Smart Practice: Using Repetition to Improve Memory

Tags

Best Practices, Self-directed Learning, Study Skills

We forget 90% of what is taught in class within 30 days.

Over a hundred years ago the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885) came to this conclusion after painstakingly exposing his human subjects to list of words.   He also discovered that most of this forgetting occurs just hours after being exposed to the new material.   It is called the curve of forgetting.

When we encounter new information, neurons in our brain activate, but the stimulation lasts only up to 90 minutes unless it is reactivated (Squire, Kandel, 1999).  We begin to commit the new learning to memory when we first practice it, but for learning to endure in our memory, we must return to it at intervals and in different ways over weeks, months, and even years.

Quick Learning

A popular model in education is “teaching to mastery”.  We often interpret this to mean that students need to practice a language point intensely until it is burned into memory. Indeed, while students are practicing, they demonstrate an easy fluency with the material.  That is because it is active in their working memory.  Teachers and students alike prefer this intensive kind practice because it produces rapid, if ephemeral, gains. Quickly students gain confidence in their control of the material.  It feels familiar and known.  If tested immediately after intensive repetition and in a way that simulates the rehearsal, students score well.

Quick Forgetting

It turns out, however, that intensive repetitive practice leads to quick learning AND quick forgetting.  (Dunloskey, 2013).  If students are tested on that same material just a day later, their scores drop precipitously. The challenge is to have students put the material aside and then return to it. Inevitably they will have forgetten some of the material, and that is ok.  The effort they make to retrieve and reconstruct the information each time they practice it anew will strengthen their memory.

Interval Learning = Long-Term Learning

Practicing material at intervals over time is more effective than practicing material intensively in a short period of time. (Cepada 2003.) Students who practice at intervals retain their knowledge and skills for a longer period than those who practice it intensely all at once, even when controlled for total time spent practicing the material (Dunloskey 2013). This means one hour of intensive practice is less valuable than four intervals of 15 minutes each.

Intervals can be as short as five minutes, or twenty-five minutes.  This way you can get students retrieving something they practiced a couple of activities prior in the class.  But then ideally the intervals should occur at longer and longer lag times over the ensuing days, weeks, and months.  Between each interval, students begin forgetting the information.  Then, when students make an effort to retrieve that information, they strengthen their memory of their learning.

Lesson Planning         

Repetition and spirals.

Built-in Reviews:  Class Warm-Up

At the beginning of class, ask students what they learned in the last class.

Have students briefly identify the material studied in textbook and notes to update any previously absent students.

Built-in Reviews:  Class Recap

At the end of class, ask students to tell you what they learned in class.  This may be the first time they are returning to a topic.

Student Organization:  Study Calendars

• Hand out weekly calendars or have students use their cell-phone calendars.
• On the first class of the week, ask students to schedule at least four times they will study English outside of class.

Student Organization: Data Speaks

• At the start of each week, ask students to look at their calendar and to count the number of times they studied English outside of class the previous week.
• Then test student retention of the material presented and practiced in the previous week.   To test, you can use a section of your textbook’s unit test, or a simple dictation of questions or prompts to which students write responses.
• At the top of the test, have students write the number of times they studied the previous week. Quickly, students will recognize the relationship between studying at intervals and their retention of knowledge and skills.

Frequent Assessments

Simple and challenging assessments are essential to developing memory of learning.  Make sure you do these regularly and recycle previously learned material.

Dictation:  Site the Setting

• Dictate two lines from a conversation students learned in previous lessons.
• Have students identify who the speakers are and where they are talking.  For example:

A:  May I help you?

B:  Yes, I’d like a coffee and a sandwich.

Who:  An employee and a customer.

Where:  A restaurant.

Dictation:  Quick Quiz

Dictate questions that ask students to recall previous learning.  For example:

What are three kinds of over the counter medicine?  

How many colors do you see in the classroom?  

What are the four seasons of the year?

What occupations are in restaurant work?

Dictation:  Word Works

• Keeping a running list of words students are studying.
• Dictate recently learned words to test spelling.  Every time add a few words from previous units.

