Welcome to the Beginning Teacher Workshop
on Working Memory
Why is it important to learn about Working Memory?
"Without understanding the nature of the problem, educators may not provide students with the most effective interventions and accommodations to support their learning and performance." |
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We hope to answer the following questions during our workshop:
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- Working memory content is stored in the brain as either sounds (e.g., a fire truck siren, person’s voice, a song) or images (pictures, movie scenes, scenery)
- Life is full of combinations of both types of content: you can see and hear person simultaneously.
- But our brains tend to focus on one modality more than another at any given time.
- Accordingly, there is very little transfer from working memory training in one modality to another.
Working memory at age 5 is a greater predictor of academic
success than IQ is at age 10. (Alloway and Alloway, 2010)
Understanding Difficulties with Working Memory
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Signs that there might be a problem with working memory:
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Another technique for identifying children with poor working memory is derived from ratings provided by a child’s teacher, a prominent example being the Working Memory Rating Scale (Alloway, Gathercole, & Kirkwood, 2008). This measure consists of approximately 20 statements of problem behaviors such as “She lost her place in a task with multiple steps” and “The child raised his hand but when called upon, he had forgotten his response.” Teachers rate how typical each of these behaviors is of a given child using a four-point scale. Although this technique affords a fast and efficient method for initial identification of working memory problems in a school setting (Holmes et al., 2010), it is probably best used as one component of a comprehensive evaluation by the school psychologist. Furthermore, if need be, teachers can choose to make supplementary, informal observations for guiding adjustments to their instructional approaches with particular children.
These difficulties have a negative impact on core academic skills of reading, writing and mathematics.
They may in turn affect performance in all subject areas.
The Connection Between Attention and Working Memory
Working memory plays a major role in the capacity to sustain attention.
It is now considered to be a core component in our definitions of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
It is now considered to be a core component in our definitions of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
The role of attention
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The Connection between Poverty and Working Memory
Poverty affects the physical brain. Researchers found that children from low-income homes had significantly lower scores in areas of language, long-term and short-term memory, and attention. Poor children are more likely to be exposed to lead, which correlates to poor working memory. Low SES students tend to have poorer working memories than their higher-SES peer do. (Hackman and Farah,2009)
Can Teachers Make a Difference
Research to date indicates that teachers’ awareness of Working Memory deficits in the classroom is lower than it should be. A recent study on awareness of Working Memory among educators showed that teachers only picked up early warning signs of Working Memory failure in their students 25% of the time.
Strategies
Monitor the student,Reduce the memory load,Repeat and Review,
1. Give directions that are SHORT, SIMPLE, SEQUENTIAL
Strategy #1 : Provide short, simple, and sequential directions, one at a time.Students can better follow directions when they have to pay attention to and remember only one instruction at a time. According to Watson and Houtz29and Watson and Westby,30 students can benefit from written directions and/or visuals with check-off space to accompany the oral directions or procedures to be followed.
For example, an effective way to assign math problems might be to provide students with a checklist that reads:
A less effective way to give the same assignment would be to combine all of the instructions into one sentence, as in the following example: “Open your math book to page seventy-eight and do the first ten problems.”
For example, an effective way to assign math problems might be to provide students with a checklist that reads:
- ____ Open your math book.
- ____ Find page 78.
- ____ Do problems 1-5.
- ____ Wait for teacher’s feedback.
- ____ Do problems 6-10.
A less effective way to give the same assignment would be to combine all of the instructions into one sentence, as in the following example: “Open your math book to page seventy-eight and do the first ten problems.”
2. Use visual cues and modeling to reinforce oral directions or explanations.
- Visual cues (such as pictures, class rules, or any kind of posted reminder) activate student’s prior knowledge.
- Modeling (i. e., demonstrating step-by-step how to perform a task or skill) is a very effective research-based instructional method. Several researchers describe “modeling” as the most important procedure in teaching a strategy and they also emphasize the need to “think aloud” while modeling. Their studies show that students benefit from observing the overt behaviors as well as the cognitive processes involved in performing a task.
