Tag: learning about learning

Posted on

39 Ideas to Incorporate Teaching about Learning

So, I love metacognition. And teaching about learning. You know this if you’ve read more than a post or two here.

And, I love talking with teachers about teaching, and I know that many teachers are kind of daunted by this (“metacognition” sounds so Latin, or Greek, or something, and the to do list is already long). But it doesn’t have to be hard or super time consuming to incorporate.

(I have a keen sense of how long my teaching to-do list is, and little desire to extend it unnecessarily) 

So I put together a workshop to talk to other teachers about metacognition, and learning about learning, and fostering student independence, and keeping it all manageable. 

And I took it on the road. At least, I took it on the Zoom. (Silver linings of pandemics, it is easier to present at out of state conferences and events) 

But, the people who organize conferences have a lot to fit in. And the people going to conferences have a lot to get to, and also, zoom fatigue. So, I had 75 minutes. 

75 mins sounds like plenty of time. Except, I tried to make this presentation work three different times over 6 ish months, and I’ve learned a lot about delivering online PD, and let me tell you, it is not a lot of time. 

I have started over from scratch before each conference, trying to make it work the way I wanted it. And, after a very work-y weekend, I am happy to say,  the third version is so. much. better.   (Finally.) 

But, making it better meant acknowledging that 75 minutes was short, and I needed to focus, even if I have a million things I could  talk about. 

That old writing advice: “Kill your darlings”

Or, at least, relocate your darlings. 

So, here my friends is the darling that just doesn’t quite fit in the 75 minutes:

You can fit teaching about learning into any class. 

I fit it into my math class. 

I have a colleague with a whole unit in an ESOL. 

And, I know another teacher with ideas for a science class about brains. 

There’s definitely the intense, high-prep way to do this (see the phrase “a whole unit”) 

That’s cool, but not, actually my darling. 

I’m interested in the version you can manage on a random Wednesday, without a major curriculum design. 

The formula to teach about learning in any class:

Replace a text or prompt or topic with one that focuses on a learning process. 

You’re going to be looking for an article to read, or a topic to read about, or a video to watch or whatever anyways, so it’s not that  much more work to look for one that helps students learn about the learning process. 

“One that helps students learn about the learning process” might be study tips, or research on how memory works, or a profile of a student who has succeeded, or encouragement, or something about neuroplasticity (brains change!) that supports a growth mindset. 

And then, you do your thing.

Newsletter subscribers, I added a list of readings, videos and other materials to get you started to my free subscriber resources. Click here to access or sign up.

That seems like it should fit, even if 75 minutes is kind of short. And, it does, more or less. What doesn’t fit are the 39 examples I generated to show how in might work in math, ELA, ESOL, science, social Studies, ESOL, or digital literacy class.

Fortunately they fit here: 

39 Ideas to Incorporate Teaching about Learning

(1) Read articles about learning to practice vocab or (2) fluency with emerging readers. (3) Practice finding topic sentences and supporting details. (4) Use a passage from a learning article to practice punctuation in an ELA class. or (5) as comprehension or (6) dictation activity with ESOL. 

(7) Practice visual literacy by analyzing an infographic.

(8) Research and write guides for other adult learners with study tips. (9) Or write the guides for kids.  (10) Display your research as a bulletin board. (11) Or make a video to show at orientation or in classes. (12) Practice presenting or speaking skills by teaching peers. 

Read or watch profiles of successful students. (13) Write a summary, (14) map it out with a graphic organizer or (15) compare it to story arcs or other narrative structures. (16)  Read several and write a compare/contrast.

(17) Interview peers about what helps them learn for speaking and listening practice (18) Or, ask about challenges. Then (19) brainstorm with a mind map or other visual or (20) research solutions to common ones.

(21) Watch videos as a brain break. (22) Or make the video a listening comprehension exercise for ESOL. (23)Analyze it for persuasive techniques. 

