Practical Advice for Your Student - Part 2 - Studying For Tests

After I began attending Learning and the Brain conferences in 2018, one of my favorite things to do was have individual conferences with students who were not performing as well on tests as they would like.  I knew that I had advice that could help them because of what I had learned about cognitive science and memory.

I started by asking them how they currently study.  Their number one answer was, "I look over my notes."  I asked them what that meant, and it was clear why their study habits were ineffective.  They were basically re-reading the words they had copied from the wall with no context or processing.  For a couple of years, I gave them better advice about studying for tests.  

Then, I realized I needed to start expanding these conversations.  We discussed, first, what they were doing in class while learning.  I then addressed more effective study techniques.  Then, finally, we talked about how to deal with questions during the test.  

So this post is the second of the series.  How should a student study for tests?

First, their intuition is likely wrong.  In surveys, the methods students list as most effective turn out to be the least effective according to research.  My students most common answer, "I look over my notes" does little to improve their memory or understanding of the content.  Highlighting and underlining, as it turns out, have a negative effect on memory and fools you into believing you know it.  It's like your brain says, "Of course I know that.  Look at it; it's yellow."

The simplest way to answer the question about the best way to study is to recognize the power of retrieval practice.  The method is less important than that guiding principle.  Does this method allow me to passively receive input? If so, it is not an effective method.  Does it require me to actively retrieve the information from my memory?  If so, it is likely to be effective.  

So, make flashcards.  Use Quizlet or Anki.  Make flashcards.  Make and play a game of Kahoot.  Make flashcards.  Have your parents ask you questions while you answer without looking.  Did I mention you could make flashcards?  

Most of those are only useful for questions that have very short answers (definitions, examples of concepts, etc.), but they aren't great for questions that require you to explain.  For that, I would make a list of questions, including those the teacher has told you will definitely free response questions and those that just require more explanation to understand.  Then, without using your notes or book, write out the answer to the question as you would on a test.  Only after you have written out the entire answer should you go to the book, video, or other resource and check your answer against it.  Don't just do it in your mind; write it out.  I can't tell you how many times I have had students use most of the right words only to get the concept completely wrong.  In an explanation of how Boyle's Law determines breathing, the wrong answer, "Increasing volume in the chest raises the pressure" will be easy for you to fool yourself into thinking you got it right when you go look it up in the book to find "Increasing volume in the chest lowers pressure."  You see most of the right words and don't realize that you described a direct relationship when there is actually an inverse one.  But if you write it down, it is harder to fool yourself.  

It boils down to this: 

Recall > Reread

Wait some time.  Shuffle your cards / questions.  Recall again.  Wait even more time.  Shuffle again.  Recall again.  This requires planning.  It can't be crammed into one night.  But it is effective.

Practical Advice for Your Student - Part 1 - Note Taking

After I began attending Learning and the Brain conferences in 2018, one of my favorite things to do was have individual conferences with students who were not performing as well on tests as they would like.  I knew that I had advice that could help them because of what I had learned about cognitive science and memory.

I started by asking them how they currently study.  Their number one answer was, "I look over my notes."  I asked them what that meant, and it was clear why their study habits were ineffective.  They were basically re-reading the words they had copied from the wall with no context or processing.  For a couple of years, I gave them better advice about studying for tests.  

Then, I realized I needed to start expanding these conversations.  We discussed, first, what they were doing in class while learning.  I then addressed more effective study techniques.  Then, finally, we talked about how to deal with questions during the test.  

So, that's what I will do with this blog as well.  We'll start with note taking.  Students tend to fall into one of two extremes.

