Brain-based strategies for enhancing retention

Brain-Based Teaching Strategies that Support

Long-Term Retention

Parietal Lobe: integrates sensory information; supports auditory and spatial awareness/processing;helps mediate attention

Frontal lobe: systems that support the functions of encoding and retrieval; houses executive function (prefrontal cortex)

Temporal Lobe: receives sensory information; temporary memory storage;supports memory recognition

Occipital Lobe: center of visual perception; process and organizes visual information

Working & short-term

memory

Short-term, working & long-term

memory

Hippocampus and Amygdala

Activation to Transformation

Short-term memory:

Initial registration of information

Working memory:

Where information is held and

manipulated

Long-term memory:

Storage system which impacts retrieval

Information Processing

Consolidation

Encoding Consolidation Retrieval

Requires attention(front lobe/prefrontal cortex)

When memories become more stable; converted from short- to long-term memory

If memories are strong; mostly automatic

Hippocampus dependentSensory perception must occur(temporal lobe)

Long-term memories are temporarily stored in the hippocampus

Hippocampus involved again!Reintegrates information we have moved to LTM- specifically episodic memory

Long-term memory dependent on encodingSTM and WM deficits reduce encoding opportunities

Over time and with sleep, memories are transferred to permanent storage

Frontal lobe (prefrontal cortex) is involved: 1. focus on what needs to be retrieved2. Supports reasoning of reconstruction

How Memories are Processed & Stored

•Memories are impacted by personal and emotional association with new information (be it emotional, physical, etc…)•Memories are formed based on brain activation of association•Memories become networks of interconnected concepts with links between associated items

Key Idea: Memories end up being stored in same areas that sensed, perceived, and processed information.

Affective Strategies Before Instructional Strategies

• Memories are impacted by the emotional connection that students have to the classroom environment

•Long-term memory is enhanced when teachers Connect Content to authentic Context (Three C’s)

•Vital to activate an emotional connection to an instructional strategy• Example 1: Pretty Little Liars• Example 2: Sports Center Top 10• Example 3: Dropping a bowling ball vs marble out of the window• Example 4: Pre- and post- unit engineering challenges• Example 5: students’ activities outside their classroom life

•Catch students using strategies effectively and offer praise

Instructional Strategies to Support LTM

1. Give teacher-prepared handouts prior to and during class lectures.

WHY? •The handouts for class lectures could consist of a brief outline or a partially completed graphic organizer that the student would complete during the lecture.

•Having this information both enables students to identify the salient information that is given during the lectures and to correctly organize the information in their notes.

•Both of these activities enhance memory of the information as well.

•This is visible teaching.


1. Give teacher-prepared handouts prior to class lectures.

EXAMPLE- VIPs (Very Important Papers)

1. Give teacher-prepared handouts prior to class lectures.


2. Prime the memory prior to teaching/learning WHY?

•Cues that prepare students for the task to be presented are helpful. This is often referred to as priming the memory.

•Students will get an idea of what is expected by discussing the vocabulary and the overall topic beforehand.

•Allow them to focus on the salient information and engage in more effective depth of processing.

•Advance organizers also serve this purpose.


2. Prime the memory prior to teaching/learning

EXAMPLE- Anticipation Guides


3. Be the "prefrontal cortex" for your class. WHY?

•Articulate and model effective thinking practices: 1. Clearly state your intent for a learning activity 2. Demonstrate the steps of planning, carrying out, and assessing the outcomes of the

activity (support working memory, writing out steps for math problems)3. Identify up front any thorny problems and tough spots in new lesson content 4. Talk through possible strategies for identifying and overcoming any learning

difficulties that arise (planning and evaluating)

•Use cues to remind students when activating their executive functions might be useful.


3. Be the "prefrontal cortex" for your class.•Clearly state your intentions for the activity refer back to them frequently• Discuss executive functioning skills need for the lesson or specific activity

• CAROUSEL EXAMPLE- make vocabulary visible, talk out/write out, checklist for answers

• HOMEWORK EXAMPLE- visual images, chunking the information


4. Provide retrieval practice for students WHY?

•Research has shown that long-term memory is enhanced when students engage in retrieval practice. Taking a test is a retrieval practice, i.e., the act of recalling information that has been studied from long-term memory.

•Offers predictability of topics. Students are most successful when they can predict their mastery level.

•Allows students to see what high-level thinking looks like on assessment questions


4. Provide retrieval practice for students

EXAMPLE- Knowledge checks as an ungraded formative assessment

Accommodations for Students

with LTM Deficits

Provide lecture notes

Remember the benefit of breaking down information and test preparation

Extended time on testing

Procedural checklists (ie: rubrics) and review guides

Activate prior knowledge; prompt this process

Retrieval practice: support transfer by practicing retrieval

Evaluation: support self-evaluation of preparation and performance

Teacher Resources

Eat. Sleep. Teach. http://www.eatsleepteach.com/2015/06/maximise-retention-of-students-long-

term-memory-part-1/

Brain-Based Teaching Strategies that Support

Long-Term Retention

Mead Ploszay, MICDS Learning Specialist◦ [email protected]

Callie Bambenek, MICDS 8th Grade Science◦ [email protected]

Education

Brain-based strategies for enhancing retention