Bonding and Learning in the Elementary Classroom

Blog 5, March 3, 2011, Mary Kay Ward, Chapter 4, Roles:  Vocabulary/Concept Vitalizer and Essence Extractor

Vocabulary/Concept Vitalizer

This chapter discusses so many concepts to classroom life that touched me that it was hard to narrow this role down to 5 areas, but the following are the ones that were my top five.

In chapter 4 of "Boys and Girls Learn Differently", M. Gurian on pages 130-133 writes a lot aboutYear-Round Schooling and Changing the School Day. In other countries, such as Japan and France, schools are open year round and have breaks of three to four weeks which occur 3 different times during the school year.  In the U.S., we have a long tradition of having summers off to accommadate the families with farming and ranching duties.  Things have changed today, of  course, and young  people are not needed for such duties, actually, their enforced free time creates great concern for many working parents, especially in the elementary school age group, where kids are not old enoughto be home alone (pg. 131).  Since I have been back in the teaching profession, I would like to have school year-round and have breaks several times during the school year.  I agree with Gurian's research that "use it or lose it" theory gives more concrete validity to school year round because the brain retains what it uses and loses what is not repeatedly used.  I know when my own children were home during the summer months, I was constantly trying to come up with ideas that would keep them plugged in because 10 weeks without school is a long time for children to go without learning.

On page 133, M. Gurian also talks about the Class Size, Number of Teachers and Teacher-to-Student Ration.  Eventhough, I teach in a middle school environment, the majority of  the students I teach are in sixth grade, about 350 a year.  In some schools, sixth grade is still considered an elementary grade.  According to M. Gurian on page 133, in the first paragrah, second sentence, "a learning brain that , in secondd grade, experiences the presence of more than one teacher in a classroom for at least part of the day enjoys more neurological variety in learning culture and experience."  For some reason, as children get into the higher grades, a second teacher, volunteer or intern does not seem as important as it does in the younger grades.  This affects my classroom as I have some periods that have 27, 28 and 30 students in the classroom and I am the only adult in the room.  I cannot give my "special needs" students the one on one attention they require and deserve because the rest of my students would be running wild throughout the classroom.

Another area of concern is The Outdoor Classroom.  So many schools are eliminating recess because it is felt that academic success is far more important and feel that outdoor life and play do not enhance academic skills.  We have a nation of overweight and obese school children and children that are developing cancers and Type I and II Diabetis at an alarming rate.  I know this to be true because this is what I teach in the "Get Up Fuel Up" part of my curriculum along with Thompson Hospital.  For the mind to grow, the body needs to move around with gross motor skills such as running and playing.  Maybe, if there were more physical acitivity inside the classroom and more time spent at recess, we would not have so many behavior issues in the classroom.  "The mind wants movement and will wreak some havoc if it doesn't get it." (M. Gurain, pg. 140)

On page 155 and 156, in the section, The Role of the Mentor, M. Gurian list three areas where mentoring supports innovations in classroom.  The first one Gurian list is a second teacher in the classroom.  While this concept would be really great, with school budgets stressed to their limits and students needing so much one to one attention, many of the special areas in a student's school day do not have or get the prviledge of having extra teachers, let alone one, available to help out in the classroom, where it is needed as much as it is needed in the core classes.  The third innovation M. Gurian list is "Adult mentor volunteers from the community" is also a wonderful idea to bring into the classroom.  However, with so many parents working  today to keep up with the changing economy, volunteers are becoming less and less dependable to help out in the classroom.  I ask parents and  community members to help out with one of my units and sometimes it is really hard to find enough parents or individuals that have the time or can make the committment for just a small amount of time.  Also, we have a policy in our school district that any person(s) coming in to help out or volunteer, need to have our Board of Education approval.  The last innovation, which is listed as #2, "Intergenerational (or vertical) mentoring, between grade levels"  is a great concept.  While I have never had the experience of vertical mentoring, my daughter had the opportunity to have a "study buddy" and to be a "study buddy"  in elementary school and she still talks about that experience. I ask her what she liked about the" study buddy"  concept, she said that she liked looking up to someone older in her school and liked being looked up to and being a good role model for the younger children in her school.