1. Note taking is not only copying what is on the board.  Before I had a textbook, my students had to rely on their notes.  Parents would come to conferences and say, "We don't know how to help because we can interpret his notes."  I would look at them and find that they had copied the words from the slides and nothing else.  Literally nothing else.  No examples.  No practice problems.  No thoughts of their own.  It needs to be more than that.  What is projected on the wall or written on the board is an outline at best, not the only things that are important from the lesson.
2. Note taking is not a class transcript.  The other extreme is when students become court stenographers, attempting to write down every word that is said in class.  This is more likely to happen when they are taking notes by typing on a laptop because it allows them to gain speed.  But, it also shuts off any processing of the information through their brain.  By writing more, they think about it less.  This is what leads some to believe that taking notes by typing is ineffective.  It's not the typing that causes the problem; it's the lack of thinking.  When taking notes by hand, we usually summarize what we hear to save time.  It's that summarizing that is helpful.
3. Notes should be a collaboration of brains.  So what notes should be then?  Well, as I already mentioned, they should be a summary of what happened in the lesson, not just what was projected but also the important parts of what was said.  This takes practice because students have a hard time identifying what was important.  (By the way, for some good advice in this area, see Daniel Willingham's great book Outsmart Your Brain.). They should also involve thoughts from the student himself.  It's probable that he thought of something while the teacher was explaining that would be useful to his memory later on.  The purpose of note taking isn't to have notes.  The purpose of note taking is to jog ones memory later, so write down anything that will be likely to help with that.  
4. Notes are for the student.  The important thing to remember is to write down what will help YOU to remember.  Notes aren't for the teacher or for your parents.  They are for the student to have a memory aid for what happened in class.  This is frustrating for parents who want to help their student study.  They want to be able to pick up the notes and make sense of them.  But they weren't in class, so it won't help them remember what happened in class.  The best thing a parent can do with their child's notes in helping them study is point to something and say, "Tell me about this."  The child should be able to look at that note and retrieve an episodic memory from that day's lesson.  If they can, these are good notes, no matter what they look like.  Conversely, if they can't, these are not good notes.

It's tempting to ask the teacher to provide a crutch for students who aren't yet good at this.  Some teachers provide a fill in the blank sheet of notes.  Run away from these!  That means the teacher did the summarizing (so she'll remember, but you won't).  It also means students only stay engaged for long enough to fill in the word.  Then, they check out for the next word.  Students, I implore you to take your own notes.  Don't do group notes with your friends on a google doc.  Don't borrow someone else notes (unless you were absent or looking to see if your own notes are missing something).  I know it takes more work, but if you care about learning, it is the only way.

Why I Wear It

This pendant is a small scale version of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's "dissent collar."  I bought it a few days after her death in 2020.  Since only the Trumpiest of MAGA folk would ever think of me as a liberal, it might seem strange that I would wear something that honors a woman with whom I disagreed so frequently.  I bought it and wear it to remind me of some things that I think are important in our divided culture.

1. I owe her a lot. Without Justice Ginsberg, my life as a female would be very different than it is.  I am a 48 year old single woman with no plans of marriage.  When I bought my home 18 years ago, I did not have to have my loan cosigned by my father or brother or any other man.  This was not true when Ruth was born and in fact, only became possible two years before I was born. Because of her work (and the work of others like her), I am able to live the life God has call me to live.  I wear this tribute to her to remind myself that I stand on the shoulders of giants.
2. She lived a life of thought.  I weirdly have a memory of the first time I heard of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  As a college student home for the summer, I happened to be watching tv on the June day that Bill Clinton announced his nomination of the tiniest woman I had ever seen.  There are two things I most remember about his speech.  First, she had been unanimously approved to the position she had prior to her nomination to the Supreme Court.  While things were not quite as divisive then as they are today, that was still an unlikely feat; and it communicated to me how immensely qualified she must be.  The second thing I remember was that he described her as thoughtful, but he was using it in a different way than I had ever heard before.  I had only heard the word thoughtful as a synonym for caring. And while she certainly was that, he was using it to mean "full of thought."  He was describing her as an intelligent woman who put a great deal of thought into her rulings.  Since then, I have read some of her writings, and they are filled with deliberation rather than simple ideology.  I have so much respect for that, even when the end result of that thinking would be different than the end result of mine.  I don't want to be a person who just believes the party line without asking myself serious questions first, and I appreciate that about her character as well.
3. She lived a life of kindness and humor.  If you have never watched the segment that Stephen Colbert did with RBG, do yourself a favor and watch this 6 minute clip.  While Justice Ginsberg took her job very seriously, she didn't take herself too seriously.  She joked about her online cult following having dubbed her Notorious RBG, saying "It's not all packed auditoriums and standing ovations." Even the fact that she wore this "dissent collar" showed a subtle cheeky side to a serious thinker.  By all accounts, she was an extremely kind woman.  She did the work she did for the community and for those less fortunate than herself.  She said "To make life a little better for people less fortunate than you, that’s what I think a meaningful life is. One lives not just for oneself but for one’s community.”  Since she saw anger, envy, and resentment as a waste of energy, she invested in loving those around her, including those with whom she disagreed.
4. She showed us that an opponent was not an enemy.  This may be the most important reason I wear this necklace.  Do you know who the closest friends of the Ginsburg family were?  You may be shocked to find out that it was the Scalia family.  I don't mean they were generally cordial.  They bonded over their love of classical music and food.  Their families went on trips together.  There is legitimately an opera based on their friendship.  Most importantly, they both respected that the other was devoted to the constitution, in spite of the fact that they interpreted it in completely opposing ways.  I wear this tribute to a woman with whom I disagreed to remind myself that disagreement doesn't have to mean disrespect.