(22) Do a survey about learning. Use the data to (24) make graphs.  (25) Analyze it with percents, (26) ratios, (27) fractions or (28) central tendency. (29) Ask survey questions on a number line with(30) fractions, (31) decimals or (32) signed numbers.

(33) Make the survey with GoogleForms, or (34)practice formatting in Word. (35) Or compile data and make graphs with Excel to practice digital literacy. 

(36) Use the survey to talk about representative and biased samples, (37) or about sample and population, (38) or about research methods. (39) Make a hypothesis and discuss whether the data confirms it. 

39-Ideas-to-Incorporate-Teaching-about-Learning-in-Any-Class

Posted on

6 Tips to incorporate Learning about Learning

Ages and ages ago (erm, July) I wrote about a goal for this year: incorporate a little bit of learning about learning in every class.

(Why? Because, I’m with Gretchen Rubin: what you do every day matters more than once in a while)

For me learning about learning encompasses:

  • Information about brains, neuroscience, what happens when we learn
  • Addressing math anxiety, limiting beliefs about learning, growth mindset etc.
  • Study and learning skills (note taking, effective study strategies etc.)
  • Self reflection/exploration/assessment: learning how I in particular learn best

And, halfway through the year, I’m reflecting and happy to report: we’re pulling it off. Some days it’s a little bit, some days it’s the full lesson; some days it really resonates with my students, some days not so much, but every week we’ve done something.

I knew I was having an impact when I did my end of the term evaluation, and without special prompting from me, students wrote about their brains and what works for them.

What’s helping:

Add it to my lesson plan template. I use a google doc, with our routines pre-filled. This year, every time I open it to write a new plan, I see a blank spot labeled “Learning about Learning”. It’s an effective nudge and reminder.

Gather resources ahead. I am so glad I spent some time this summer finding videos. It’s the teaching equivalent of freezer meals: on the busy days, I reach into my playlist, and pull out something good, but easy.

((My playlist of videos))

Explain WHY I am also glad I took time at the start of the term to head off the “Is this on the test, miss?” questions. Explaining to students that this brain science and reflecting in math class will pay off in better and (key for my busy adults!) more efficient learning, was a good use of a few minutes.

Use it as a brain break. Brain breaks make sense, but my students are busy adults. They are not interested in the kinds of fun breaks that work for elementary classes — but a few minutes of switching topics and talking about something other than math. (especially on the video-watching days) That works. It helps break up the class and lets them catch their mental breath.

Short reflections. I’ve already got teeny reflections after our spiral review and on homework, but a couple of times a term, I ask students to do some more reflecting. Early in the term it’s planning for homework, late in the term it’s reflections on progress.

((All my reflection tools bundled together))

Do math about it. (aka, data is your friend.) These are my favorite lessons, when the whole night blends learning about learning with practicing math. The basic formula is: introduce a learning topic (growth mindset, brain based study strategies etc.), collect some data , do math about it (make a numberline, a graph, find a percent, or a ratio, or a fraction, calculate a simple statistic)

((My favorite lessons on this theme))

Infographic: 6 tips to incorporate metacognition & learning about learning. Lesson Plan Reminder; Explain Why; Gather Resources Ahead; Brain Break; Do math about learning.
Posted on

Interleaving

Tonight, my students are working on math. I’m working on interleaving.

It makes sense as a strategy, I buy the research.

And, it’s sometimes hard to actually do. (For me and my students)

So, I’m teaching my students about it tonight, for the sake of accountability.  (And, so that they are less inclined to grumble when I mix topics, because interleaving is hard)

 

The plan:

Warm up: We’re reading about interleaving as a strategy they can do  (It’s an excerpt from this guide on retrievalpractice.org)

(edited to add: The general consensus on reading this one was “My head would hurt…“)

Activity: Converting with Celsius/Fahrenheit temperature formulas. We’ve been working on formulas and expressions, so this feels continuous….until the activity slips in some graphs.

Follow Up: Instead of more temperature formulas, their practice and homework options are more temperatures (Negative numbers on a thermometer, using charts to calculate windchills) Or, more graphs. Or some different formulas. Or a review from last week.  Also, reminders that interleaving helps their brains.