On page 189, Standardized Testing and the No Child Left Behind is a very hot topic in my school district and I am sure in every other school across the nation.  Gurian quotes one teacher "No one denies the need to hold schools and teachers accountable, and no one likes schools to constantly underperform, but is the present hysteria to test students healthy for the learning brain?"  I think that "teaching to the test" is having a negative effect on children, a draining experience on teachers and adminisrators and false sense of security for parents to hold on to. 

Essence Extractor

Relationships, relationships, relationships....between home and school - the ultimate classroom.    

Teaching Towards Excellence in the Elementary Classroom

Blog 5 (3/3) Natalie Gianvecchio, Chapter 4, Roles: Creative Connector and Literary Luminator 

Creative Connections:

1.) On page 160 of the book, Gurian discusses discipline by using fear with children. He stated, "this was not the case a hundred, or even fifty, years ago. Discipline could be a matter of fear- fear of God, fear of the rod, fear of parents..." (Gurian p.160). I made a connection while reading this section to my father. My father is in his 60s now and when he was young, he attended a Christian school with Nuns as his teachers. He told me many stories about how him as well as all of the other children in the class were so scared of the Nuns. They would actually hit the children. He will never forget how scared he was in school growing up. I am so glad to see that this is not the case in schools today! 

2.) On page 181, Gurian shares how important manipulatives are for boys and girls. He included an elementary teacher, Jan Miller in the passage and her experiences with the use of manipulatives with reading. Jan Miller stated, "I tried the magnetic letters on the overhead today for a spelling lesson. The students loved it" (p. 181). Gurian also claims, "making a game out of letter making, she had great success" (p. 181). I related to this as well because in my Preschool class I did this with the children often. They absolutely loved it and learned their letters while having fun! I even put the magnetic letters in a closed box and used the first initial of each students name and shook the box. I asked each child to guess what was inside the "mystery box." When I showed them it was magnetic letters, I passed out the initial letter that went to myself which was "N." I then asked the children if they knew what was going to happen and they figured out that the letters related to their names. They loved this activity. 

3.) On page 197 and 198, Gurian mentions how important competitive learning is for girls and especially boys. He states, "teachers who receive brain based research come to realize the importance of open classrooms and cooperative projects as stimulants to the growing brain. They also see how competition helps the brain" (Gurian p.197). A teacher goes into detail with how she used competitive games in her class to motivate all the children in her class. I connected with this experience because I did this as well in my fourth grade student teaching placement. I did it with Language Arts by having students work in small groups of 4. The students were to write a story about anything they wanted using our vocabulary words for 2 minutes. When the timer went off, they has to pass their paper to the left and that person would continue where they left off. When we finished I allowed the students to share and they loved it! It was a competition to write something funny or silly in the 2 minutes they had. I also played Jeopardy with the students before a unit test in language arts. They absolutely loved it and even got a bit too loud but had so much fun! Competition is definitely useful in the classroom.

Literary Luminator:

1.) I thought a very interesting passage was on page 131. It talked about year round schooling for students and teachers. Instead of getting a full 3 months off for summer, the students would take three breaks that would last for three to four weeks. Gurian states, "there is another way to raise academic performance: year round schooling...." (p. 131). He goes into great detail of why the United States even has summers off to begin with which is just based on an old tradition. I was always against year round schooling while I was in school, but now that I look at it in a different way, I think it could be very beneficial. Students lose so much information over the summer. If there was the same amount of time off, but just spaced out differently I think that it could help many students who forget everything over the summer break. 

2.) Alot of the chapter talked about stress with boys and girls. Gurian states, "many teachers find that girls talk out stresses among their friends or with the person who is the source of the stress, perhaps a parent; by contrast, boys often bring the stress to school and seek attention for it there-usually receiving negative attention" (p.152). This is such a common problem in the classroom between boys and girls and it really has a negative effect on all of the students. One of the elementary teachers in the book stated that she has her students make "stress balls" in the beginning of the year. When the children are upset and stressed, they can just take a stress ball with no questions asked. This is definitely a useful tool to have in the classroom to help children relieve some stress. 

3.) Gurian also talked about the outdoor classroom with elementary age children as well as preschool. It is just as important to elementary kids! Gurian states, "Eliminating recess is a profound mistake, though our culture has come to it with the best of intentions" (p. 139). Recess is such an important part of the child's day. It gives students time to let loose and burn off some steam. He also states, "The mid wants movement and will wreck some havoc if it doesn't get it" (p. 140). A teacher even gave the suggestion of a child who was having behavioral problems, but instead of taking away his recess time completely, she had him run around the field a few times so he was still getting exercise and a brain break but he wasn't able to do exactly what he wanted outside. Students definitely need recess and outside time every day or as often as possible! 

