How to Teach So Students Remember

Marilee Sprenger

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781416625315
• eBook ISBN: 9781416626244
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Memory is inextricable from learning; there's little sense in teaching students something new if they can't recall it later. Ensuring that the knowledge teachers impart is appropriately stored in the brain and easily retrieved when necessary is a vital component of instruction. In How to Teach So Students Remember, author Marilee Sprenger provides you with a proven, research-based, easy-to-follow framework for doing just that.

This second edition of Sprenger's celebrated book, updated to include recent research and developments in the fields of memory and teaching, offers seven concrete, actionable steps to help students use what they've learned when they need it. Step by step, you will discover how to

• actively engage your students with new learning;
• teach students to reflect on new knowledge in a meaningful way;
• train students to recode new concepts in their own words to clarify understanding;
• use feedback to ensure that relevant information is binding to necessary neural pathways;
• incorporate multiple rehearsal strategies to secure new knowledge in both working and long-term memory;
• design lesson reviews that help students retain information beyond the test; and
• align instruction, review, and assessment to help students more easily retrieve information.

The practical strategies and suggestions in this book, carefully followed and appropriately differentiated, will revolutionize the way you teach and immeasurably improve student achievement. Remember: By consciously crafting lessons for maximum "stickiness, " we can equip all students to remember what's important when it matters.

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Chapter 1

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Step 1: Reach and Teach

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For most of us, our favorite teacher was someone we felt really cared about or challenged us; someone who recognized us and reached out to us.

–Jonathan Cohen, Educating Minds and Hearts

I was facing another difficult class of 29 8th graders from a variety of backgrounds. Four of them had been expelled from other schools. Two of them had older brothers who were involved in gang activity. Seventeen came from single-parent homes. Several of them were on welfare. One had a father in prison.

The first day, I had to go over the rules in the handbook. Those who were following along were laughing and making snide remarks—too softly for me to hear exactly what they were saying. I passed out books and collected emergency cards, and finally the day was over.

The second day, I decided to take the students for a "book walk" through the social studies text. I had read recently that pre-exposure to the material would help students feel more comfortable later when we cover it. Two students started a verbal battle over some of the content. Fifteen others joined in. My room was next to the principal's office, and I feared the ruckus could be overheard. My heart was racing. I looked at the clock, praying it was time for the bell. No such luck. I wondered how teachers on television and in movies could always be "saved by the bell." I opened my desk drawer and pulled out a whistle. One quick blow and the kids quieted down. Some were surprised, others angry, but quiet. I gave them a quick assignment: to draw a picture of any historical event they wanted. I sat and waited for the class to end.

The bell rang, and I beat the students out the door. On my way out, I literally ran into one of my colleagues. I looked him in the eye and said, "I cannot teach these kids!"

He looked back at me and responded, "Sure you can—but first, you have to get their attention. If you can't do that, you can get a different job."

I was taken aback, but I knew he was right. I started thinking about how I was able to reach students in the other classes I'd taught. I knew the whistle worked only because it was novel. Should I come up with other novel ideas? What else might be valuable? To reach my students, I would definitely need to get their attention. I would also need to forge emotional connections and good working relationships with them. I would need to understand their learning preferences, and I would need to make the material relevant to their lives.

Stimuli, Attention, and Learning

We are bombarded with sensory stimuli throughout the day: 2,000 bits of information are allowed in by the brain's filtering system every second (Willis, 2009/2010). According to neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga (1999), our brain retains only about 1 percent of that information. How do we help our students hold onto even the sensory information, let alone all the semantic information they need to remember? According to Shaun Kerry (2002) of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, whether certain events or information are retained in memory is "dependent upon an individual's love for the subject matter and its dramatic, emotional, auditory, and visual impact."

I used to always consider "attention" only in the context of attention spans. How long could I keep students' attention before their minds drifted away? The formula I'd learned was that attention spans are equal to students' ages in minutes. So, for example, a 7-year-old student has a seven-minute attention span.

Before students can even have an attention span for learning, they must train their attention on the information at hand. Consider the following scenario:

It is time for Writer's Workshop. The 3rd graders are scattered throughout the room. There is a low buzz of conversation as some of the students discuss their writing with others. The teacher is conferencing with J.D.

Katie sits quietly at a desk, rereading her short essay on her favorite book. As she reads, she pauses to draw a picture depicting an episode in the book. Jamie approaches Katie's desk and asks to borrow a blue marker. Katie stops reading and hands the marker to her. Jamie glances at the picture Katie is drawing and asks her several questions about the book. Katie colors in the house she has drawn as she describes the characters and the scene. Interrupting the conversation, Angelo says he needs to get a book out of the desk at which Katie is seated. He excuses himself and starts looking for the book. Katie must stand now to color while she carries on her account to Jamie.

Katie keeps coloring with her right hand while using her left hand to grab the book she has spotted for Angelo, who thanks her and goes back to the table where students are peer editing. Jamie's interest is piqued by Katie's account of the story, so she asks for the name of the book author. Katie has loaned the book to Tiffany, who sits across the aisle, so the girls ask Tiffany who the author is, maintaining their dialogue as they await a response. Katie is listening to Jamie's comment about the book as she admires the picture she drew. She is also listening for Tiffany's voice to tell her the author's name. Katie picks up a green marker and draws a large tree next to the house as Tiffany reads the author's name and Jamie returns to her seat.