We are affected by the culture in which we live, but we are also responsible for creating it.  If we remember to be kind, humorous, full of thought, loving to those we disagree with, and remember that we leave a legacy for the future, we will live better lives.  

How can you remind yourself of these things today?  How can you communicate then to your students tomorrow?  

The Role of Optimism in The Classroom

I read a lot of education books, and some of them are better than others.  But, even a bad book usually has something good to take away from it.  That is the case with the book I've been reading recently.  It is called Quit Point.  I don't recommend this book as it is largely a touchy-feely 
"kids-will-be-motivated-if-you-let-them-do-what-they-want" message.  If you read this blog, you know that I did not respond well to that.  However, they nailed one thing.  Optimism is necessary for learning.

So I thought I would take this week to explore what optimism is and why it is a critical component of your classroom.

When we think of optimists, we usually think of glass half-full people.  That's not a terrible way to look at it, but it isn't really the definition.  The prefix "opt" has to do with vision (hence your eye doctor having a degree in optometry).  So, an optimist is really a person with a positive vision of the future.  They believe that, even if things are bad now, they will be better.  More importantly, they believe their actions can play a role in bringing about that better future.  

Now take this thought into your classroom.  If a student who is struggling believes it will not get better, no matter what, you will have difficulty moving them forward.  If, however, they believe their actions can have a direct impact on their improvement, it will take only a little encouragement to get them to apply effective techniques for doing so.  

This is the basis of the popular Growth Mindset book by Carol Dweck.  She doesn't refer to it as optimism, but she devotes a lot of time to the idea that students who believe they can improve will improve more than those who believe their state is fixed.  

I'd like to offer an additional perspective.  Optimists and curiosity correlate.  I've never met a pessimist who asks a lot of questions.  Some of them think they know everything already; some just don't care to learn something new because they don't seen how it will benefit them.  Pay attention to the kids who ask the most interesting questions in class; and you will find they are the ones who find joy in learning and tend to have a positive view.  I don't know if one causes the other, but they are typically found together.  A person without curiosity can learn, but it is a burdensome process.  

If you want students to take joy in learning, foster their optimism and increase their curiosity.  How do you do that?  By showing yours.

What I Learned by NOT Achieving my Summer Goals

"If you never fail, you aren't setting big enough goals." 

- Jillian Michaels on The Biggest Loser

When I first started taking fitness classes at the Y, I had two goals:  Don't hurt yourself, and don't leave a class early.  After a couple of months, my planner personality kicked in, and I started setting real goals and tracking them on a spreadsheet that hangs on the side of my refrigerator.  For the first four seasons, I pretty much killed them.  This summer, I did not.  I met a few.  I fell just short on others.  And a few aren't even close.  So, this post will be a slightly self indulgent reflection on what I learned from the summer of not meeting all my goals.  Since it is an educator's blog, I'll make connections to setting and meeting (or not meeting) academic goals in the second half.

