Chapter 6: Brains are the real MVP

How do we get children to want to learn? This is a huge question for all educators. How can I trick a student into wanting to learn about something that might take an immense amount of mental effort? This really sat with me as I read this week’s chapter. My own son struggles in school and has often found it boring, meaningless, and altogether hard to remember when tons of facts are involved. As a teacher I regularly think about being in his shoes or my struggling students’ shoes. How can I make them want to learn this material? How can I make them remember this material so that they can master the standard? 

From the reading I learned that first, you must have the students engaged so that they will pay attention to the content you are covering. You must also present the proper amount of material for your students. Students should not be bombarded with unnecessary information. Have students focus on what you are really wanting them to learn in digestible bits. How can teachers do this? The element of surprise. To get students’ brains awakened and engaged in learning, teachers must make an effort to keep students asking themselves, “What are we going to do today?” I find myself doing this as I plan lessons. It really made me feel as though I am doing something right as I teach my students.  Most of my students despise reading, but by keeping them engaged with different activities such as songs, “teaching assistants”, video clips to give students background knowledge, and more I feel as though I am doing something right! One thing I feel that I really need to improve on is making this intentional, I need to really focus on those standards that students struggle with and make sure I am more intentional with engagement pieces to make sure they are paying attention to the material. 

Activating short term memory is also very important. One way we can memorize something according to the text is to recite something over and over. One way I have implemented this in my classroom is through songs. Every time we rotate during our center rotations, we sing the song of the week, which is generally a familiar tune they know but reminds them of the skill or signal words they need to know during that week’s instruction. During math centers I have also implemented this by counting by whichever math fact family we happen to be working on. This helps students to memorize and hopefully move the facts to their long term memory. Organizing material is another great strategy. I’m not sure why I have never thought of this strategy! As an adult I do this constantly with things I need to get done for the day and break it into categories-morning, afternoon, night. This would definitely be another great strategy for me to implement in my classroom this fall. 

When students are getting concepts mixed up, as a teacher I need to remember to stop and reflect. An important question I need to keep in the back of my mind is, “Have they had enough time rehearsing?” I feel as though we, as teachers, often are on a timeline that we can not stop and reflect on our teaching. We can’t fall behind because we have a pacing guide we must keep up with. I think taking the time to stop and think about if my students have truly had enough rehearsal will be hugely beneficial. I believe this will help students develop automaticity. 

No matter how a brain functions and how my students learn best, it is my job as their teacher to make sure that I teach them how to learn. How can I do this? Present new topics in an organized way, help activate their prior knowledge, make my lessons memorable and meaningful for students, and give them the tools they need to study. I need to be intentional in my planning and really think about how students learn new information and how I can make it easier for them to learn.