Gerri and I did discuss the problems with teaching students long division. I always use the "D,M,S,C,B". I require the students to check off each step as they go along.
Another area that I often see students struggling with is learning to multiply larger numbers. (3 digit by 2 digit) The students always get confused because they have to multiply the ones digit and then they have to multiply the tens digit too. What I found myself doing on the whiteboard was using a sticky note to cover the tens digit while we were multiplying the ones digit and then switching the sticky note over to the ones digit while we were multiplying the tens digit. It worked so well on the board that I gave the students a sticky note every day we practiced and they were able to remember what number needed to be multiplied 1st. It just allowed them to focus on one number at a time. Students with low working memory are not able to manipulate the numbers in their head and remember the steps involved in multiplying larger numbers. This simple task really helped each student learn the procedure quickly.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Chapter One
During phonics lessons I provide the students with a magnet board (it is set up like a folder and has letters on one side and is blank on the other) and letter tiles. We typically begin the lesson by saying the alphabet and pointing to each letter as we say it. I instruct the students to place three letters on their board. For example put d, i, and m on the empty side of the board. Students blend the word by saying each sound and then we read the word together. I then have the students begin to manipulate the word such as put the letter e at the end of the word. What word did you make? I will then ask them to change the /d/ sound at the beginning to the /t/ sound. I will then ask them to sound out the word and read it. Sometimes I will give them the name of the letter to change such as change the m in time to the letter d (tide). Then I will ask them to spell, sound out and read the new word. This helps students with working memory issues because they only have to remember one letter or sound instead of a whole word.
Chapter 1
I introduce new vocabulary words each week. These words are often new to my students, and they come from various content areas across the curriculum. In order for the students to achieve success in mastering the proper definitions, I implement a series of mini-lessons during the week. One consists of brainstorming a list of synonyms and antonyms for each word. I record their responses on the white board, but later erase. Students use and hear the words in a complete, detailed sentence each day. They recognize the part of speech while hearing and using it in a sentence. A lesson they seem to enjoy is illustrating each of the vocabulary words. They share their illustration with a partner and use their drawing to write a sentence. However, after reading this chapter has humbled me and will allow me to revisit the style in which I introduce weekly vocabulary. Students who struggle with low working memory may face less of a challenge having 5 words introduced each day over a 3 day lesson. Also, having the words displayed on chart paper, with the defintion, part of speech, and used in a sentence may be benenficial to the students. Seeing the words in print throughout the day may be an advantage for those who have difficulty retaining information.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Chapter 1 response
The first thing that came to Bonnie and me was the huge working memory task that we're currectly teaching- long division. Sorry Bonnie if I post this sooner than you, but we did discuss this at length and I think it is a great example.
We are asking students to divide, multiply, subtract, compare and the regroup the digit and continue this until the problem is complete. Not to mention that it is a mathematical process that is done left to right, when for the most part we always teach math processes from right to left. Of course you all probably remember or have heard of the "Does Mcdonalds Sell Cheese Burgers?" device to help them remember each step; D-divide, Multiply, Subtract, Check/Compare, Bring up or down next number"
I think that the class poster will help some to see the visual model/instructions daily as well as insisting they put these letters beside each long division problem so that they have to use the letters and check mark next to each as they complete that task. I am interested to see what others think would be helful to those who seem to have working memory difficulty.
We are asking students to divide, multiply, subtract, compare and the regroup the digit and continue this until the problem is complete. Not to mention that it is a mathematical process that is done left to right, when for the most part we always teach math processes from right to left. Of course you all probably remember or have heard of the "Does Mcdonalds Sell Cheese Burgers?" device to help them remember each step; D-divide, Multiply, Subtract, Check/Compare, Bring up or down next number"
I think that the class poster will help some to see the visual model/instructions daily as well as insisting they put these letters beside each long division problem so that they have to use the letters and check mark next to each as they complete that task. I am interested to see what others think would be helful to those who seem to have working memory difficulty.
Chapter one
An academic task that would pose difficulty for a child with low working memory would be subtraction with regrouping or addition with regrouping. The many steps that the children have to remember to do, while doing computation make this task difficult.
When teaching this concept, we always begin at the concrete level with just using the place value blocks and slowly move into the written task. Still many children, low working memory or not, struggle with remembering what to do first.
To help the children remember the steps I attempted to create a song that would help them remember what to do when they needed to regroup to get more ones. I used the song "Ballin the Jack" as a melody. This is what we sang...
First we cross the tens out and we write one less
Then add ten to the ones place and your ready to subtract
When the kids sang these two lines it seemed to help them remember the first two steps and then they could continue with the algorithm. I have found that whenever I add a rhythm or song to a memory task, we seem to remember it better.
