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Chapters 3 & 4

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Chapters 5 & 6

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Chapters 7 & 8

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Chapters 1 & 2

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Assessment Tools - The Writing Revolution

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©Copyright The Writing Revolution, Inc. All rights reserved. THE HOCHMAN METHOD®. THE WRITING REVOLUTION®, and ADVANCING THINKING THROUGH WRITING® are registered trademarks of the The Writing Revolution, Inc. for its education services and may not be used by others without its written permission.

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Feel free to post your materials and then share the materials others have posted too!

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Pamela Kennedy
Regional Early Literacy Specialist
State Support Team 4
pkennedy@sst4.org
216/347-2087

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Literacy Academy 2020, RELS Southest

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https://www.thewritingrevolution.org/book-resources/

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Additional resources to support the implementation of The Hochman Method Ⓡ

Book Resources

Free access to The Writing Revolution (Hochman & Wexler, 2017) Book Resources for all educators. Which includes:

Customizable Templates

Activities for Students

Tips with TWR Webinars

And more!

Resource Library

Access is only for TWR-trained educators. Includes everything in our free Book Resources and more! Check your eligibility for access.

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Online Resources - The Writing Revolution

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Additional resources to support the implementation of The Hochman Method Ⓡ Book Resources Free access to The Writing Revolution (Hochman & Wexler, 2017) Book Resources for all educators. Which includes: Customizable Templates Activities for Students Tips with TWR Webinars And more! Resource Library Access is only for TWR-trained educators.

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How have you shared TWR with your teams?

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Gantt Chart for tracking progress

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Use the color coded note catcher to identify the discussion and/or application assignments (labeled Roundtable)  and subsequent TWR session modules.
*Please make your own participant copy to capture your responses for share out at the next meeting.

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PaTTAN Literacy Resource Hub - PaTTAN Literacy Quick Picks

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Would you like to expand your understanding of literacy topics in under 30 minutes? If so, explore the topics below.

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 ILA Webinar "Responding to Writers, Responding to the World: Instruction That Centers, Celebrates, and Empowers Students

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 ILA Webinar "Responding to Writers, Responding to the World: Instruction That Centers, Celebrates, and Empowers Students

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Thank you for registering for the ILA Webinar " Responding to Writers, Responding to the World: Instruction That Centers, Celebrates, and Empowers Students" in which Melanie Meehan and Kelsey Sorum shared their framework for responsive writing instruction. If you missed the event live, you can watch the recording on Zoom, YouTube, or Facebook.

For more information on the topic, we recommend Melanie and Kelsey's book, The Responsive Writing Teacher, Grades K-5. Use the discount code ILA25 for a 25% discount plus free shipping on purchases from corwin.com.

We are pleased to offer attendees these free resources from The Responsive Writing Teacher, Grades K-5, courtesy of Corwin Literacy:

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3/17 Corwin ILA Webinar Post-Event Eblast

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Thank you for registering for the ILA Webinar " Responding to Writers, Responding to the World: Instruction That Centers, Celebrates, and Empowers Students" in which Melanie Meehan and Kelsey Sorum shared their framework for responsive writing instruction. If you missed the event live, you can watch the recording on Zoom, YouTube, or Facebook.

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Nicole Byers, PCLS

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ILA:  Responding to Writers, Responding to the World: Instruction That Centers, Celebrates, and Empowers Students

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ILA:  Responding to Writers, Responding to the World: Instruction That Centers, Celebrates, and Empowers Students

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Assessment Tools - The Writing Revolution

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©Copyright The Writing Revolution, Inc. All rights reserved. THE HOCHMAN METHOD®. THE WRITING REVOLUTION®, and ADVANCING THINKING THROUGH WRITING® are registered trademarks of the The Writing Revolution, Inc. for its education services and may not be used by others without its written permission.

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Activity: Listening Evaluation Checklist  

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Activity: Listening Evaluation Checklist  

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Review the listening evaluation checklist on Appendix C./P. 240

Add to Padlet your thoughts on how your teams might use this in your district?

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Expository

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Assessment Tools - The Writing Revolution

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©Copyright The Writing Revolution, Inc. All rights reserved. THE HOCHMAN METHOD®. THE WRITING REVOLUTION®, and ADVANCING THINKING THROUGH WRITING® are registered trademarks of the The Writing Revolution, Inc. for its education services and may not be used by others without its written permission.

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Thanks to Elizabeth Lansing

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Conventional Literacy page 26-29
Adolescent Literacy page 32-33

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Each students selects a card and makes the revision noted on an unelaborated piece of writing.

