I have taught elementary school for over 20 years in Los Alamitos Unified School District and in Part 1 of “How To Make Learning Stick,” I shared how I went on a quest to help my son, who was entering Los Alamitos High School, study effectively. That quest led me to discover a number of strategies that are scientifically proven to work. The number one tip for how to make learning stick is to quiz oneself. This can take the form of flashcards, student generated quizzes, practice tests at the end of chapters, study partners asking questions from the notes, and practicing sample problems in a math and technical class.
The second piece of advice was the importance of intermittent practice. The time to start studying for the test is as soon as new material is taught. That means that if a student starts a new history chapter today, then the flashcards for terms and concepts should start that night. If a student is starting a new chapter in math, they do their homework, which reinforces the work done in class. The spaced practice strategy comes in as a daily spiral review by adding new flashcards or problems to the old, and repeating the practice of quizzing oneself over all the material, both new and old.
The last strategy I offered in Part 1 of “How To Make Learning Stick” is the idea of elaboration. I described that elaboration is explaining the learning in your own words and connecting the new learning to prior knowledge. In other words, students should be able to teach as if they were explaining the material to a five year old.
Part 1 is a great start to making your learning stick. However, there is more, much more. What about the student that asks, “I study all the time and nothing sticks. Can you help me?” How about the questions of where, when, and how long to study?
Let’s start with the grinder, or the student that “studies” all the time but gets nothing done. This student has the music blaring, Netflix streaming, social media humming, and texts flying. Do I sound like I have a 15 year old in the next room that says he is studying and has been for the past two hours? This student is in the midst of pseudo-work, a term used by Cal Newport in How To Become a Straight A Student. Pseudo-work is when a student is plugged into everything except the task at hand. Newport shares a formula: Work = Time x Intensity. Let me explain. Let’s say a student has x amount of work to be done. At an intensity level of 3, it will take them 10 hours to complete the work. OK, let’s flip the equation and crank up the intensity. Now the student is working at an intensity of 10. It will only take them 3 hours to complete the same amount of work. How do students crank up the intensity?
The answer is in where, when, and how long to study. Where should you study? In the least distracting atmosphere possible. This might be a quiet room of a library or in your house. Unplug and get to work. To help build the willpower to unplug, it is important to put all the distractors away, far away. Cell phones and other devices should be placed in another room, on silent, where it would take more than thirty seconds to get to them. Your student will cry, “But I need my computer or device to go to Google docs or do research.” This is understandable and expected. I recommend that you, on whatever device they will use, make it as difficult as possible to access text, social media, email, and so on. Delete icons for messages, social media, etc. That way the student would have to take many steps to open up these distractors. Our brain’s lazy side that doesn’t want to go through the work of getting to the messages might just win over the FOMO side. FOMO means fear of missing out.
When is the best time to study? The answer: As early in the day as possible. This means any time between waking up and dinner. Get a big calendar and block out work times daily. The best learners in How To Become a Straight A Student scheduled daily work time blocks weeks in advance. The earlier students study the more willpower they have against procrastination and other activities coming up and getting in the way. This might mean having your student go to bed early so that they can wake up early to get their best work done. In Deep Work by Cal Newport, one of his big tips is to schedule every minute of every day. “This is not to drive yourself crazy,” he says, “but to bring mindfulness to your day.”
Lastly, the question of how long to study? The simple answer is no more than one-hour in one sitting or thirty minutes for elementary students. At that point students need to get up, have a snack, stretch, play with the dog, go for a walk, or a similar relaxing activity. This is not the time to go check texts or social media if you are going back to work. These things are not restful to the brain. The goal of the break is to rest the brain and get it primed for your next period of intense work.
Learning the difference between pseudo-work and real intense work is key to becoming a successful student that isn’t pulling all-nighters just to barely pass their next test and then forget the material as they walk out of the classroom.
Also, learning the answers to the where, when, and how long to study questions will help build routines that facilitate the intense work that is necessary to make learning stick.
Kristie Kuehnast is a Los Alamitos Unified School District teacher. She is available to tutor in all areas K-5 and most areas 6-12. Email: mrs.kuehnast@gmail.com.
This column appeared in the May 31, 2017 print edition of the News Enterprise.
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