Making Meaning

Northern Nevada 7-12 Grade Teachers Workshop

Coke and Crisco

Understanding how the brain learns

The one who does the work
does the learning

Teachers can do way too

much of the work for students
Significant time and effort are
needed for learning- more
than students think.

Ownership of learning requires

several steps
Deep processing =
Elaborations
Learners need to make
connections to all prior
knowledge through
multiple sensory
pathways.
Need to use emotional
connections when

Multiple Uses Leads to Ownership

Multiple useswrite it,

talk about it, think it, say
it, visualize it , draw it,
map it, free recall it.

To own it you must sleep on It

Memories are made
during sleep

Zulls, Natural Learning Model

In
take

Annotation is an action that lead to

ownership
Annotation
Read it
Understand it
Translate it
Write it in own words
Analyze it
Become aware if you understood it( metacognition)
Fix up strategies

Ownership of words
Vocabulary- sound it out
Say it correctly
Recognize it in print
Be able to show you know what it means and how it is
used correctly in a sentence
No memorizingownership is what we want.

Reward pathway in the brain

Wanting to learn it and
remember it are vital to
learning success.
Wanting to learn engages
the emotional reward
pathways in the brain
dopamine is a
neurochemical that
reinforces learning as a
survival behavior.

Mind Set
Mind setseeing oneself as
getting smarter everyday.
Seeing failure as an unwanted
outcome to be learned from.
Accepting that effort and time are
the keys to getting smarter and
becoming successful.
No pretending to be smart or
putting others down.

Directing the brain to learn and

remember
The brain can be directed
to recall what is
important-especially
before sleep.

(Payne, Tucker,
Ellenbogen, Wamsley,
2012 )

Free recall
How information gets
studied can significantly
improve its chances for
recall.
Recall the information
from memory
strengthens the
connections of the
memory and speed up its
ability to be recalled in
the future (LTP).

Efficiency of Reading
Read only what is
designated by the
purpose of the reading.
This is how professionals
read.
Know the patterns of the
text.

Don't waste the brains energy

Spending time on things
that you do not care
whether the students
learn is wasting their
brains energy.
Students spending time
on social networks uses
up the brains energy.

Spaced Learning
The brain needs time to
process new learning.
Non cognitive down time
between repeated learning
activities improve learning
and recall for all levels of
learners.

Paul Kelley,Making Minds: What's wrong with education- and

what should we do about it?, Routledge, London / New York,150-4

Ideal Study Intervals

10 to 20 % of retrieval
intervalsif studying
facts.
Test in 3 weeks =21 days.
Study every 2-3 days.
(Cepeda Coburn, Rohrer, Wixted, Mozer and Pashler
2009)

Enhanced Meaning from Patterns

Meaning is enhanced
when learners see the
patterns that exist with in
the new learning and use
familiar patterns of their
own to organize and recall
the information.

Using Any Pattern Make these

Words Easier to Recall.
olives, tomatoes, carrots, chicken,
lettuce, ham, grapes, beef,
strawberries, spinach, pork, plums,
mangos, potatoes, onions, fish,
duck, broccoli, cheese, cherries,
turkey and blueberries

Using Patterns to Make

Learning Easier- A too SIMPLAE APPROACH
AlphabeticalThis is a familiar pattern but it doesnt
help very much.

Beef, blueberries, carrots, cheese, cherries, etc.

A More Meaningful Patterning

Lunch and Dinnercategorizing the food by familiar areas like lunch
and dinner gives it more meaning and makes it much easier to recall.
Lunch a salad including lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, olives, carrots,
spinach, broccoli, onions, turkey, ham served with bread.
Dinner a fruit salad with plums, strawberries, mangos, grapes and
cherries.
Choices of duck, chicken, beef, fish or pork with potatoes.