Setting the Goal Too Far Out Messes With Motivation

In the prior seasons, my goals were no more than 90 days out.  This one started the day after my birthday, and since I wasn't going back to school, I decided to make it end on the last day of August rather than when I reported back to school.  That made the time I was giving myself to reach the goals 105 days.  That sounded good because it gave me plenty of time to get stronger and increase weight and bike speed.  But in reality, it made me less motivated to increase weight because I'd have time to do that later.  And some of my goals are averages.  It turns out that it is really difficult to move an average up after day 70 or so.  Even if I spent all of the final month moving really fast on the bike, it wasn't going to move the average up by more than a minute amount.  Hence, I didn't have a ton of motivation to kill it in the latter parts of the summer.  Long term goals are fine, but the yearbook advisor in me should have known to put some  intermediate milestones in place as I pursued the larger aims.  

For the fall, I am going to set goals two weeks at a time.  I'll track a bunch of numbers.  At the end of two weeks, I'll choose a couple to improve on for the next two weeks.  It could be 5 more miles on the bike or a higher average speed.  It could be adding 5 pounds to my chest weight.  But, instead of a far away end goal, I'll be focusing on improvement in some area.

Failing in Part is Not Complete Failure

It is easy when looking at performance to focus on where we fell short.  That's natural, and may even be healthy as we set our next objective.  But, we should also take time to celebrate the good.  I didn't fail every aspect.  And even on those where I did fail, I made progress, got stronger, became healthier, and spent time with people I love while doing them.  That all has enormous value whether or not I hit my target numbers.  

Keep Moving Forward

Many of my goals are based on averages.  These were the ones that became really difficult to meet if I wasn't already there in August.  Budging an average up is just hard after a high number of days in the same way baseball players with long careers won't see as much movement in their batting average after each game like a rookie will.  But a few of my aims weren't averages.  I aim for a total distance on the bike, so even on my off days when my legs just wouldn't cooperate, I was adding miles to that total.  It may have been 9 miles when I wanted 12, but it was 9 more miles than it would have been if I hadn't come to class that day.

I have a cycle classmate named Wallace.  He is 80 years old.  A few days ago, he said, "Now, you are going to see that I am slack in all classes, not just yours." Oh, no, Wallace.  The last thing you are is slack.  Do you know how many people aren't even here?  That man is strong and healthy at 80 because he keeps going.  He may be a little slower than the person next to him (although, not always, I've seen him outperform people much younger than he is), but he is continuously moving forward.  Wallace is an inspiration, and I hope that I am still on the bike 32 years from now.

When Circumstances Change, It's Okay for the Goal to Change Too

Goals are tricky because they require us to project into the future.  And the truth is that we don't know what the future holds.  We have a decent grip a few days out, but we can't know whether we will get sick or experience an emotional upheaval or injury during the next month.  As a result, we often set unrealistic goals.  It didn't scare me to have a few off days.  That can happen from not eating enough calories before the workout or not getting enough sleep the night before.  But then, I got a summer cold followed by a particularly heavy cycle (perimenopause was the opposite of what I expected, y'all) that turned a couple off days into a couple of off weeks.  Rather than change my goals, I thought I could ramp back up and make up for the off weeks.  To make up for the losses in averages, I would have had to perform farther above average than I am actually capable of.  I would have been much better off resetting the goals instead of insisting on the delusion that I could reach them.  Then, once I got to the place where reaching them was mathematically impossible, I had no motivation to do toe-pushups in the morning or an extra set of crunches in the evening.  

