Memory Resources

Secondary

Spaced Practice: Did you know that it's better study 5 hours spaced out over 2 weeks rather than 5 straight hours?

Interleaving: Don't just study 1 topic at a time. Switch it up! Jump between ideas so you can see how they relate to each other.

Elaboration: Ask Question, How & Why, Explain & Describe, Make Connections

Concrete Examples: Look for real life examples to connect to

Dual Coding: Words & Visuals and be able to explain both

Retrieval Practice: Recall what you know. Sketch it out! Practice!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vusb7uG2czd1HqXxssxfGaIr5fmjj17AHZYNAF1E6Ho/edit?tab=t.0

Purpose: Learning through games promotes active learning, attention, motivation, and helps with semantic memory. Many require critical thinking.

In the classroom:

Relearning Through Recall: These types of games helps with long-term storage.

Games such as Scrabble, Pictionary, or even Wheel of Fortune using vocabulary words.

Games for recall with answers and questions can be Jeopardy, or Trivial Pursuit.

Jot Thoughts: This is really good for reviewing concepts already learned. The students love using post-its. One student at a time has to jot down one idea, the next person writes down another detail, idea, or fact about the topic. Students go around in their group taking turns writing down as many ideas they can in the allotted time. Which ever team covers the table the most first wins.

Variations: verbs, nouns, categories, details to a story

Purpose: improve learning retention

1. We should add more low-stakes quizzing to our instructional plans. Multiple attempts to retrieve learned information actually helps increase the learning of said material. Tip: Avoid using multiple choice questions because attempting to retrieve information is better than simply recognizing information.

2. Repeating one skill to perfection is not the best path toward long-term learning. Giving students shorter, more spaced-out practice is better than 1 longer practice session.

3. Real learning doesn’t always feel good. Effort is required for real learning. Students may not enjoy the process, but the learning will be long-lasting.

4. We must be transparent in our approach. Explain to students why you are giving quizzes more often, offering repeated practice rather than expecting mastery right away and why learning does not feel good. This will help them understand and accept the new learning processes.

I can use these strategies in my class to promote learning that lasts. I can space out the practice during a quick review before the day's lesson, provide more opportunities for students to recall the information learned, and explain why learning doesn't feel good, but is challenging instead.

This can really be used with any grade, probably 3rd+ to be effective, but... it's really simple self-talk, review, and metacognition. Essentially, intentional self dialogue that takes you through problem solving, or reviewing info of whatever it may be.

Classroom seems some good uses would be making inferences or solving word problems since these require using/practicing reasoning skills where self-talk would be effective.

Purpose: Smart Strategies for Student Success

How I would use in the class:

Explain It to Your Brain-I'd have students explain their reasoning or steps when answering a questions. Also, have them explain to their peers how they arrived at their answer.

1st Grade

The benefits of mind maps

First, mind map helps students with cognitive learning by 15%-23%

Second, is a great visual to convey dull words into pictures.

Then, mind maps links prior knowledge throughout their academic journey.

Finally, increases students creativity by simply utilizing short phrases, color code or the use of digital mind mapping software. Mind mapping is simply a funner way to learn in the classroom.

Several ways to implement mind maps in my classroom is brainstorming with anchor charts/graphic organizers while teaching a lesson. Sketch out lecture notes in a logical manner. Then, by linking prior knowledge leave them up throughout the school year.

Mind maps allows students to start sentences from the visual (sentence starters) and generate ideas and use references to improve the writing coherence.

The first strategy is explain it to your brain. In this strategy, the teacher first models the thought process out loud of how to solve a problem or how to determine the correct answer. Then the students begin explaining their thinking out loud as well , which builds metacognition. If they can talk themselves through the process of how to solve the problem, it will help them decide what to do at each step. I do this with my students a lot , we call it a think aloud and then they explain their thinking through each step of a problem.

The next strategy was brain breaks, which we have talked a lot about in these brain workshops. I have always used brain breaks because I know the students have a hard time sitting still for long periods, but now that I know that brain breaks also truly help students to process the information they have just learned, I am much more intentional in finding time to fit them in.

