically savvy ways to improve your child's success in school.

Written by Judy Willis, MD, MEd, a board-certified neurologist who is also a full-time classroom teacher, How Your Child Learns Best shows you not only how to help your child learn schoolwork, but also how to capitalize on the way your child's brain learns best in order to enrich education wherever you are, from the grocery store to the car - a necessity in today's "teach to the test" world.

By using everyday household items and enjoyable activities, parents of children ages three to twelve can apply targeted strategies (based on age and learning strength) in key academic areas, including:

• Reading comprehension
• Math word problems
• Test preparation
• Fractions and decimals
• Oral reading
• Reports and projects
• Science and history
• Reading motivation
• Vocabulary

Discover how to help your child increase academic focus and success, lower test stress while increasing test scores, increase class participation, foster creativity, and improve attention span, memory, and higher-level thinking.

How Your Child Learns Best shows how to maximize your child's brain potential and offers something for every parent who wants the best for his or her child.

"At last we parents now have a reference that will help guide us in assisting our children's growth and flowering. This book is what parents have been searching for and need now more than ever." - from the foreword by Goldie Hawn

Editorial Reviews

Review

You know this author is writing for the purpose of truly helping children. With her explanations of how the brain processes information, I feel more able to explain my teaching strategies to others. --Jules Zimmer, Dean Emeritis U of CA Grad Sch Ed

Dr. Willis is a unique blend of common sense, humor and brains, a rarity being both a "brain" doctor, and a classroom teacher. With this book I have my own neurologist/teacher in my classroom. --Surprise Your Brain: Buy this book! J. Brown

This book made me rethink the way I teach. The book gives you an awareness of how the brain works and how the brain remembers. I highly recommend it. --Great Book for Teachers - Connecticut, USA

This book is amazing! It clarifies how the brain works when a person learns, and it shares many ways in which learning can be enhanced. I wrote all over in mine, and I'm ordering a copy for my principal. THANK YOU, Dr. Willis! --BUY THIS BOOK! E bev

From the Author

Editorial Reviews
Product Description

Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning is the first book for educators written by an author who is both a neurologist and a classroom teacher. Dr. Willis used her neurology expertise to examine the past two decades of learning-centered brain research. Using her background and experience as a clinical neurologist and neuroscience researcher, she sifted through the abundance of neuroimaging and brain mapping information. She assessed what information was both valid and relevant to education. She then employed her training and experience as a classroom teacher to provide strategies for implementing the best of this research in the classroom. She brings this knowledge to life in a comprehensive and accessible style.

Teachers will be introduced to strategies that will work in their own classrooms. These strategies will help teachers improve student memory, learning, and test-taking success. Teachers will also learn how to captivate and hold students' attention.

Dr. Willis takes a reader-friendly approach to neuroscience, describing instructional strategies that are adaptable for grades K through 12. Through statistical data, individual student stories, and her own experiences using these strategies with elementary and middle school students, Dr. Willis provides teachers with a wealth of information they will want to start using in their classrooms before finishing the book.

The book includes learning strategies that have come from research about how stress and emotion affect learning. Willis describes assessment techniques that not only assess authentically and with diversity, but also teach while assessing. This book will become one that teachers will return to again and again to pick up new strategies to make their own.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402213468
• ISBN-13: 978-1402213465
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Judy Willis, a board-certified neurologist and teacher combined her training in neuroscience with her teacher education training and the past ten years of classroom teaching to become a leading authority in the field of parenting and teaching strategies derived from learning-centered brain research.

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa as the first woman graduate from Williams College, Judy Willis attended UCLA School of Medicine where she was awarded her medical degree. She remained at UCLA and completed a medical residency and neurology residency, including chief residency. She practiced neurology for fifteen years before returning to university to obtain her Teaching Credential and Masters of Education from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She taught then elementary and middle school for the past ten years.

Dr. Willis is an authority in brain research regarding learning and the brain and currently dedicates her time to presenting information about classroom and parenting strategies derived from brain research at educational conferences, professional development workshops, and to parent groups and nationally and internationally. She has been a Distinguished Lecturer at ASCD national conferences, writes extensively for professional educational journals, and was honored as a 2007 Finalist for Distinguished Achievement Award for her educational writing by the Association for Educational Publishers. "Ask Dr. Judy" is a regular webinar feature offered free to all through ASCD.org

Dr. Willis is the author of six books, including four books for educators, Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning, Brain Friendly Strategies for the Inclusion Classroom, Teaching the Brain to Read, and Learning to Love Math: Teaching Strategies That Change Student Attitudes and Get Results, that will be out in July 2010.

Her first book for parents, How Your Child Learns Best: Brain-Based Ways to Ignite Learning and Increase School Success, with foreword by Goldie Hawn, will be released in translation in China. Her book Inspiring Middle School Minds: Gifted, Creative, Talented, for educators and parents was a finalist for the 2010 USA Book News Magazine 2010 Best Book Awards in Education/Academic Category.

Dr. Willis is a research consultant and member of the board of directors for the Hawn Foundation, an international foundation developed and directed by Goldie Hawn. She co-wrote the Foundation's MindUp curriculum of activities for teachers to do with children to increase their emotional control, stress management, and attentive focus. Link to Neurology Now: Journal of American Academy of Neurology for the cover article featuring the collaboration of Dr. Willis and Goldie Hawn to bring neuroscience into classrooms and teach children about Building Better Brains. http://journals.lww.com/neurologynow/Fulltext/2010/06020/Golden_Opportunity.17.aspx

When not consulting, writing books, or making presentations, Dr. Willis is a home winemaker and writes a monthly wine column.

