Minutes a Day—Mastery for a Lifetime!
That’s a trick question! Numerous item types—multiple choice, matching, fill-in, short answer, and extended response—work well. Furthermore, retrieval practice can be applied in a variety of ways, including flashcards, academic puzzles, games, mixed review sheets (like these), and even graphic organizers. Here are some of my favorite item types. Tell a three-sentence story. My friends […]
On October 24th, 2016, Google honored Antoni van Leeuwenhoek’s 384th birthday with the daily Google Doodle. Leeuwenhoek (Lee vǝn hook), a Dutch cloth merchant by trade, is known as the Father of Microbiology. He may have used magnification to determine the density of a fabric’s thread count. With no formal university training, he designed and […]
Simple Solutions Worksheet Generator Differentiation. It’s a buzzword in education that is not going to disappear. Many teachers have mixed emotions about the word. Teachers know differentiation is vital to solid instruction and for student success, and they WANT to use it in their classrooms. They know it’s a best practice. They know it helps […]
Teachers who use our Simple Solutions books in the classroom are going to find a nice surprise when they open their digital teacher editions at the start of the school year. The new update makes these editions easier than ever! Everything that you love about the S²TaR Center (The Simple Solutions Tools and Resource Center) […]
There are many ways to define Information Literacy. It might best be viewed as the sum of some of its basic components: needing, gathering, evaluating, and using information. One dilemma facing teachers today is guiding students towards reputable, current, and authoritative sources with rich content. To label reporting “fake news” leaves students wondering how to […]
No More “Summer Packets” All teachers are aware that summer learning loss is real. In fact, many teachers take a pro-active approach to curb that loss by creating summer reading lists or putting together “packets” of enrichment or reinforcement worksheets for kids to complete over the summer. All activities have the same goal: keep students […]
Galileo Happy 454th Birthday! I had such fun writing the Ben Franklin birthday blog, I thought I’d write about another scientist. I stumbled upon Galileo’s name in a novel I was reading, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, in which two characters briefly discuss one of Galileo’s discoveries. “What I recall about this Galileo […]
Part 2: What’s the difference between distributed practice and retrieval practice? Like distributed practice, retrieval practice is a strategy. It involves getting students to remember (retrieve) what they’ve learned. Putting forth some effort and really thinking about a concept reinforces it and makes it easier to retrieve in the future. Think about the kinds of […]
Part 1: Distributed Practice Practice is Practice, Right? Not really. There are so many kinds of practice—massed practice, distributed practice, retrieval practice, and interleaved practice, to name a few. And, each corresponds to a specific educational goal. Let’s sort them out. Let’s start with distributed practice, also known as spaced learning, and sometimes, spiraling. It’s […]