- Fours phases in modeling: (1) Provide students with an advance organizer; (2) Demonstrate the overt behaviors while “thinking aloud”; (3) Enlist student participation to involve them and to check for understanding; and (4) Provide a post-organizer to review critical elements, state expectations, and to remind the students to check their progress.
3. Repeat
- Repeat information or directions or ask other students to repeat and paraphrase what you have just said.Repetition can help students get the information they did not get the first time and paraphrasing (i.e., using different words to express the same idea) will help assure that students are able to remember the general idea you expressed.
4. Monitor the student
- Ask the student to verbalize their steps in completing tasks they often struggle to complete. This can provide important information about where the breakdown is occurring and what supports are likely to work best.
5. Use Rehearsal, Visual Imagery, and Coding
5: Use rehearsal, visual imagery, and coding as ways to facilitate the transfer of information from short-term memory to WM to long-term memory.35
Rehearsal
Coding
Coding is the semantic elaboration of information through strategies such as acronyms. Compressing information to be learned facilitates recall.37 For example, the mnemonic PENS can help students remember the steps of a sentence-writing strategy:
The acrostic “Don’t Make Silly Booboos” can facilitate memory of the steps for long division:
These strategies make the information to remember more concrete and provide students with a way to attach meaning to the learning tasks.
Visual imagery
The keyword method
The following example illustrates how the keyword method might help students remember important information about photosynthesis:Photosynthesis: a process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight.
Keyword: photo
Rehearsal
- Rehearsal is the repetition of verbal information.
- Verbal rehearsal results in some learning but probably is the weakest of the three strategies for encoding information.36
- Verbal rehearsal can improve a student’s short-term memory if there is limited interference and a relatively small number of items to remember.
- Examples include rehearsing the multiplication tables (9 x 2 = 18), rehearsing a poem, rehearsing the steps of a strategy, and rehearsing the meaning of a word.
- Repetition may also involve rehearsal using multiple modalities (e.g., tactile, auditory). For example, a student might write down a spelling word several times and tap the equivalent number of letters in the word.
Coding
Coding is the semantic elaboration of information through strategies such as acronyms. Compressing information to be learned facilitates recall.37 For example, the mnemonic PENS can help students remember the steps of a sentence-writing strategy:
- Pick a formula
- Explore words
- Note the words
- Search and check.
The acrostic “Don’t Make Silly Booboos” can facilitate memory of the steps for long division:
- Divide
- Multiply
- Subtract
- Bring it down
These strategies make the information to remember more concrete and provide students with a way to attach meaning to the learning tasks.
Visual imagery
- Visual imagery is the creation of visual images that help students to remember verbal information.
- Visual imagery improves memory because students are better able to remember pictures rather than words.38
- For example, visualizing a horse, a boy, and a whale can help a student remember the characteristics of mammals for a test.
The keyword method
- The keyword method is a mnemonic strategy using key words to include paired associates learning, is frequently used for vocabulary learning.
- A keyword is a concrete word (e.g., iron) that has phonological similarities with an abstract word (e.g., irony). (Terrill, Scruggs, and Mastropieri suggest steps for developing good keyword links.39)
- A visual image or drawing and/or a sentence that shows the definition doing something with the keyword can be added to facilitate retrieval of information.
- Levin, McCormick, Miller, Berry, and Presley provide the example of the Spanish word carta, which means letter. The keyword could be cart and the visual image generated could be of a shopping cart with a letter in it.42
The following example illustrates how the keyword method might help students remember important information about photosynthesis:Photosynthesis: a process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight.
- The word “photo” has phonological similarities to “photosynthesis.”
- “Photo” is a concrete word, so it becomes the keyword. The Greek word “photo” means light and photosynthesis depends on sunlight to produce sugar (and oxygen).
- To make the connection concrete, generate an image of someone taking a photograph of a plant with a related caption: A good photo needs sunlight. Image source.