When teaching this concept, we always begin at the concrete level with just using the place value blocks and slowly move into the written task. Still many children, low working memory or not, struggle with remembering what to do first.
To help the children remember the steps I attempted to create a song that would help them remember what to do when they needed to regroup to get more ones. I used the song "Ballin the Jack" as a melody. This is what we sang...
First we cross the tens out and we write one less
Then add ten to the ones place and your ready to subtract
When the kids sang these two lines it seemed to help them remember the first two steps and then they could continue with the algorithm. I have found that whenever I add a rhythm or song to a memory task, we seem to remember it better.
Chapter One
When working with a student with low working memory on the concept of elapsed time, the student had difficulty when given a start time and then asked what time it would be in 2 hours and 25 minutes. The student was able to elapse time in hours, but would forget how many hours she had elapsed on her plastic clock (had she elapsed one hour or two). The student would try writing down the start time, say 12:00, then 1:00 when she elapsed one hour on the clock, and 2:00 when she elapsed 2 hours on the clock, but this began to confuse her as well. In thinking about low working memory, instead of using just one clock, we used multiple plastic clocks. The student put the first clock at the original start time (12:00), the second clock she moved ahead 1 hour (1:00), the third clock she moved ahead one hour (2:00), and the fourth clock she moved ahead 25 minutes (ending at 2:25). Having multiple clocks allowed the student to keep track of the elapsed time and store the last stopping point in her working memory and work from there. The clocks used also had five, ten, fifteen noted at each five minute interval.
My 5th grade math book introduces a large number of math vocabulary words at the beginning of each new chapter. I do not go over all the new language at the same time. I wait until the lesson begins and do a minilessson on the vocabulary words needed for the underlying concepts being introduced. Words like “same and equal” are familiar to them but polygons that are similar and congruent are new pieces of language/information needed to answer the questions being asked of them.
The text asked students to distinguish between similar and congruent vs. non similar and non congruent shapes. The lesson assumes that there some prior knowledge. Tapping into prior knowledge is essential for understanding of the lesson.
At first students were having difficulty with the language. Once I began referring back to familiar words like same and equal, students were able to make the connection to prior knowledge of this language, and then they attached the meaning of these words to this new language. Once the connection of familiar language was made same/similar and equal/ congruent students became very comfortable using it throughout the lesson.
After reading chapter one, I would introduce new vocabulary and definitions by using a multiple intelligence approach for each new word. I would use his strategy is hopes that the information gathered in the working memory transfers to the long term memory.
Multiple Intelligence Strategy
1. See the word/definition
2. Hear the word/definition
3. Say/Sing the word/definition
4. Write/Draw the word/definition
5. Become/Act out the word /definition
The text asked students to distinguish between similar and congruent vs. non similar and non congruent shapes. The lesson assumes that there some prior knowledge. Tapping into prior knowledge is essential for understanding of the lesson.
At first students were having difficulty with the language. Once I began referring back to familiar words like same and equal, students were able to make the connection to prior knowledge of this language, and then they attached the meaning of these words to this new language. Once the connection of familiar language was made same/similar and equal/ congruent students became very comfortable using it throughout the lesson.
After reading chapter one, I would introduce new vocabulary and definitions by using a multiple intelligence approach for each new word. I would use his strategy is hopes that the information gathered in the working memory transfers to the long term memory.
Multiple Intelligence Strategy
1. See the word/definition
2. Hear the word/definition
3. Say/Sing the word/definition
4. Write/Draw the word/definition
5. Become/Act out the word /definition
Chapter One Response
After reading Chapter One, I began thinking about activities that involve working memory and possible ways to modify them. I thought about a practice activity that we do in math class as a way to help strengthen working memory. At the end of class, we do a short mental math activity, where we'll give 3-4 short instructions that students need to follow in order to come up with the correct answer. For example we may say:
-Take one dozen
-Divide that by 2
-add 7
We will repeat each step at least twice and take long pauses between steps to accomodate various levels of processing speeds.
It occurs to me that although we try to accomodate various learners, it may be too much for some learners. After reading this chapter, it appears that although the directions are very short, it may be too difficult to hold on to the number and listen to the next direction. One way to modify this may be to write each step on the board so the student can have a visual to correspond with the auditory directions.
-Take one dozen
-Divide that by 2
-add 7
We will repeat each step at least twice and take long pauses between steps to accomodate various levels of processing speeds.
It occurs to me that although we try to accomodate various learners, it may be too much for some learners. After reading this chapter, it appears that although the directions are very short, it may be too difficult to hold on to the number and listen to the next direction. One way to modify this may be to write each step on the board so the student can have a visual to correspond with the auditory directions.