Natalie Gianvecchio

The Ultimate Classroom... Rock On!

CHAPTER 3, Week 4:
Creative Connector & Literary Luminator - Meghan C. Koch

I really enjoyed this chapter! What I really loved about it was the way this chapter, in particular, really spoke to parents, as well as teachers. I think it's that teacher-parent relationship is important. Parents need to hold some responsibility to continue what we're doing in the classroom at home. As educators, we know that sometimes, that relationship is never going to happen... and we do need to deal with it differently. But in the long run, we need to advocate for our students more than anything else. We need to be their "person", their "go-to" for anything they might need, that maybe their parents can't. Our students have needs we need to take care of.

A couple passages that stuck out at me...

• "Does the sun grow the plant, or does the plant just wait to fully grow until the sun is present?" (p. 77) This really  just struck a chord in me. It's so important to develop that bond/attachment to our students. An experience that comes to my mind -- I was the classroom teacher for a DPP classroom with Kindergartners and 1st graders with special needs over the summer. I have spent 4 years working in this program, and have developed a relationship with these students as a para. So when I had the opportunity to be their teacher last year, I felt so blessed. I dealt with many challenges, a variety of disabilities in my room, all across the spectrum. But one little boy... 7 years old, non-verbal, undiagnosed because his parents refuse to "label" him. He became my heart. Even not being able to speak to me, we developed this bond, and it just lit him up inside. We played with the basketball, which he loves. He loves to ride bikes and loves to play chase. He grew in the 2 months we spent together, and it really just goes to show you how important that teacher/student bond is. It doesn't matter where they come from, who they are, what their parents are like... nothing else matters except who you are to them. This person in front of them is there to love them, nurture them, care for them, and teach them... that is our job.
• Bonding tips: (p. 85-86) "Listen, and then listen some more." All of the bonding tips listed on these pages, really rang true with me. Again, we're talking about building a bond with our students, and of course, we are there to listen. I have come across many kids who have been told to "shutup" and "be quiet" all of their lives, and all they want is to come into your room and be able to lay it out... dish to you all the gossip and the problems, and leave it at your doorstep. And that should be OK. They should be able to trust you, because if it can't be you, who can it be?
• "Thus, the child believed to need special education may simply need different expectations, in and out of the classroom." (p. 118) Wow. Shouldn't we all think about our classrooms in this way? So many kids have been mislabeled, misjudged... put in a special needs classroom because "they are a distraction" or "the problem child". Put on multiple medications because they just need to be "controlled". Do we hear ourselves? Are we putting the best interest of the children first? Absolutely not. The side effects of some of these drugs, even for adults, is astounding... what is it like on those little human bodies? I can't even fathom. I had a kid in one of my classes last year who was behaviorally disturbed - came from a broken home, a real sad family life. And he would come to school everyday and take it out on our staff. He really beat into us, kicked and screamed, told us that he was going to be bad and do bad things... an 8 year old, mind you. Where was he learning all this? Well, we had an idea. And things had been reported already, but what was our role in this little guy's life? What was I going to do for him to remind him that (1) I am his friend and (2) I care about him, and he is safe with me. Every adult he had ever known had let him down... so why wouldn't I? It broke my heart, but after awhile, he started to let go of that notion that everybody was out to get him. After he made a mistake, or made a bad choice, he always apologized... and became of the sweetest boys, to this day, that I have ever worked with. Sometimes, all we need is love... and as adults, we need to remember that maybe, the solution is as simple as just that. A good hug can do a lot.

A few other good quotes I came across...

"The brain needs bonding and attachment to fully grow and learn."

"In this age group [preschool], the stress is generally founded in fear of attachment loss."

"In young children, the brain needs freedom to discover varieties of information, but also an ordered environment in which to turn raw data and stimulation experience into learning, skill competence, and wisdom."

"Be genuine with children. Call each child by name. Learn about the child's world, personal life, and personal interests. Use "I noticed..." statements. Smile, touch and make eye contact. Attend events in the child's life whenever possible. Respect the child and the child's opinions. Personally describe your life as appropriate. Tell your own story. Be nonjudgemental. Listen, and then listen some more. Give the child choices and options that compel healthy decisions. Admit mistakes you have made."