Correct the Errors

• Write common errors into sentences on cards- one per card.
• Distribute the cards. In pairs student find the error and write the sentence correctly on a piece of paper.
• Check their work.  If correct provide the pair with a new error on a card.

A Thousand Words

• Project an image that contains items students have learned in previous classes.
• Give pairs of student 3 minutes to generate as many words as they can.
• Review the lists together.

Semester Start Up: Time to Study!

Tags

Goal Setting, Low-level ESOL, Self-directed Learning, Study Skills

 

Many of our adult learners haven’t developed effective study habits, and yet, we know a student’s ability to study largely determines his or her educational success. So how do we get our students to develop effective study habits?

 

The Class Conversation

Start by asking students about their study habits.   You may be surprised by their answers.  I often find out that students don’t study at all outside of class.

 

·         What do you study?

·         Where do you study?

·         When do you study? How long do you study? How often do you study?

 

 

Incorporate Effective Study Techniques in Your Class

Over the course of the first few weeks, address these study essentials in class.

  

Know Your Resources

Class is the best place for our students to learn how to use their study resources.  Take some time to engage students in the following activities:

·         Using flashcards

·         Maintaining a vocabulary list

·         Locating and using the audio scripts and answer keys

·         Cueing and playing audio segments

·         Reviewing class notes

 

I do. We do. You do.

Often students don’t understand their homework assignments. Spend a few minutes on the assignment. Model it and then do one or two items together before they leave class to do it on their own.

 

Get Organized

Make sure every student has a study kit – otherwise known as a book bag.  Reusable grocery bags (99 cents) are great for carrying a textbook, note-book, translator, flashcards, pencils, and erasers: everything a student needs to seize the moment and study.

 

Timing is Everything

Acknowledge the extraordinary demands of your students’ lives.  They may never secure an uninterrupted hour to sit and study.  Remind them:

·         Frequency is more important than duration.

·         Study every day.

·         20 minutes a day is better than two hours once a week.

 

Location!  Location!

Not everyone needs quiet to study, but everyone needs good lighting, a study kit, and a little protection from interruption.  Ask students to identify places they can be free from interruption for 20 minutes.  Maybe it is in the classroom before class, or in a break room after the shift ends, or on a bus on the way to work; or in a parked car. 

 

Love Your Brain

There are three essentials to a functioning mind: water, glucose, and blood flow. 

·         The 3-Minute Stretch:  In the middle of class, take 3 minutes for everyone to stretch and move a bit. When students settle back into their chairs they usually notice how much more alert they feel.

·         Drink water and encourage students to bring water to class. 

·         Provide snacks now and then.  Point out which what kinds of snacks help the brain (complex carbs and nuts).

Activating that Meta-Muscle: Activities for Noticing Errors

Tags

Best Practices, Self-directed Learning, Study Skills

 

I recently received this query: 

 

“I know self-monitoring by students is important for [confronting fossilized errors], but–aside from “Correct the Errors” activities, I can’t find any tips on how to promote self-monitoring. “  – J. Weiss

 

Indeed, recent research in Adult ESOL Literacy confirms what many of us have suspected.  Literacy seems to enhance students’ meta-cognitive ability and, conversely, lack of literacy seems to reduce self-monitoring cognition.  This means that people with little education are less likely to attend to the form and accuracy of their expression, despite our exhortations to produce the language correctly. Our feedback on language form is not on their cognitive map. 

 

So how do we teachers of Adult ESOL low-literacy learners get students to strengthen their language skills?  I suggest two approaches:

·         Strengthen that meta-cognition muscle by explicitly instructing students in self-monitoring routines.

·         Give meaningful feedback.   

 

Current Posts on Self-monitoring Activities:  (more will come)

           

Brain Research and Effective Learning — Activities for Improving Memory.

https://teachertwoteacher.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/learning-and-the-brain-how-basic-research-can-improve-your-teaching-and-their-learning/

 

Pause and Reflect:  A Simple Way in Increase Student Learning

https://teachertwoteacher.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/pause-and-reflect-a-simple-way-to-increase-student-learning/

 

Goal Setting:  Purposeful Learning

https://teachertwoteacher.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/goal-setting-puposeful-learning/

 

 

Giving Meaningful Feedback

·         Explicitly teach words that are necessary for correction.  (For example: consonant-vowel, subject-verb-complement, punctuation-period-question mark, syllables-letters-words etc.) 

