The Most Powerful Practice for Academic Growth
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Help students develop a growth mindset with a few simple steps.
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Why and How to Teach Learning Strategies and Self-Reflection about Learning
/As teachers, we have quite a bit of control over how we teach topics to our students, the activities we give them to enhance learning, and the preparation materials we give out before unit tests, midterms, etc. But we don’t have much control over what students do with what we give them as soon as they leave class for the day (and sometimes even in our rooms). Some students seem to know instinctively how to assimilate the new information and skills they learn in class, while others have parents who give them helpful study tips and fill in any blanks in their understanding. But unfortunately, others leave class confused about the topics covered and lack the tools (or the sense of agency) to improve their understanding.
While teaching learning strategies is often left to the realm of special education, in my experience most students benefit from gaining some insight into their own learning habits and practices. In fact, I think teaching kids how to learn is equally if not more important as teaching them what to learn. As a former classroom teacher turned tutor, I’ve realized that by giving kids insight into their own learning process we are setting them up to be able to approach future material confidently and to learn it successfully throughout their lives.
My goal in tutoring is to help students develop skills and habits that eventually make tutoring unnecessary, and I’ve found that one of the most powerful ways to do that is by getting them into the practice of being self reflective about their own learning. And it doesn’t take much in the way of formal teaching; with a series of questions and mostly student-driven discussions students become much more conscious of their approach to learning and about specific strategies that they can use to learn more effectively.
Clearly, one-on-one discussions with students are a great way to help them reflect on their learning, but unfortunately the classroom setting doesn’t give us much one-on-one time. I wanted to find a way to bring this beneficial practice into the classroom, so I’ve created this no-prep student self-evaluation that teachers can use and reuse throughout the year to get students thinking about the way they learn.
Research Backed Learning Strategies
There are also some general principles about learning that are supported by research that we can pass along to students (informally, no lesson required). One is “distributed learning” (aka the spacing effect), meaning that learning is much more effective when studying is broken into smaller chunks over time than when crammed. This is especially helpful for students who have attention difficulties and may feel frustrated or bad about their need to take breaks while studying—the research shows that this is actually a better way to learn!
While old adages about studying may have said “use a familiar and comfortable study spot,” studies have shown that learning is actually enhanced when the surrounding context is varied. This means that studying in different locations, listening to different music or a variety of background noise, and with any other environmental variations can actually be beneficial.
Another learning strategy shown to be extremely effective is testing or “retrieval practice.” After spending some time studying the material, it’s best to put it away and see if we can recall it. Retrieval practice can include a formal in class assessment, or a homework assignment, but quizzing ourselves or having someone else quiz us is a great learning strategy that is supported by many studies. In How We Learn, author Benedict Carrey summarizes what’s been learned from research on retrieval practice in a 1/3 to 2/3 rule: the fastest way to learn something is to spend 1/3 of your time memorizing it and 2/3 of your time reciting it from memory.
Testing is studying, of a different and powerful kind. —Benedict Carrey
I find it helpful to share these types of strategies with students whenever possible, since it can help them make their study time more efficient.
Questions for Learning Self Reflection
Here are some questions that I want my students to be asking themselves in order to become more conscious of their learning habits and strategies. I usually take them through these types of questions a couple of times initially, and then I just remind them to ask themselves periodically.
How did I learn about this topic initially (lecture/presentation, assigned reading, activity, research project, etc.)?
How actively did I participate in the initially learning? What grade would I give myself for my efforts? (paying close attention, taking notes, completing the task well, reading carefully, asking questions, etc. vs zoning out, doing the minimum, skimming/skipping the reading, letting others do the work, etc.)
How much did I learn (as a percentage of what I need to know or be able to do)? What grade would I give my current understanding of the topic?
Could I explain the topic thoroughly to someone who knows nothing about it? Could I show someone step by step how to solve this type of problem or complete this task successfully?
What methods usually work best for me to learn something new?
What tools, resources, and practices can I use to get my knowledge/skill set to 100% with this topic?
Steps for Learning Self-Evaluation
Here are some steps to take students through in order to help them evaluate their own understanding of a topic. These can be used in any subject area.
Identify the topic as specifically as possible.
State what we know, what we don’t know, and what we need to know, keeping in mind that as we proceed we may uncover more aspects of the topic that we don’t know about
Identify the learning method: lecture with slides? Assigned reading? Research project? Informational video? Etc.
identify other learning methods/tools/resources that might be helpful or have been helpful in the past: asking the teacher for help, asking a friend, watching a video online, reading more online, rewriting my notes, doing additional practice, etc
Evaluate how much we know now: 50%? 75%? 100%? Etc.