Keyword: photo
6: Give only 4 to 5 pieces of information at a time to avoid WM overload.
- A five- to seven-word sentence, for example, is much easier to remember than a longer one.
- While it’s not always possible to convey intended meaning in shorter sentences, information can often be condensed. Compare the following sentences:
- Example: “Learning depends on number of rehearsal trials.” (seven words)
- Non-example: “Verbal rehearsal increases learning depending on the number of times (trials) the item was rehearsed.” (sixteen words)
- Working memory is also aided when concepts or ideas are limited in number. For example, the following list includes only four facts to be remembered. As a result, it is more easily handled by working memory:
Facts we learned today
1. Energy comes from the sun.
2. This energy passes through the earth’s atmosphere.
3. This energy is changed to heat.
4. Carbon dioxide blocks the heat in the atmosphere.
7.Break tasks into sub-tasks to address the students’ attention and WM capacity.
- This does not mean “watering down” the curriculum;
- The teacher simply separates an assignment into various parts so that the student can complete one part at a time.
- For example, instead of asking a student to answer ten questions at one time, ask the student to answer five.
- Then, give the student corrective feedback and assign the next five questions.
- Information or questions can be shown in three to five items per page to help the student to focus attention on those items.
These side-by-side examples show the benefits of putting fewer questions on a page.
The example on the left shows twenty questions on a page.
The visual clutter makes it difficult for students to focus attention on one item at a time.
The example on the right lists the same questions, but divides them into small groups with a cleaner layout.
The resulting document makes it easier for students to focus .
The example on the left shows twenty questions on a page.
The visual clutter makes it difficult for students to focus attention on one item at a time.
The example on the right lists the same questions, but divides them into small groups with a cleaner layout.
The resulting document makes it easier for students to focus .
8: Group information into chunks to reduce potential overload
- Chunks are clusters of items that are stored as a single unit, which increases the number of items that a student can recall.
- Grouping or chunking information can be accomplished by organizing visual or verbal information according to specific categories.43
- For example, students could chunk the wars the United States participated in during the 1900s according to national and international wars. Also consider the following numerical example:
- Example: 581-347-6297 Non-example: 5813476297 Which one is easier to remember? Ten digits chunked into three clusters or ten digits without any pattern or clusters?
9. Categorize information by grouping together related objects or events.
Categorization is a form of chunking information that focuses on putting information in meaningful groups. This strategy decreases student WM overload. Consider the following lists of items to remember:
List A: Items to remember
In the above example, categorizing the information facilitates remembering and learning. In the following example, by contrast, there is no categorization or order to facilitate remembering and learning:
List B: Items to remember
The following example illustrates the effectiveness of this strategy in helping students set up for a science lab:
Items for lab set-up
Eliminating the categories into which the items are grouped would result in a jumbled list, which would be far more likely to overload a student’s working memory.
List A: Items to remember
- Writing instruments
- pen
- pencil
- highlighter
- crayon
- Furniture
- bed
- desk
- couch
- chair
In the above example, categorizing the information facilitates remembering and learning. In the following example, by contrast, there is no categorization or order to facilitate remembering and learning:
List B: Items to remember
- pen
- bed
- desk
- pencil
- couch
- highlighter
- chair
- crayon
The following example illustrates the effectiveness of this strategy in helping students set up for a science lab:
Items for lab set-up
- laboratory equipment
- beaker
- test tube
- microscope
- chemical solution
- write-up materials
- pencil
- colored pencils
- graph paper
- lined paper
Eliminating the categories into which the items are grouped would result in a jumbled list, which would be far more likely to overload a student’s working memory.
10. Use semantic maps or networks to connect a main idea to related ideas.
- Clusters or clustering is an effective way to interconnect what the student already knows with something new and to delineate what is familiar versus unfamiliar, related versus unrelated, superior versus subordinate.
- When creating semantic networks, use connecting words and pictures (or videos) to link the main concept to the related networks.