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Quizlet for Practice

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Collecting Information About Writers

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Get customized template on the website.

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https://wheelofnames.com/8aq-vwy

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Quizlet Review

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Ohio's Plan to Raise Literacy
page 29-32

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Work with content materials to reinforce this strategy.

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Keys to Literacy: Joan Sedita https://vimeo.com/486403359

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ILA Collecting Information About Writers 

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ILA Collecting Information About Writers 

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Free resources from The Responsive Writing Teacher, Grades K-5, courtesy of Corwin Literacy

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Adolescent Comprehension Strategies on page 9.

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Discuss with one TBT how writing is taught in that grade level.

Do any teams incorporate writing instruction in content areas?

If so how?  If not, how might you coach the team to consider this effective strategy?

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The Skills that are woven into Good Writing

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The Skills that are woven into Good Writing

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Keys to Literacy:

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Thank you Chardon!

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Roger Howard, ODE Adolescent Literacy Lead

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Roger Howard, ODE Adolescent Literacy Lead

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Webinar (28 min)-Walk through the Adolescent portion of the Plan

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Adolescent Literacy and Ohio's Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement

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Lyn Stone, Linguist

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Ten Ways to Use Retrieval Practice in the Classroom

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Ten Ways to Use Retrieval Practice in the Classroom

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In my history class, every unit test includes a blank sheet at the end. There, students can write anything else they remember learning during the unit. I often find that the insights students share on that sheet to be a better gauge of higher-level learning and thinking than their responses to the specific questions on the test!

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The new question-of-the-week is:
How and why do you practice retrieval practice in your classroom?
The strategy of retrieval practice has been shown by research to be an extremely effective teaching and learning strategy time and time again. Today's post will explore what it is and what are the different ways it can look like in the classroom.

Today's contributors are Blake Harvard, Vivian Micolta Simmons, Luiza Mureseanu, Dr. Donna Wilson, and Diane Dahl. Blake, Vivian, and Luiza were also guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

I've used retrieval practice in a number of ways. I'd like to highlight two here.

In my long-term English-language-learner support class, we began a regular retrieval practice warm-up-after we studied the research behind it. Each student had a "Retrieval Practice Notebook." When they first came to class, they wrote what they thought had been the most important thing they had learned the previous day in each of their classes. That was followed by partner and classwide sharing. Not only did that help individual student learning, it also was an excellent way to help "catch-up" a student who had been absent since they all had the same classes.

In my history class, every unit test includes a blank sheet at the end. There, students can write anything else they remember learning during the unit. I often find that the insights students share on that sheet to be a better gauge of higher-level learning and thinking than their responses to the specific questions on the test!

'The Brain Dump'
Blake Harvard is an AP Psychology teacher at James Clemens High School in Madison, Ala. His blog focuses on the application of cognitive psychology in the classroom. You can find Blake on Twitter at @effortfuleduktr.
I use retrieval practice quite often in my classroom. Anytime I want my students to assess their learning, I want them attempting to retrieve that information from memory. Over a century of research suggests that retrieval of memory produces better long-term retention of material than simple restudy of material (rereading notes or highlighting information).

The most important aspect of retrieval practice is students are attempting to access the information from their memory and are not provided any assistance or cues while completing the assessment. I tell my students that retrieval practice is the truest way to know what they know and what they don't know, provided they don't use any notes or peers for assistance. Without assessment using retrieval practice, teachers and students are making assumptions about the knowledge students possess.

Retrieval practice can be easy and simple to implement in the classroom, and it takes on many forms: answering multiple-choice or matching questions, written essay response, class discussion, and/or a project that requires subject knowledge to complete. Here are a couple of my favorite go-to activities:

The Brain Dump - Students use either pencil/paper or word processor to write down any and all information they can about a particular subject or concept. They should not use any assistance while completing this. If they know it well enough, they should be able to write it down. Anything they cannot write without assistance needs to be looked at again by students. I frequently use brain dumps to begin class, giving students 5-10 minutes to write everything down. Then, students turn to partners and tell what information they wrote and find out what their partner wrote down. Finally, this turns into a whole-class discussion of that major idea or concept that was originally presented. This activity is especially useful when implemented after a significant period of time between information presentation and brain-dump assessment (the spacing effect).

'Flashcards & visuals'
Vivian Micolta Simmons was born in Colombia and has been in the U.S. for seven years. She has been a teacher for 14 years and is currently working as a ESL/DLI lead teacher for the Iredell-Statesville schools in N.C:
There are three main processes involved in human memory: encoding, storage, and recalling (retrieval). As teachers, we are continually seeking ways to help our students learn new information and remember it to create meaningful new memories and make them a part of their long-term learning.

