MyNotes: Powerful Teaching

These are my notes on [_**Powerful Teaching**_](https://www.powerfulteaching.org/). 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. I still have a bit more to add to these notes, but since I almost lost my notes (I was playing with [**Dillinger.io**](http://Dillinger.io) Markdown Editor (a great Markdown editor that saves your work to cloud storage of choice, but [**StackEdit**](http://stackedit.io/) remains my favorite) to transcribe my handwritten notes), I decided I’d better post them ASAP.  This was a great book on four powerful teaching strategies. It’s well worth it to master their usage in K-Adult classrooms.  # 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. * It boosts learning by pulling information out of students’ heads (e.g. quizzes/flashcards) * It works by enabling students to practice bringing information forward to remember it better. * Helps students remember what to transfer * Learning strategy, not assessment strategy * Retrieval practice boosts transfer learning * Students do better when they are quizzed versus not quizzed, as much as 13% more. * Provide a mix of fact-based and HOTS retrieval * Multiple choice questions are as, or more effective than short answer questions * Writing down works better than concept mapping for retrieval practice ## Retrieval Practice Activities ### Brain Dumps/Free Recall * Pause lesson, lecture * Write down everything you can remember * Continue lesson * Ask students to swap Brain Dump with a peer. _Then, do a Think-Pair-Share:_ * Is there eanything in common that both of us wrote down? * Anything new that neither of us wrote down? * Any misinformation? * Why do you think you remembered what you did? ### Two Things * Pause lesson * Ask, “What are two things you learned yesterday? Today?” * Ask, “What are two things you’d like to learn more about?” ### Retrieve-Taking * Pause lesson * Students write down what they want to study * Give feedback on what they wrote * Continue with lesson ### Daily MiniQuizzes * Formulate questions * Put clues on slips of paper * Students write down answers * Collect clues * Analayze Mini-Quizzes ### Retrieval Routines #### Colored index cards * Label cards with “A” “B” “C” “D” * Have students hold cards up in response to questions #### Bell work/exit tickets ### Retrieval Guides * Provide students with an outline of your lesson * Read text aloud * Retrieve and write down information in Retrieval Guide * 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 * Provides student opportunity to know what they know, and know what they don’t know * This increases students’ meta-cognition or understanding their learning progress. * Helps students apply knowledge correctly ## Benefits of Strategies Research shows that there are various benefits. These include * Enhance higher order thinking skills and knowledge transfer * Raise student achievement by a letter grade or two * Boosts learning for diverse students and subject areas * Increases use of effective study of strategies out of class * Improves mental organization of knowledge * Increases student engagement and attention * Blocks interfering information * Improves learning of related information * Increases HOTS and transfer learning * Identifies gaps in students’ knowledge * 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