Repeat the steps until understanding is at or near 100%.
Incorporate Learning Self-Reflections in the Classroom
I think self-reflection is one of the most important practices that we can pass along to students. Becoming more reflective about our own learning habits and strategies, as well as taking ownership over our learning, is a lifelong skill with so many benefits. I’ve created a resource that can be used with students in grades 6+ in any subject area for this purpose. It has three different self-evaluations: pre-semester, pre-assessment (to be used at the end of a unit but prior to a unit test), and post-assessment (for students to reflect on their learning during the unit and their preparation for and performance on the unit test).
Click on the photo below to get this resource and please let me know what you think about teaching learning strategies and self-reflection about learning!
7 Common Issues Shared by Struggling Writers
/The importance of good writing skills can’t be understated. While in some respects media and technology advances have changed the way we write (e.g., the prevalence of short statements as in tweets and social media captions, etc.), writing remains a fundamental form of human expression and transmission of ideas.
Despite educators’ best efforts, however, research indicates that a troubling percentage of students graduate from high school with poor writing skills and/or unprepared to write at a college level. Recent studies have shown that up to 3/4 of students across different grade levels lack proficiency in writing.
As teachers we know how difficult it can be to improve students’ writing skills. After all, there is so much that goes into good writing! And just as poor writing skills didn’t develop overnight, strong writing skills take time to develop.
Before looking at some research backed methods for helping students become better writers (in a separate post), I’d like to share some of the patterns and tendencies I’ve noticed in working with struggling writers over the years, both as a former classroom teacher and now tutor.
Struggling writers often lack critical reading skills.
When asked to state the main idea of passage, describe its structure, analyze the development of an argument or theme, etc., struggling writers tend to give vague or unclear responses that are loosely supported by the text. It’s not surprising given that the same skills involved in good, logical, cohesive writing are required for analytical and critical reading. While reading and writing skills don’t go hand in hand 100% of the time, there is a large enough overlap that a weakness in one area typically predicts a weakness in the other.
2. Struggling writers tend to lack understanding of grammar concepts.
These students may not be able to avoid using run-on sentences, for example, because they don’t actually understand what an independent clause/complete thought is. They might not understand on a fundamental level the role of the different parts of speech in a sentence. They might see that they’re getting marked off for the same things over and over again, but they aren’t able to make the connection and master the grammatical concepts involved.
3. Struggling writers often have a hard time editing their writing and/or the writing of others.
These students tend not to read with an eye to detail and, as a result, they often miss all but the most glaring errors. Even when told that there are remaining punctuation issues, for example, they may be unable to find the errors.
4. Struggling writers typically have a hard time identifying or creating a logical sequence of ideas.
It is often not obvious to struggling writers that the order of ideas has a huge impact on the coherence of a text. They tend to view ideas and information as discrete, somewhat related pieces rather than as part of an overall logical flow. When we point out a lack of logical sequencing or organization, they really don’t understand on a fundamental level why a particular sequence of thoughts makes more sense than another.
5. Struggling writers often lack a strong vocabulary.
These students tend to have a limited working vocabulary, a poor understanding of the nuance and connotation differences between words, or both. They may be able to define a word but be unable to use it effectively in an appropriate context. They also tend to be repetitive in their word choice and unaware of redundancies in their writing. If asked to restate an idea in different words, for example, they often struggle to do so.
6. Struggling writers don’t effectively use pre-writing strategies. Alternatively, they may have great difficulty in starting a piece of writing.
One of the biggest tendencies that I notice in the students who struggle with writing is that they usually don’t plan or outline their writing in advance. While some excellent writers can produce great essays without much advance planning, the majority of struggling writers start writing without an effective plan for organization and structure. They tend to resist the planning process unless it is made a mandatory part of the writing assignment (an outline required to be submitted, for example).
On the flip side, struggling writers may remain “stuck” in thinking about their writing assignments. They may have difficulty with writing fluency and knowing how to effectively start a piece of writing without significant prompting.
7. Struggling writers are generally not avid readers.
These students, more often than not, read very little, if anything, outside of what they’re assigned. With the prevalence of sites like Cliffnotes and Sparknotes, many reluctant readers scrape by without even reading assigned texts at all. (For better or worse, kids often tell me, their tutor, about the “shortcuts” they take.) They largely view reading as a task rather than a joy.
There are exceptions to all of the above, of course, and some struggling writers may have only one or two of these issues. In another post, I’ll address the methods I’ve found most effective in helping struggling writers.
Please let me know if you’ve noticed these or other issues with your struggling student writers!