      Use these words to characterize student errors.  For example:  Where is the vowel in this word?  What is the subject? Do you need a period or a question mark?

·         Provide writing surfaces on which it is easy to erase (black boards or erasable boards), so students can correct their work multiple times and still have a nice looking product.

·         Have students point to words as they read their writing aloud to a partner so they notice any omissions or repetitions in their writing.

 

·         Get students to attend to the error by comparing their error to your model.  For example:

Student:  I no work on Sunday.

Teacher:  You say:  I no work on Sunday.   (Using fingers to identify each word)  I say:  I don’t work on Sunday.  (Using fingers to identify each word)  Which word is different?

 

Student:  (writes the word) Wenesday

Teacher:  (Writes the word Wednesday)  What’s different? How many letters are there?  Which letter is silent?

 

·         Use physical and visual feedback for pronunciation errors.

See examples on my blog post:  Let’s Get Physical:  Teaching Pronunciation:

https://teachertwoteacher.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/lets-get-physical-teaching-pronunciation/

 

·         Accept that some errors will not change, because everyone understands what the student means despite its inaccurate form. 

Building Better Learners: The Teacher’s Worksheet

Tags

Best Practices, Goal Setting, Low-level ESOL, Self-directed Learning, Study Skills

These are questions to consider as you plan your class for the next academic year. Any of these questions would serve as an interesting staff development conversation.

Setting Goals

·          What are my students’ goals in coming to English class?

·          How do I find out about their goals?

·          How do I model goal setting in class?

 

Charting Progress

·          How do my students know they are making progress?  What feedback do I give them?  (notes, tests, stars?)

·          What opportunities do I give students to assess their own learning? (checklists, logs, brief reflections on what been studied, self-testing, self-recording?)

 

Developing Organization Skills

·          How do I help my students develop better organizational skills?  Do I check their notebooks?  Do I talk about where papers should be stored?  Do we decide which papers are most important and where to place them?

·          Do I have class systems for when students papers? (folders, bins, labels)

·          Do I have a class system for returning papers to students?   

 

Developing Strong Study Habits

·          · Do I model in class how to do homework assignments?

·           What systems do my students use to record homework assignments?

·           What materials do my students use to study outside of class?

·          What do I know about my students’ study time outside of class?  How often do they study? Where? With whom? 

 

Developing Study Skills

·          Which learning and memorizing strategies do I teach in class? 

·          How often does the class review material?   What review routines do I model in class?  (recalling material, using flashcards, writing questions?)

·          Do my students understand they best learn? Do they undertsnad the different ways people can learn? ( visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and/or aural learning)

 

Self-correction Routines

·          Do I model in class how to use an answer key responsibly?

·          In class do students practice reading their written work aloud in order to hear for small errors or missing words?

·          Do students know how to record and playback their voices on their phones?  Do they use this device to practice pronunciation?

 

Independent Study Resources

·          Do my students know about public libraries? Do they all have library cards?

·          Do my students have access to the Internet (computers or smart phones)? Do they have email accounts? Do they study English materials online?

·          Do I talk to students about parts of their textbook they can study on their own?

·   Do I talk to students about independent learning resources at our school (a lending library? a computer lab?) Do students understand which materials are best for independent study?

Eight Great Reading Fluency Activities

Tags

Best Practices, Low-level ESOL, Self-directed Learning

 

According to the National Reading Panel, the four components of reading are:  comprehension, vocabulary, fluency and alphabetics.  As ESOL teachers we know how to teach vocabulary and comprehension, but fluency and alphabetics are terra incognita.  So here, I introduce four classics and four more contemporary activities that focus on specific skill development in reading fluency. 

