

Lesson Plans

lollipop trees and the right brain

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Wendy Manning (wmanning)
Fri, 01 May 1998 18:02:11 -0300

To whoever it was that recently recommended the book "Drawing on the
Right Side of the Brain" , thank you. It's a terrific book, and I found
the answer (an answer, anyway) to the question of why my
middle-schoolers persist in making lollopop trees, etc., when they have
been taught otherwise.
The lollipop tree is a symbol. According to the book, when the brain is
presented with a task, the hemisphere that can find a solution fastest
usually dominates. So the left hemisphere, which is involved with
symbols, "decides" that the fastest and most efficient way to draw a
tree is to use the symbol; hence the lollipop tree instesd of the more
time-consuming right-brain version.
My grade six classes thought that was pretty cool. Now that they are
aware, it will be interesting to see if it makes a difference.