This week we examined the benefits and need for different
instructional methods inside of our classrooms. As instructors we know
that different students learn through different methods. This is somewhat
of a culture shift within the classroom. I (and most of my classmates)
can remember the days of teachers having one or two ways to present information
and it was up to the student to take it in and make it work. I distinctly
remember having teachers in school, all the way back to middle school, who were
going to come in, put up the warm up, use the warm up to begin the instruction,
and proceed to illustrate math problems on an overhead until the joyous sound
of the bell came whistling through the loud speaker. Looking back at the
classes that did that it is obvious what turned me away from mathematics.
Simply watching someone do something over and over again doesn't
necessarily make me better at it. I can watch an instructor do something
repeatedly and as long as the numbers are simply replaced and the process stay
the same I can complete the same task, but I haven't actually learned the
material. Through this method I was never really able to translate that
information into a working model that could be applied to different scenarios,
like advanced equations and especially when graphing was brought into the fold.
For these reasons I find it critical that I present information to my
students through a variety of methods in order for them to learn the material
rather than just watch or hear me do it.
Analyze
The focus of this week's text reading was
on the different functions of memory. Memory comes in several different
forms for our brains, the most noticeable being short term and long term memory.
Short-term memory is defined as "the part of memory in which
information that is currently being thought about is stored" (Slavin,
146). When reading this portion of the text I thought about short-term
memory like "active" memory. Our brains take it in and relate
it to other information and decide where or if to store it into another place
in which we can regain it later. This speaks volumes to us as teachers
because we have to work to make sure our information is relative and engaging
enough for students to store it into long-term memory. This is also where
background knowledge plays a crucial role. If students have or are
exposed to some background knowledge related to material then they will have a
bigger place to store the new information. Long-term memory is where
important information is stored for very long periods of time (Slavin, 149).
The storing of information in this capacity is determined by its
importance and its rehearsal. When things are important, like test
questions or anniversary dates, we tend to store them in long-term so that they
can be remembered. When things have less long-term importance we must use
rehearsal which Slavin refers to as "maintaining an item in working memory
by repetition" (147). This type of application is true for things
that just need to be memorized in order to speed up future operations, like
10-10 times tables.
I recently got a glimpse of my upcoming school year calendar
and I distinctly remember that August 3rd is my our students first day back to
school, this is important to me so it has been stored into long-term memory and
I'm sure that I won't forget it. I enjoy most music that I hear, but I
have to hear songs over and over again to remember all of the lyrics, this is
an example of rehearsal.
Reflect
The implications of the brain and memory
are very important for teachers. As I was reading through the material
and looking at different discussion posts I couldn't help but think about
standardized testing. The school that I am currently teaching in runs off
of periods, seven 50 minute periods per day for the duration of the school year.
What this means is I am tasked with getting kids to remember things from
August to October for a test in May. This combined with the cultural and
personal changes that a high school kid goes through in a school year make
storage in long-term memory a must. As a teacher I cannot afford for any
portion of my material to simply be "working memory" which is where
information is being used and rarely held on to after its use is up, like me
trying to recite what was on last week's grocery list (Slavin, 146). My
instruction has to be filled with background knowledge whether the students
have it or whether I have to present it before teaching. Background
knowledge helps build a "shelf" of sorts for students to put
information on. I teach Social Studies so a big tool that this chapter
showed me I need to lean on is semantic memory. Semantic memory is where
things are stored in little categories; it's what allows us to group the
Declaration of Independence, John Hancock, 1776, and Thomas Jefferson all into one
category. I hope to be able to implement this in a way that will allow my
students to build their knowledge of history rather than simply remember it
while I'm talking about it.
Slavin, R. E. (2012). Educational psychology: Theory and practice. Boston, MA: Pearson.
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