(Independent practice always has options in my class. It’s my favorite way to differentiate.)

 

I like the lesson. I think it will be good for everyone’s brains/learning.

(Also, the previously-planned negative temperatures and wind chills feel a a little too appropriate for the first SUPER COLD night of the year)

 

But, truth: it’s one night. 

And, things don’t really change in my practice until I find ways to systematize them.  :\

I do spiral reviews  so that’s a start.

And, I have a set of milk crates full of review materials, so the stuff is available. That helps.

And, I have plans, a first-steps goals (read: will you be my accountability buddy?)  Once a unit, in each class, for the rest of this year, their homework options will include one random review topic from a previous unit.

But, I’m going to need a spreadsheet or something if I’m going to scale that (I love charts, they fix so many things).

But also, I could use some more ideas.

My more conscientious students said they couldn’t imagine leaving a worksheet half done to switch to something else, so they were going to need some mixed up worksheets if I wanted them to try this. (Oof, more materials to design.)

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Back. Also, Lesson Sketch: Learning Strategies

So, that happened.

If, we define ‘that’ to mean life, a slight case of overwhelm, and an unplanned 5 month break.

 

But, it’s summer. I’ve been to the ocean, I’m off from teaching, and I now have the bandwidth to come back to this.

And, with my newly cleared head, I’m thinking about one of my favorite lessons.

 

Lesson Sketch: Learning Strategies

Why: 

I preach and plead for my adult students to study outside of class (see , por ejemplo: homework, more homework and planning for homework)

But —  I know the research: most students don’t use particularly efficient strategies to study. I think this doubly applies to my adults who didn’t have great success in the school the first time. And, they have even less time to waste on inefficient studying, this time around.

So, I’ve added preaching and pleading to study effectively. 

Also, this is one of a set of first class of the term exercises I use to ease people into doing math and being a student again. (Other examples: Stuck Strategies, Retrieval Practice)

 

What: Introducing research-backed strategies for effective learning + simple data and analysis.

The Learning Scientists have summarized lots of cognitive research to highlight 6 strategies. I rarely have enough students or time that it makes sense to do all 6, but they’re there if you do. For my class, I generally prioritize: Spaced Practice,  Interleaving, Retrieval Practice and Elaboration. 

 

How: 

I introduce the topic. I might talk about how scientists do experiments to see what works (I might add that if I had known you could do experiments about learning, not just chemistry or physics, I might have liked science better in high school)  I might talk about making the best use of our time, or about shaking things up/experimenting with new techniques, I might remind them how frustrating it is to forget what they’ve learned.

 

Then, I split the class into groups, and assign each group a strategy. One time I gave out these posters, more recently it’s been the bookmarks, because less is more. If tech wasn’t a headache, I’d try the videos. The group is in charge of working together until everyone understands the strategy.  (This can take some coaching) Then we jigsaw, and they teach it to their peers. (More coaching)

 

Once everyone understands the strategies, we take a poll:

Do you already do this?

Will you try it this term?

 

Then I have students analyze the data for the strategy they started with. Depending on the class and the time of year, they might find the percent, ratio and/or fraction of the class who gave each answer.  If I have more time, we might make graphs of the results. In a way less time pressured world, we might make a bulletin board display with the strategies and our data and study tips for other students at school.

 

Results:

Spaced practice is a hit. (at least in theory) Whether it happens or not, in the day to day of busy lives, they get this idea. In the great division between tortoises and hares, many of my students are tortoises. Slow and steady sounds good.

Interleaving, on the other hand,  is a hard sell. It just sounds so much harder and more confusing, and math is hard and confusing enough, thankyouverymuch.  (Although I make them do interleaved practice every week and they tell me it helps, so maybe someday…)

 

Next Steps:

Truth… this is the first class of the term and by the second we’re off and running, and it’s hard to get back to this. But, yeah, one-off’s are not all that helpful.

