These are my notes on Powerful Teaching. I’d like to say I finished the book, but I only made it 3/4ths of the way through before I ran out of time. I may add more content below, but these are my big take-aways.
This was a great book on four powerful teaching strategies. It’s well worth it to master their usage in K-Adult classrooms. Be sure to view the companion website to the book.
Four Powerful Teaching Strategies
There are four powerful strategies that boost student learning. These include the following:
1-Retrieval Practice
This strategy occurs when learners recall and apply multiple examples of previously learned knowledge or skills after a period of forgetting.
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It boosts learning by pulling information out of students’ heads (e.g. quizzes/flashcards)
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It works by enabling students to practice bringing information forward to remember it better.
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Helps students remember what to transfer
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Learning strategy, not assessment strategy
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Retrieval practice boosts transfer learning
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Students do better when they are quizzed versus not quizzed, as much as 13% more.
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Provide a mix of fact-based and HOTS retrieval
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Multiple choice questions are as, or more effective than short answer questions
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Writing down works better than concept mapping for retrieval practice
Retrieval Practice Activities
Brain Dumps/Free Recall
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Pause lesson, lecture
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Write down everything you can remember
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Continue lesson
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Ask students to swap Brain Dump with a peer.
Then, do a Think-Pair-Share:
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Is there eanything in common that both of us wrote down?
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Anything new that neither of us wrote down?
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Any misinformation?
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Why do you think you remembered what you did?
Two Things
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Pause lesson
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Ask, “What are two things you learned yesterday? Today?”
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Ask, “What are two things you’d like to learn more about?”
Retrieve-Taking
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Pause lesson
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Students write down what they want to study
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Give feedback on what they wrote
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Continue with lesson
Daily MiniQuizzes
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Formulate questions
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Put clues on slips of paper
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Students write down answers
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Collect clues
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Analayze Mini-Quizzes
Retrieval Routines
Colored index cards
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Label cards with “A” “B” “C” “D”
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Have students hold cards up in response to questions
Bell work/exit tickets
Retrieval Guides
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Provide students with an outline of your lesson
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Read text aloud
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Retrieve and write down information in Retrieval Guide
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Think-Pair-Share
2-Spaced Practice or spacing
Boosts learning by spreading lessons and retrieval opportunities over time so learning isn’t crammed all at once.
3-Interleaving
Mixes up related topics and encourages discrimination.
4-Feedback
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Provides student opportunity to know what they know, and know what they don’t know
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This increases students’ meta-cognition or understanding their learning progress.
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Helps students apply knowledge correctly
Benefits of Strategies
Research shows that there are various benefits. These include
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Enhance higher order thinking skills and knowledge transfer
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Raise student achievement by a letter grade or two
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Boosts learning for diverse students and subject areas
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Increases use of effective study of strategies out of class
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Improves mental organization of knowledge
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Increases student engagement and attention
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Blocks interfering information
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Improves learning of related information
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Increases HOTS and transfer learning
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Identifies gaps in students’ knowledge
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Increases meta-cognition and awareness of learning
Stages of Learning
There are several stages of learning. These include the following:
1-Encoding
When we meet information for the first time, or initially learn something.
2-Storage
Keeping encoded information and how long it is retained.
3-Retrieval
When we reach back and bring out of our minds the information we previously learned. When we access information and bring it to mind.
Connections
Social-Emotional Learning
- Investigates how we interact with the world around us, or what happens outside our heads.
Cognitive Science/Psychology
- Behind the scene behavior in our heads or invisible behavior
