How I will "Make it Stick" in my class

My annual trip to Costa Rica to visit my in-laws has been consumed by reading and analyzing Make it Stick by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel.  

How do their ideas of learning work in a world language classroom?

The premise of Make it Stick is for learners to accept the challenges of learning and adopt various methods of remembering and applying information. When things are difficult, it makes the brain work harder to create connections to eventually be stored in long term memory. Desirable Difficulty, named by Elizabeth and Robert Bjork, is "short-term impediments that make for stronger learning" (68). The opposite of this is Undesirable Difficulty -which is basically when a task is too difficult for students to overcome or "don't strengthen the skills you will need...in the real-world application of your learning." An example given was teaching a football player effective golf swings (99), this is not a desirable lesson because it does not relate to the overall goal of the football player-to play FOOTBALL better. This reminded me that students need to be able to relate to the lessons and tasks need to be authentic. How can we bring our essential questions around to be less about the exchange student that you're hypothetically hosting and more about what students are actually doing in their lives already?

Making connections to the world language classroom is no easy task. There is a shift happening where L2 teachers are pushing their students to be more communicative with interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational tasks. The idea of testing frequently throws me for a loop--at first I could only think of how to use this in reference to vocabulary. Did I just read an entire book to have it tell me that I need to test MORE when I've been trying to eliminate testing all together??  On the other hand, it was much easier to make  connections to the first book I read this summer: Who Owns the Learning by Alan November.

What will I try??

1. The job of Tutorial Designer (November) is one thing I want to attempt and it is supported in Make it Stick with the idea of elaboration (31). The more students can explain how new learning connects to what they already know-in their own way, the more it sticks. In a recent #langcamp hangout, @KrisClimer mentioned that he uses his textbook series as a lower tech Flipped classroom. Students use the textbook at home and use that for their grammar lessons. This takes away the need to use valuable class time to explain the concepts. It also goes along with the theme of a student centered classroom. I would love to start assigning students to find a couple of videos and/or websites that they find helpful to explicitly teach grammar concepts. Then, when they come back to class, they would have to explain the concept in their own words. I think this would also help students find ways that are useful to THEM in their own learning instead of only learning the way I teach. 

2. I may be bringing back the idea of flashcards using the premise of the Leitner Box (64). Students separate the flashcards into 3 boxes based on how well they perceive they know the vocabulary. I would have them label them "I don't know", "Almost", and "Learned" in the TL and keep the boxes at home for studying. Maybe with 20 non-negotiable vocabulary words every 2 weeks? Vocabulary is necessary for proficiency. I think that if we wrap up the two week periods with a quick vocabulary quiz where they have to define the word in Spanish and write a sentence or paragraph (depending on proficiency level).

3. The idea of using testing as a tool FOR learning as opposed to a tool OF learning seems like a good concept. I have frequently used "Repasito" or "Caliente la mente" as bell ringer activities, and these could easily be the quick "Pre-test" the book talks about. Students could come in, use their phones, and put them away on the door where I have hanging shoe rack ready to collect them. If this is the direction I want to go, I need to think about how to make it more relevant and authentic for students. Doing the same thing day in and day out gets really tiring for everyone!

Overall, the best part of this book? The group of #Langbook people who are also reading it. It is nice to have a shared World Language focus. There was a #Langbook Twitter chat before I even started the book, and I used that as a starting point for my thinking as I read. You can find the chat that took place here:

The last thing I will say about this book is that the chapter about retrieval and consolidation of memories just made me think of the new Pixar movie Inside Out. The little orbs of memories is a great representation of what our brains are doing with everything we are learning as well!