In his book Uprise, Kevin Washburn advises having an A goal (the one you can reach if all circumstances are ideal), a B goal (the one you will be happy with if the weather messes with your run), and a C goal (the one you can find satisfactory even if everything goes wrong).  I sometimes have those for individual classes, but I've never thought to have them for the entire season.  I'm hoping my two week interval system will allow for this as I will only be focused on improvement, and the C goal can be improving by a small amount while still being improvement.

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As promised, there are connections to education.

Setting the Goal Too Far Out Messes With Motivation

At the beginning of the school year, I often asked student what their academic goals were, and I learned that students are very broad in their thinking.  They say they want to make an A for the semester.  The semester that starts in August ends in December.  The young brain is simply not equipped to motivate itself for a goal that far out.  Meanwhile, I have found their practice to be remarkably short sighted, only willing to study for a test if it is less than three days away or work on that which is due tomorrow.  I ran into this with my study skills class when I tried to get them to devote some time to studying for the test they had that Friday while also putting some time into making flashcards for their finals.  They didn't want to do it because it wasn't "next."

Teachers should encourage students to set some intermediate goals for the sake of continuous motivation. It's up to you and them what that looks like. Perhaps, like my workout schedule, they should have something to improve on every week or two.  Perhaps, they should focus on the next thing out and one more thing.  Perhaps there should be a reading or study time schedule that they can mark off to show their progress visually.  But don't rely on willpower to get them to the end of the semester.

Failing in Part is Not Complete Failure

I remember the only time I failed a physics quiz in high school.  I remember the three Cs I made in college classes (Chemistry 201,  Human Anatomy and Physiology, and Ecology).  I can tell you about projects I have tried at school that went very wrong - In fact, I'll be speaking about one of those failures at a conference in October.  The reason I can tell you about those times is that they were rare.  Overall, I was a very successful student.  

When good students fail, it is traumatic.  Unlike students who regularly perform at low levels, they simply don't have the coping skills to deal with failing a quiz or performing worse than usual on a test.  But it is going to happen, and teachers are going to have to support them through it.  It is important to remind them of a few things.  

1. A bump in the road is just that, and they should keep their eyes on the prize and stay on track.  
2. They have a strong record of success and will continue to have one.  This one quiz is the story they'll tell later because it was so rare. 
3. Grades are not their identity. 

Keep Moving Forward

When I tried to get back on track after my few "off weeks," I made the mistake of thinking I could make up for it by really over performing in a way I wasn't actually capable of.  I would have been much better off just getting back to normal, allowing the average to be slightly less.  Students are sometimes like this too.  If they did poorly on one test, they try to aim at 100 on the next one or even ask for extra credit work. A student who has consistently made Bs is not likely to find a 100 realistic, and they set themselves up for disappointment.  They would be better off acknowledging what they have learned from the situation and getting back into a normal routine of studying than they would be trying to make a "New Year's resolution" type effort just after their setback.  I often told students that it was called an average for a reason.

When Circumstances Change, It's Okay for the Goal to Change Too

I have taught many excellent students who had difficulty recovering from concussions, grief, or mono.  While we as teachers work with them the best we can, we also cannot just give a student an A.  We can extend deadlines and reduce load, but to require nothing of them and give a grade for that nothing is not something a person with integrity can do.  The circumstances have changed, and it is okay for the goal to change with it.  

Several years ago, I had a student who had traditionally been a straight A student fall dramatically after being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.  This messed with her head.  She said to me, "If I don't make As, who am I."  We had a discussion about making your identity something more permanent and important than a letter at the top of a paper, and I prayed for her to find her worth as an image bearer of her Creator. But I also understood that she was used to a life where it was fairly easy to reach her grade goals, so this felt like academic whiplash.  If I had this to do over, I would follow up the spiritual conversation with a practical plan, asking what might be a realistic grade for her to aim at in her current circumstances now that the ideal was unattainable.  

I have always said that I would rather my students aim high and miss than to aim low and hit their targets, but when that happens, it still feels like failure.  Reacting to our students with empathy gives them a safe place to land, recover from the wounds of failure, and launch again.  That kind of resilience does not get built in those who always achieve success.  It is only built by failing and learning from that failure.