Attention, Learning, and Memory: How to teach so students don't forget:
By Gerard Vargas
How to teach so students don't forget:
We’ve all been there before. We teach our students a lesson and they perform well on our exit slips and even on the quiz. We’re excited, they tell us they love the lesson, and we’re like, “Yes! They got it! Woo-hoo!” But don’t celebrate too fast! Then they forget it days later, when it’s time for the test or midterm, or even worse, they forget everything over the summer and the next teacher has to review what was forgotten!
In a poll by the National Summer Learning Association, Two-thirds of teachers said they spend at least a month reteaching students old material when they return from summer vacation. Many teachers mention they spend up to 30% of their entire year reteaching.
First of all, it’s not really our fault for this. As teachers, we’ve never been taught the science of memory and how to incorporate this into our teaching. It isn’t commonly a topic addressed in education prep programs or something we proactively support teachers once they’re assigned to their classrooms. Secondly, we can’t blame our students either since they were never taught these principles. The bright side is that now we can do something about it.
The Forgetting Curve
THE FORGETTING CURVE
Hermann Ebbinghaus developed the forgetting curve principle which basically means, that if we taught our students something today through a lecture for example, then a day later, they’d remember about 50% of it, 2 days later they’d remember 38%, and 7 days later, less than 10% and so on, if they didn’t study or review it. So if we learn something and don’t make an effort to remember it, we’ll forget it all.
1. “TEACH” students effectively from the start.
So how do we combat this forgetting curve? First, we can teach the information more effectively at the start by using the mnemonic TEACH:
T: We must TRANSFORM the information in a way that the brain loves; by using visuals like images and stories in our lessons, having students create mental movies as they listen, mind maps, or personal sketches. Students can summarize information in their own words, connect it to what they already understand by using analogies or compare/contrast charts, and they can create something useful like a tool, poster, diagram, or mnemonic. The more senses and connections they can make with the information, the better. This is known as dual coding. When students learn vocabulary for example, they can use Frayer models, foldables, concept maps or mind maps.
E: EMOTIONS drive learning: We remember information that is emotionally charged and survival related. That’s why we all can remember what we were doing, who we were with, what we were wearing, and even specific smells on September 11th, 2001. We also remember information that is novel, funny, and even bizarre. Picture a cat that looks like a shark for example (see left image below). I bet you won’t forget that visual impression! The brain also loves information that is relevant, urgent, and of high utility, so make sure what students learn is immediately applicable to their lives rather than banking on the “This is going to help you later in life” plea. Finally, the brain learns best when it is happy, excited, curious, and compassionate, not stressed, afraid, or defensive or in other distressed emotional states (see right image below).
A: Third, ensure students use ACTIVE RECALL which mens for them to quiz themselves or even teach someone else periodically. We’ll dive deeper into what active recall is below.
C: Fourth, is to CHUNK your lesson input into ten-minute segments followed by some processing activity like having students summarize their notes and then teach their partner 3 key ideas. This is also called chunk and chew or the 10 + 2 method, 10 minutes for content input and 2 minutes to chew it or make meaning. Students can also group large amounts of information into categories: List sort label, concept maps, and outlines are great examples of this.
Image Courtesy of Legacy Mastery Academy
H: Fifth, students learn best when they have to HELP others learn the information. Have students teach each other, discuss concepts, give each other feedback, and interview high performing peers in order to learn their strategies.
2. ACTIVE RECALL AND SPACED REPETITION
After doing this, if we review what we learned periodically, a day after, 3 days after and 6 days after as shown in the image below, also known as spaced repetition, we regain 100% retention and slow the forgetting curve. The best way to review is called active recall.
ACTIVE RECALL STEPS
Image Courtesy of Legacy Mastery Academy
Step 1. STUDY: In active recall, you study a topic so well that you can teach it. Think, “What were the key ideas? Why do they matter? How can I use this in my life?”
Step 2. SELF-QUIZ OR TEACH: Then you Quiz yourself or teach someone in the simplest form such that a child can understand it. Einstein once said if you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.
Step 3. SELF-ASSESS: Then assess how you did and identify your gaps in understanding. Think “what details, misconceptions, or main ideas did I miss?”
Step 4. REVIEW & IMPROVE LEARNING: Then review the material to understand it better. “How can I remember it more effectively? What parts aren’t sticking and why?” Then repeat the process until you can quiz yourself or teach someone successfully with confidence, no errors, and a clear understanding.
