I need to process this

How do people learn? That’s a pretty central question in our line of work.

Sometimes we-as-teachers swear that we taught “The Things” but somehow the kids seem to have No Memory of “The Things” half the time!

Sometimes it looks like the kids are learning -- all quiet, hunched over their papers, writing stuff down -- but really that information went in one ear and out the other.

Sometimes you KNOW that they learned “The Other Thing” -- last year, last week, last period -- but your kids look at you like your’re speaking Hobbitish or Parseltongue when you mention it.

I recently read a quote by a superstar reading coach, Enrique Puig, which said, “New learning is a by-product of social interaction and personal reflection”.

Let’s break that down for a sec.

New Learning -- meaning learning new things, not reviewing old stuff

By-product -- happens as a secondary result. Not the MAIN purpose.

Social Interaction -- the way people talk and act with each other

Personal Reflection -- a written response to a particular stimulus involving self-examination.

So, if we put that back together, it says “new learning happens when we talk together or engage in self examination”

It does NOT say that new learning occurs when we:

• Write the right answers on paper
• Copy the definitions
• Listen to the teacher talk
• Daydream
• Stare at the book

Yes, processing is a real, and often neglected part of learning. It works like this.

1. We input info into people’s brains through reading, listening, watching, looking, experiencing.
2. Kids (and adults) have to process this info in order to make meaning of it, in order for it to “stick”, to make it into longer-term memory.
3. People have to USE that info in some sort of output, like writing or speaking, multiple times.

And that’s an overly-simplified way of examining the learning process.  

So, today, I ask that you examine those three parts.

1. How do students input information into their brains?
2. How do students process information?
3. How do people output the information multiple times?

And can we pay particular attention to #2? Let’s go back to the quote from earlier: “New learning is a by-product of social interaction and personal reflection”  

He’s really discussing the role of processing in learning. Namely, that in order to process information (to move it from short term memory to long term memory) that we have to either 1) Talk it out or 2) reflect using self-examination.

I’m not going to assume that I can visually observe that second one, 2) reflect using self-examination. That happens internally, so it’s hard to see. Maybe students can reflect in writing.

What I can SEE and HEAR is student conversation. Collaboration. Interaction.

Guess what? It’s really hard to know if students are processing content WITHOUT having lots of student conversation.

So try this: try building in time for student interaction -- ABOUT CONTENT. If they’re actually talking about content, then they SHOULD learn more and retain it better. You can just do turn and talks, socratic seminars, debates, small-group discussions, silent conversations, or any number or conversational strategies.

But. Get. Kids. Talking. To. Each. Other. About. Content.

Every day. And they will learn and retain the content better.

Try it. I triple-dog-dare you!

As always, if you need help, ideas, or more info, please email me! newmantr@pcsb.org