Retrieval practice is an effective way to help students remember something they have previously learned to make new connections and boost learning. I think this is a great way to start a class and "break the ice." There is nothing more meaningful than creating stronger memories while learning. Examples of retrieval practices that I have used in class include concept maps and graphic organizers-individually and in groups-which will involve students with the lesson and concepts taught, flashcards and visuals, writing prompts, and practice activities like songs.

When I talk about songs, I think about sites like Flocabulary, where concepts are taught with catchy rap songs. These are a fun way to introduce a lesson or as a warm-up for a follow-up session.

When I think about teaching and learning, and explicitly recalling information, I often like to revisit a quote attributed to various people: "tell me, and I forget, teach me, and I may remember, involve me, and I will understand."

Working With ELLs
Luiza Mureseanu is an instructional resource teacher-K-12, for ESL/ELD programs, in the Peel District School Board, Ontario, with over 17 years of teaching middle and high school students in Canada and Romania.
Retrieval practice is an excellent method I like to use in various domains of teaching language, but I use it particularly for building up fluency and oral-language skills. It works well with all ELLs on various levels of language acquisition because it is flexible and easy to adapt.

For example, students have a few familiar topics they use every week for short speaking activities that takes 15 to 20 minutes of class time. For example, every Monday, students are expected to talk about their weekend. They all have to respond to the same prompt/question in about two minutes. The question is very open-ended: How did you spend your weekend? Tell me something interesting about your weekend. They take turns to answer and build fluency. Each session will have a different focus on the words they need to retrieve, revisit, and retain.

One time they might select all action words (verbs) and build lists and banks of words. They will use the selected words to learn more about vocabulary, tenses, differences between regular and irregular verbs, spelling. Once this task is completed, they can focus on another bank of words, nouns and adjectives, and focus on descriptive language.

Teaching Students The 'Why' Behind It

Dr. Donna Wilson is a psychologist and author of 20 books, including Developing Growth Mindsets, Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains, and Five Big Ideas for Effective Teaching (2nd Edition). Dr. Wilson can be reached at donna@brainsmart.org; visit her website at www.brainsmart.org.
Diane Dahl has been a teacher for 13 years, having taught grades 2-4 throughout her career. Mrs. Dahl currently teaches 3rd and 4th grade GT-ELAR/SS in Lovejoy ISD in Fairview, Texas. Follow her on Twitter at @DahlD, and visit her website at www.fortheloveofteaching.net:
Exciting new research conducted over the past decade places retrieval practice squarely within a group of powerful learning and memory strategies that can help to transform student achievement! Simply put, retrieval practice is the act of trying to recall information without having it in front of you.

Traditionally, teachers have worked long and hard to download lots of information into young brains-that is, to teach so that students encode knowledge into long-term memory with tools such as lecture and review sheets. In the past, it has been said that when such methods were used, teachers often learned more than the students because they were working hard while students were passive recipients of knowledge.

Now we know that retrieval practice works as a way for students to actively work their brains, enhance knowledge, and access what they have learned. In other words, retrieval practice helps students to bring information front of mind as a way to boost learning. When information is deliberately recalled, students learn to pull out knowledge and see what they know.

Active retrieval practice is most effective when students understand the "why" behind it. Mrs. Dahl uses various methods to teach students how the brain learns and connects new knowledge to existing knowledge. Once learners have a grasp on the concept, Mrs. Dahl shows students a city map and asks them to focus on a two-block section. They spend considerable time discussing street names and landmarks. Finally, Mrs. Dahl puts the map away, and students are asked to work together to write down how to get to the area on the map. Students are inevitably flummoxed and point out that they were only able to study a small section of the map. That's when Mrs. Dahl has them!

Comparing a road map to connections in the brain, kids discover that studying only a small section of a map is just like reinforcing a small section of neurons in the brain. It doesn't matter how well you were able to recall the small square of map/neurons if you don't know how to access it. This is often a watershed moment for learners and revolutionizes how they look at learning and studying. Foundational retrieval practice reinforces the "why" behind the practice and becomes part of the language of the classroom.

Educators can boost learning and help recall by leveraging short, informal preteach quizzes combined with meaningful interaction of content. For example, Mrs. Dahl's 4th grade study of events leading up to the Mexican-American War begins with a three-question quiz. The first question is on connected content students already know, while the last two are based on content to be learned. Since brains are primed to learn after a mistake, students tune in to see if their answers were correct and thus are more likely to remember the information. Once the content has been presented, collaborative groups apply their new understanding to analyze the ethics of events leading up to the war from the points of view of both Mexico and the United States. This activity purposefully stretches students' thinking in a meaningful way and boosts their future retrieval of knowledge. Success is evident by the informal questioning of kids as they enter class the next day and their application of what they learned in future projects.

