Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Information Processing - Post 2
Today, the students will be learning the alphabet. To begin, I will write the letters on the board all in order (INPUT). As the students see it, they are taking in the shape of the letters and the order they are in on the board. This information is now entering their SENSORY MEMORY. I be sure that all of the students are paying attention by having them say the letter as I point to it. This prevents the LOSS of the information and moves it to the students' WORKING MEMORY. I then have the students stand up and say the alphabet in order around the room causing them to REHEARSE the information. In playing this game, some of the students FORGOT which letter came next and so they sat down. But now, everyone gets to stand up and try again. This, time I teach the students the tune that goes along with the letters. This causes them to ENCODE the information so they are able to RETRIEVE the alphabet from their LONG-TERM MEMORY for the rest of the year.
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This all looks good and accurate. Remember that it's not just the visual information of the letters on the board going into their sensory memory--it's any sensory information in the room (the sound of something outside, the temperature of the room), but finding a way to direct their attention is good. If they are watching you write, then the information is already in their conscious thought (working memory).
ReplyDeleteRehearsing the information is something that is often individual, unless all students are repeating the information to themselves during that time, keeping the letters in their conscious thought. This doesn't help them learn (move it to long term memory).
A tune might help (if it is a familiar tune) for encoding, but why? Just because something is encoded doesn't mean it can be retrieved. What are some important factors for retrieval?