The third strategy was having students test themselves. In this strategy students came up with questions about the topic that they thought might be on a test and then they would go back and find the answers to their own questions. This one seems a little too advanced for 2nd grade , but I could see this working really well in higher grades.

The fourth strategy is having students pace themselves and set a schedule for learning. This is another strategy that I think is better suited for higher grades, probably best in middle school or high school. I think that my second graders would have a difficult time implementing this one.

The final strategy is teach it to a friend. Students are paired up and take turns teaching a portion of the lesson to each other. I think that this could work well in my classroom. One way that I could use this is to have students each learn or read just a portion of the text and then teach their partner what they learned. Then they could switch partners until they have taught or learned all of portions of the text. I think my students would enjoy this.

A Mind Map is a way to organize your thoughts visually. You use a central idea in the center then branch out of it with sub-topics and develop those sub-topics in depth to organize your facts and information. You can draw, add color, and make various shapes to help your brain remember the information.

The ideas from the article include:

1. Brainstorming 

A mind map appears to be one common tool for brainstorming among students for individual and group study. A brainstorming mind map is a fast and logical way to get their creative juices and thinking caps flowing. Instead of drowning in the mess of ideas piling up, they can better organize the flow of thoughts through these graphic organizers. 

2. Note-taking

3. Team Projects

4. Presentation

5. Essay Writing

6. Semester Planning 

7. Theories Comprehension

8. Laboratory Reports

9. Extracurricular Schedule  

 10. Exam Revision

11. Academic Research

12. Learning Language

13. Events Planning

14. Time Management

15. Creating a School Yearbook

Mind Mapping is a fancy way of saying circle web or bubble map. These are graphic organizers for brainstorming that I have used over the years. Different name, the same concept. I do like it and used to use it often. I am going to use it for notes as I introduce our Reading Skills when we get ready to read our texts. I think students will enjoy making a web, I mean "mind map" to write notes instead of the traditional down-the-page note system. Hopefully, the ideas will stick when they add color and images.

1. set up a specific time and place

2. use flashcards and study then whenever you have time.

3. set a specific goal for studying

4. practice tests are great

5. Put away your phone

6. Avoid music while studying

7. Study is short repeated sessions

8. have a place with all the materials you need right there

9. Think about how to teach what you are studying.

Some of these strategies make sense, but many of them need to be taught.

She breaks studying/learning into four main principles.

1. We should add more low-stakes quizzing to our instructional plans because retrieving practice aids in learning. Stay away from multiple guess quizzes because the goal in recall not recognize.

2. Repeating one skill to perfection is not the best path toward long-term learning. Her example is to do 5 problems a every day on the target skill rather than a 20 problem one and done.

3. Real learning doesn't always feel good. The authors states that easy learning isn't long lasting, it's the effort required to make learning lasting.

4. We must be transparent in our approach. Basically if we explain our methods and reasoning to our students, they will be on board and learn more.

The rest of the articles shares more resources on retrieval practice.

Next, it said “Taking Brain Breaks While Learning” is important for anyone who has been sitting too long.  They will start to lose focus and act out, so giving a brain break can also help with behaviors.   Every 5-20 minutes giving will will keep students more engaged. During these breaks, students can stand up and share what they learned with a partner or do fun activities like jumping jacks.

Teaching students to “Test Themselves” is the next strategy.  They can do the index card we all used in college or even put a modern twist on it online.  Another strategy was making their own practice test.  

Next it talked about using an old school planner to schedule study time, again a strategy I used in college.  The most important part from this section to me was: “The brain needs at least seven to nine repeated exposures over time before new content is learned.”

Finally, I love “Teach it to a friend.”  This can be PK-12.  Every student I’ve ever had can do this and it helps it stick.  I can honestly say I never understood place value and rounding until I taught 4th grade and it was the standard I had to teach.  The article suggests using pairs. 

Purpose: Helping students recall information on a subject over time instead of cramming the information right before a test or quiz.

In my classroom: As a warm up or brain break, students would be challenged to jot down as many things as they could about a topic. This is a low stakes way to see what kids remember about a topic and can be made into a friendly competition to see who remembers the most details. As a teacher, if students turned this in, I could assess where students are on understanding the topic.

