Hey everyone. I am your discussion leader for this week. In the opening paragraphs of chapter 8 in Zull’s book, he
recalls a time when he gave an amazingly effective lecture and how everyone
seemed to be entirely engaged only to realize the next day that none of the
information or concepts stuck with the students.
Toward the end of the video, Doolittle lays
out some strategies for how to increase memory retention. This is where I'd like to begin our discussion for this week, using some of the following questions as a guide.
- · What are your thoughts on the video?
- · Can the strategies discussed in the video be applied when teaching?
- · If so, which ones and how?
- · Do we already apply some or all of the strategies mentioned when teaching?
- · Are some of the strategies--such as visualization--more effective than others?
This TED talk was much needed for me. I am not a great at being metacognitive. I used to love to read, but love it less now because I never remember what I read. So I get frustrated. I enjoy it for the moment, but then a week like I know I’ve read it, but I have forgotten so much. I also struggle to pay attention. I find my mind wandering to my To-do list, rather than focusing on the task at hand. I am guilty of convincing myself that a little distraction (like playing tetris when listening to this TED talk) is helpful, but Zadina has made it clear that multitasking is off the table. When he asked us to remember those 5 words I stopped my tetris game and started reciting them. I pictured a tree with a mirror on the trunk, next to a highway. And it was really helpful. I never found a way for Saturn or electrode to fit in, but that’s ok.
ReplyDeleteBecause I personally struggle with this, it makes perfect sense that I need to teach my children about metacognition. We do this a lot in guided reading. I will often stop them, and ask them what they are thinking about… what connections are they making. We model this a lot in whole group lessons, when we model out thinking. For example, I gave my students an unknown math problem this week and I sat down on the carpet with them and talked aloud as I walked myself through the problem… saying things like “I notice… that reminds me of…. I know that….. that means that….” My students do okay with it, but in an age of information overload, teaching them the importance of the skill, and not just the skill is important too.
I enjoyed your visualizations. Everything that I have read about working memory states that people need to be taught the strategy of imagery in order to strengthen their working memory. You did a good job implementing that while you listened to the TED talk!
DeleteKaty, I do the same thing! Even while he was talking about ways to focus on working memory, I started thinking about my forever long to do list and I was completely distracted. I had to rewind and rewatch it. How ironic.
DeleteI love the example that you gave about the math problem. I think it is really important for us to model our thinking for students so that they can become more familiar with various ways of approaching problems. This also lets them see that we don't just expect them to look at a problem and immediately know the answer, we have to work through it and process the information.
DeleteI did the same thing when asked to remember the words. I visualized them. I think Zadina tries to emphasize the importance of visualization too. I also agree with Amy, modeling our thinking process is important to students. Somethings they need direction in order to know where and how they should be thinking about a certain topic.
DeleteI found the video to be very helpful. I thought he did a great job explaining the purpose of working memory. What really stood out to me was his statement on needing working memory to communicate and problem solve. Too often, I see students that have a difficult time trying to communicate their ideas and solutions. Some are quick to judge that the students are having comprehension issues or just refusing to complete an assignment. Reflecting over my own teaching experiences, I believe that I have been guilty of this myself. Seeing that the students may just be having a hard time with their working memory, does not mean they have not gathered vital information. They may just need help processing, and sorting out, that information in order to decide what is important about their discoveries. The strategies that were listed in the video (repeated practice, imagery, organization, and connecting prior knowledge to new knowledge) seem to be easy for students to do. We as educators just need to make sure we instruct students how to use them appropriately. Teachers cannot assume students have these strategies imbedded in them already. We must show students how to properly implement each of these strategies. In my class, I try to always connect what we are learning to something familiar to the students. As it was stated, “What we process, we learn”. By using the strategies to promote a healthy working memory, students will be given a chance to reach their fullest potential in the classroom. Students need to understand whatever content is presented in the classroom they need to fully process it in order to learn it. Which means educators need to make sure all information is relevant. By presenting relevant information, and using the strategies listed, students will have a better chance to achieve their goals of processing and learning information.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the information should be relevant in order to ensure that the right information is being learned. Also, perhaps equally important I think is the amount of time students are given with which to process said information. Too often I feel we leap from one subject to the next to quickly and in doing so we may leave certain students behind who are not finished processing the previous information. I have experienced this myself and had to work one-on-one with a student who fell behind. This, in turn messed up the entire flow of my lesson.
