Thinking

 Fast llamas,

Today we are going to talk about "thinking".  What does it mean for us as educators and for our students to teach cognitive skills?  I mean, that is really at the heart of what we do and who we are.  We are memory makers, or as I like to say, "memory chefs, cooking up memory!".  
We are really good at getting the information into our students heads, and students are very good at "cramming". Students are super great at short-term learning, but information is easily forgotten and replaced with new information within a short period of time. What ends up happening is lots and lots of our curriculum is forgotten. What I think is really worth focusing on is the retention of meaningful learning during this time of out of the ordinary learning, I do believe we can still hold high expectations for student learning by using a simple strategy called "Retrieval Practice". Student engagement is pretty low right now, so we need to capture students attention quickly and get them to recall information in the time we have with them.

What I am asking for you to do is change your thinking about thinking. We used to think that we learn to think by thinking... (we learn to read by reading, learn to write by writing, learn math by mathing... no! by practicing math... haha).  Now we know that we learn to think by thinking about the thinking.  We call this Metacognition, where we are aware of our thought processes.  When we easily recall something to mind right after we have learned it, we think we know it. However, proof of real learning occurs when the thinking is challenging, hard to do and requires effort. When our students have to think and think and think, they sometimes feel like they don't know it. But, when we bring information to mind through EFFORT, guess what, we remember it for longer periods of time. It's the act of difficulty that actually strengthens the neural pathway. The more times we get students to practice this, the stronger the connection. This is real meaningful learning.

This recalling information to mind takes practice. Students may feel overwhelmed in the beginning, so chunk the strategy at first, gradually releasing the amount of effort students are required to do. Then, celebrate the effort! Also, a good tease of showing the kids "the deep dark secret of learning". This is always a fun way to introduce a strategy (especially when you tell the class they are your "favorites and only are sharing the secret with "them".) Tell students that the struggle to recall information is good for them, the more and harder the think, the better and stronger the connections. It is not the speed of recall, but the quantity and quality of the recall. This is not a "mad-minute" exercise. The more effortful and challenging the recall the better.

Here's a quick strategy that gradually releases the risk involved: 1. have students recall information independently 2. have students share their recall with a partner 3. share your exemplar

Here are some retrieval practice ideas:

1. Brain Dumps

2. Short Quizzes

3. Frayer Model and other thinking models

4. Flash Cards

5. Mind Maps

6. Critical Writes

Here's a great placemat from Kate Jones at www.lovetoteach87.com

Neuroscientists call this strategy, the "testing effect". With the idea that the more we test, the more students recall information. This builds strong learning memories for our students. This strategy can increase learning and give you real information about your student learning gaps.