Methods To Assist College students Retain What You Taught Them

by Terry Heick

Reflection is a pure a part of studying.

All of us take into consideration new experiences–the tenting on the automobile journey residence, the errors made in a recreation, or the feelings felt whereas ending a long-term undertaking that’s taken months to finish.

Beneath I’ve shared 15 methods for college students to replicate on their studying. Modeling the usage of every up entrance can go a good distance in direction of ensuring you get the standard of labor you’d prefer to see all year long–and college students study extra within the course of.

15 Reflection Methods To Assist College students Retain What You Simply Taught Them

1. Pair-Share

Pair-share is a traditional studying technique the place college students are paired, after which verbally ‘share’ one thing that may assist them study new content material, deepen understanding, or evaluation what they already know. It may also be used as a fast and soiled evaluation instrument, because the conversations usually replicate a degree of understanding the instructor can use gauge mastery and plan additional instruction.

2. Sentence Stem-based responses

Sentence stems are nice as a result of they’re like coaching wheels–or to combine a metaphor, instruments to teach college students into considering and talking in sure patterns. For instance, you’ll be able to implore college students to ‘suppose critically,’ but when they don’t have even the fundamental phrasing of important considering (e.g., ‘That is vital as a result of…’), important considering will probably be past their attain.

You may as well see our sentence stems for important considering right here for different examples (you don’t have to purchase the supplies to see the samples).

3. Layered Textual content

Layered textual content is one thing I’ve meant to put in writing about for years and by no means have. A layered textual content is a digital doc that’s crammed with hyperlinks that talk, properly, absolutely anything: Questions college students have, alternatives for additional inquiry, odd references and allusions that replicate the schema college students use to make that means, and so forth. (Rap Genius does a model of this.)

By including ‘layers’ of that means to a textual content by means of significant hyperlinking, college students can replicate again on something, from a pre-assessment journal entry that demonstrated their lack of know-how, to a form of ‘marking up’ of what they realized when, and from the place.

4. Tweet

140 characters forces college students to replicate fast and to the purpose–nice for temporary bursts of reflection or hesitant writers who would wrestle to put in writing significant journal entries or essays. In actual fact, you’ll be able to mix twitter with #6 for twitter exit slips.

5. 3-2-1

3-2-1 is a tried-and-true solution to body something from a pair-share or journal entry (e.g., ask college students to put in writing 3 issues they suppose they know, 2 issues they know they don’t know, and one factor they’re sure of a couple of subject) pre-assessment to a post-assessment (e.g., record 3 ways your essay mirrored mastery of ability X, two methods ability Y nonetheless wants enhancing, and a technique you can also make your argument stronger within the subsequent 5 minutes) to a mirrored image of the post-assessment.

Learn extra about utilizing the 3-2-1 format for important considering.

6. Exit Slips

Whether or not you name them exit slips or exit tickets, asking college students to briefly go away behind some residue of studying–a thought, a definition, a query–is a robust educating technique. In actual fact, ‘exit-slip educating’ actually drives how I exploit knowledge within the classroom. Asking college students to drop some little bit of reflection of the educational course of on a chair by the door on the best way out is a no brainer.

Some examples?

How did you reply emotionally to one thing you struggled with right now? What did you discover most stunning about _____? How did your understanding of _______ change right now? What about _____ nonetheless confuses you or makes your curious?

7. Write-Round

I like write-arounds–simple methods for college students to put in writing asynchronously and collaboratively. And the writing fragments college students use don’t must be prose–sure key vocabulary and phrases might help college students replicate, however most significantly in a write-around, assist college students studying from each other as every scholar is ready to learn different responses earlier than creating theirs.

8. Sketch

Whether or not by sketch-notes or doodles, permitting college students to attract what they suppose they know, how they imagine their studying has modified, or some form of metaphorical pathway in direction of deeper understanding is a good studying technique for college students that have a tendency in direction of artistic expression, and a non-threatening method for struggling college students to not less than write one thing down on paper you should use to gauge perceive and plan your (their) subsequent step.

9. Podcast

Via podcasting as a reflecting technique, college students will speak about their studying whereas recording. If you wish to hold it ‘closed-circuit’ (not printed), or truly push it to a public viewers of some variety relies on the educational and college students and privateness points and so forth.

This may also be merely an audio file recorded and uploaded to a non-public YouTube channel that’s shared with lecturers or dad and mom.

10. Brainstorming

Brainstorming might be an efficient reflection technique as a result of it disarms points with different approaches. For hesitant writers, journaling could not work as a result of the writing course of may overwhelm the educational. Podcasting could not work for shy college students, Pair-Share could not work properly if college students are paired successfully, and so forth.

Brainstorming is far easier. College students may take an allotted time to put in writing down every little thing they bear in mind a couple of subject. Or, they may brainstorm questions they nonetheless have (issues they’re confused or inquisitive about). They may even brainstorm how what what they realized actually connects with what they already know by creating an idea map.

11. Jigsawing

Jigsawing is a grouping technique the place a job, idea, or one thing ‘bigger’ is damaged down into small puzzles items, and college students in teams analyze the small puzzle piece, then share out to create the puzzle at massive. Utilizing this method for reflection is seamless: Amongst different approaches, you’ll be able to immediate college students in teams to assemble and share questions they’ve (you might group by readiness/means, for instance) in teams, after which select one query that they weren’t capable of reply amongst themselves with the entire class (anonymously–nobody has to know who wrote the query).

12. Prezi

Consider a cross between a sketch, collage, and presentation, and you’ve got a prezi. Participating–although distracting and overwhelming if the reflection you want is minor–reflection instrument that enables college students to create an artifact of studying for his or her digital portfolios.

13. Vlog

This reflection technique is near ‘Podcasting’ and even has one thing in widespread with pair-sharing. By reflecting by means of vlog’ing, college students merely speak about their studying to a digicam.

This method would achieve success for college students that love speaking to a digicam, however much less so for others (who, if they’ve to speak in any respect about their studying, could choose podcasting–or just recording audio recordsdata which can be by no means printed.

14. Collage

You can do a standard collage of studying reflections, however a multimedia collage can be potential–possibly a sketchnote with a voiceover recorded as a YouTube video to share as a fast presentation with the category (or absent college students).

15. Journaling

The College of Missouri-St Louis affords 3 sorts of journals that exhibit the completely different prospects of the in any other case vanilla-sounding ‘journaling.’

1. Private Journal – College students will write freely about their expertise. That is normally achieved weekly. These private journals could also be submitted periodically to the teacher, or saved as a reference to make use of on the finish of the expertise when placing collectively an instructional essay reflecting their expertise. (Hatcher 1996)

2. Dialogue Journal – College students submit loose-leaf pages from a dialogue journal bi-weekly (or in any other case at acceptable intervals) for the teacher to learn and touch upon. Whereas labor intensive for the teacher, this could present continuous suggestions to college students and immediate new questions for college students to contemplate in the course of the semester. (Goldsmith, 1995)

3. Highlighted Journal – Earlier than college students submit the reflective journal, they reread private entries and, utilizing a highlighter, mark sections of the journal that straight relate to ideas mentioned within the textual content or in school. This makes it simpler for the teacher to establish the coed to replicate on their expertise in mild in fact content material. (Gary Hesser, Augsberg Faculty)

15 Methods For College students To Replicate On Their Studying; picture attribution Flickr person woodleywonderworks