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Carolina Barbosa-Trevino - Chapter 4 Reflection

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Carolina Barbosa-Trevino - Chapter 4 Reflection

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I help my students understand the relationship between time and studying by letting them know when a test is coming up, like the chapter catalogs as "timeblocking", usually one to two weeks in advance. During that time, I also give them opportunities to review in class. This approach helps reduce stress and allows students to manage their time better. It also gives them space to organize their thoughts and ask questions when they need clarification. I typically assess writing, reading, listening, and speaking skills, and I try to present these assessments as regular class activities to help reduce test anxiety.

I recycle and reinforce vocabulary by focusing on high-frequency words and then adding two to three new words with each new unit. My students usually make connections to what they have learned in other subjects and often share those connections out loud. I make sure to create a classroom environment where they feel confident sharing these thoughts, because it enriches the learning experience for everyone.

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After looking at chapter 4, there were a lot of important things talked about. There were a lot of different ways that teachers can help students understand the relationship between time and study. One way that I can help a student understand the relationship is by helping them set reasonable goals. I can also show them why it is important to set these reasonable and realistic goals. To help them understand the relationship, I need to teach them through a long-term approach instead of the cramming approach. As a student, I tried cramming when it came to studying, and I did not have great results with this. This helps me see why my students need a long-term approach.

I can reinforce the long-term approach in my classroom in many different ways. One of the ways that I can do this is by giving repeated practice for the skills that go towards their goals. When the students start to see their improvements towards these goals, they are more likely to keep wanting to learn more so they can continue improving. Another way I reinforce the long-term is with content-related activities. In my pull-out small groups, we work on activities that promote students' language development skills. In the limited time we are together, I will let them take their time on activities. If we do not have time to finish them, we will work on them the next time we are together. Working on things this way helps students not to cram work in at the last few minutes we are together. If we were to cram the activities in, they wouldn't learn as much about the content.

Recycle and repeat is really important when it comes to student exposure to skills and knowledge. Recycle and repeat are key factors when it comes to supporting language development as well. It is best to keep building on a topic when teaching instead of talking about the content one time and then never talking about it with students again. An example of this from my classroom is with my first and second graders. We work on blends each week in their small groups. I made blend cards that have the blends, words that start with the blend, and pictures on them. We look at new blends each week twice a week. But just because we start looking at a new blend each week doesn't mean we ignore the old blends. We still review every blend that we have gone over each time we are working in the small group.

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Since many of my students are K-2 and do not always have the language support at home to study on their own, I find other ways to help my students understand the relationship between time and study in the classroom. At the beginning of class, we quickly review newly learned vocabulary/concepts of the unit, as not to fall into the forgetting curve. Since I see my students three times per week for 30 minutes each class, this practice allows them to continue processing the newly learned information and acquire long-term memory. I explain to my students that reviewing the vocabulary will help “their brain” remember the new words. When teaching a lesson, it is generally broken down and distributed in chunks, as not to backlog their learning and allow for an easier long-term acquisition.

In my classes, I have learned to use recycle and repeat exposure of skills and knowledge with my students. I am still finding my groove and have learned that long intervals in between can hinder their acquisition. I am always cautious of planning units well in advance of breaks and holidays or after the students return. Within each of my last few units, I have included a variety of vocabulary index cards that I cut and laminate. We use spaced repetition to review the old cards and pre-teach a new word at the start of each class. Some days have one new word added into the review and others have 2 or 3 cards added in. I feel that by including these smaller increments, the students are allotted more time to process the information and can better strengthen their ability to recall information.

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Katie Oelkers' Chapter 4 Reflection

I connected this chapter to the discussion from the previous chapter on teaching study and organizational skills. Time management is a critical component not only for language development, but also for studying other subjects and completing tasks. It is a great life skill to model for students, and I appreciated the way the author broke down strategies for distributing study blocks across a time period and planning out time blocks. Teaching these skills would be especially effective for my current teaching context in adult ESL classes because the class only meets once per week. By explicitly teaching and modeling the scheduling of study blocks and timeblocking students may better manage their studying throughout the week and experience further progression with their language development.

Repeated exposure to content and skills is important for retention across content areas. This makes me think of the popular educational approach of spiraling curricula in which concepts are introduced in a simple form, then repeatedly revisited with increasing depth and complexity. This is a strategy I use most frequently and obviously with teaching math, but the ideas and structure apply to ESL and language classes just as easily. Revisiting topics, tenses, and skills allow students to strengthen existing knowledge and develop their language in increasingly sophisticated ways.