All of the passages I have mentioned really hit home with me. I have come across a lot in my life - growing up in the city, seeing a lot at a young age, having the variety of friends I had, and now being able to teach and come across so many situations. This is my life. This is what I live to do, and even though this chapter mentioned things such as nutrition, discipline, in the end... the message was really this "bond" we need to create. We want them to trust us. And at the end of the day, they need to know we love them, and only want what's best for them. It's too important, my friends.

Meghan C. Koch: "Boys & Girls Learn Differently", ch. 3/week #4.

Week #4 , Idea Illustrator, Mary Kay Ward

I found a picture that I wanted to upload but could not figure out how to complete the process (after two hours of playing around with google images) I gave up and decided it was time to go to bed.

Eating Healthy Is Important to Learning

Week #4, Rigorous Researcher, Mary Kay Ward

On page 89, Gurian begins the page with Nutrition and Learning. I am a Home and Careers Teacher at Canandaigua Middle School and this particular topic is near and dear to my heart. I teach a program titled "Get Up Fuel Up" in which I have partnered up with Thompson Hospital to teach the importance of eating the proper foods in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Gurain tells us that brain research tells us that the foods children eat greatly affects their abilitity to learn and behave. "If a five-year-old is under emtional stress, she has great difficulty controlling herself or learning. If she is under nutritional stress, the same is true." (Gurian, pg. 89). Gurian also speaks of the ideal classroom should be a place where children need to be eating the right foods at the right time as well as the classroom should also be a place were parents need to be educated about these foods and what the appropriate nutrition should be.

The following article suggest research that supports Gurian findings in eating high levels fatty acids helps brains grow. I found this article very interesting and relevant to what I teach in my classroom.Junk food diet 'makes children badly behaved'by JENNY


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-347122/Junk-food-diet-makes-children-badly-behaved.html#ixzz1DzYSkAhm.


Idea Illustrator

Beginning page 119 and continues through page 123, Gurian write about the use of Ritilan and Prozac and how such drugs are on the increase in children under seven. The overmedication of these drugs has not only caught the attention of early-education theorists but also now politicians are beginning to if this is a good thing to do to our young children. While it is becoming more well known that the rate of depression is increasing among this age group, as well as the presence of
ADD and ADHD disorders, "but using psychotrophics betrays our reliance on medication to solve what are mainly attachment, bonding, and gender-brain-based learning issues. This hits home with me because I can remember when my son, now age 26, was considered ADHD and a candidate for Ritalin in 5th grade, his doctor at that time felt that ADD/ADHD was being overdiagnosed and felt that schools and teachers needed to be retrained in dealing with children that were considered out of control.

Below is a picture that tells it all.

Early Childhood Education: How to socialize, play, and learn all at the same time!

Week 4, Chapter 3, Natalie Gianvecchio, Roles: Vocabulary Concept Vitalizer and Essence Extractor

Vocabulary:

Immense Emotional Stress-  In younger children, this stress typically comes from separation and "fear of attachment loss." This is triggered in the brain by "cortisol, the stress hormone, rises, flooding the brain and making some neural activity slower but other activity quicker. The stressed child learns less learning activities in the classroom then the well attached child or the one under less emotional stress." Gurian page 79 

Nutrition and Learning- Nutrition in children can have a significant affect on their ability to learn in the classroom. "Brain research has taught us that what children eat profoundly affects their ability to learn and behave." "This is especially true for young children who have not yet developed the mature ability to control impulses when under stress.  The stress levels for an early childhood learner could be from emotional stress as well as nutritional stress from not eating the proper foods." "The ultimate classroom is a place where children eat the right foods at the right time." Gurian page 89

Aggressive Behavior- This issue is one of the biggest problems in the early childhood classroom. "Boys are generally more physically aggressive than girls, and girls are generally more socially manipulative than boys." The problem many teachers come across is how much aggression is ok and when should we draw the line? Gurian Page 92-93

Discipline Techniques- Discipline can be very difficult in early childhood education classrooms because these young children are developing their own opinions and start to realize that they have a say in the world, which will normally cause some defiance in the classroom. "One key to improving discipline is the presence of older people. Our research indicates that discipline and behavior of children is heavily affected by the presence of elders in a classroom or other learning environment." Gurian Page 99 

