{"id":7600,"date":"2018-06-06T03:00:19","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T08:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/fctl\/?p=7600"},"modified":"2018-06-06T03:00:19","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T08:00:19","slug":"memory-recall-and-guided-note-taking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/2018\/06\/06\/memory-recall-and-guided-note-taking\/","title":{"rendered":"Memory, Recall, and Guided Note-Taking"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Carla Coleman<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to my end-of-semester course evaluations, the majority of my Brit lit students enjoy my class. However, the same can\u2019t always be said for me. It\u2019s not that my students aren\u2019t overall a great group, but I often find myself frustrated with the superficial and temporary things they\u2019re taking away from our lectures and discussions. I want them to think deeply and make connections! I want them to remember what we covered beyond the discussion, beyond the test, and beyond (dare I say it?) the end of the semester.<\/p>\n

Ah\u2014memory. If there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learned from my participation in the FCTL\u2019s Project ACC, it\u2019s that memory is a tricky thing, particularly the task of getting students to move things out of their working memory and into long-term storage, and just as importantly, getting them to successfully retrieve that information when necessary. (After all, practically limitless headspace to store things doesn\u2019t help if they can\u2019t find it when they need it.)<\/p>\n

What new techniques have I been playing with to help improve student memory? Several, but the one of the biggest related to course notes. I held a student focus group last semester, and the participants almost uniformly said they want and need help with notes in all their classes. I suspect that most of us professorial types are naturally good at effective note-taking, and we often take it for granted that our students are, too. But, far too often, they simply aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ve been giving out \u201cnote templates\u201d this semester to help guide students regarding what to write down in-class, as well as when they\u2019re reading their Wordsworth or their Dickens for homework. This way, they know what to look for before they read, they know what to write down in-class, and they have something organized to review after. This multi-step process (if they actively participate in it) helps build and strengthen neural pathways\u2026 memory.<\/p>\n

But I haven\u2019t stopped at assisted note-taking. I\u2019m also allowing time for ungraded in-class writing either asking them to recall information from a previous class or encouraging them to connect our readings to their own lives, as building on previous knowledge is another memory aid. I\u2019m pairing them up so they can talk about the material, and fill in the gaps in each other\u2019s knowledge. And I\u2019m giving them the opportunity to help design the tests by telling me what connections they see are important.<\/p>\n

The end result? Well, my students are still not remembering everything I\u2019d like them to\u2014no teaching technique, no matter how well-designed, is a panacea. But, I\u2019m absolutely seeing deeper responses in their weekly writings, and noticeably stronger exam essays. And I\u2019m having more moments of enthusiastic discussion rather than blank stares. I think they\u2019re working harder, and I know I am. That\u2019s the final thing I\u2019ve learned, I think. Active and engaged learning by necessity involves active and engaged teaching. It\u2019s a bit more time-consuming on the front end, but ultimately, I\u2019m finding it worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Carla Coleman<\/p>\n

According to my end-of-semester course evaluations, the majority of my Brit lit students enjoy my class. However, the same can\u2019t always be said for me. It\u2019s not that my students aren\u2019t overall a great group, but I often find myself frustrated with the superficial and temporary things they\u2019re taking away from our lectures and discussions. I want them to think deeply and make connections! I want them to remember what we covered beyond the discussion, beyond the test, and beyond (dare I say it?) the end of the semester.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":7607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-written-by-faculty"],"acf":{"carousel_content":null},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instruction.austincc.edu\/tledupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}