Sharing Research With Our Students

When I was teaching high school, I asked my students to read a summary of Make It Stick by Peter Brown (or watch a video summary). Then I asked them what they noticed, what they wondered.  Here are a few of their ideas.

What I notice:

• “Make it Stick” focuses on how the student thinks about learning and goes about learning rather than how the material is taught
• A majority of the chapters focus on how the student review or practice the content.
• Academic skill revolves more around environment and effort.
• I notice how the author mentions that cramming information before a test the next day isn’t as potent as people believe.
• I also notice how he mentions retrieval practice and how it should be more spread out.
• I believe I have experienced “the illusion of knowing” after re-reading content as a study strategy
• When I study, I notice that using the retrieval method is more difficult than other methods

What I wonder:

• Can someone pick up study skills or do they have to be developed over time?
• Do genetics still influence how well someone does academically?
• Does involvement in other non-academic activities have a positive influence on academic development?

• Is a certain type of learning more powerful/memorable than another or if it is specific to the person?

• Why does spacing out study sessions make your learning more potent causing your memory and learning to be stronger?
• I wonder why arduous effort in retaining memory is more effective than memorizing something. 
• I also wonder why i’ve never been taught this before as it provides great information on how to keep your grades in superb shape.
• How were these studying strategies thought of, and how many people did they test them on?
• I wonder if there are any methods even more effective than retrieval practice?

 Brown, P. (n.d.). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. 

How do you share the research you read with your students?

Study Groups, Study Skills, Making Learning Stick!

What study skills do you emphasize in your classes?

Do you encourage study groups?

What's the best way to make learning stick?!

Many colleges recommend study groups to students. Learning how to use study groups to their advantage is a skill useful for high school students.  Benefits to study groups include taking better notes, sharing strengths, peer tutoring, encouragement and all of these help to provide deeper understanding of content and better grades.

A colleague of mine emphasizes the importance of study groups.  To encourage students to collaborate, she offers a few extra credit points on tests if students study in groups!  But you say, how does she know that happens?  The group must take a selfie, and a parent has to email the selfie to her confirming the study group... to earn their 5 points.  Students are collaborating, they are studying, and parents must be aware of their efforts!

Besides emphasizing study groups, students need to learn study skills. I can think of no better resource than Make It Stick by Peter Brown for this task. I used the assignment below in the first week of school. Students chose a reading or a video to review the main ideas in the book and developed a study goal from there.

Assignment: Study Skills

For this assignment, you will be reading or listening to key ideas from brain research on making learning stick.. Read the directions below for full details.

Choose one of the three summaries of the book, Make It Stick by Peter Brown listed below. As you interact with the summary, take notes.

• What do you notice?
• What do you wonder?
• What 3 things do you want to remember?
• What one goal will you set for yourself based on this research?

1. Two-Page Text Summary of the book

2. 15 minute video summary of the book

3. 9 minute video summary of the book

Teachers, if you are interested in more information on the book, check out Cult of Pedagogy's playlist - her reflection from a book study on Make It Stick by Peter Brown.

When I used this assignment with students, I recorded some of their noticings and wonderings.

What students noticed:

• “Make it Stick” focuses on how the student thinks about learning and goes about learning rather than how the material is taught
• A majority of the chapters focus on how the student review or practice the content.
• Academic skill revolves more around environment and effort.
• I notice how the author mentions that cramming information before a test the next day isn’t as potent as people believe.
• I also notice how he mentions retrieval practice and how it should be more spread out.
• I believe I have experienced “the illusion of knowing” after re-reading content as a study strategy
• When I study, I notice that using the retrieval method is more difficult than other methods

What students wondered:

• Can someone pick up study skills or do they have to be developed over time?
• Do genetics still influence how well someone does academically?
• Does involvement in other non-academic activities have a positive influence on academic development?
• Is a certain type of learning more powerful/memorable than another or if it is specific to the person?
• Why does spacing out study sessions make your learning more potent causing your memory and learning to be stronger?
• I wonder why arduous effort in retaining memory is more effective than memorizing something. 
• I also wonder why i’ve never been taught this before as it provides great information on how to keep your grades in superb shape.
• How were these studying strategies thought of, and how many people did they test them on?
• I wonder if there are any methods even more effective than retrieval practice?

Besides using Make It Stick, I put together a powerpoint presentation for students to review. The ideas in this powerpoint come from my AVID friends:

What ideas do you have for teaching study skills?

What support do you provide for students in studying?

#70 Days #FridayBlog

I started making posters for my classroom today ... designing them ... now just need to find a good way to get them printed.




There are only three so far.  The content comes from the book Make It Stick by Peter Brown.  We've been discussing it at #eduread ... my favorite online Twitter Chat.