Brain research suggests that there are four essential criteria for gaining attention: need, novelty, meaning, and emotion (Tate, 2016). Attention itself, according to Andreason (2004), is the cognitive process that allows Katie to ignore irrelevant stimuli (extraneous student conversations), notice important stimuli (her essay, her picture, Jamie's comments), and shift from one stimulus to another (from talking to Jamie to drawing the picture, from interacting with Angelo to interacting with Jamie and Tiffany). She was balancing visual information in the picture. She attends to auditory information as she listens to Jamie and for Tiffany. The tactile information she is dealing with includes drawing her picture, grabbing the book for Angelo, and giving Jamie the marker.

Andreason divides attention into five types: sustained, directed, selective, divided, and focused:

• Sustained attention involves focusing for a long period of time. Creating lesson plans or assessments requires this type of attention.
• Directed attention occurs when we consciously select a particular stimulus from all that bombards us. This is the attention we give students who disrupt the class, for example.
• Selective attention involves focusing on one particular stimulus for a personal or sensible reason. For instance, a student may select to listen to a whisper from another student rather than to the lecture being given.
• Divided attention occurs as we rapidly shift focus from one thing to another. Our students are dealing with divided attention when they do their homework in front of the television.
• Focused attention is directed to a particular aspect of some stimulus. When we ask students to focus on the answer to an essential question as they research on the internet, we are asking them to engage in this kind of attention.

Attention is necessary for thinking. The brain scans the environment, sifting through sensory messages to find something to pay attention to. The brain is always attending; our students just may not be attending to what we desire.

The Biological Basis for Attention

Attention requires three elements: arousal, orientation, and focus (McNeil, 2009). The reticular activating system in our brains (Appendix A) controls arousal levels through the amount of neurotransmission it emits. Stimulation of the frontal lobes by norepinephrine and dopamine changes the brain's electrical activity and causes us to be alert, at which point the parietal lobe disengages from the current stimulus, and we are oriented to the new stimulus. The thalamus then controls the situation and allows us to focus as it carries the new information to the frontal lobes. The thalamus has the power to inhibit other sensory stimulation to aid us. The anterior cingulate allows us to maintain attention (McNeil, 2009). The hippocampus is a major player in the attention process. Because of its access to so many memories, if the reticular activating system reacts to some sensory stimulation, the hippocampus can compare it to old experiences and determine its novelty (Ratey, 2008).

This biological information confirms to us that the attention process can be aided by instruction—the anterior cingulates of students will focus on whatever we, the teachers, bring to their attention. Consider the following example:

Noah is playing on his tablet. It is seven o'clock, but he is too engrossed in his game to realize that time is passing quickly. His tablet suddenly goes dead. Noah had received a warning that the battery was low, but he wouldn't stop the game to find his charger. With the battery completely dead, he searches through his room to find the cord and plugs it in. While waiting for enough of a charge to continue his game, Noah glances at the clock. He can't believe time slipped by so quickly.

Noah's reticular activating system arouses him. He has a load of homework to complete and obviously didn't realize how time flies!

Noah looks at his stack of books. He begins to prioritize. "Let's see. I might be able to get my English done on the bus tomorrow. I have to finish my math now because I might need Mom's help. Then I'd better practice those words for my spelling test."

Noah's frontal lobes are now orienting him to his homework. They are helping him plan and prioritize. He "needs" his mom to help with math, which is why that subject gets his attention.

Noah pulls his math book from the pile, opens his notebook, and is completely focused on his work. He doesn't hear his mom open the door to look in on him.

Noah's thalamus has filtered out sensory stimuli that will not aid him in his current focus of attention, his math homework.

Mental Note: Without awareness of incoming information, explicit learning cannot occur.

Motivation and Meaning

Jeremy and Joe are good friends. They've attended school together since kindergarten. Their mothers belong to the same book club, and their fathers often golf together.

On this sunny Saturday afternoon, Jeremy and Joe are going to the batting cages. Baseball season is right around the corner, and they're hoping to move from the junior varsity team to varsity. They are just gathering their bats when Joe's dad approaches.

"Hey, guys, how about coming to the course with us this afternoon? We could use some good caddies," he asks.

Jeremy's face immediately lights up. "That sounds like fun. I could use some pointers on my golf game, and it's really a great day to be out in the sunshine! Don't you think so, Joe? We can go to the cages afterward. You've been saying you want to try out for the golf team. This could be a great opportunity."

Joe, however, is not convinced. When his dad looks at him for a reply and sees the negative look on his face, he sighs and says, "OK, Joe, we'll pay you for your trouble."

Joe nods his head. "OK, but it has to be more than 10 bucks. That's what you gave me last time—I won't do it for that."

Two similar boys with similar interests, yet quite different responses: Whereas Joe required extrinsic motivation—money—to caddy, Jeremy was happy to do it for intrinsic reasons. For Jeremy, the prospect of caddying includes at least three of the four criteria for capturing attention suggested by the research: need (he "could use some pointers"), meaning (it's a way to bond with his friend and their dads in fine weather), and emotion (he takes pleasure out of the game).

Why We Do the Things We Do

Merriam-Webster (2003) defines motive as "something (as a need or desire) that causes a person to act" (p. 759). When I ask my students about their needs, they usually oblige with a very long list that nevertheless...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction to the Second Edition
• Chapter 1. Step 1: Reach and Teach
• Chapter 2. Step 2. Reflect
• Chapter 3. Step 3: Recode
• Chapter 4. Step 4: Reinforce
• Chapter 5. Step 5: Rehearse
• Chapter 6. Step 6. Review
• Chapter 7. Step 7: Retrieve
• Chapter 8. Realization
• Appendix A. Brain Briefing
• Appendix B. Graphic Organizers
• References
• Study Guide
• Related ASCD Resources
• About the Author
• Copyright