 

Please note:  All fluency activities occur after students have read the text silently and demonstrated their comprehension.

 

The Classics:

1.   Read Along with a Teacher or a Recording

What:   Students read along silently as they listen to the teacher or a recording of the text. 

Why:  Models fluency, expressive intonation and phrasing, and accurate pronunciation. 

 

2.   Echo reading

What:  The teacher reads a phrase or sentence aloud and students repeat, imitating phrasing and intonation. To better hear their own voices, students can plug one ear.

Why:  Models accurate phrasing, intonation, and fluency.

 

3.  Choral reading

What:  The teacher and students read together in unison.

Why:  Provides support for weaker readers AND the whole class benefits from re-reading the text.

 

4.  Paired Reading

What: In pairs, students take turns reading and re-reading the same passage to each other. 

Why:  Provides fluency practice in a supportive partnership.

 

Fluency Activities for More Focused Skill Development:

5.  Mismatch Read Aloud

What:  This approach was developed by reading expert Thomas Stitch.  The teacher supplies students with a printed text and reads it aloud, occasionally substituting a different word for a word students see.  Students circle the mismatched words.   Note:  The teacher substitutes words close in meaning, for example: pink for red, or location for place. 

Why: Encourages fluency AND accurate decoding. 

 

6.  Timed Reading

What:  Students read the same text from the beginning in short bursts (1-3 minutes).  Students mark how far they get each time.  With multiple re-readings, students get further and further along in the text.

Why:  Encourages rapid reading, forces repetitive reading, builds automaticity in word recognition, and strengthens students’ confidence.  

 

7.  Recorded Reading

What:  Students record themselves reading a text.  They listen to themselves and record again until they are satisfied with their delivery. 

Extension:  The teacher listens to the student’s recording and marks errors in the printed text.  The teacher records a model of the marked words or phrases so that the student can listen and record again.

 

Why:  Encourages repetitive reading, builds accuracy, and requires students to self-assess.

 

8.   Performance reading

What:  In small groups, students prepare a performance of a poem, skit, story, or article.   Students divide the text up into sections and practice reading their parts aloud to each other. Then students perform for the class.

Why:  Provides a natural motivation for re-reading and lively expression. 

 

What to Do with a Word List

Tags

Best Practices, Differentiating Instruction, Self-directed Learning, Study Skills

At TESOL International in Philadelphia, I gave a brief presentation on how to get students to learn words on word lists.

Here is a summary:

  

Students make FLASHCARDS.

vOn one side of the card students print the word.

vOn the other side of the card, they provide

o   a definition -drawing, translation, dictionary definition, or personal example.

o   a pronunciation note –with transliteration, IPA, or their own symbols.

 

 Students USE the flashcards in class activities.

vStudents sort the words by:

o   part of speech

o   number of syllables

o   intonation patterns

o   alphabetical order

o   any category of meaning

vStudents take turns picking up a card and asking:

o   How do you say this word?

o   What does it mean?

o   How do you spell it?

vStudents pick up a word card and then generate meaning with the word by:

o   writing the word in a sentence

o   drawing a scene in which the word is used (emergency: a hospital)

o   saying the word in a role-play

 

Students review the word cards ON THEIR OWN to:  

o   practice spelling.

o   practice pronunciation.

o   remember definitions.

Pause and Reflect: A Simple Way to Increase Student Learning

Tags

Best Practices, Goal Setting, Learning Routines, Self-directed Learning, Study Skills

In the rush to pack classes with exciting activities, time for review and reflection often gets squeezed out.  But those rare quiet moments are essential to effective learning.   They allow students to consolidate their learning, commit new information to memory, assess their understanding, and identify areas for more practice. 

 

The basic ingredients to a reflection are always the same:

1.  Review

2.  Evaluate

3.  Plan for the next step in learning. 

The way you present these ingredients has infinite variety.  Here are three activities I have used in my classes:

 

Review Class Notes 

1.     For homework, students review their class notes. 

ü Students mark a check next to the points they understand. 

?    They write a question mark next to any section that confuses them. 

+    They mark an addition sign next to any language point they want to practice more. 