Thanks to Blake, Vivian, Luiza, Donna, and Diane for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign-new ones won't be available until February). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first nine years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

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Ten Ways to Use Retrieval Practice in the Classroom (Opinion)

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Five educators explain why and how they use retrieval practice in their classroom.

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WWC | Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices

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This guide presents strategies that classroom teachers and specialists can use to increase the reading ability of adolescent students.

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The Strands that are Woven into Skilled Writing 

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The Strands that are Woven into Skilled Writing 

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Joan Sedita

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Why American Students Haven’t Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years-related to Session I presentation

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Schools usually focus on teaching comprehension skills instead of general knowledge-even though education researchers know better.

Every two years, education-policy wonks gear up for what has become a time-honored ritual: the release of the Nation's Report Card. Officially known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, the data reflect the results of reading and math tests administered to a sample of students across the country. Experts generally consider the tests rigorous and highly reliable-and the scores basically stagnant.

Math scores have been flat since 2009 and reading scores since 1998, with just about a third of students performing at a level the NAEP defines as "proficient." Performance gaps between lower-income students and their more affluent peers, among other demographic discrepancies, have remained stubbornly wide.

Among the likely culprits for the stalled progress in math scores: a misalignment between what the NAEP tests and what state standards require teachers to cover at specific grade levels. But what's the reason for the utter lack of progress in reading scores?

On Tuesday, a panel of experts in Washington, D.C., convened by the federally appointed officials who oversee the NAEP, concluded that the root of the problem is the way schools teach reading. The current instructional approach, they agreed, is based on assumptions about how children learn that have been disproved by research over the past several decades-research that the education world has largely failed to heed.

The long-standing view has been that the first several years of elementary school should be devoted to basic reading skills. History, science, and the arts can wait. After all, the argument goes, if kids haven't learned to read-a task that is theoretically accomplished by third grade -how will they be able to gain knowledge about those subjects through their own reading?

The federal No Child Left Behind legislation, enacted in 2001, only intensified the focus on reading. The statute required states to administer annual reading and math tests to students in grades three through eight and once in high school, and attached hefty consequences if schools failed to boost scores. The law that replaced No Child Left Behind-the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed in 2015-has eased the consequences but has hardly weakened the emphasis on testing.

What is tested, some educators say, gets taught-and what isn't doesn't. Since 2001, the curriculum in many elementary schools has narrowed to little more than a steady diet of reading and math. And when test scores fail to rise after third grade-as they often do, especially in high-poverty schools-subjects such as history and science may continue to be relegated to the far back burner through middle school.

To some extent, it does make sense to focus on reading skills in the early years. One component of reading is, like math, primarily a set of skills: the part that involves decoding, or making connections between sounds and the letters that represent them.

But educators have also treated the other component of reading-comprehension-as a set of skills, when in fact it depends primarily on what readers already know. In countries that specify the content to be taught at each grade level, standardized tests can test students on what they've learned in school. But in the United States, where schools are all teaching different content, test designers give students passages on a variety of topics that may have nothing to do with what they've learned in school-life in the Arctic, for example, or the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. The tests then ask questions designed to assess comprehension: What's the main idea of the passage? What inferences can you make?

On a daily basis, teachers have their students practice skills and strategies such as "finding the main idea" or "making inferences." And teachers select books that match the given skill rather than because of the text's content. Rarely do the topics connect: Students might read a book about bridges one day, zebras the next, and clouds the day after that.

Cognitive scientists have known for decades that simply mastering comprehension skills doesn't ensure that a young student will be able to apply them to whatever texts they're confronted with on standardized tests and in their studies later in life.

One of those cognitive scientists spoke on the Tuesday panel: Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia who writes about the science behind reading comprehension. Willingham explained that whether or not readers understand a text depends far more on how much background knowledge and vocabulary they have relating to the topic than on how much they've practiced comprehension skills. That's because writers leave out a lot of information that they assume readers will know. If they put all the information in, their writing would be tedious.

But if readers can't supply the missing information, they have a hard time making sense of the text. If students arrive at high school without knowing who won the Civil War, they'll have a hard time understanding a textbook passage about Reconstruction.

