WARM-UP

1. WARM-UP On your index card, answer the questions below: • How do you introduce new vocabulary? • What is the first assignment or activity you ask your students to do with the vocabulary? • How do you review and assess this vocabulary? Once finished, turn face down.

2. Making It Sticky Elena Wigelsworth and Myra Johnsonwigelsworthe@duvalschools.orgjohnsonm12@duvalschools.org Florida Foreign Language Association Annual Conference Friday, October 13, 2017

3. BRIAN & the BRAIN Hey Brain, can you tell me what this word means? Nope.

4. BRIAN & the BRAIN What? Why not?! Are you kidding me? I threw that out a long time ago.

5. BRIAN & the BRAIN But, you know I’m taking a test right now and it is really important that I know that. Yeah, but Ms. Johnson—or YOU I might add—has never asked us to remember this on our own since the day she taught it.

6. BRIAN & the BRAIN Ok, but I DID read over my notes last night and Ms. Johnson did that review where she went over everything on the test. How can you bail on me right now?

7. BRIAN & the BRAIN Look, Brian, I hate to break it to you, especially since you’re in the middle of a test, but I don’t work that way. I only remember what’s important, and I only DEEM something important if you actually ask me to remember it on my own.

8. Raise your hand if… …you’ve ever said or heard anyone say something to the effect of, “How is that they don’t know this yet? We’ve spent over two weeks on it.” OR …you or anyone you know has ever gotten upset or frustrated while grading exams.

9. OBJECTIVES By the end of this workshop, you will be able to: • Understand that familiarity with content DOES NOT equal mastery. • Understand the process of how memory works and how it relates to the objective of remembering. • Purposely design assessments to help students learn and remember. • Create opportunities for your students to receive enough comprehensible input to acquire new vocabulary in context. • Review the activities you use in the classroom to determine whether they actually help students develop “recall-ability.”

10. BRAIN SCIENCE • As you learn new information, neurons—your brain cells that look like this—fire off to store the information in an actual physical location in your brain. • Your brain’s neurons are constantly firing. • Your brain is constantly creating memories, but it is also forgetting them as well. • Forgetting is a natural process.

11. BRAIN SCIENCE • When you go to sleep at night, your brain enters into a process called consolidation. • Consolidation is essentially a tidying up of your memories, where they are maintained, strengthened, and moved into long-term storage—very much like the movie Inside Out. • It is also where weak and unused memories fade away. • Use it or lose it.

12. BRAIN SCIENCE • Today, we are going to be sharing with you some science-based truths about how to make your memories stickier. • Recall • Interleaved/Varied Practice • Types of Reflection • Repetitions in context • Mixing info with Stories, the Unexpected, and Emotion

13. Mini-Assessment Write a one-sentence summary on how memory works. 2 minutes

14. Some background…

15. *RECALL “Rereading text and massed practice of a skill or new knowledge are by far the preferred study strategies of learners of all stripes, but they’re also among the least productive.” – Make It Stick

16. RECALL What is it? Recall is what the brain does every time we remember something, such as a small fact or a complex skill. How does it work? Science has found that just the process of recalling something strengthens the ability to recall it again.

17. RECALL: Frequent Formative Assessment • Assessment is more than just a way to know how much your students remember, it is a powerful tool in actually helping your students remember. • Exposure or familiarity with a topic is not mastery. • You have to ask them to retrieve the information on their own as often as you can.

18. Mini-Assessment Turn and Teach Explain the importance of frequent formative assessment.2 minutes

19. RECALL: Spaced Practice 2-2-2 • Spaced practice is when time has passed between recalling information. • 2-2-2 Rule “The increased effort required to retrieve the learning after a little forgetting has the effect of retriggering consolidation, further strengthening memory.” – Make It Stick

20. Mini-Assessment Think – Pair – Share Think about a particular concept you are teaching now and how you will plan for spaced practice to help students recall it throughout the year. (2 minutes) Pair up and discuss your plan with a partner. (5 minutes) Share your best idea with the group.

21. RECALL: Strategies • Low-stakes quizzing • Self-grading, completion grade • Turn and Teach / Think Pair Share • Throwback Thursday/Fallback Friday • Quick formative assessments • Up/Down Listening • Personal whiteboard answers • Multiple Choice Gesture Quiz • Quizlet.Live, Kahoot, Plickers (tech) • The other great ideas at this conference!

22. RECALL “To be most effective, retrieval must be repeated again and again, in spaced out sessions so that the recall, rather than becoming a mindless recitation, requires some cognitive effort.” – Make It Stick What this means for you: Every lesson MUST have some kind of assessment where the students are asked to recall content on their own.