This is my second time to read the book and I'm hoping to spend a little more time this summer digesting it, and figuring out how to implement key ideas in my classroom.  One goal I have is to teach students how to quiz themselves as they are learning.

I wrote about this book in a previous post ... check it out there.  Also look back for more posters in a couple of weeks.

Heading out to the beach in the morning ... hoping to relax on sand for a while with my extended family!  Excited to be on our way!

 Brown, P. (n.d.). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. 

#70 Days Lesson Planning Comparing Examples

#EduRead has been discussing Make It Stick by Peter Brown.  The conversations online have been fascinating, full of great ideas, thought-provoking questions, and more!

Tonight the big issue was "giving notes."  Do we provide too much information in giving notes?  In giving notes, are we doing the thinking for the students?  When should students decide for themselves what notes to write down?

In a previous chapter, we noted a key strategy for learning that sticks is to compare/contrast examples.  I made this note that night:  "What’s happening in these two examples?  How are they alike?  How are they different?  What rules or procedures can you identify as essential to both?"

It was a "just-in-time" discussion because I've been working on lesson plans for our first unit: absolute value functions and solving equations/inequalities.  I decided that instead of giving notes, I would give sets of 2 worked out examples and elicit procedures from students.  Tonight I put that idea in a Google presentation.  I may upload it to Nearpod ... thinking about using it as a guided homework assignment so that we can spend class on inequalities (trickier) and extra practice.

Here is the Google version ... and always, your feedback is much appreciated.

#70Days Learning to Make It Stick!

I was on a plane yesterday afternoon - just a couple of hours. I opened my Kindle to see what books I had added recently. I noticed the title, Make It Stick, and decided to find out what makes learning stick! 

I read the first chapter and got very excited. I like the writing style because it is filled with stories. Stories are compelling! I was also intrigued because early on the author says that many of the current trends in study tips and practice routines are counterproductive. 

From the authors' study, re-reading the text and notes is not an effective study habit. Instead, "Retrieval practice—recalling facts or concepts or events from memory—is a more effective learning strategy than review by rereading." So as students review a text or notes, they need to stop and ask themselves what does this mean? Or how can put this in my own words? Or better yet, use flash cards or vocabulary to prompt explanations of concepts. This reminded me of our Cornell notes. If students fold the notes so that they can only see the questions (or cues) then they can use those to prompt thinking about the lesson, and reviewing more successfully. 

A second tip is to practice periodically, not all at one time. Most teachers recognize that already and try to get students to practice a little each day. Added to that is the idea that practice should be interwoven with different kinds of problems - layered practice. I was reminded of brain research that says students need to review 10, 24, 7 ... in 10 minutes, again in 24 hours, and then again in 7 days. 

The third tip was about embracing difficulties. It was here that much of what we have been discussing came together. "When learning is harder, it’s stronger and lasts longer." I couldn't help but highlight several points but hesitate to put them all here - the authors might object!  Students need challenge. When the work is challenging their brains make new connections - increasing ability! But this means students must strive and in striving they will make mistakes! Ta-Da!  Mistakes are essential to learning!

It was at this point that I jumped to the last chapter to read the "so what" ... how do I apply the information?

First I need to teach students how learning works and how to study.  We will need to model that in class. (note to self - reread the details and write them down)

Second, I need to rethink how we do quizzing.  "But if we stop thinking of testing as a dipstick to measure learning—if we think of it as practicing retrieval of learning from memory rather than “testing,” we open ourselves to another possibility: the use of testing as a tool for learning."  I need to help students see the value of quizzing themselves and how it helps them judge their own progress.  They need quizzing every day - just a few problems, and low stakes - not heavy on grades. Frequent quizzing helps to consolidate learning and interrupts the forgetting process. At first glance I'm thinking that quizzing could be a part of our homework routine and on Edmodo for immediate feedback.  

I also want to stop class more often for shorter formative assessment questions.  I envision groups of students discussing just one question, writing a group response, selecting one response to share with the class, and the class providing feedback.  For example - in our direct instruction routine I use the format, I Do, We Do, You Do quite a bit - especially to teach skills.  But after the "You Do" it would be helpful for students to put the process in words.  So for example, now write an explanation of how to factor a quadratic when a is greater than 1.  A key for me here is that students would write that explanation as a group and then share it with the class.  That extra step could make a big difference in the depth of learning.

Homework needs to have a written piece to it ... a place where students describe the process they learned that day for example. Or it could be some type of summary. 

I know this blog does not do the book justice!  Chapter 8 is great reading - summarizes the earlier chapters well.  I need to re-read it and clarify for myself the details of how this research impacts my classroom.

I'm traveling for the next several days - blogging will be a challenge.  Already my brain is on overload.  So be patient with my scrambled thoughts!