2.     At the beginning of the next class, ask if anyone has questions about last class.  Students can quickly identify the areas they need help in.

 

Recap the Class

1.  At the end of class, ask the class “What did we do in class today?  What did you learn?”  Write students’ ideas on the board. 

2.  Pointing to the complete list on the board, ask students “What was the most important thing you learned today?”  Place a « next to the items students identify.

3.  Ask, “What do you want to practice more?”  Place an addition sign + next to those items. 

 

Now you have a quick picture of student progress and ideas for practice next class.

 

Exit Tickets

At the end of class have students write down three things they learned in class.  You can make the suggestion more specific, for example: 

·        Three new words

·        Three irregular past tense verbs

·        Three important events in U.S. history

·        Three things about their classmates

12 Ways to Teach Vocabulary

Tags

Learning Styles, Self-directed Learning

The standard approach to learning a new vocabulary item is to define the word, practice pronouncing it, and using it in a written sentence. 

But words have many more dimensions! 

We learn and remember words by context, by collocation, by sound, by spelling, even by movement.  Here is a list of the many ways teachers can approach vocabulary instruction. 

 

Ways to learn a word:	The teacher asks:
1.        define	What does it mean?
2.        listen	How many syllables does it have?  What does it rhyme with?
3.        pronounce	Are there any tricky sounds?  How does the mouth move when pronouncing the word?
4.        trace	How do you draw the letters of the word?  Can you write the word with your finger?
5.       spell	What are the letters in the word?  Does it follow any special spelling rules?
6.        visualize	Close your eyes.  How many letters does the word have? What’s the first letter?  What’s the last letter?
7.    analyze	What part of speech is it?  Does it have a root word?    Does it belong to a family of words?
8.        personalize	What does it mean to you?  Describe someone you know with the word.
9.         associate	Where do you hear it: at work, at school, at the doctor’s office?
10.      categorize	How is it different from similar words?  Is it more formal or informal?  Is it used for more for men or women?
11.       collocate	Is the word often used with another word? (For example: save time, save money, save a seat)
12.      generate	Write a sentence with it. Use it in a role-play.

Delegating Responsibility: Classroom Jobs

Tags

Best Practices, Self-directed Learning

As you plan for the new school year, consider setting up a system of classroom jobs for students.  The benefits are plentiful.  By taking on specific responsibilities for their classroom, students practice new skills in communication and leadership. They also develop a strong sense of co-responsibility for their learning community and they usually improve their attendance.

A List of Possible Classroom Jobs:

Technology Assistant

• Cues the audio on the CD player.
• Sets up the Overhead or LCD Projector.
• Starts up the computers when needed.

Materials Assistant

• Hands out papers, cards, pens, pencils, and other learning materials as needed.
• Collects the materials at the end of an activity.

Board Assistant

• Writes the date on the board
• Copies school announcements on the board.
• Erases the board when asked.

Attendance Assistant

• Takes roll-call      every class.
• Delivers the      attendance list to the proper mailbox.

Welcome Committee

Two or three students welcome new students to the class and bring them up to speed on class routines and expectations.  This is an ongoing job throughout the term.

Study Buddies

Everyone can be paired with a classmate to be study buddies.  Study buddies:

• communicate homework assignments when one buddy is absent.
• compare their homework assignments when completed.
• work together to organize their papers or notebooks.
• review (and complete) class notes together.

Practical Questions:

How many jobs do I assign?  I introduce one job a week so the class has some time to understand what each job entails.  I limit the total to three or four jobs so it is not too confusing who is responsible for what.

 How often do students rotate?  Since my classes meet twice a week throughout the school year, I rotate the jobs on a monthly basis so students get enough time to learn their jobs well and experience a couple of skill sets. 

How do I train them?  As I introduce the job, I tell the whole class about the job, explaining its duties and supplying a list of phrases and questions useful in performing the job.   Then as students rotate, they train one another in the job duties. 

Do students volunteer or get assigned?  The most timid students get first dibs on which job they prefer, but in the end everyone holds a job.