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Chapter 4’s discussion of time management resonates strongly with my experience as both a learner and an educator. Many students equate progress with the number of hours spent studying, yet I have observed that consistency matters far more than intensity. Short, frequent engagement — even 10 to 15 minutes daily — produces better retention than occasional long sessions. Language learning depends on repeated exposure, retrieval, and processing, not simply time on task. Helping students understand this shift in mindset is essential. I encourage them to view time as daily interaction with the language through listening, speaking/signing, reading, or reviewing, rather than as isolated study blocks.

Recycling and repetition play a central role in how I teach. Instead of introducing a concept and moving on, I intentionally revisit vocabulary, structures, and skills across contexts. A grammar point practiced in one unit reappears later in conversation, writing, or comprehension activities. This spiral approach strengthens memory, reduces cognitive load, and builds confidence. Students often feel reassured when they recognize familiar material, and that recognition supports deeper learning. Ultimately, effective time management and repeated exposure work together: frequent engagement creates opportunities for reinforcement, leading to more durable language development.

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Carlo’s Chapter 4 Reflection Post:

To help students understand the relationship between time and study, I explain that language learning does not happen in one day or one week. It is a gradual process. I teach my students that short, repeated practice sessions are more effective than studying for many hours at once, because research shows that distributed practice improves long-term memory more than cramming (Cepeda et al., 2006). I also explain that learning a language is not about “finishing” a chapter, but about increasing proficiency step by step. I use can-do statements to help students see their progress in listening, speaking, reading, and writing over time (ACTFL, 2012). Finally, I constantly remind students when the quarter will end so they do not procrastinate and submit all work at the last minute, and I remind them that such practice will reflect in their final grade and that I observe this pattern at the end of every quarter.

In my classroom, I organize weekly routines where students interact with the language in small but consistent segments, for example, 8–12 minutes of reading or listening several days each week. I do this because continuous exposure is very important for language acquisition and vocabulary development (Krashen, 1982; Joe, 2010). I also support students’ metacognitive skills by asking them to track how many minutes they practice and to reflect on how their performance changes over time. This helps them understand the connection between time-on-task and visible results, such as better comprehension and faster word recall.

To recycle and repeat exposure to skills and knowledge, I plan my lessons with intention, using strategies like retrieval practice, spiraling, and interleaving. First, I use frequent low-stakes activities such as warm-ups, exit tickets, and short speaking prompts. Research indicates that retrieving information from memory strengthens retention more effectively than simply reviewing material again (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). Second, I spiral vocabulary and grammar structures so students see and use the same language forms in different contexts and communication modes (interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational). This approach reflects research that vocabulary learning depends on repeated and meaningful encounters with words over time (Joe, 2010).

Third, I combine older and newer content in the same tasks, which is known as interleaving. For example, students may use narrative structures from a previous unit while completing a cultural comparison in the current unit. Interleaving supports deeper learning and better transfer of knowledge, especially when students need to distinguish between similar concepts or structures (Kang, 2016). Overall, when students receive repeated and meaningful input and also have structured opportunities to recall and produce language, they develop stronger and more transferable proficiency over time (ACTFL, 2012; Krashen, 1982; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).

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How can you help students understand the relationship between time and study?

This is something I’ve often struggled with, especially when teaching middle schoolers. For many, time management is a challenging skill that they rarely need to practice. When it comes to studying and keeping a schedule, I don’t think most students do much studying outside of class. I also choose not to assign homework due to accessibility and equity concerns.

However, after reading Chapter 4 of our text, I believe it could benefit students to learn about these strategies, as they’ll likely need them later in life. I think project-based learning could be a useful approach to help students understand the relationship between time and study. For example, we could start a large project and break it into smaller parts with checkpoints along the way;a process similar to what the text describes as distributed learning. I could also allow students to plan what they will complete each day, similar to time blocking.

How do you reinforce and revisit skills and knowledge with your students?

For review and introducing new vocabulary, I typically use online game platforms like Blooket. I recently discovered that I can require students to type out words instead of selecting from multiple choices. I can also adjust the settings to emphasize mastery, which resembles the Leitner System. Repetition plays a major role in my classroom, with comprehensible input reinforced through call-and-response activities and conversational tasks such as speed chatting, where students repeat the same conversation with each classmate.

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Lina Erickson-Time Management and Language Study 

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Lina Erickson-Time Management and Language Study 

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I believe that when helping students understand the relationship between time and study, explaining the forgetting curve in student-friendly terms is essential. With young learners, for example, we can use metaphors to explain why we sometimes forget things and how this affects learning. One example is learning to cook using a recipe. If you cook only once, you might forget the recipe. If you cook using the same recipe many times, you remember it without looking—that is practice. Metaphors are powerful tools for helping young students grasp complex concepts, and it is amazing to see how easily they understand these ideas when learning feels fun and engaging.