Students from less educated families are usually the ones who are most handicapped by gaps in knowledge. Another panelist-Ian Rowe, who heads a network of charter schools serving low-income students in New York-provided a real-life example during his remarks. A sixth grader at one of his schools was frustrated that a passage on a reading test she'd taken kept repeating a word she didn't understand: roog-bye. The unfamiliar word made it hard for her to understand the passage. When Rowe asked her to spell the word, it turned out to be rugby.

The implication is clear. The best way to boost students' reading comprehension is to expand their knowledge and vocabulary by teaching them history, science, literature, and the arts, using curricula that guide kids through a logical sequence from one year to the next: for example, Native Americans and Columbus in kindergarten; the colonial era and the American Revolution in first grade; the War of 1812 and the Civil War in second grade; and so on. That approach enables children to make sense of what they're learning, and the repetition of concepts and vocabulary in different contexts makes it more likely that they'll retain information. Not to mention that learning content such as this can be a lot more engaging for both students and teachers than the endless practice of illusory skills.

Another panelist-Timothy Shanahan, an emeritus professor at the University of Illinois and the author or editor of more than 200 publications on literacy-went on to debunk a popular approach that goes hand in hand with teaching comprehension skills: To help students practice their "skills," teachers give them texts at their supposed individual reading levels, rather than the level of the grade they're in.

According to Shanahan, no evidence backs up that practice. In fact, Shanahan said, recent research indicates that students actually learn more from reading texts that are considered too difficult for them -in other words, those with more than a handful of words and concepts a student doesn't understand. What struggling students need is guidance from a teacher on how to make sense of texts designed for kids at their respective grade levels-the kinds of texts those kids may otherwise see only on standardized tests, when they have to grapple with them on their own.

That view was endorsed by Marilyn Jager Adams, a cognitive and developmental psychologist who is a visiting scholar at Brown University. "Giving children easier texts when they're weaker readers," she said during the panel discussion, "serves to deny them the very language and information they need to catch up and move on."

The failure to build children's knowledge in elementary school helps explain the gap between the reading scores of students from wealthier families and those of their lower-income peers-a gap that has been expanding. More affluent students may not learn much in elementary school, but compared to their disadvantaged peers, their parents tend to be more educated and have the money to provide knowledge-boosting perks such as tutoring and trips to Europe. As a result, those wealthy children are far more likely to acquire knowledge outside of school. Poorer kids with less educated parents tend to rely on school to acquire the kind of knowledge that is needed to succeed academically-and because their schools typically focus exclusively on reading and math, in an effort to raise low test scores, they're less likely to acquire it there.

The bottom line is that policy makers and advocates who have pushed for more testing in part as a way to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor have undermined their own efforts. They have created a system that incentivizes teachers to withhold the very thing that could accomplish both objectives: knowledge. All students suffer under this system, but the neediest suffer the most.

The NAEP is a valuable educational barometer, but it's important to understand that while standardized tests can identify a problem, they can't provide the answer to it.

Although some elementary teachers have embraced the approach advocated by the NAEP panel, it's clear that most have been trained to teach in methods that aren't supported by research, and that many are resistant to change. Shanahan, at the University of Illinois, noted that when he speaks to teachers around the country, they're aghast at the idea of giving struggling readers grade-level books-even when their state's literacy standards call for doing so.

Still, schools in some parts of the country are embracing the kinds of insights offered by the panelists. Louisiana has not only created its own curriculum but has also asked the federal government for permission to give tests based on that curriculum rather than passages on a variety of randomly selected topics. If that movement spreads, the NAEP may finally live up to its name, and the American education system may at last be able to unlock the untold potential of millions of students.

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national assessment of educational progress

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endless practice of illusory skills.another panelist

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Why American Students Haven't Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years

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Schools usually focus on teaching comprehension skills instead of general knowledge-even though education researchers know better. Every two years, education-policy wonks gear up for what has become a time-honored ritual: the release of the Nation's Report Card.

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Topic/Thesis Statement Class Activity Cards 

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Topic/Thesis Statement Class Activity Cards 

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For years, nothing seemed capable of turning around New Dorp High School's dismal performance-not firing bad teachers, not flashy education technology, not after-school programs. So, faced with closure, the school's principal went all-in on a very specific curriculum reform, placing an overwhelming focus on teaching the basics of analytic writing, every day, in virtually every class.

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Expository

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4min (because,but,so activity)
11:35 (appositive activity)

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How we teach comprehension, vocabulary, writing and more!

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EdWeek Larry Ferlazzo — February 21, 2021

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The new question-of-the-week is:
How and why do you practice retrieval practice in your classroom?
The strategy of retrieval practice has been shown by research to be an extremely effective teaching and learning strategy time and time again. Today's post will explore what it is and what are the different ways it can look like in the classroom.