DeleteYou are correct. I have also been guilty of jumping from one concept to another and confusing students. I am hoping I will be more aware of this in the future.
DeleteJonathan, yes! I strongly believe that students are not given enough processing time, and therefore aren't given the chance to truly think. Once I noticed that students needed more processing time I also found it important to make an effort to give myself more processing time when answering student questions. Teachers never really turn the tables and think about how the answers to their questions could be different with more processing time.
DeleteThis is a good point about leaping from one subject to the next. It's hard to know when to move on to the next part of a unit, or into the next unit, when students haven't totally mastered the idea. This talk, and also Zadina's work, mention the importance of repetition. I find that sometimes students need a break from a concept, and then it works to come back to it later.
DeleteLike a few people have mentioned, I also used imagery to remember the words in the video. I think it's hard to teach students what they should do inside their heads, but so important!
I realize that we are just starting in a conversation concerning the above video, but in the interest of time (its already wednesday) I must post the second portion of my discussion for this week.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/keep-it-in-mind/201206/working-memory-and-the-classroom
In the above article, Alloway discusses various learning disabilities and their affects on working memory.
• In your own experiences teaching, what disabilities have you encountered?
• How did they affect student memory and retention?
• How did you deal with them?
• Could some of Doolittle’s suggested strategies have been helpful?
• In what ways can we as teachers identify working memory deficits early enough to effectively deal with them?
Please continue to respond to the video as well if you feel the need.
I have experienced students with ADHD. These students had trouble focusing on tasks they did not enjoy. If they enjoyed it they focused a lot. To the point where they do not want to move on. If they were very focused on it, they remembered the material better. I do think Doll's techniques could be helpful when teaching. Allowing time for students to process new content is definitely necessary for them to be successful.
DeleteWhen reflecting on this, I thought about my ADHD students. Knowing the importance of working memory, it breaks my heart when they cannot focus on a given task or concept. By not being able to focus their attention, they are not allowing their working memory to free up space. Space which could be vital when discussing important information. With these students, I tried repeated oral directions. I found that this was getting us both more frustrated. Recently, while doing some research of my own, I came across the strategy of using visual cues to help students focus. I believe this would be very helpful for students with ADHD. These visual cue cards can have brief instructions or pictures on them that relate to the concept or skill being discussed. This way if the students get distracted, they will have a visual reminder telling them what they should be working on during different portions of the lesson
DeleteI have actually encountered students with working memory deficiencies. These students in my classes have had trouble actually beginning a task, as they could not focus on multi-step directions, even though this is a focus of one of my schools this year as the PARCC test involves multi-step problems. In the earlier grades, it is easier for me to chunk tasks and procedures (as well as directions) into smaller, more focused units. This allows for reduced cognitive load but, I find this truly does not build working memory skills. I have attempted to aid in growing students' working memory capacity by modelling the use of margins for jotting down quick summaries of tasks or directions. I also frequently use the arts (duh!) to enhance lessons to improve working memory. For example, my students demonstrate higher achievement with songs, rhymes, movements, etc. which cues retrieval.
Delete-Jamie Hipp
I really enjoyed Peter Doolittle in the TED talk you chose for the week. I loved his idea of wrapping what is new with what is old. I have found that if I surround a new, more complex concept with information that my students already feel confident in then it helps the new concept not seem so daunting or foreign. For instance, let's say we are starting a new unit all about linear equations and the first lesson is how to solve linear equations. Perhaps I can begin this lesson by asking my students questions about the things they have learned leading up to this lesson... What is an equation? Is an equation the same as an expression? How do you solve a multi-step equation? What does the word linear mean? And we can revisit these questions after the lesson in order to see how the new material related to the prior and to reflect and process the new information. In addition, we can use the graph of a linear equation as the image mentioned in the TED talk. The solution is where the graph crosses the x-axis... knowing this can help the students make a mental picture when they solve linear equations. As Jonathan mentioned above, so often we teach a new concept and move on which doesn't give our students enough to time to process the information. And as Doolittle mentioned in the video, we can only only 4 things in our working memory for 20 seconds if we don't do something with that information. If we don't give a sufficient amount of time for our students to process and reflect, they will forget the information because it wasn't truly learned.