Doodle Notes

Purpose: Visual note-taking

Doodle notes is a note-taking strategy that uses the right and left hemispheres of the brain. This enhances learning. Doodling does not take much brain power, so the doodler can have a slight distraction but still retain the information. Doodling has been shown to increase information recall. 

Doodle notes requires:

Purposeful coloring

Doodling

Customized student tasks

Specially designed visual triggers

Students complete pages that are teacher- made that allow for the doodle/color to aid in understanding of new material. Doodle notes help build excitement which leads to more student engagement.  

I have a hard time wanting to use this strategy in my 1st grade class. I feel like they don’t know the difference between coloring and doodling!

Purpose:

Encourage retrieval practice during learning to increase student metacognition. Retrieval practice should be taught as a learning strategy, not as an assessment tool.

Retrieval practice improves complex thinking and application skills, organization of knowledge, and transfer of knowledge to new concepts.

The article stated that retrieval practice is more beneficial when it's done after a lesson. I loved one of the ideas that was presented. It said that instead of assigning homework on something that was covered that day, the homework should have content from a past lesson.

Since I teach math, the ability to retrieve information is important. I would have my students practice retrieving information at the beginning of my lessons by using questioning strategies to activate prior knowledge. I could use anticipation guides to help improve focus and for note-taking.

This was a quick and to-the-point video made for students to watch.

Here are the strategies that I’ll use with my kids:

1. Lots of short study sessions is better than one long session for retention.

2. Don’t reread text to study, drill with flashcards.

3. Set specific goals in a study session to master part of the learning instead of studying everything.

Six Strategies for Effective Learning

Purpose: To apply the six strategies for effective learning to my students so they will improve retention and understanding of the lessons with a meaningful application of their knowledge to real-life situations.

How I will use it in my classroom:

When I will teach my students a new unit, I make it a point to identify the standards, lesson goals, activities, and assessments that I expect them to complete. In order to accomplish these, I use the six strategies for effective learning to ensure that students retain important information from the unit which they can apply in real-life situations.

1. Spaced Practice - Initially, I worked on building my students' prior knowledge on the concept to be taught in the unit. To ensure that this is accomplished, I allow them to share prior knowledge or experience related to the lesson. Also, I provided them 10-15 minutes in class to practice a skill that I want them to be proficient at the end of the unit.

2. Retrieval Practice - Every day I review my students with the important concepts that I want them to be proficient in by giving varied activities to evaluate if they truly understand the lesson like Nearpod, Quizzes, etc.

3. Elaboration - When students do textual analysis, I instruct them to annotate important details in the reading selection. I let my students interact with the text through drawing relevance on how it connects to themselves, to the world or society and to other texts that they have read and find meaningful learning that they can use in real-life situations.

4. Interleaving - To help students study, I allow my students to use varied study strategies for each lesson  and in different order to strengthen their understanding. They may choose related topics so they can find the connection from different ideas. 

5. Concrete Examples - As a teacher, I provide concrete and specific examples to students on the concept that I teach through realia, samples or models, audio interviews and videos to help them comprehend.

6. Dual Coding - I use graphic organizers so students can put their ideas in response to a writing prompt or when doing text analysis. Students can understand it better when the concept is presented in a verbal and visual representation.

All grades

Retention

I found the teacher strategies for helping students retain information to be helpful. These include peer to peer explanations, frequent practice tests, interleave concepts, and combine text with images. I am going to use these strategies to help my students remember what they have learned by planning in my lesson to include time for this.

I think I might purposely use more coloring activities, though. I think I might give them a graphic organizer with colored pencils to not only write out thoughts/vocab etc. so they can doodle to remember.

Doodling--It turns out that doodling takes just enough brainpower to keep you from zoning out or daydreaming, but not enough to be a distraction. This means that doodling actually INCREASES your focus and attention while you listen or learn!

Coloring- Integrating color into the classroom experience activates both hemispheres of the brain at the same time. When a student engages in coloring, doodling, or artistic embellishment of their lesson material, the two sides of the brain work together.