Fun and Engaging Tutoring: Brain Hurricane employs small group, collaborative-learning tutoring sessions. These small group tutoring sessions allow students to learn in a research supported instructional model that also enhances their self esteem, provides them with team membership experience that allows them to work towards a goal and solve problems cooperatively. After a long day in school, students need activities to keep them interested and engaged. Brain Hurricane’s innovative team-based approach is fun, active, and targets the whole child. Students learn ELA and math through team-based problem-solving activities that include physical movement, hand-eye coordination, music, art, public speaking, writing, and performance.
A small group of approximately six students is taught by one of Brain Hurricane’s qualified instructors, allowing the instructor to pay close individual attention to all students in the group. Because students are engaged and paying attention, they learn and understand more math and ELA skills than they would through traditional tutoring. Students taught using collaborative strategies found in the Brain Hurricane program consistently “demonstrate significantly better learning gains on standardized tests in ELA and math, as compared with the normed student population" (Lotan, R.A., & Benton, J., 1990).
Brain Hurricane’s participants gain more than just math and ELA skills; they also gain increased confidence and a positive self-image. Brain Hurricane’s students participate in divergent activities where there is more than one right answer, just like most problems we face in real life. Since students don’t have to worry about being wrong, they feel free to use their creativity to find unique solutions. Divergent activities teach people to think. Recent studies have found that "by de-emphasizing repetitive practice of discrete skills, teachers may limit the monotony and lack of meaning that attends much instruction in high-poverty classrooms and elsewhere.
By concentrating early on the 'advanced' skills of reasoning, problem solving, comprehension, and composition, teachers can engage children from the beginning in academic learning that has meaning and application in their lives both inside and outside of school" (Knapp, 1995). Students thrive in this format and soon realize that they are smart, capable thinkers. This increased self-esteem leads to improved classroom performance. As one Brain Hurricane student said, “I’m able to think on my feet a lot quicker. I’m able to come up with creative ways of solving problems instead of going back to the normal ways. And I actually look forward to school now” (qualitative student survey response).
Working Toward a Goal: The End-of-the-Program Competition is truly a celebration. There’s music, food, and decorations. Parents/guardians and teachers attend. The students use what they’ve learned in Brain Hurricane sessions to compete against other teams and show off their new academic and teamwork skills. This allows students to learn to channel their energy into "legitimate processes" instead of allowing this energy to "emerge as a social event" (Hertz-Lazarowitz, 1992). Because they are encouraged to share in a positive fashion, and are provided goals (like the competition) students have very few opportunities to create behavioral problems. This allows students to concentrate on learning discrete skills in math and ELA.