Chapter 1 Response
While it may not be purely "academic" in nature, following directions is necessary for students at all grade levels throughout the day and usually several times per hour. Working memory is required for following directions, particularly multi-step directions given verbally. In the many observations I've done at multiple grade levels, I've rarely (if ever) come across a classroom where every student was able to follow a set of multi-step directions without some kind of additional support.
In chapter one, the authors discuss how long-term memory can support working memory, which may be one way to improve students' ability to follow certain sets of multi-step directions without making errors. Take for example, the set of directions teachers might give prior to sending students off to math class at the higher grade levels: "Write your ELA homework in your agenda, put away your ELA binder, take out your math binder and math book, get a pencil and pen for correcting, get out some graph paper, and go to math." Many teachers might break these down and support students at certain steps (checking their agendas to make sure ELA homework was written down, for example), while other teachers might assume that students would know by now what they needed for math and eliminate the instructions all together. For most students, this is probably true...they have already gotten the routine down. However, for those who struggle on a daily basis to transition from one class to another and without fail forget one or more of the instructions, they might benefit from the use of additional strategies. One strategy that might help would be to use their long-term memory by teaching them (and the whole class) a mnemonic device, rhyme, or other trick that with some whole-class rehearsal and visual cues (checklists on the door as they leave or on the board) could be committed to long-term memory. That way, each day when it is time to go to math, the teacher can cue their long-term memories with that rhyme or other device, and they won't have to rely solely on their ability to keep those steps in working memory.
In chapter one, the authors discuss how long-term memory can support working memory, which may be one way to improve students' ability to follow certain sets of multi-step directions without making errors. Take for example, the set of directions teachers might give prior to sending students off to math class at the higher grade levels: "Write your ELA homework in your agenda, put away your ELA binder, take out your math binder and math book, get a pencil and pen for correcting, get out some graph paper, and go to math." Many teachers might break these down and support students at certain steps (checking their agendas to make sure ELA homework was written down, for example), while other teachers might assume that students would know by now what they needed for math and eliminate the instructions all together. For most students, this is probably true...they have already gotten the routine down. However, for those who struggle on a daily basis to transition from one class to another and without fail forget one or more of the instructions, they might benefit from the use of additional strategies. One strategy that might help would be to use their long-term memory by teaching them (and the whole class) a mnemonic device, rhyme, or other trick that with some whole-class rehearsal and visual cues (checklists on the door as they leave or on the board) could be committed to long-term memory. That way, each day when it is time to go to math, the teacher can cue their long-term memories with that rhyme or other device, and they won't have to rely solely on their ability to keep those steps in working memory.
A daily academic task required of students in first grade is decoding words. A student with low working memory might be challenged due to the fact that the student needs to keep each individual phoneme in his/her working memory as he/she works to blend them.
For example, in decoding the word "cat", the student would have to decode and keep the three phonemes of /c/ /a/ /t/ in his/her working memory and then blend them.
The task might be changed by repeatedly instructing students to blend words in the following way:
1. say /k/
2. point to "a" and say /a/.
3. go back to the beginning of the word and say /ka/ as you slide under the "ca"
4.point to the "t" and say /t/
5. then say /ka/ /t/
6. then /kat/
7. finally read cat
For example, in decoding the word "cat", the student would have to decode and keep the three phonemes of /c/ /a/ /t/ in his/her working memory and then blend them.
The task might be changed by repeatedly instructing students to blend words in the following way:
1. say /k/
2. point to "a" and say /a/.
3. go back to the beginning of the word and say /ka/ as you slide under the "ca"
4.point to the "t" and say /t/
5. then say /ka/ /t/
6. then /kat/
7. finally read cat
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Part of the Everyday Math curriculum in first grade is teaching students how to count the value of coins beginning with adding pennies and nickels, and eventually adding on dimes and quarters. This can prove quite challenging for students with poor working memory because I am asking them to recall the value of each coin presented, then to remember how to count up by 1's, 5's, 10's, and 25's. For example, students are asked how much 3 dimes, 2 nickels, and 3 pennies are worth. In Everyday Math this is presented to them two different ways- with actual pictures of coins (sometimes showing the back, sometimes showing the front) or as:
D D D N N P P P (with the D = dime, N= nickel, etc.).
Most of this is done orally, with me demonstrating on the overhead how to count on. We also do daily oral counting by 5's and 10's by chanting.
For my students with poor working memory, I am now going to have a small "cheat sheet" for them to refer to at their desks. This will show front and backs of all the coins as well as the letter it represents (D, N, P, or Q) AND the value of each coin. I will also have them write down under each picture of the coin(s) how much it is worth, so they can go back after and count up. This way they won't need to remember how much the dimes were worth, how much the nickels are worth, and then how much the pennies are worth. For examle, for the previous example, I would have them write 10, 10, 10, 5, 5, 1, 1, 1. Then the student could go back and count to see how much money they have.