- The following example shows a semantic network about voting, in which words and pictures are connected to the main idea by linking words to form complete simple sentences:
This example of a semantic map or network explores the topic of voting. Illustration by Mike Bamford & Sarah Riazati
Another example:
11. When conveying visual information, use the spatial contiguity principle.
- The spatial contiguity principle explains that visual displays of information are more effective when text descriptions are integrated into an image, rather than presented separately.
- This strategy helps to minimize interference and decreases the likelihood that a student with WM deficits will forget important information.
- Consider the following example:
12. Make information meaningful by connecting the students’ prior experiences to the new information.
- Students better remember information when it is familiar and meaningful to them.
- Using this strategy includes both activating students’ prior knowledge as well as discussing with students the reason for or benefit of learning the information.
- Consider the following class dialogue:
Students: It rains a lot. It is hot and humid all year around. It has lots of trees. It has lots of plants and animals. It has rivers or oceans nearby.
Teacher: Good! We live in ____________________. Do we usually have a lot of rain? Do we have rivers or oceans nearby? Do we have lots of trees? Is it hot and humid all year around here?
[Students respond]
Teacher: How is where we live the same or different from a rain forest?
[Students respond]
Teacher: Why do you need to learn about rain forests?
Students: Because rain forests produce oxygen we need for living. It gives us clean air and clean water.
Teacher: When and how can you use this information?
Students: When people want to clear the rain forest for development or logging, we can argue that it will affect clean air and oxygen.
In this example, the teacher activated the students’ prior knowledge by having them compare the conditions in a rain forest with the local weather and geography. The teacher also facilitated discussion of some of the reasons for learning about rain forests.
13. Provide advance organizers prior to beginning a lesson to help students more easily organize information to be learned.
- Advance organizers, also called “structured overviews,” reduce the cognitive demands on students by allowing them to visualize the way various concepts relate to one another.
- This strategy also provides a way to gain the students’ attention before starting the lesson.
- Remember that motivation and anxiety can affect attention and WM.
Today we will learn about blood types.
We will conduct an experiment.
We will make conclusions about mixing blood types.
14. Present information using graphic organizers to facilitate information storage and, consequently, learning.
- Graphic organizers allow students to arrange events, details, facts, and other information in ways that makes it easier to remember.
- Graphic organizers can be used at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a lesson and can be completed by the teacher and/or the student
15. Teach organization of text such as story structure to facilitate comprehension of narratives
- This strategy can greatly enhance reading comprehension.
- It’s important to remember, however, that expository texts have different structures and are organized in many different ways (e.g., compare and contrast).
- They are challenging to students with WM deficits because students have to learn content knowledge at the same time they have to understand the organizational aspects of the text (e.g., cause and effect, problem and solution).
- Students benefit from explicit instruction of the various structural schemes of expository texts because the information to be learned can be organized and mapped, making the text more meaningful and easier to understand.45
- Graphic organizers can provide students with a visual map of the text depicting textual relationships. Consider the following graphic organizer example, designed to help students understand a narrative:
16. Use hierarchy to organize information.
- Disorganized and random information is not only confusing but also difficult to remember.46
- When it’s appropriate, hierarchy is a useful way to structure information to improve recall.
- Hierarchical organization of information requires less mental effort from learners, compared to maps that have low structure in which information is not obvious to the learner.
- Hierarchical maps provide a high degree of structure, which facilitates learning of factual and conceptual knowledge and reduces the cognitive load required for learning new information.47
This simplified concept map about the human body organizes information hierarchically .
17. Review information frequently.
- Without frequent reviews, learners are likely to forget information.
- Students who review previously-mastered spelling words once a month are more likely to retain the knowledge of that spelling than students who never review spelling words until the end of the year.
- Regular review not only helps students to better remember information, but it also allows them to connect prior knowledge to new information.
- The strategic integration of old and new information helps students to retrieve information from working memory.
18. Implement teaching routines and provide a structured and consistent environment.
- When students have a structured and reliable environment in which to learn, they know what to expect and do not have to worry about remembering behaviors and routines.
