Fall Conference Highlights

I just returned from the annual UALR Reading Recovery and Literacy Conference. As always, I need to take a moment to sift through my notes in order to recall some of gems. Karen James reminded me in her session that we need to unclutter our teaching. Children can only take on around 3-5 items in a learning setting. If we are continually talking, explaining, and re-explaining, we're only going to tangle them up. Instead, we need to make our teaching points short, explicit, and memorable. This will enable the child to focus on the most important behaviors to monitor. I guess I have been taught this before, but with adults, as it is with children, it takes 9-14 exposures before we actually internalize learning (Meichenbaum & Biemiller). I will continue thinking about this as I work with learners, both children and teachers. I will also apply this to my own learning. How relevant!