2. Learning 2 Learn: CVC Language of Learning (CREATE) We aim for all CVC learners to be: Effectively using memory skills Developing ICT skills Developing Learning styles Revising (well) Self-Evaluating Transferring skills Having personal study skills Being aware of meta cognition Persevering Thinking through ideas Being able to cope with mistakes and setbacks Being positive Coping strategies when the going gets tough Having a growth mindset Sustaining momentum Having goals Showing Independence Being attentive Noticing Managing time Responding with confidence Researching Identifying key points Concluding Note taking Prioritising Organising of self Taking calculated risks Communicating Cooperating Speaking and listening (well) Group working Team building / leading Group decision making Group creative thinking Empathising Collaborating Analysing Drafting Self – assessing Evaluating work Summarising Problem solving Decision making – Justifying Using logic Categorising Organising thinking Making connections Creative thinking (lateral thinking) Generating ideas Problem solving Enquiring – asking questions Taking calculated risks E verlasting T enacious A ctive E mpathic R easoning C reative
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Doing something actively whilst try to take in new information and then keep it there is widely thought to be much more effective that listening on its own. This additional activity serves as a ‘fixing agent’ and we have a higher chance of remembering the information . This could be: 1. Taking notes of key words 2. Organising the material by finding patterns 3. Putting the key pieces of information into a story 4. Repeating the key words in a distinctive way to yourself 5. Making anagrams yourself of the key words and making yourself work them out again The KEY is ELABORATION – making your brain work the knowledge – training the memory muscle
8.
9. Elephants eat 72 to 158 kilograms of food each day. Baby elephants, called calves, weigh around 90 kilograms at birth. Elephant tusks are made of dentine, calcium and salt. The average lifespan of an elephant is 80 years. Elephants use more than 70 voice signals and 160 visual signals for daily communication. Elephants have the largest brains by mass of all mammals, weighing in at a hefty 10.5 pounds (4.7 kilograms) for an adult
Editor's Notes
(2 minutes) With this introductory slide, remind learners that Everlasting is one of the CREATE skills areas that help them join together and develop all the skills they need for learning in every subject, and also outside school and also into the future when they leave, move on to adult life. Remind them that human beings keep on learning new information every day for their whole lives! After the starter Odd One Out activity, we’ll move on to the next slide (3) that focuses on the key aspects of Everlasting that we’re going to work on in this session and the next session on the 2 nd CREATE day for Year 8.
(10 minutes) This is a ‘thinking’ and ‘noticing’ activity – ask the students (in pairs or fours) to come up with an odd one out and a reason. I don’t think they will struggle to come up with something, even if it is highly creative! The main point of this activity at this stage in the lesson is to get them actively thinking and discussing straightaway before there’s too much talk from the teacher. Thematically, the pictures are significant (as students may or may not notice!) to memory in that all 4 of the pictures have a connection with memory but 3 of the pictures are to do with future memory i.e. ways to make sure that you remember things at some future point that you might forget. So knot in handkerchief, string around finger, written list, whereas elephants are just well-known for their excellent long-term memories. It is worth mentioning perhaps at this point that UNDERSTANDING and MEMORY are closely linked. You are much more likely to remember for a long time something you have understood well in the first place. Give them the example of this slide and say that you anticipate that they will have no problem telling you at the end of the session what the odd one out here is and why AND that they won’t have to work hard to remember. One of the reasons for that is that they have understood the ideas and connections represented by these pictures!
(3 minutes) Now we remind learners quickly of the main focus areas of Everlasting. We can encapsulate this by saying that this skill is about developing the best ways to fix new information in our memories and hold it there so that we can use it whenever we need it, whether for exams or daily life. In this session we’re going to develop this skill. We use our memories every day and without being aware of it. We don’t just do that when we’re trying to remember things we’ve learnt before, things we already know, we also use our memories when we’re trying to concentrate in a lesson, either to follow instructions or to hold on to new information from the teacher. This part of memory is called working memory. It only lasts for a very few seconds and it’s easy for the information to slip away even before we’ve had time to act on it. Example! I want you all to touch your left ear with your right hand, cross your right leg over your left leg, look at the person on your left and say the numbers 357986421.
(10 minutes) What helps here? 1) Having it written down so you can read it and go back to the step before if you forget. (importance of note taking for memory) 2) Having it chunked into 4 separate instructions, with the visual bullet points (importance of organising the information clearly). 3) Having visual prompts for the most important bits of information (importance of using visual symbols – especially those who have strong visual-spatial memories 4) Finding patterns in the information. Ask them – where are the patterns? Is there anything logical you can hold on to that makes something easier to remember. Here there are actually 2 useful patterns. First 2 instructions – it’s R does something to L. All 3 actions have movement towards the L. Also the number goes up in odd numbers, down in even and then just ends on 1. So you can chunk it like this: 3579 8642 1 Finally get learners to do this sequence again with you reading it and the slide showing. Then take away the support of the slide (i.e. move on to the blank one) and just repeat the words again. The point of this is to show a) the effectiveness of some of the strategies they’ve just worked on and b) the effectiveness of repetition – the old saying practice makes perfect has currency still!
(5 minutes) A slightly more difficult Odd one out activity. There may be lots of interesting possible answers, which is great. The main thing is for learners to be thinking and coming up with ideas. Take ideas from them in plenary after they’ve had 2-3 mins in pairs/groups. My own ‘answer’ here relates to memory and the fact that there is a lot in the media about all the things that are supposedly meant to help memory e.g. diet with lots of fruit & veg, exercise and plenty of sleep, but actually whilst these are certainly good for a generally healthy lifestyle, it is only the act of writing (even doodling) that has been proven to have a direct benefit on memory. Obviously all answers that are logical should be praised as right. I would just introduce this one at the end of students’ responses to reinforce the idea of doing something active e.g. writing key points or drawing key symbols as an aid to memory.
(2 minutes) This slide is fairly self-explanatory.
Gratuitous cartoon! It does make a link between making a conscious effort to remember and retain information for future use and the theme of the next activity which is a task about elephants!
(30 minutes) Group work challenge: ELABORATE the information contained in this slide in your chosen way or ways to try to ‘fix’ the new facts about elephants in your heads. You can: Use visuals and/or key words/make up a story about a specific elephant (personalise)/rhyming or song Post-it notes, paper & coloured pencils, mini-whiteboards At the end of the 30 minutes your group must be able to tell what they can remember from this information to the class using the aide memoire that they’ve created. (20 minutes)