In the classroom, I intentionally bring back previously learned vocabulary or structures in new themes and communicative lessons. If students learned food vocabulary, for example, in the “restaurant” unit, I would revisit that vocabulary when discussing “Countries and Cultures” or during a unit on money and shopping, where students would pretend to go to the grocery store. This allows students to use the same language in different meaningful contexts while reinforcing retention.

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While reading this chapter, I thought about the many ways my co-teachers and I work repetition into our lessons. The math teachers at my school have students practice math skills using the iReady platform for the first ten minutes of each class. This platform allows students to practice previously learned skills while providing others with an opportunity to learn new skills when they are ready. If students do not score well the first time, they complete a lesson and are given another opportunity to test after some practice. My math co-teachers and I have found this to be a great way to introduce to our students the idea of studying a little each day rather than cramming the night before a test. The ELA co-teachers I work with also use repetition in their lessons by asking questions about the last class before going over new information with the students. In my fifth block, my students are constantly working through spiral reviews, giving them the opportunity to review content they have learned in prior grade levels. This cyclical review enables my students to make progress on their IEP goals and helps them gain mastery on skills that will aid them in their core classes as well.

I also work with my students’ core teachers to create study guides our students can use at home to study for upcoming tests and quizzes. These study guides are empty when the students receive them and provide students with an opportunity to earn extra credit points on their assessments if completed at home or during Lunch and Learn with the help of a teacher. Throughout the year, I conference with my students to show them how they are progressing and what skills we need to work on in order for them to succeed academically. I have found this to be a great way to show students what they need to work on at home while also showing them how their hard work has paid off. Additionally, I offer my students the chance to come to Lunch and Learn with me when they need to study for an upcoming test or quiz. Many of my students benefit from having me as an accountability partner as it encourages them to study the material outside of class time. I use this time to teach study skills and review previously taught concepts via study guides which many of my students have found helpful in improving their grades in core classes.

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I work with K-5 ML students. I pull students from their classroom about twice a week for 30 minutes. Time management and studying will be different based on the age of the student. I do not expect my kindergartner students to complete as much work as my 5th-grade students. Most assignments for my students are given within the lesson. I use a gradual release model of “I do”, “We do”, and “You do”. Assignments are designed for them to complete in the given lesson as part of an Exit ticket. My students are not studying English like learning a second language. They are learning English because they are now completely immersed in the language and culture. My teaching is focused not only on language acquisition but also on academic language, so students are equipped for their content classes. After reading the chapter, I think of the time I spent studying English when I lived in Korea. I would block out times to study and practice. Thinking about my students, I do see how it could be important to teach them how to manage time and practice English outside my classroom. I could begin giving them assignments that would require them to complete before the next time I see them. I could give them sentence starters that they would have to practice in their content classes for that week, whether it is through writing or speaking.

Since I do not see my students often, it does become difficult to review and pracitce skills they have learned. There are usually a few days between each session. I do not give students homework in the traditional sense of a worksheet or practice a certain word list. Rather, I encourage my students to use the new language in their content classes, on the playground, or during their lunch break. But, I believe I could be doing more as discussed in the previous paragraph. I could review this with my students the next time I see them, reinforcing the skill. I do have lessons that build upon each other and allow students to practice new skills for several sessions. This does allow for students to recycle and repeat exposure to a skill.

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In my experience teaching ASL as a world language at the middle school level with a high school credit class, helping students understand the relationship between time and study requires consistency, clear expectations, and structured support. I provide timelines for each unit, use Canvas to preview expectations, and give students direct support daily since ASL is a visual language. I use timers for group practice, provide resources such as videos, ASL.MS, Kahoot, Quizlet, Edpuzzle, and booklets, and offer live, productive feedback to guide learning. To recycle and repeat skills, I model consistent practice, review previously learned concepts, and give students meaningful opportunities to apply language, including vocabulary and non-manual signals. I have also observed other teachers using agendas, planners, calendars, positive modeling, and scaffolding to help students organize their learning, and I find that incorporating similar strategies supports student growth, confidence, and a clearer understanding of how time and consistent practice contribute to language learning.

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Helping students understand the relationship between time and study begins with making the learning process visible to them. Many students believe that studying for long periods right before the test is the most effective approach, so I try to teach them that language learning works differently. Acquiring language is more like training for a sport than memorizing for a quiz. Short, consistent practice over time builds stronger memory and fluency than cramming! I connect this idea to their experiences by showing them how daily exposure to vocabulary through Duolingo, bellringers, and quick review tasks leads to better performance and less stress before summative assessments. When students see that consistent effort results in improvement, they begin to understand how time invested across days and weeks supports their long term learning goals.

I recycle and repeat exposure to skills and knowledge by building routines into my instruction. Vocabulary and grammar structures are revisited in multiple contexts like reading, speaking, and writing activities rather than taught once and left behind. Students may first encounter a word in a story, then use it in a partner activity, and later in the week see it in a warm up. I also spiral previously learned content into new lessons so that students continue to interact with familiar materials while learning new concepts.

