Not This Again!
Well, yes. I’m writing about doing “this” again, and again, and again. I’m talking about practice as another factor in improving your student’s memory of what you’re teaching.
Practice, though, is not simply doing something over and over again. When you think about setting up a practice strategy, you have three questions to answer.
They are:
- How much?
- How many times?
- How often?
I’m going to unpack each of these in the next tip or two of the week. For now, here’s something you can incorporate right now in your teaching. A principle I learned from Madeline Hunter, one that I’ve used personally in my teaching and seen work is this: “Learn the smallest part that still maintains adequate meaning.”
Let’s say you want your student to learn a passage of Scripture. Break it up into meaningful parts. “Meaningful parts” is usually more than just committing to memory a few words at a time. On the other hand, you’ll not teach and expect your student to learn the whole thing all at once. Your approach might be to learn one verse at a time, adding the following verses as you go. As your student sees the relationship between the verses and how one verse leads and is related to the next, their memory and understanding of the passage is further strengthen.
Teach content in small but meaningful parts.
That’s the tip of the week!
Curt Bumcrot, MRE
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