Today's contributors are Blake Harvard, Vivian Micolta Simmons, Luiza Mureseanu, Dr. Donna Wilson, and Diane Dahl. Blake, Vivian, and Luiza were also guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

I've used retrieval practice in a number of ways. I'd like to highlight two here.

In my long-term English-language-learner support class, we began a regular retrieval practice warm-up-after we studied the research behind it. Each student had a "Retrieval Practice Notebook." When they first came to class, they wrote what they thought had been the most important thing they had learned the previous day in each of their classes. That was followed by partner and classwide sharing. Not only did that help individual student learning, it also was an excellent way to help "catch-up" a student who had been absent since they all had the same classes.

In my history class, every unit test includes a blank sheet at the end. There, students can write anything else they remember learning during the unit. I often find that the insights students share on that sheet to be a better gauge of higher-level learning and thinking than their responses to the specific questions on the test!

'The Brain Dump'
Blake Harvard is an AP Psychology teacher at James Clemens High School in Madison, Ala. His blog focuses on the application of cognitive psychology in the classroom. You can find Blake on Twitter at @effortfuleduktr.
I use retrieval practice quite often in my classroom. Anytime I want my students to assess their learning, I want them attempting to retrieve that information from memory. Over a century of research suggests that retrieval of memory produces better long-term retention of material than simple restudy of material (rereading notes or highlighting information).

The most important aspect of retrieval practice is students are attempting to access the information from their memory and are not provided any assistance or cues while completing the assessment. I tell my students that retrieval practice is the truest way to know what they know and what they don't know, provided they don't use any notes or peers for assistance. Without assessment using retrieval practice, teachers and students are making assumptions about the knowledge students possess.

Retrieval practice can be easy and simple to implement in the classroom, and it takes on many forms: answering multiple-choice or matching questions, written essay response, class discussion, and/or a project that requires subject knowledge to complete. Here are a couple of my favorite go-to activities:

The Brain Dump - Students use either pencil/paper or word processor to write down any and all information they can about a particular subject or concept. They should not use any assistance while completing this. If they know it well enough, they should be able to write it down. Anything they cannot write without assistance needs to be looked at again by students. I frequently use brain dumps to begin class, giving students 5-10 minutes to write everything down. Then, students turn to partners and tell what information they wrote and find out what their partner wrote down. Finally, this turns into a whole-class discussion of that major idea or concept that was originally presented. This activity is especially useful when implemented after a significant period of time between information presentation and brain-dump assessment (the spacing effect).

'Flashcards & visuals'
Vivian Micolta Simmons was born in Colombia and has been in the U.S. for seven years. She has been a teacher for 14 years and is currently working as a ESL/DLI lead teacher for the Iredell-Statesville schools in N.C:
There are three main processes involved in human memory: encoding, storage, and recalling (retrieval). As teachers, we are continually seeking ways to help our students learn new information and remember it to create meaningful new memories and make them a part of their long-term learning.

Retrieval practice is an effective way to help students remember something they have previously learned to make new connections and boost learning. I think this is a great way to start a class and "break the ice." There is nothing more meaningful than creating stronger memories while learning. Examples of retrieval practices that I have used in class include concept maps and graphic organizers-individually and in groups-which will involve students with the lesson and concepts taught, flashcards and visuals, writing prompts, and practice activities like songs.

When I talk about songs, I think about sites like Flocabulary, where concepts are taught with catchy rap songs. These are a fun way to introduce a lesson or as a warm-up for a follow-up session.

When I think about teaching and learning, and explicitly recalling information, I often like to revisit a quote attributed to various people: "tell me, and I forget, teach me, and I may remember, involve me, and I will understand."

Working With ELLs
Luiza Mureseanu is an instructional resource teacher-K-12, for ESL/ELD programs, in the Peel District School Board, Ontario, with over 17 years of teaching middle and high school students in Canada and Romania.
Retrieval practice is an excellent method I like to use in various domains of teaching language, but I use it particularly for building up fluency and oral-language skills. It works well with all ELLs on various levels of language acquisition because it is flexible and easy to adapt.

For example, students have a few familiar topics they use every week for short speaking activities that takes 15 to 20 minutes of class time. For example, every Monday, students are expected to talk about their weekend. They all have to respond to the same prompt/question in about two minutes. The question is very open-ended: How did you spend your weekend? Tell me something interesting about your weekend. They take turns to answer and build fluency. Each session will have a different focus on the words they need to retrieve, revisit, and retain.