ReplyDeleteI kind of wondered about this wrapping idea. How is it really different from relating to what we already know?
DeleteI kind of understood it to be very similar to just relating the new information to what we already know. The only difference perhaps is if I were to begin the lesson with certain questions and end the lesson by re-visiting those same questions. This way students can see how we used prior knowledge to build a deeper understanding of the material. But ending the lesson with those same questions is similar to the idea of reflection.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWorking with young students often disabilities are hard to diagnose. Do they just need to age a little more? The problem is, they need the intervention now and can't afford to be overlooked. It is also easy for well behaved students to be overlooked as well. For example, I have a student right now who isn't moving in reading. He also hasn't had glasses for more than a combined 2 months of the school year and he is nearly blind. It is likely that he needs services, but is it because he has dyslexia or another issue.... or that he can't see. Either way he gets all the intervention I have to offer : )
ReplyDeleteHave you spoken with the student's parents about these issues? I had a student this spring who my mentor and I were sure was mildly autistic but her father refused to have her tested. Both he and the student were afraid of the stigma that might come along with a diagnosis of autism. But I feel like getting a student diagnosed and treated as soon as possible will work out best for that student in the long run.
DeleteKaty- is there a school counselor that can help? Some kind of support at the school? There are services that can provide assistance if funding is the issue, etc.
DeleteI've talked to Mom and she keeps telling me they're getting fixed, but he breaks them a lot and the flexible ones aren't covered under insurance.
DeleteI could see how that could be a hard distinction with younger children! It reminds me of the week we discussed ADHD. And how do you determine whether a 5 year old actually has ADHD or if he is just an active child...it seems really difficult do diagnose certain things at a young age.
DeleteJonathan,
ReplyDeleteThe video really made me think of the National A+ Schools Consortium that stresses immediate reflection and processing time to make meaning out of information. For those of you that are unfamiliar with A+, it is an arts-integration network that analyzes the need of individual schools and creates/facilitates full faculty arts integration, climate, collaboration, and curriculum mapping PD for schools.
When I first got involved with A+, I thought all of the reflecting time was crazy. I just participated in an experiential learning activity! I just completed project-based learning activity! Why do I need 20 minutes afterward to look back at essential questions and focus questions and to discuss practical application of strategies with members of my team? As Doolittle stresses, processing must be immediate and practiced for deep learning.
Because of this need and because of the importance of elaborative and illustrative thinking, I am surprised that more teachers do not practice backwards design of lessons. We should be figuring out how students will process information, and where it fits into their prior knowledge map. This truly supports learning.
For illustrative thinking, I highly recommend the Guggenheim's Visual Thinking Strategies. I also recommend using elaborative rehearsal for test prep.
-Jamie Hipp
Jamie - this is a great point. Zadina also talks about the need for summary/ reflection in the workbook. I find that the lesson "closing" is part that often gets cut when moving into the next content area. The video on working memory, and needing this reflection time to create lasting memories, is another reason why the end of a lesson is just as important or maybe more important than the other parts.
DeleteMaya,
DeleteI am so guilty of the lesson running long and the MOST IMPORTANT PART, reflection/closure gets cut. I need to get better about utilizing a timer so that I maintain the time for these valuable practices and we can pick up with content next class. Even though we may not cover as much this way, the learning will be deeper!
-Jamie Hipp
I would have to say that this wasn’t my favorite ted talk video but it was informative. I wanted the speaker to go into more detail about the strategies, how to apply them, and give example examples. I thought that he spent more time on his introduction and capturing the audiences’ attention and less time on the content of his speech. I think the strategies he discussed are already applied to teaching we just don’t think of them as working memory strategies more as just tools for good practice. I know I am always finding ways to merge two subjects or lessons to give my students a chance to practice. I use visual aids, tangible objects or what ever I think will help them retain the information I’ve taught them.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to say whether one strategy is better than another. I think it varies from class to class and also the demographic of the students in the class. As teachers we should pull from all the strategies discussed in the video to make sure we are teaching to the whole class. That’s definitely easier said than done especially in the regular classroom setting. I try to focus on one or two strategies at a time because it can get overwhelming.
Morgan W.