Description
I enjoyed this week’s
reading assignment. I teach in a co-taught classroom and it was interesting to
read about memory in Chapter 6: Cognitive Theories of Learning (Slavin,
2015). Several of my students struggle with long term memory and there
were numerous helpful components. In the text, he discusses the importance of
the different types of memory (Slavin, 2015). I teach in a high stakes
grade and it is imperative that my students convert what they are learning into
long term memories. Having strategies can help me become a more effective
teacher.
One huge hurdle I face
every year is gaps from the year before. Is it the teacher, there are no high
stakes test prior to the students coming to me, or is it the student? In order
for them to be successful, I need to be able to build on a strong foundation.
This week’s reading has been insightful in this area.
Analyze
There are times that
the material is not interesting to a third grader. Honestly, at 8-9 years old
do you really care what a plural possessive noun is? It is frustrating,
because I feel that a lot of information is not stored long term, just short
term. The text states,” It has long been known that practice is more likely to
lead to long-term retention when students create something using the new
information, rather than merely rehearsing the existing information” (Slavin,
2015, pg. 141). I strongly believe this as it uses several learning styles at
once and gives the students a chance to be more a part of their learning versus
me just standing up and lecturing. I also feel that by hearing, seeing doing,
the student is more likely to convert the material to long term memory stores.
On pages 149-150 Slavin
discusses activating prior knowledge. This is another area that my
underprivileged students struggle. They lack the life experience. This too is a
gap I try to fill. When I take trips, I take pictures and fill books with them
so the kids can see through my eyes. For example, when teaching government, I
pull out all my pictures of Washington, D.C. and we look at the buildings and
monuments we are discussing. Additionally, I share my thoughts of what it was
like to see it in person. I also try to do virtual field trips. Being able to
expose students to the background knowledge they lack is a yearly struggle and
it really does affect them. We just had high stakes testing scores come back. I
teach in a very rural title one school. There is another school in our county
in an upscale urban area that outperformed everyone. They do not have better
teachers, their students are just exposed more to the world.
Reflection
There are always ways I
can improve as a teacher. Slavin describes long-term memory as having three
parts or pieces, “episodic memory, which stores our memories of personal
experiences; semantic memory, which stores facts and generalized knowledge in
the form of schemata; and procedural memory, which stores knowledge of how to
do things” (2015, pg. 154). I will continue to help my students build their
semantic memories through fieldtrips and shared experiences and I will use
groups, hands on materials, and practice to build procedural memory.
Furthermore, I will work to help my students, especially those with long-term
memory disabilities build their episodic memory using technology and research
tools to gain a deeper understanding of the material. Because of these varying
types of long term memory, I feel that it is important to understand learning
styles and present teaching and learning in a variety of formats, as we
discussed this week in our discussion groups.
Slavin, R. E.
(2015). Educational Psychology: Theory and practice (12th
ed.). New Jersey: Pearson
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