23. *Superhero: RECALL “…the neural pathways that make up a body of learning get stronger when the memory is retrieved and the learning is practiced.” – Make It Stick

24. Mini-Assessment List 5 things you have learned. 2 minutes

25. INTERLEAVED/VARIED PRACTICE What is it? Interleaved or varied practice is a form of spaced practice where two or more subjects are practiced in a sequence that is mixed. How does it work? Again, science says that when recall takesmore effort, memories are strengthened,but in this case, the brain is also learning to discriminate between different subjects. IVy

26. INTERLEAVED/VARIED: Strategies After you have taught a few new vocabulary words or cultural content, have students practice them in a mixed sequence. What this means for you: Learning this way feels slower and morefrustrating, however, the research showsunequivocally that mastery and long-termretention are much better if you interleavepractice than if you block it. IVy

27. *Superhero: IVy “When you space out practice at a task and get a little rusty between sessions, or you interleave the practice of two or more subjects, retrieval is harder and feels less productive, but the effort produces longer-lasting learning and enables more versatile application of it in later settings.” – Make It Stick IVy

28. Application of Recall and Ivy • The practice of recall is not just for data or bits of new information, such as memorizing vocabulary words out of context. It applies to recalling skills as well. • Specifically for world languages, it applies to THE four skills of: • Listening • Reading • Writing • Speaking

29. Application of Recall and Ivy • Building our students’ recall-ability in the four skills requires them to eventually practice these skills on their own. • If we want them to understand the spoken language, we must provide endless opportunities for them to listen. • If we want them to understand the written language, there must be endless opportunities for them to read. • If we want them to be able to communicatemeaningful messages in the language, we must provide them with endless opportunities to write and speak. ON THEIR OWN

30. Modes of Communication As teachers of world languages, it is about sequencing our students’ learning in a way that builds on the four skills within the three modes: • Interpretive Mode (Input) • Listening and Reading • Presentational Mode (Output) • Speaking and Writing • Interpersonal Mode (Input-Output) • Listening-Speaking or Reading-Writing • Spontaneous, not scripted • Provides opportunity for negotiation of meaning

31. Mini-Assessment Multiple Choice Gesture Quiz Hold your hand in front of your chest and indicate a, b and c using 1, 2 and 3 fingers.

32. Mini-Assessment 1. What is an example of interleaved/varied practice? A. The teacher reviews the practice test at the end of the chapter that is divided into sections: vocab, grammar, culture. B. The teacher gives an exit ticket based on the three topics introduced that day and mixes the questions. C.The teacher gives an open-book quiz.

33. Mini-Assessment 2. The following are examples of what? Throwback Thursday Turn and Teach Low-stakes Quiz A. Interleaved practice B. Varied practice C.Recall

34. Mini-Assessment 3. Fill in the blank: ______________ is a natural process that needs to be arrested for memories to stick. A. Recall B. Assessment C.Forgetting

35. Mini-Assessment 4. What are the skills used in the Interpretive Mode? A. Listening and Writing B. Listening and Reading C.Reading and Speaking

36. Mini-Assessment 5. Identify the practice sequence that is interleaved/varied: A. BACACBCAB B. AAAAAAAAA C.AAABBBCCC

37. Mini-Assessment 6. It takes a lot of ______________ before output can take place. A. Comprehensible input B. Presentational Mode C. Assessment

38. Brain Break 10 minutes

39. BRIAN & the BRAIN So Brian, let me tell you a little bit about how I work… Let’s say that your head is a house. Um…Is this going to take a long time? I feel like you’re working too hard. Is it time for a break yet? Do you need a break?

40. BRIAN & the BRAIN No, no, I’m alright. I can go a lot longer than you think I can or that you tell your teachers. So back to this house analogy…

41. BRIAN & the BRAIN When you learn something, information is passed through the door. Think of information as stuff you keep bringing into the house and think of me as your housekeeper. I don’t mind that you bring stuff in that you actually use—that keeps me busy—but you know what I do with all the stuff you don’t use? I just it throw out.

42. BRIAN & the BRAIN Oh, you mean like that word on this test? Yep. Thrown out.

43. BRIAN & the BRAIN Hmm, how can I keep you from doing that?

44. BRIAN & the BRAIN Well, every time you ask me to go get something, on my own, it gets easier for me to find it. And that could be anything. It could be information like your phone number or skills like how to ride a bike. And whenever I’m just starting to forget and you ask me to find it again, then just by it being harder for me makes me remember it even more.

45. BRIAN & the BRAIN Oh, wow, I think I’m beginning to understand you. Yeah, I can feel it.

46. BRIAN & the BRAIN Another thing to understand is that your house has a bunch of rooms in it. When you ask me to find stuff in one room and then you ask me to find something in another room, and then another, it helps me become more adept at not only finding the stuff in these rooms, but also differentiating among the rooms. That’s a higher order request, and I get stronger because of it.

47. BRIAN & the BRAIN So, when I’m mixing up my practice, it helps you? Yes, exactly.

48. REFLECTION What is it? Reflection is the process of reviewing your memories. Reflection can take place before, during, and after learning new information. How does it work? Reflection is recall +. Remember, every time the brain recalls a memory, the ability to recall it gets stronger. Every time you access a memory you have the opportunity to enhance it or deepen your understanding of it as well as the ability to use it in other contexts.

49. REFLECTION: Elaboration What is it? Elaboration is when students connect new learning to background knowledge. It is simply easier to recall a new memory that has connections to older memories. Strategies for student learning: • Turn-and-Teach • Explain how it relates to life outside of class • Think of a metaphor/analogy to represent a new concept • Use graphic organizers like concept mapping or mind mapping • The K in KWL charts and many other organizers • Target new vocabulary by surrounding it with old vocabulary.

50. REFLECTION: Calibration What is it? Calibration is using an objective instrument such as a practice test to verify what is known and not known. It saves students from mistaking familiarity with mastery. Strategies for student learning: • Give a practice test with students treating it as if it were real and then self-grading it to verify what they know/don’t know • Have them track their mastery through “I can” statements • Standards-based grading • Many, many formative assessments