I've found there to be a few words that Wanda didn't totally have a handle on after their chapter, where it clicked later thanks to their continued use in later chapters that are ostensibly focusing on other words. At the end of each chapter, there is a cumulative quiz, testing their understanding of all of the words and stems that have been studied so far. Each chapter introduces five new word 'stems' (you may know them as roots, suffixes, and prefixes), but continues to incorporate stems and words learned in previous chapters. We're using Michael Clay Thompson language arts' Caesar's English for vocabulary, and I have to give MCT a big, fat A+ for good retention design. When Wanda was younger, we used Logic of English Foundations, which put a big focus on memory work to learn the phonograms and spelling rules, and that's paying dividends now. We aren't using a curriculum for this anymore, but I feel that the way we're doing spelling analysis is in alignment with good skill retention. This has given Wanda a bit more opportunity for time-spaced skill use. Prodigy is an online game with math problems aligned with common core standards. We also use Prodigy instead of Beast Academy on Fridays for a bit of fun. It also builds pretty powerful skills for identifying when to use a technique, by needing to use them at unexpected times. This is particularly seen in the extra-tricky black-starred problems, and in the 'challenge problems' at the end of each chapter. They aren't easy, and they often expect kids to pull deep from their bag of earlier-learned tricks to find solutions to the problems, so it is expecting kids to keep using learned skills. However! It really makes those fewer practice problems count. It spends less time on practice, and that's part of the selling point for kids who pick up math concepts quickly. Spiral format is more ideal for retention.īeast Academy is considered a 'mastery' curriculum. A 'spiral' curriculum revisits skills more frequently in a regular pattern. In a 'mastery' curriculum, one skill gets a heavy focus for a chunk of time, and then it moves on to another skill. Math curricula tend to be described as having either a 'mastery' or 'spiral' structure. Our main curriculum for math is Beast Academy. Williamson's book 'Why Don't Students Like School?' I was happy to get the refresher, though, and it got me thinking about how well I'm using retention techniques in our learning. I was already familiar with much of this thanks to Daniel T. Also: not being able to remember stuff you once knew isn't terribly fun it kinda feels rotten.) (That doesn't mean it can't be made fun, though. It's work, and that work is where your brain gets the message that this is information it's going to want to hang on to. You have to forget (a little bit) to really remember. I better make a special effort to hold on to this more strongly in case it comes up again.' It then physically beefs up the neurons used for storing and recalling that bit of understanding.Ĭramming doesn't do that, rereading doesn't do that, but genuinely using the information in a slightly different time and place, when you've had to really reach for it, does. That action-of having something be almost forgotten, and then pulled out for use again-that triggers your brain to recognize, 'Oh! This turned out to be something I needed.

When your brain reaches for the information, it's a leeeetle fuzzy, but then your brain remembers and brings it back to the fore again. That spaced-just-right time does something special. Here's what does work: taking a pause once you've learned something, and then trying to use that knowledge/skill/whatever a few days later, after you've been doing unrelated things. Mastering something and then dropping it entirely to pick up something new. It's also about how so many of the most common study techniques don't work, and yet people cling to them, because they feel like they work. The book is about recent breakthroughs in cognitive research, which have changed our understanding of what works when it comes to retention of learning. The most recent episode of the Modern Classical Education Home podcast was a review of the book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, by Peter C. 'Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning' by Peter C. I was recently inspired to take a long, hard look at the way we've been learning-specifically whether we're doing the right things to actually remember what we're learning. 5 min read We made these brain hats when we were learning about growth mindset.

Homeschoolers using thebrain