- This frees student attention and helps students with WM and attention problems organize and process information.48
- In order to establish such an environment, follow the same schedule daily.
- Only change the classroom’s physical arrangement after informing students of the changes and no more than twice a semester.
19. Divide study time into sessions.
- Distributing study and practice time across multiple teaching sessions helps students to remember and retain information.
- For example, students who practice solving new math problems three times a week for fifteen minutes are more likely to retain the information than students who practice solving new math problems only once for thirty minutes following instruction.
20. Have students practice the new skills in the same context in which they will be assessed.
For example, if the assessment will be a multiple choice test, give students practice questions in a multiple-choice format.
21. Apply the serial position curve concept to teaching.
- Learning increases near the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a lesson.
- Most interferences, such as daydreaming and student talking, occur primarily during the middle of a lesson.
- One way to make effective use of this strategy is to provide new information during the first fifteen minutes of class.
- Spend the middle of the class period having the students practice the new skills in small groups or individually.
- Then spend the last fifteen minutes of class summarizing the main concepts learned during the lesson.
22. Use color |
- Use color to learn, and then to recall information.
- Studies of people with Alzheimer Disease showed improve memory with color cues.
- Other studies showed that learners recall images better if in color not in black and white.
- For example: when creating thinking maps (also called graphic organizers) differentiate and organize topics and sub-topics by color and hue. Then when learners need to remember, they’ll be able to recall the color cues as well as the information.
The Color RED
Why do you think Stop signs are red? Red screams pay attention to me!! RED helps learners remember facts and figures. Red on white is easiest to read. But a little goes a long way so use red sparingly. Want to get your kids excited to learn? Use RED ink or print on RED paper. Want to get your kids to remember what they learn? Use RED ink or print on RED paper. Do NOT mark mistakes in red. This only reinforces the mistake. Don’t do it. Write key points in red. Write homework lists in red. |
The Color GREEN
Green is not only a relaxing color associated with all things healthy, it helps concentration. Want kids to concentrate on what you’re teaching? Write with green marker on a white board. Use a green light bulb in a desk lamp. Decorate with leafy green plants. The Color Blue Blue is said to promote creativity as well as peaceful feelings. Educators can use blue for learning situations that are challenging. Try using blue paper for complex information or blue ink can improve reading comprehension. Use blue paper for reviewing information. Organize your 5-paragraph essay notes and ideas into a blue-flavored flip book. Use the colors to represent each section of the essay: intro, body paragraphs, and conclusion. |
What about actually changing students working memory?
Research supports that we can increase students working memory through training. This requires consistent practice. Some research (Salminen, Storbach, &Schubert, 2012) shows that building a strong working memory takes only 5-10 minutes of practice a day for 8-12 weeks. There are a number of training programs now available on-line for parents and teachers. More research is needed at this time to clearly demonstrate the increase of academic success in the content areas as a result of this training. There are questions of whether the training can be transferred to the testing of the academic content.
Eric Jensen in his book, Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind, offers several activities to use in the classroom to improve working memory.
Practice Recall
Eric Jensen in his book, Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind, offers several activities to use in the classroom to improve working memory.
Practice Recall
- For 5 minutes a day, boost students' listening skills and working memory with simple, active games that require students to recall commands. Simon Says works well for this purpose. You might say to the class, "Simon says follow only the most recent command. Simon says stand up and simon says put your hands on your head." Then change it up a bit: "Simon says, follow the first command and not the second. Simon says clapp trice and point to the door."
- Another recall activity is a clapping game. Start with a very simple clap in front go the class- "Clpa-clap" that students must repeat. The repeat the clap and, once again, have the students to repeat. Next start a new clapping pattern- Clap-clap (pause) clap-clap - for the students to repeat. Pay attention to the sequence. It is important to start easy, the build up the complexity slowly, doubling back now and then to make sure the students are keeping up. You should increase the complexity over the course of several weeks, doing the activity a few minutes a day, three to five times a week. Do not rush the process, and ensure that everyone can keep up before moving to the next level.