D D D N N P P P (with the D = dime, N= nickel, etc.).
Most of this is done orally, with me demonstrating on the overhead how to count on. We also do daily oral counting by 5's and 10's by chanting.
For my students with poor working memory, I am now going to have a small "cheat sheet" for them to refer to at their desks. This will show front and backs of all the coins as well as the letter it represents (D, N, P, or Q) AND the value of each coin. I will also have them write down under each picture of the coin(s) how much it is worth, so they can go back after and count up. This way they won't need to remember how much the dimes were worth, how much the nickels are worth, and then how much the pennies are worth. For examle, for the previous example, I would have them write 10, 10, 10, 5, 5, 1, 1, 1. Then the student could go back and count to see how much money they have.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Chapter 1: Question & Discussion
A task I ask my students to do is a spelling word sort. This is an independent task done weekly during literacy centers. We have been doing spelling word sorts since November and many of my students are familiar with them and the directions as to how to do them. However, for some of my students who show signs of having low working memory, each week this task poses a challenge for them because they do not remember the multiple step directions and in which order to do them to complete this task.
In order for these students to be successful in doing this task I help them by writing the directions on the board using simple wording. (1. cut 2. sort by (ch/wh) 3. glue) along with the direction I also use picture cues. Another way I help them is by making a directions check list for their desk. They can check off a box as each direction is done. Finally, I always check in with them during the task to make sure they are on task and understanding what they are doing.
In order for these students to be successful in doing this task I help them by writing the directions on the board using simple wording. (1. cut 2. sort by (ch/wh) 3. glue) along with the direction I also use picture cues. Another way I help them is by making a directions check list for their desk. They can check off a box as each direction is done. Finally, I always check in with them during the task to make sure they are on task and understanding what they are doing.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
ch 1 disc question response
A task I recently asked my students to complete was from a spelling worksheet and it involved reading across a row of 4 words then identifying the word that did not fit a pattern. Originally this was a homework assignment that we were reviewing in class the next day. I did not anticipate the amount of confusion the students experienced. Prior to reviewing the assignment, I broke the instructions down even further than what was written on the worksheet.
Specifically, the instructions I gave were:
1. read the 4 words in the row. 2. highlight the word endings (-ed, -s -ing) 3. identify the spelling pattern 4. cross out the word that doesnot fit the pattern.
This task involved working memory because the students had to remember what the endings of the 4 words were and that they were looking for the word that did not fit the pattern then cross out the one that didn't fit.
I simplified the task by having them highlight the endings. We completed the entire worksheet as a group. In order to make this an independent task, I could have added another step. After highlighting the endings, the students could write down the ending (-es, -ing, -ed) that appeared more than once ("the pattern")in the row. Then, go back and find the word in the row with the different ending.
By writing down what the ending pattern is, students don't have to hold it in working memory. It is now written on the paper so they can compare the words to it.
Another simplification would be to model, on the board, what the task is (ie; what the row should look like) with endings highlighted, the pattern written down, and 1 word "x'ed" out. This way, if students forget, they can look to the model on the board.
Specifically, the instructions I gave were:
1. read the 4 words in the row. 2. highlight the word endings (-ed, -s -ing) 3. identify the spelling pattern 4. cross out the word that doesnot fit the pattern.
This task involved working memory because the students had to remember what the endings of the 4 words were and that they were looking for the word that did not fit the pattern then cross out the one that didn't fit.
I simplified the task by having them highlight the endings. We completed the entire worksheet as a group. In order to make this an independent task, I could have added another step. After highlighting the endings, the students could write down the ending (-es, -ing, -ed) that appeared more than once ("the pattern")in the row. Then, go back and find the word in the row with the different ending.
By writing down what the ending pattern is, students don't have to hold it in working memory. It is now written on the paper so they can compare the words to it.
Another simplification would be to model, on the board, what the task is (ie; what the row should look like) with endings highlighted, the pattern written down, and 1 word "x'ed" out. This way, if students forget, they can look to the model on the board.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Chapter One
Now that you have read Chapter One and perused the summary I provided, here is the first question.
Briefly describe an academic task that involves working memory (manipulating information in short term memory) that you might assign to your students. Identify the parts of the task that might challenge students with low working memory. How might the task be changed so that such students are supported and can be successful with this task?
Please post your response separately from this post. Then read the other participants' responses and choose at least two to comment on. Click on "Comments" under their post.
Briefly describe an academic task that involves working memory (manipulating information in short term memory) that you might assign to your students. Identify the parts of the task that might challenge students with low working memory. How might the task be changed so that such students are supported and can be successful with this task?
Please post your response separately from this post. Then read the other participants' responses and choose at least two to comment on. Click on "Comments" under their post.
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