Dr. Willis' Website: www.RADTeach.com Connect from this website to links to her books, articles, and presentation schedule.

Additional Ways to Connect with Dr. Judy Willis


Dr. Judy Willis' PSYCHOLOGY TODAY Online Staff Posts at http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/radical-teaching

"Brain Owner's Manual" Dr. Willis believes that, "Children who understand that genius is not limited by genes. When children discover how their brains learn and that they can change their brain wiring to change their intelligence, they are motivated to persevere with homework, studying, and setbacks because they understand can take control of their emotional, social, and academic success."

For this reason, Dr. Willis wrote her first "Brain Owner's Manual" article to help parents and educators explain to children the power they have to change their own brains and change their intelligence. She is currently writing a series of "Brain Owner's Manual" books for parents and one for educators that are age-group specific. Link to her article called, What You Should Know About Your Brain:
http://www.radteach.com/page1/page8/page45/page45.html

Dr. Judy Willis's Educational Consultant EDge Webpage for the Association of Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD) at http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=19069219&as=127586&b

Judy Willis Author's Page on ASCD
http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Authors/Judy_Willis.aspx?id=31085086001&nvid=a22b1


View Podcast Interviews and Webinars With the Author

"Ask Dr. Judy" is a regular webinar feature offered free to all through ASCD.org

Edutopia Webinar with Dr. Willis: Multiple Intelligences and Learning Strengths to Help all Children Learn in their Most Successful Ways http://www.edutopia.org/webinar-discussion-april-2009

Author Interviews about her books:
Ignite Student Learning: http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Authors/Judy_Willis.aspx?id=31085086001&nvid=a7b1

Inclusion/Differentiation Strategies: http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Authors/Judy_Willis.aspx?id=31085086001&nvid=a7b1

Teaching the Brain to Read: SCROLL DOWN TO Teaching the Brain to Read at: http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/ASCD_Talks_With_an_Author/ASCD_Talks_With_an_Author_(main).aspx


YouTube

Videos on YouTube: Put "Judy Willis" and key words like "brain" "syn-naps" into YouTube and you'll find several short topical videos of and several by Dr. Willis. For example: The Marshmallow Test is at
http://edge.ascd.org/_Dr-Judy-Willis-on-marshmallows-as-a-predictor-of-a-child39s-future-/video/881080/127586.html

Presentations & Lectures on YouTube: under "Judy Willis" you'll find full presentations she has done for professional educators. One about inquiry learning in science for the State of Tennessee Department of Education and one about brain research-based teaching strategies in English and Spanish, that she gave in Buenos Aires.


Radio, Video Interviews and Podcasts

The Parent's Journal Public Radio Program and Podcast 06-03-09 Topic: 
Middle Schoolers Who Love to Learn - Dr. Judy Willis' portion is in second half of the program at: http://www.parentsjournal.com/podcast/229/0603.mp3

Dr. Judy Willis video interview about what brain research suggests for classroom teaching strategies (also applicable for parents)
Windows Media version
http://stream.luxmedia501.com/?file=realimpact/ascd/talks_w_author/wma_willis.wma&type=wma
or for QuickTime version: http://stream.luxmedia501.com/?file=realimpact/ascd/talks_w_author/qta_willis.mov&type=mov

Dr. Judy Willis video interview about how to differentiate instruction for neuro-logical teaching, improved memory, and responsive student behavior in motivated students
http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Authors/Judy_Willis.aspx?id=31085086001&nvid=a13b1

Dr. Judy Willis interview/video ASCD about topics in the book, Teaching the Brain to Read
http://video.ascd.org/services/player/bc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable insights on many levels, December 26, 2008

By 

Erich Stroheim (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Your Child Learns Best: Brain-Friendly Strategies You Can Use to Ignite Your Child's Learning and Increase School Success (Paperback)

I wish my parents had understood some of this when I was a kid. Dr. Willis's book identifies ways to nurture the brain's natural learning abilities by tapping into your child's innate curiosity, creativity, and sense of humor. Her insights are highly useful to me even now, as an older grad student trying to organize my own learning strategies and to synthesize the relationship between research and teaching in an academic environment. Better understanding of how the brain works is also helpful in simply navigating the many levels of decision-making I encounter each day while incorporating new knowledge.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Goldie Hawn is so Right!!, August 24, 2008

By 

SARITA "Dr. Lawernce May, MD" (Tarzana, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How Your Child Learns Best: Brain-Friendly Strategies You Can Use to Ignite Your Child's Learning and Increase School Success (Paperback)

In the forward Goldie Hawn wrote for Dr. Willis" book, HOW YOUR CHIL LEARNS BEST, she said, "At last we parents now have a reference that will help guide us in assisting our children's growth and flowering. This book is what parents have been searching for and need now more than ever."
This is the book i have been searching for. My children in grades 2 and 5 were losing motivation for schoolwork each year. This book gives me so many ways to help my children understand the concepts beyond the facts with fun activities we can do at home

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book should be on every parents nightstand, September 7, 2008

By 

LC Mommy - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Your Child Learns Best: Brain-Friendly Strategies You Can Use to Ignite Your Child's Learning and Increase School Success (Paperback)

Every parent should be so lucky to have this book on their nightstand. It is truly a treasure of information and reference guide which give you the tools, inspiration and understanding in helping your child through frustrating periods of learning. My son, Andreas (7), loves the activities we've already tried, especially the dice game. He often brings me the book and asks what next we can play and learn together. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

Katie Williams, La Conchita, CA