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A Modest Proposal
Two Simple Ideas, Easy to Implement,
That Can Make a Real Difference
(and require no technology)
(and no expense)
by Eric T. MacKnight
http://www.EricMacKnight.com/
Based on my
summer
reading
“Daniel T. Willingham is
professor of psychology at the
University of Virginia, where
he has taught since 1992. He
writes the popular Ask the
Cognitive Scientist column for
American Educator
magazine.”
The Problems
1. Students have trouble comprehending
what they read.
The Research Says .
..
• Background knowledge is more
important to successful comprehension
than reading ability.
Background
Knowledge
• Tests show that
students with
relevant
background
knowledge do
significantly better
than those who
lack background
knowledge,
regardless of raw
reading
ability.
Source: Willingham, Why Don’t Students Like School? p. 27
Background knowledge .
..
• provides vocabulary
•
•
•
allows you to bridge logical gaps that
writers leave
allows chunking, which increases room in
working memory and thereby makes it
easier to tie ideas together
guides the interpretation of ambiguous
sentences
Source: Willingham, Why Don’t Students Like School? p. 28
And moreover,
• “Not only does background knowledge
make you a better reader, but it also is
necessary to be a good thinker. The
processes we most hope to engender in
our students—thinking critically and
logically—are not possible without
background knowledge.”
Source: Willingham, Why Don’t Students Like School? pp. 35, 37
So . . . how can we increase
students’ background
knowledge?
• “Books, newspapers, and magazines
are singularly helpful in introducing new
ideas and new vocabulary to students. .
. . Books expose children to more facts
and to a broader vocabulary than
virtually any other activity.”
Source: Willingham, Why Don’t Students Like School? p. 37
Which leads to
my first modest proposal . . .
• Independent Reading should be
required in every subject, at every
grade level. It should replace at least
some, probably most, and perhaps
even all of the homework currently
assigned in some subjects.
(We will leave the homework debate for
another day.)
The Problems
2. Students have trouble remembering
what they have learned in class.
The Research Says .
..
•
Simple reviewing of
material significantly
increases the amount
of the material that
moves into long-term
memory.
Source: Willingham, Why Don’t Students Like School? p. 44
Key Quotation
• “Whatever you think about, that’s what
you remember. Memory is the residue
of thought.”
Source: Willingham, Why Don’t Students Like School? p. 47
So . . .
• How can we get students to think about
what they have learned in class each
day?
Which leads to
my second modest proposal . . .
• We should teach students at all grade
levels to review daily what they have
studied in school.
The Daily Review
• The daily review can take many
different forms, and each grade level
team will have to work out just what
form is appropriate for their students.
What’s important is that students
develop the habit of daily review, of
thinking again about what they have
studied in school that day. . . .
• It will also be necessary to work out how
the daily review is monitored or
assessed. Again, this will vary among
subjects and grade levels. To be
effective, however, it must be a daily
habit, for both students (to do the
review) and teachers (to check it).
To sum up . . .
• Reading comprehension is
fundamentally important for success in
school.
• Background knowledge is crucial to
reading comprehension.
• Therefore a schoolwide Independent
Reading program in all subjects will
significantly improve our students’
reading comprehension.
• Students often forget much of what they
‘learn’ in school because the material is
never stored in their long-term memory.
• Simple review—thinking again about
the material—is the best way to store it
in long-term memory.
• Therefore a schoolwide program of
daily review will significantly improve
students’ retention of what they learn in
school.
That’s it.