MOOC-Ed: Learning Differences: Working Memories

Consider whether one of the following activities might work well for your colleagues during a regularly scheduled staff/department/PLC meeting.

 Host a group / PLC viewing of the TEDTalk video: How your “working memory” makes sense of the world.  As a group, reflect upon the following questions and discuss:

Play the working memory game with the presenter, and discuss the questions below. [2:31-3:58]

• The correct answer is: Tree Highway Mirror Saturn Electrode. How many words did you remember
• What strategies did you employ in order to hold these 5 words in your working memory?  Were you surprised by your peer’s strategies?

How do we use our working memory in our daily lives?  How does this translate to the classroom? [4:39-5:14]

How is working memory limited? What strategies can we use in our classrooms to help support student’s working memory? [6:44-9:18]


Before the PLC group meets, the PLC lead (or another volunteer) should create a list of about 7 items.  Divide the time allotted for the PLC meeting by 10 (e.g., if the meeting will be 45 minutes, each division will be 4½ minutes).  At the start of the meeting ask colleagues to remember the first term on the list, then proceed with the meeting as normal.  When each chunk of time passes, give colleagues another term to be remembered.  (So for example, at the start of the meeting, you may ask them to remember “computer”; five minutes later, you ask them to remember “dolphin”; and ten minutes into the meeting, you add “pickle” to the list. And so on.)  After all of the items have been given, ask them to write the list of words down, preferably in order.  Then consider the following questions:

• How many of the terms were you able to remember; were they in the right order?
  
• Was there a point at which you were able to identify the need for implementing a strategy or tool to help you remember the terms?
  
• If so, what strategy or tool did you employ?
  
• What might this activity reveal about your classrooms and what are the implications for your students?
  

As a group, reflect on the resources in the course and hold a share out of the strategies you staff learned about, and what strategies they utilize to support their students’ working memory.  Using the strategies discussed, design a series of tasks that help students identify their own working memory capacities.  The first task should have 3 directives for students to remember at one time.  The second task might have 4-5 directives for students to remember.  The last should have 6-7 directives for students to remember.  Once these activities are complete, have students reflect on the following questions:

• Question: How many steps were you able to accomplish before needing a memory jog? (asking a classmate or teacher, referring to assignment, etc.)
  
• Question: What strategies did you use to help you remember what you had to accomplish?
  

Source: The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation  - North Carolina State University