So, I’m currently pondering ways to fit a follow up in.  I’d love to collect a post- round of data later in the term to see if anyone is actually rying them out.

 

 

Free Resource: I fancied up my tally sheets a bit (ahem, data collection tools) and I’m making them available for free in my TPT Store

Posted on

Lesson Sketch: Collective Notes

Problem: Students passively copy down whatever I write on the board as notes, and/or flail about and miss (or mis-organize) key information.

Topic: Any.

But, use judiciously. I save it for days when I need to deliver some specific, important content (For my class, for example, the steps to solve 2-step equations)

I usually try to keep lecture-y time to a minimum, and this makes the lecture more active, but also really sage-on-the-stage central and takes a bigger chunk of classtime.  In general, I like it best as a second class, after some more exploratory activity to introduce the concept.

 

Process:

  1. If your students struggle as much as mine, you might give them a lightly structured guide for their note taking. And/or talk about good note taking: types of information, purposes, ways of organizing etc.

Here is a generic note-taking organizer (as google doc or PDF)

  1. Teacher presentation (model solving some type of problem, explain some piece of content etc.) Be extra clear/slow/thorough – but resist the urge to write note-like things on the board.
  2. Stop periodically, ask students to look at their notes and share one ‘note’ with a neighbor (think/pair/share)
  3. Repeat until content is covered.

 

  1. Then, in groups, students review their notes and choose a few points they want to contribute to the collective.
  2. Groups share their selected points while teacher records, probing for information to fill in gaps or misunderstandings, until the class has a complete set of notes on the topic (I’m grateful for a computer/projector set up, but I’m confident you could make this work with whatever tech you have)
  3. Make a copy of the notes for each student and distribute.

 

Why:

– By my count, students will have run each piece of content through their brains approximately 11 times using five different modes (no really, I counted, I think it’s 11 if they’re actively participating: listen and write; then read, choose, speak, listen during the pair share; then read, choose, speak, listen and read again making the collective) That’s a lot of processing for an activity that looks a lot like a lecture.

– Note taking is a skill. It’s one my students need, but we don’t have a lot of time to teach.  This way, they get some support from the organizer, they get to see the best ideas of their peers, and watch the organization of the teacher transcribing it.  They’ve also had a couple rounds of reviewing their work and identifying the best items – I hope this helps them produce more of these kind of items when they’re on their own for note taking.

– Also, note taking, they’re not good at it on their own (yet!). This way I knew everyone got a solid set of notes to use as a reference.

– The group dynamics. The least visible, maybe the most important. They’re collaborating to create the thing together, as a group, where everyone contributes.   And, when they tell me what to write, they own it. That final, printed official looking reference on two step equations, they made that that, not me. It’s a nice reminder of their knowledge and capacity.

Posted on

Lesson Sketch: Proportions Project

Lesson Sketch:  Not a lesson plan, but a sketch, an idea, adaptable to your context and content

 

Theory: If you’re going to do math you need numbers. And they might as well be about something. And that something might as well be how learning happens.

DSC_1495

Practice: Tonight’s lesson on ratios and proportions.

  1. Conduct teeny (anonymous, paper) survey about big learning topics.

For my class,  three yes/no/maybe questions: learning preferences (aka, learning style*), do you know yours?; math anxiety, do you have it?; studying independently, do you do it?

(Here’s a version, if you’d like to borrow it) 

2. Three questions, become 3 student groups. Groups convert data to ratios, then ratios to proportions as they estimate the number of students in the school who do or don’t have math anxiety, study independently etc. Statistics become posters as they present their findings. (Or not, if like me, you run out of time for posters)

 

Expansion possibilities:

-Offer resources on learning preferences/styles, anxiety etc. when students complete math project.

-More statistics! Sample vs. population, survey methods etc.

 

Easily adapted to: Making bar/pie graphs, percents, simple statistics.

 

 

*Yes, I know the research that learning styles aren’t a thing. But for students who’ve always experienced school as a disempowering struggle, thinking about their preferences and the different ways one might learn is still a useful conversation.