Starting the Year with the Brain in Mind

I have been asked the question on numerous occasions, 'How do I get my students to take responsibility for their own learning?' My answer to this question is that they need to understand how to learn effectively. To do this in my classroom I start the year with a unit on the brain and how it works. By the end of this unit students identify that class time is learning time, and what and how much they learn depends on the decisions they make in class. A good resource for this unit is "Learning to Learn" by Christine Ward and a website I found useful was www.brainconnection.com. Let me know what you think, do you have anything to add to my description of this unit? Have you taught anything similar and have some great ideas to share?