Outdoor Classroom- It is extremely important to allow early childhood students to go outdoors often if not every single day. "-the grounds, garden, play area, and other nature areas- to help not only with stimulating the learning brain but also with handling young children's behavioral nuances. In the outdoor classroom we may find the use of water. It is wonderful for the growing brain. The outdoor classroom is as important as the indoor, especially for younger children. It is their world of play, fantasy, and spiritual connection with the mysteries of nature and an essential component of the ultimate classroom." Gurian Page 102

Essence of the Chapter:

Preschool and Kindergarten age children explore and learn through the magical art of play. 

  

~Natalie Gianvecchio 

Brain-Based Differences

"Boys & Girls Learn Differently": Chapter 2, Week #3 - Meghan C. Koch


Vocabulary:

1. Gardner's Multiple Intelligences: Howard Gardner of Harvard has identified seven distinct intelligences. This theory has emerged from recent cognitive research and "documents the extent to which students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways," according to Gardner (1991). Howard Gardner, researcher; the kinds of intelligences with which children learn. There are five intelligences listed in the book which differ the most between males and females: Time and Sequence (Linguistic intelligence, Musical intelligence & Logical-Mathematical intelligence) and Space and Place (Spatial intelligence & Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence).
2. Pecking order: Where kids fit in the groups social strata. Pecking order is established by physical size, verbal skills, personality, personal abilities, and many other social and personal factors. Pecking order was originally used to describe animals, a hierarchical system of social organization. According to Gurian's research, pecking orders are flagrantly important to boys, who are often fragile learners when they are low in the pecking order. However, girls' school performance, it appears, is not as dependent on pecking-order status.
3. Learning Teams: Otherwise known as group work, research has shown that both girls and boys benefit from it, with boys tending to create structured teams and girls forming looser organizations. Boys spend less time than girls managing team process, picking leaders quickly and focusing right away on goal orientation.
4. ADHD & ADD: ADD (attention-deficit disorder) and ADHD (attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder) constitute only 20 percent of girls, making female students less likely to experience a learning, psychiatric, or behavioral disorder. For instance, boys make up two-thirds of the learning disabled and 90 percent of the behaviorally disabled.
5. Gender advantage/disadvantage: On page 57, Gurian explains the reasoning behind never using the term "gender bias" in educational reform. "We do this because we believe that most of what children suffer in schools such as ours - schools that are in fact very attentive to gender bias, especially against females - is not biast (which implies a directed favoring of one group) - but instead a basic lack of understanding of innate gender differences. Gurian goes on to describe the differences in between when it comes to our culture and societal activities.

Essence Extractor:

"With the proper training, and the proper recognition of the research that has taken place, there is no excuse for any of our students (male or female) not to be succeeding in our classroom."

Teaching in An Ideal Classroom

Week #3, Chapter Two, Mary Kay Ward - Roles:  Creative Connector and Literary Luminator

As I was reading chapter two of "Boys and Girls Learn Differently", so much of what was discussed jumped out at me especially since I am in the classroom all day with boys and girls.  One of the connections I had was discussed on page 50 with regard to learning differences and the intelligneces; specifically muscial intelligence.  I teach in a middle school environment that does not allow the use of ipods during the school day unless it is for instruction use (code of conduct).  I am required to supervise an 8th grade study hall every day and am asked on a daily basis by my students if they can listen to their ipods during study hall to help them concentrate on homework, projects and/or reading.   After making a connection with the following statement "Could this be why music can be such a powerful influence in so many aspects of classroom learning, from memorizing to expressing emotion, from concentrating to boosting self-esteem?", I really have to stop and think that having ipods available for listening to can help many students who struggle to sit still for 40 plus minutes  (especially at the end of the day) would be a great tool beause "music is a whole brain activity, involving both hemispheres at once."

Another issuse that I am compelled to talk about  violence.  Yes I agree that our schools may be the safest places for our children to be because as educators, we have no idea what threatening or violent experiences our students have encountered from the time they go home into the afternoon and return for the next school day.  Often times these experiences are brought in school  and manifest themselves in the hallways, classrooms and cafeterias. I thought it very interesting that the U.S. Dept. of Justice found that it can predict as early as first grade which males will be the future offenders.