One time they might select all action words (verbs) and build lists and banks of words. They will use the selected words to learn more about vocabulary, tenses, differences between regular and irregular verbs, spelling. Once this task is completed, they can focus on another bank of words, nouns and adjectives, and focus on descriptive language.

Teaching Students The 'Why' Behind It

Dr. Donna Wilson is a psychologist and author of 20 books, including Developing Growth Mindsets, Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains, and Five Big Ideas for Effective Teaching (2nd Edition). Dr. Wilson can be reached at donna@brainsmart.org; visit her website at www.brainsmart.org.
Diane Dahl has been a teacher for 13 years, having taught grades 2-4 throughout her career. Mrs. Dahl currently teaches 3rd and 4th grade GT-ELAR/SS in Lovejoy ISD in Fairview, Texas. Follow her on Twitter at @DahlD, and visit her website at www.fortheloveofteaching.net:
Exciting new research conducted over the past decade places retrieval practice squarely within a group of powerful learning and memory strategies that can help to transform student achievement! Simply put, retrieval practice is the act of trying to recall information without having it in front of you.

Traditionally, teachers have worked long and hard to download lots of information into young brains-that is, to teach so that students encode knowledge into long-term memory with tools such as lecture and review sheets. In the past, it has been said that when such methods were used, teachers often learned more than the students because they were working hard while students were passive recipients of knowledge.

Now we know that retrieval practice works as a way for students to actively work their brains, enhance knowledge, and access what they have learned. In other words, retrieval practice helps students to bring information front of mind as a way to boost learning. When information is deliberately recalled, students learn to pull out knowledge and see what they know.

Active retrieval practice is most effective when students understand the "why" behind it. Mrs. Dahl uses various methods to teach students how the brain learns and connects new knowledge to existing knowledge. Once learners have a grasp on the concept, Mrs. Dahl shows students a city map and asks them to focus on a two-block section. They spend considerable time discussing street names and landmarks. Finally, Mrs. Dahl puts the map away, and students are asked to work together to write down how to get to the area on the map. Students are inevitably flummoxed and point out that they were only able to study a small section of the map. That's when Mrs. Dahl has them!

Comparing a road map to connections in the brain, kids discover that studying only a small section of a map is just like reinforcing a small section of neurons in the brain. It doesn't matter how well you were able to recall the small square of map/neurons if you don't know how to access it. This is often a watershed moment for learners and revolutionizes how they look at learning and studying. Foundational retrieval practice reinforces the "why" behind the practice and becomes part of the language of the classroom.

Educators can boost learning and help recall by leveraging short, informal preteach quizzes combined with meaningful interaction of content. For example, Mrs. Dahl's 4th grade study of events leading up to the Mexican-American War begins with a three-question quiz. The first question is on connected content students already know, while the last two are based on content to be learned. Since brains are primed to learn after a mistake, students tune in to see if their answers were correct and thus are more likely to remember the information. Once the content has been presented, collaborative groups apply their new understanding to analyze the ethics of events leading up to the war from the points of view of both Mexico and the United States. This activity purposefully stretches students' thinking in a meaningful way and boosts their future retrieval of knowledge. Success is evident by the informal questioning of kids as they enter class the next day and their application of what they learned in future projects.

Thanks to Blake, Vivian, Luiza, Donna, and Diane for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign-new ones won't be available until February). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first nine years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

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Ten Ways to Use Retrieval Practice in the Classroom (Opinion)

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Five educators explain why and how they use retrieval practice in their classroom.

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We Need a Writing Rope!

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We Need a "Writing Rope"! - Keys to Literacy

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The literature and discourse related to literacy instruction tends to focus on reading, even though writing is just as important for student literacy achievement. In addition, significant attention is paid to the multi component nature of skilled reading, while writing tends to be referred to as a single, monolithic skill.

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The Effortful Educator

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8th grade lessons with TWR https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=79971236395086

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Lyn Stone, Linguist

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Writing Instruction

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https://www.thewritingrevolution.org/resources/

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The Write Time with Gholdy Muhammad & Chris Rogers

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One of the most common referrals I get as a school-based occupational therapist and evaluator is in regard to students' difficulty with handwriting skills. These referrals have at least tripled during the pandemic because kids are on the computer more and have less exposure to handwriting practice, pencil-to-paper tasks, and other related activities that build on complex underlying skills that lead to functional handwriting output.

