Helping Students Learn & Retain Knowledge

This is version 2.0+ of my blog this week.  For some reason, when I attempted to save my original versions, I got a "You were not successful" page and had to start over several times.  This version is not as complete, but  is better than if I had just given up..



This week we were looking at using advanced organizers to help students learn and retain knowledge better.  One of the articles we read was written in 1960, but is still appropriate to teaching students today.  The gist of this article was that if teachers are able to connect new information to the prior knowledge of students, then the learning and retention of the information is enhanced.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizer

My class starts daily with a "focus question" that brings higher order thinking (according to Bloom's Taxonomy) and gives students an idea about what we will be doing during the class period.  For the majority of students, this is taken in stride and they at least make a guess when they do not "know the answer", even if there is not technically a "right" answer to the question.  The problem with this is that in some cases, I have students who do not want to think more than it takes to find specific answers that would be located in a textbook.  These students exhibit a huge amount of resistance to the probing questions as well as attempt to disrupt the discussion of the questions.

Non-linguistic Methods

The longer I am in the classroom, the more I employ non-linguistic methods of conveying information.  Maybe it is due to the prevailing entertainment culture of current students, but most are not practiced at being able to sit and listen to a lecture on a topic.  However, if that same information is put into a YouTube video, they will pay attention raptly for 20 or more minutes.  Streaming video has become an integral part of my classroom, since it is one medium that I know my students are engaged by.

Summarizing and Note taking
 This is a weak spot for most of my students.  Most students have been trained to copy verbatim from textbooks to answer questions posed by their teachers.  In my class, I try to design my lessons so that this is not able to be done.  If I ask questions, I ask some that would need to be answered by synthesizing information from multiple passages.  Another thing that I have started doing is that I give my students a synopsis of the unit we are going to be investigating.  The only problem is that these are worded using scientific terms.  One of the first assignments for the units is for the students to translate these synopses into "regular English" so that anyone would be able to read it.  This is done in groups so that the students who do not have the best reading abilities are still able to participate with the rest of the class.  Once all the groups are done "translating", the groups all share out what they thought the synopsis meant.  We then discuss these interpretations as a class, and what their teacher actually meant.  This is usually an engaging discussion. 

Review of 3 Non-Linguistic Applications.

Setting Objectives, Providing Feedback, Providing Recognition.

This week we were supposed to reflect on Setting Objectives, Providing Feedback, Providing Recognition as well as the article Feedback that Fits.  These three areas are where many teachers have weaknesses.  In some cases, all three are weaknesses, or sometimes one or two are.  For this reason there are many technologies that have been created to shore up these weaknesses in order to best help the student to be able to achieve.  Feedback that Fits is an article that encompasses the different ideas we are supposed to blog about.

Setting Objectives - 
  
Setting the objectives for a class can be both easy and hard.  This is easy due to the fact that state educational standards are published and give each teacher the objectives for the class(es) they teach.  The hard part of this is being able to discern how to best communicate these objectives to your students.  The way that MPS is attempting to communicate objectives is requiring teachers to post "What we are going to learn today is..." and "What we are going to do today is..." somewhere students are able to see it.  If these postings are not referenced by the teacher during the class however, it is only lip service to the true objective, getting the student to understand what they need to from the lesson.  Rubistar is a nice program that allows the teacher to create a rubric that shows students exactly how they are able to earn the grade they want.  Unfortunately, when most rubrics are used, they become a simple checklist.  While this allows for unbiased and quick grading, this might also not allow for the depth of feedback that is needed when used to score and given back to the student.  I have to admit to having used rubrics in this manner in the past.  However, it does not allow for the true differentiation of scoring that is required.  This leads into the next topic.


Providing Feedback-


In many cases, teachers might jot down a word or two on assignments as feedback.  Sometimes, a section might re-teach a topic in order to redress the issues found in the work produced by the students.  These would be examples of written individual and group verbal feedback.  Using a rubric would also be a benefit to students so that they would be able to see how they are able to attain a certain grade as well as how they did compared to how they thought they did when the rubric is returned.  If details are included on rubrics, these can be incredibly effective modes of feedback.  The Milwaukee Public Schools uses an online gradebook that can be accessed from any computer by parents or students to see how the student is progressing in the class.


Providing Recognition-


In many cases, the recognition that students I see has almost all been negative.  This does not mean that I am the source of this negativity.  Personally, I attempt to emphasize the good that I find in students.  This can get worn down over time, but I do try to make sure students know that they have the ability to do what is right for themselves and the others around them.  In many cases, words of encouragement, a note recognizing the good in their work, behavior, etc or a phone call home letting the family know about something positive can be a great motivator for my students.  For the most part, negative recognition is seen as earning "street cred" so that most recognition of negative behavior results in more negative behaviors.  Many of the students that I deal with are in the situation outside of school with at most one parent who lives at the same address.  In many cases, the only people who recognize the student for anything (positive or negative) are their teachers.  This might explain why students who have the reputation for being "chronic disruptors" come to school every day they are allowed to.  Recognition of being a person, good or bad, can be a huge motivator for students.  Teachers and the people in those students lives need to recognize this and make the effort needed to reach them.  

Technologies available-

There were many ideas for using technology for giving feedback.  The main problem with the online or e-mail generating technologies is that for the students I have, the main technology they have outside of school is their cell phone.  Depending on the applications they need to be able to be seen (for example adobe flash), the technology centered feedback might not be able to be received (the iPhone).  For the most part, I would suggest that in an urban school system, some of the traditional technologies of stickers, a good word, or recognition in front of peers can be great motivators.

Learner Centered Education

One of the paradigm shifts that has happened within my lifetime has been the shift from the needs of the curriculum to the needs of the learner to be able to acquire the curriculum.  With the learners of today, there have been many things that have been found that can affect their ability to acquire knowledge.  Whether it is learning styles or prior knowledge, the teacher should tailor their lessons to be able to meet the needs of students to find success in a multiple of ways.
  When reading Learning Principles from Carnegie Mellon University, I was somewhat surprised but some of what I saw.  I had realized that prior knowledge can help the learner positively if the prior knowledge is appropriate and accurate.  However, I hadn't really thought about the fact that "when knowledge is inert, insufficient for the task, activated inappropriately, or inaccurate, it can interfere with or impede new learning."  I have seen this in many of my students over the years and had thought of it as a learned behavior where students who show helplessness are enabled by some teachers in order to show some growth.  This is not something that will help the child in the long run.  However, I am not sure how to combat this.  Having a low tolerance police for not trying does not seem to have much effect.  However, enabling the negative behaviors also would have negative results.  So, I seem to find myself with a problem.  Strong feelings and ideas can be dealt with even if not reasoned with, but how can one be made to care?  How can one deal with apathy?


Waxman, H.C., Lin, M., & Michko, G. M. (2004) A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning is  an interesting examination of the effect of technology and learning.  For the most part, it seems that it has a minimal positive effect on learning.  Technology also seems to have a minimal negative effect on behaviors.  It seems that technology is not the panacea that people are looking for when it comes to today's educational woes.  However, the studies did not state that all of the students in the studies were taught by educators who are proficient in technology.  This could make a major difference in both learning and behaviors.