Ideas in Education: 7 Ways to Ensure Your Students Become Good Learners
Something most of you probably don’t know about me is that I have a learning disability. It’s most evident when it comes to working memory and verbal processing. If you were to tell me your phone number is 540-981-2540, I wouldn’t be able to recite it back to you and there’s no chance I’d be able to memorize it. I love baseball, but I can only recite a a couple of players’ numbers--Cal Ripken was number 8, Eddie Murray wore 33, but beyond that, I’m not sure I could tell you any other Baltimore Orioles’ number--and my daughter is named Camden after Oriole Park at Camden Yards! Poetry, especially memorization of poetry, are the bane of my existence. In high school we had to memorize 30-60 lines of poetry, despite hours of practice and using every memorization technique possible, I couldn’t get past 20 lines. I tried theater once; it was embarrassing, and I relegated myself to stage crew.
As a result of my learning disability, in many classes I wasn’t a good learner. I was motivated to do well and fortunately I was often able to compensate for my deficiencies. The thing is though, you don’t have to have a learning disability to be at a disadvantage, and this leads me to the need for differentiation of instruction and strategies to build learning and reasoning skills.
Like many students, when it came to learning in class, I was just trying to stay afloat. What were we just told? Do I need to memorize that? I already forgot it. Oh shoot, what’s going on now? I wasn’t a good learner. Often I got caught in the minutiae. Other times I felt like I was caught inside waves grinding against the shoreline, unable to figure out which way was up.
We all have students who are motivated to learn but aren’t good learners.
The good learner is constantly thinking, I wonder if...How can that be used? What if...The good learner sees meaning, applies reason and thinks deeply without supports or scaffolds. Theay are more adept at making connections and possess habits of mind that enable learning. Good learners, whose academic success is not to be solely attributed to intelligence, possess skills and habits that enable higher order reasoning.
I desperately wanted to be a good learner. But, the cognitive load for me was often too much. Below are seven ways to differentiate and help all students become good learners.
- Assume everyone wants to be a good learner.
- Ensure students understand the learning target, how they are going to be assessed and why this is important. For good learners this often is clear, and they will periodically self-assess themselves in relation to the learning target. For other students, it’s important they understand what they are working towards and why they are working towards that goal. By providing opportunities for self-assessment and feedback, students will be able to increase their ability to self-identify I’m working towards this...Right now I can...Next I need to...
- Create learning tasks that lighten the cognitive load. For some students, this might be providing them with notes; for others it might be a graphic organizer or providing information in multiple formats. Avoid excessive teacher talk, tangents and non-germane additions to the lesson.
- Structure the learning around principles that can be widely applied in your subject and so that learning builds on these principles.
- Start off with the basics and build upon them. Provide students opportunities to be active in their own learning. Chunking assignments and scaffolding create opportunities for practice increasing student familiarity. This, in turn, helps students see patterns and builds their ability to memorize and learn.
- Make use of active and reasoning tasks to create deeper learning opportunities for students through scaffolding. What can you do to first help the student understands? Once the student understands, how can you make sure they are able to reproduce or produce?
- Use a variety of means to assess students. As you assess a student’s depth of understanding, recognize that his/her understanding may be higher than it appears because of factors such as motivation or poor skills that are not being assessed. For example, a student might understand the dynamics of immigration and be able to relate it to other concepts, but because the assignment required writing an opinion piece--and the student is a poor writer or unmotivated to write--it will be harder to assess that student’s relational knowledge.
What are some strategies that you use to help your students become good learners?
Can you think of some students in your class who are intelligent but might not be considered good learners and as a result are experiencing difficulties?
What separates good learners from poor learners?
Important Dates and Information
April 12: Nolan’s Story
- In preparation for prom, spring weather, graduation, etc. we’re bringing back Nolan’s story and Nolan’s mother Anita Brockette’s powerful presentation.
- It is for juniors and seniors. Teachers of junior and senior classes, please attend with your classes and have students fill-in from front to back. Please remind your students that this is a powerful and sensitive message that takes incredible courage to tell. Encourage them to be respectful by paying attention, keeping cell phones away, etc.
- It requires a modification to Friday’s schedule.
- More about it here
Nolan’s Story
Only 1A and 1B schedule are changed
No Clubs
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0 Period: 7:40-8:40
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1A: 8:55-9:50
9:20: 11th and 12th graders called to auditorium.
9:30-10:20: Nolan’s Story (times are approximate; announcement will be made when juniors and seniors return to class)
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1B: 9:55-10:46
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2A: 10:51-12:16
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2B: 12:21-12:59
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3A: 1:04-1:42
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3B: 1:47-2:25
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4A: 2:30-3:08
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4B: 3:13-3:50
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Mustang Morning: Thank you to all who created Mustang Morning sessions and rosters for your students. Students with D’s and F’s were assigned to the appropriate Mustang Mornings. This was based on current 3rd quarter grades. These were copied forward until the end of the year.
- If a student does not need to be assigned any more, he/she will need to be deleted individually from each session.
- Honor society sponsors or others who have occasional meetings, please populate your sessions.
- Please remember to have students sign up for their Mustang Morning sessions on Monday during 1A. Please check to ensure all students do so.
April 8 from 11:30-1: ACPS technology department is seeking feedback and ideas from students and educators about technology and learning. Members of LEAD’s leadership team will be here to have these conversations. If you’re not able to stop by during this time or you have a concern or question you would like addressed, please email John Mitchem or me.
April 12 (9am): Potential Senior Failure Form Due This form will enable school counselors and administrators to support your efforts to get our seniors across the stage. We ask that all teachers complete this form even if you don’t have any seniors in jeopardy of failing.
Prom April 13: Ms. Stott is looking for chaperones and supervision help. There are 2 shifts: 8-9:30 and 9:30-11. Areas needed: ticket check, bathroom supervision, outside areas, parking lot. This year’s prom is at the Holiday Inn on Emmet St.
Field Trips, Performances, SOLs
April 9: Tom Tom Festival
April 10: Environmental Science Rivanna River
April 18-21: Band trip
April 19-20: Orchestra Trip
April 15-19: VPT (Virginia Placement Test/PVCC)
April 25: PVCC Onsite Admissions
April 10: Spring Band Concert @7
April 11: Salmagundi @7
April 15: Orchestra Concert @8
April 16: Choir Concert
Birthdays
April 7: Shannon Mound
April 9: Ashley Roberts
April 11: Shannon Deegan, Laura Gaskins
April 12: Mike Parsons
Useful Information
Bell Schedules : http://bit.ly/MOHSbells
Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm
We’ve got something new! Want something included on the Monticello Outlook Calendar, the Monticello website, in the PowerSchool Daily Bulletin, or the student newsletter (viewed by parents, students and staff)? Please use this link https://goo.gl/forms/bIjfJLKokWPcEHx33
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