Writing is a developmental and whole-body process. It incorporates all the systems of the body, including the visual-motor, cognitive-perceptual, ocular motor (control of voluntary eye movement), proprioceptive (sense of self-movement and body positioning), and vestibular (balance), and even social and emotional skills and self-regulation. These all need to work together in order in the seemingly simple task of writing, so it's no wonder that many children find learning to write a challenge.

If you're an educator, therapist, or caregiver, it's important to understand why a child might struggle with handwriting, including the underlying skills that can impact functional handwriting legibility. Gross motor skills, fine motor skills, attention, sensory processing, and visual motor skills all play a role.

Over time, strategies that are concrete and routine can build on the underlying component skills connected to the physiological and cognitive mechanics of handwriting.

Introducing Handwriting Strategies

Be sure to introduce therapeutic handwriting strategies when the child is calm and regulated, and make sure they have as much control over the process as possible. For example, ask them what parts of the handwriting process feel difficult, and have them choose the specific supplies or tools they will use to improve their handwriting. Be sure to explain each strategy to them as you are giving them instructions.

Also, be aware of the fact that when a child is struggling with handwriting, it's often because of a combination of underlying skill component difficulties affecting handwriting (e.g., sensory processing and fine motor, among the others listed below), so they may need a combination of strategies to make progress.

Visual Motor: 'I-Spy Bean Bag'

An I-spy bean bag can be created out of various materials, including a pencil case filled with small objects such as magnetic refrigerator letters, beads, and even small toys.

Tell the child that when they search for the letters for a sight word (e.g., t-h-e) in an I-spy bean bag, they're strengthening their eyes and their brain. Then, when they follow up by writing the word, they're strengthening their eyes and working on their handwriting simultaneously.

Fine Motor: 'Motor Tool Box'

A motor tool box is a bin of different fun items (e.g., Lego pieces, putty, Play-Doh, and coloring books) that, when handled, can help children build up strength in the small muscles of their hands.

When a child starts to engage with items in the motor tool box, explain to them that doing so helps strengthen the "intrinsic" (inside) muscles of their hands-the muscles that are important for writing.

Attention: 'Toe Touch Cross'

This is a simple whole-body exercise to do before a child starts writing, especially if they have issues with staying focused. It's centered around what occupational therapists call crossed midline input, which means that it allows the two sides of the brain to connect. Touch Toe Cross also provides vestibular input, meaning that it engages the balance system and helps keep the body and head steady in space because the head goes below the level of the heart-a calming body posture.

Try telling the child that being focused and calm, while feeling their body, is essential to being able to get their ideas on paper. Tell them to do the following:

1. Stand up with their legs shoulder-width apart.

2. Spread their arms out.

3. Cross their right arm, reaching it across their midsection to touch their left foot.

4. Repeat on the other side.

Sensory Processing: 'Sensory Bin Writing'

A sensory bin is a tub, bowl, or tray full of rice, moon sand, noodles, or dried beans that a child can "write" in with their fingers, helping them to remember what they write. A sensory bin adds an important tactile aspect that reinforces letter and number shapes in muscle memory.

Have the child choose which material they would like to use, or try different things on different days. They can practice writing letters, numbers, or words with their fingers in the bin. This activity also gives children a sensory break; tell them it's like a change of scene for when their hands get bored by writing all the time.

Often they like to hear that sensory bin practice is a great strategy to use if their body is feeling wiggly or their mind is becoming overwhelmed.

Gross Motor: 'Trace the 8'

A simple figure 8 or infinity sign can help guide a child's hands and build gross motor skills.

Tell the child to picture an "8" lying on its side and pretend that they've drawn it. Ask them to picture how it looks and imagine that it's right in front of them. Tell them to take their right hand and trace the imagined 8 carefully, using the whole arm and the shoulder as well, and then repeat with their left hand. Then they can take both hands together, with one fist on top of the other, and trace over the 8 with both hands.

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5 Ways to Support Children Learning to Write

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One of the most common referrals I get as a school-based occupational therapist and evaluator is in regard to students' difficulty with handwriting skills. These referrals have at least tripled during the pandemic because kids are on the computer more and have less exposure to handwriting practice, pencil-to-paper tasks, and other related activities that build on complex underlying skills that lead to functional handwriting output.

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4 Kinds of Sentences -- Hochman Writing Revolution

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4 Kinds of Sentences -- Hochman Writing Revolution

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Quizlet Review

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Six principles for high-quality, effective writing instruction for all students

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Six principles for high-quality, effective writing instruction for all students

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Six principles for high-quality, effective writing instruction for all students

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Editor's note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched "The Acceleration Imperative," a crowd-sourced, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders' efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year. It comprises four chapters split into nineteen individual topics.