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To help my students better understand the relationship between time and study, I will show them an example similar to the textbook. For example, I will give them a sample of three students, and each will have the same total at the end, the only difference is how they divide their time. I will also ask my students to think of their week of how much time they have each day. Every student has a different schedule, some have sports or after school programs, some take care of younger siblings. Also, I would encourage my students to study in short bursts of 15-30 minutes every day rather than two hours on the weekend. I am not a fan of flashcards, I do not like to use them for memorizing vocab instead, I like to read short passages or stories that vocabulary repeats naturally. For my students variety is key when teaching. During a lesson I can use the same vocabulary in different activities for example, one day we can do a matching activity, next day we can read a passage with those words, the next day we can use these words in our writing. Short retrieval exercises can help as well such as what did you learn yesterday? Students will be familiar with the task, but variety can keep it from being boring.

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I believe I can help my students understand the relationship between time and study by sharing with them the reasoning behind the daily language and math practice for example, embedded within our lessons, and by continually promoting the importance of practice, and repetition. I have had this discussion with my class repeatedly and I have explained how our brains learn. I also give reminders of this principle when we are reviewing a topic starting with a low floor or basic concepts but extending it to a high ceiling or to more advanced skills for those who have mastered the basics.

In that manner, I recycle and repeat exposure to skills and knowledge with my students. I make sure we have a spiral review of concepts every week as well. Furthermore, after assessments and based on students' results, certain skills are retaught, reviewed with the whole class or simply given more practice in small groups and I usually tell students why we are doing it.

I consider that teaching students how to study and learn is one of the best skills student can acquire at school since this skill will be forever useful to them when they want to learn anything!

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In my classroom, I try to help students see that learning a language is like planting seeds. They grow over time with care and repeated practice. I often share my own experience learning Spanish, showing them that I didn't become fluent overnight and that steady repeated practice made all the difference. I emphasize that language learning isn't about cramming information in one night; it requires patience and repeated exposure over time. As a second language learner myself, I know firsthand how important daily or regular review is for retaining knowledge long term. I encourage my student to review material a little each day or every other day to strengthen their understanding. I think helping students understand the relationship between time and study is essential in a world language.

To recycle and repeat skills, I use spiral skills in my classroom giving my students repeated opportunities to practice through listening, speaking, and writing. I include low stakes activities, like quick warm ups or exit tickets that bring back previously learned content. This repeated exposure reinforces vocabulary and grammar and helps students use language more confidently.

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In my classroom I am able to help students understand the relationship between time and studying by having open discussions about it. We can discuss the importance of time management and what happens when waiting to the last minute and how that hurt them in their learning journey. I am able to recycle and repeat very easily in class. This is because languages constantly build on itself. In class we are always using vocabulary and concepts that were used in previous units. This also helps students not forget previous material because it keeps coming up again and again.

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Response to Chapter 4: Time Management for Language Study

1. How can you help students understand the relationship between time and study?
I firmly believe that "you can't fast-track language study." Time management is essential because language acquisition happens over time rather than through a single burst of effort. I often share with my students the importance of distributed practice. Research shows the brain tends to remember the first and last pieces of information in a session, while losing the details in the middle. Therefore, I advise my students to study in short, incremental bursts rather than long, exhausting cram sessions. A great example of this is on page 49, where Michel scored well because he planned his schedule accordingly and avoided the pitfalls of cramming.

2. How do you recycle and repeat exposure to skills and knowledge with your students?
Consistent repetition is vital. In my ELD class, we frequently return to foundational concepts, which is a practice I now value even more after reading this chapter. While some students complain with a "not again" when we revisit topics like subject-verb agreement, I’ve seen that this "recycling" is working; even though they still make mistakes, their proficiency has improved significantly since the first semester. As noted on page 45, waiting too long to review new information significantly increases the likelihood of forgetting it. By keeping the exposure frequent, I help them bridge the gap between "knowing" a rule and actually acquiring it.

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How can you help students understand the relationship between time and study?

I can help my students understand the relationship between time and study by having a day or two dedicated towards helping them develop good study habits. I personally did not think about teaching my students how to study. I did have a student ask me this semester why teachers tell students to study without teaching them how to study so now it is something that I will try to integrate into my lessons so that I can continue to help my students be successful.

How do you recycle and repeat exposure to skills and knowledge with your students?

I recycle and repeat exposure to skills and knowledge with my students by reinforcing the different materials in different ways of exposing them to it. I try to first introduce it to them through notes for them to take, then a video/edpuzzle. After that then I will have them practice what they have learned using blookets and then at times we will do a project so that I can see that they know/understand the materials.