On page 66 and 67, Michael Gurian writes about the different between the school environment and the work environment.  The school environment is predominately females while the work environment is predominately male oriented.  Because of the dominance of males in the work environmnet, females are often left out whereas in the school environment, many boys are left out due to the teaching and learning style of the females 's brain,

Important ideas in this chapter:

On pages 54, 55, and 56 the listings of the "Advantages for Boys, Challenges for Girs" and "Advantages for Girls, Challenges for Boys" were interesting to read and learn the differences.  I strongly agree that in some school settings, "the good old boy club" still exists among administrators and male teachers which allows for advantages that females are priviledged to.

On page 59,  the second paragraph states that "the ultimate standard for a classroom ought not to be parity in loudness, agressive hands-up, or dominance."  I do agree with Michael Gurian's statement that as teachers it would be better to find a clear sense of who each student is and help them find a way to express themselves that is best suited for that particular student.  I also agree that we are overdiagnosing our students with ADD/ADHD because we have not been trained properly in how to teach both boys and gitrls.

On page 46, under the ten nuances of learning, I found  "The Likelihood of Boredom"  to be quite true in a classroom setting.  Boys do get bored faster than girls and this can lead to classroom disruptions and behavior problems and shutting down all together to the learning process.  It is important to engage boys on a level that keeps them interested.

Completely different brains means completely different learning

Week 3, Chapter 2, Natalie Gianvecchio, Roles: Rigorous Researcher and Idea Illustrator

Research:

On page 50 of the text, there was a section on music intelligence. Gurian talked about how music is used in the right and left hemisphere of the brain. He states, "Could this by why music can be such a powerful influence of so many aspects of classroom learning, from memorizing to expressing emotion, from concentrating to boosting self- esteem? It certainly is. Music is a whole-brain activity, involving both hemispheres at once." I found this to be very interesting and true! I have seen first hand how music has such a profound affect on children in the classroom. 

 After doing some research on this topic, I found alot of information that proves this method of learning true as well. Chris Boyd Brewer, author of Music and Learning: Integrating Music in the Classroom stated, "How is it that for most people music is a powerful part of their personal life and yet when we go to work or school we turn it off? The intentional use of music in the classroom will set the scene and learning atmosphere to enhance our teaching and learning activities. Plus, using music for learning makes the process much more fun and interesting! Music, one of the joys of life, can be one of the joys of learning as well." (http://www.marthalakecov.org/~building/strategies/arts/brewer.htm) Music is such a powerful tool because it is one of the only learning methods that involves the whole brain rather than just one hemisphere. 




Illustrations:

This picture shows diagnoses of ADHD in boys and girls. The boys are significantly higher than the girls. Typically boys are most often diagnosed with ADHD, but on page 61 of Boys and Girls Learn Differently, Gurian talks about how many boys are misdiagnosed with ADHD because teachers do not understand the male brain. 

I thought this video was very interesting and directly relates to the reading.




~Natalie Gianvecchio

How The Brain Learns

Boys & Girls Learn Differently: A Guide for Teachers and Parents

Chapter 1: How The Brain Learns

In this chapter, we learn about the differences in brain development between genders. On pages 20-25, we see a chart that explains every part of the brain, and how it "looks" or is placed in each gender. This explains why, perhaps, boys are more aggressive. Or why female brains tend to move information more quickly from one area in the brain to the other.

Idea Illustrator:



The following video is a discussion between gender experts, discussing the differences between the male and female brain when it comes to learning in the classroom.

Rigorous Researcher:

In this chapter, because we discuss the female and male brain development and structure, I thought it would be interesting to research more articles and opinions on this topic of teaching both to boys and girls in the classroom.

"If you teach the same subjects to girls and boys in the same way, then by the age of 12 or 14, you will have girls who think "geometry is tough" and boys who believe "art and poetry are for girls." The lack of understanding of gender differences has the unintended consequence of REINFORCING gender stereotypes. Conversely, if you understand these differences, you can break down gender stereotypes." (National Association for Single Sex Public Education, http://www.singlesexschools.org/)

"Girls will be girls, and boys will be boys: Teaching To Gender Differences" Bill McBride. http://crr.math.arizona.edu/GenderKeynote.pdf

Meghan C. Koch, "Boys & Girls Learn Differently" Chapter 1, Week 2.