THE POWER OF SELF-QUIZZING AND TEACHING SOMEONE
Self-quizzing and teaching someone requires effort and is challenging and that’s why it works. In a 2011 study published in the journal of educational psychology, a class of middle school students reviewed their notes 3 times before taking an exam. They had a C+ average on the exam, but when a similar class completed 3 pop quizzes before taking the same exam, they had a class average of A-. The group who reviewed or just re-read notes didn’t push their minds to go back and retrieve information, so the brain was in a passive, unengaged state and this is a trap students fall into. We need to stop using the word review because they see it as re-read. Teach your students the difference. Self-quizzing and teaching others requires the retrieval of information, making and correcting mistakes, relearning information that wasn’t clearly understood to begin with and other effort-laden processes that solidify neural networks, making them more robust. So the key in this entire video is to teach our students to love the effort process, because that discomfort is a sign that we’re creating long-term memories.
EFFORT AND DISCOMFORT =
STRENGTHENING LONG-TERM MEMORY
MEMORY SUPPORT IN THE CLASSROOM:
So this is all nice, but what does it look like in my classroom? The following diagram (above) can help you think about how to structure your lessons in order to maximize long-term retention.
Day 0, is when you first teach your content, using the TEACH acronym. Especially look into chunk-chew-check, which I believe is the most powerful teaching strategy combo ever.
Day 1: Then on the next day, which we’ll call day one, include a Do Now or starter activity requiring students to use the previously learned information. This can be questions about the content from the day before, a sample problem requiring them to use what they learned, or even show them some slide images of your presentation for them to summarize and teach to a partner. Require that students use vocabulary, skills, and content from the day before in the learning of new content. Students can review their notes, summarize them, write questions they’re stuck on, and then discuss with a partner. You can also have a student create a poster summarizing key points that they place on the wall to support retention.
Day 7: 7 days later (or earlier if possible, but 7 days at the latest), you can include low stakes pop quizzes, group quizzes, or practice tests. They may use their notes to support recall but require that they put the information in their own words. Ensure that they use older content and skills to solve new problems, engage in discussion of new concepts, and even in completing exit slips or proving behaviors. If what we taught them was important, it should keep coming up later because it is needed to learn newer content. Students can make concept maps or mind maps of older content so they can make connections between them, compare and contrast, and find patterns among these ideas.
30 days later we can give students exams with interleaved spiraling. This means instead of having questions grouped by topic, the questions are intermixed and include multi topic questions. Projects, activities, and discussions require that students apply older concepts, vocabulary, and skills. You keep including low stakes pop quizzes, group quizzes, or practice tests.
2-3 months after and continuing until the end of the year, you can include midterms and final exams with spiraled content on all topics learned. Projects, activities, and discussions require past knowledge and skills. Students can work on Semester Portfolios or other interleaved projects.
INTERLEAVED SPIRALING
All of these ideas shown in this diagram are known as interleaved spiraling. The traditional model of teaching is that we teach one topic and give students lots of practice on that one topic. Then we move on to the next topic, do the same and so on; but because students are practicing and repeating the same information, the brain isn’t really engaged, working hard, and expending energy to retrieve information. This is called blocked learning (see below). It’s like giving students a bunch of math problems of the same type and they can do them very well because they require the same exact steps and operations, but switch the problem up slightly, and now they’re confused. What’s better is interleaved spiraling.
Give elements of topic 1 with some practice, but then mix in topic 2 with some practice, and so on. This is called interleaved learning (see below).
CONCLUSION
Overall, there is no perfect way to support long-term memory retention. If you’re always integrating old content to support the learning of new content, then you’ve got it down. But if not, just remember these landmarks —Day 1, 7, 30, and continue each month or so until the end of the year, and students will retain more content.
Also, remember to teach these principles to your students. Model active recall so they can do this on their own when reading, watching a video, or studying for a test. You might close a book you’re reading and say, “Ok students, I’m closing the book to see if I remember the key details of what I’ve read…” or verbalize your thought process for studying by taking out a sheet of blank paper, and writing out a thorough and layman's term explanation of what you just studied.
Remember, the key principles are:
Teach content effectively at the start. The TEACH acronym is a great way to integrate brain-friendly memory principles.
Embed active recall, interleaved spiraling, and spaced repetition throughout the year.
Teach students the principles of memory discussed in this blog so they create calendar reminders to apply active recall over time.