1. Improving students’ MEMORIES
Time
Activity
5 minutes
Set the tone and share aims of the session
10 minutes
Wider reading task
Debate on different ideas from the key educational thinkers
Introduce specific strategies
15 minutes
Coaching session on specific strategies for own class context
Practice task focusing on applying these strategies
Reflection and evaluation of the session

2. Improving students’ MEMORIES
Aims of the session
To engage with the ideas about memory from the texts Why Don’t Students Like School, The Hidden Lives of Learners and Make It Stick .
To share effective strategies based on research about how to improve students’ memories.
To reflect on how to implement these strategies with our own classes.
To modify existing practice to improve the outcomes of a particular class or a targeted group of students.

3. Why is memory so important?
Improving students’ MEMORIES
Why is memory so important?
How would you identify if a student has a good working memory and good long-term memory retention?
What role does memory have in ensuring students are able to develop their knowledge and understanding?
Take a couple of minutes to discuss these questions with the person sitting next to you.

4. Improving students’ MEMORIES
Wider reading task
What are the key ideas that Daniel Willingham, Graham Nuthall, Peter Brown, Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel have with regards to increasing the level of challenge for students? Each of you in your group of three will be given a different handout. Read the handout and be prepared to share what each educational thinker says about ensuring students are challenged in class.

5. Debating these ideas Improving students’ MEMORIES
How might Daniel Willingham’s ideas and the ideas from the authors of Make It Stick help students to improve their memory?
How might Graham Nuthall’s ideas help teachers to change the way they plan their lessons?
What are the possible issues with implementing these ideas for improving memory retention?
Thinking about your own students, who might struggle to adapt to these methods of improving memory?

6. Implementing Willingham’s ideas
Improving students’ MEMORIES
Implementing Willingham’s ideas
Practical strategy: Plan for forgetting
Use homework time to assign students previously-learnt topics and challenge them to revise the material and take short quizzes to test how much they remember.
The larger the gap between teaching the content and then taking the test, the harder the brain has to work to retrieve the information.

7. Implementing Nuthall’s ideas
Improving students’ MEMORIES
Implementing Nuthall’s ideas
Practical strategy: Revisit threshold concepts
Using Nuthall’s formula that students need to encounter a new idea in full at least three times for it to be stored into their long-term memory, create opportunities for students to revisit ideas throughout the topic.
Decide in advance what the threshold concepts are for the topic the students are studying and encourage them to reflect on what they understand about these threshold concepts at different points using learning logs or their mind maps.

8. Implementing Brown, Roediger and McDaniel’s ideas
Improving students’ MEMORIES
Implementing Brown, Roediger and McDaniel’s ideas
Practical strategy: Knowledge organisers
Students create knowledge organisers for new information you have shared with them. Depending on how often you see your classes, this might be every week, fortnight or half term.
The knowledge organiser is a tool that supports students in remembering the key knowledge they need to know before they can move on to a new concept or topic.
The knowledge organiser should ideally fit onto one page of A4.
Students build up a bank of knowledge organisers over time – a much better use of time than reading over notes.

9. Improving students’ MEMORIES
Our students
Take a minute to think about a student, a group of students or a class you teach who might benefit from this strategy.
Why have you chosen these particular students?
Be ready to share your selected students with the rest of the group.

10. Coaching to develop our practice
Improving students’ MEMORIES
Coaching to develop our practice
We will now work in pairs where each person in the pair will be coached about how they may implement a particular strategy from Willingham or Nuthall or Brown, Roediger and McDaniel. At the end of the conversation, each person will need to commit to an action going forward that will help students to improve their long term memory.

11. The GROW model Improving students’ MEMORIES GOAL
What do they want to achieve?
Why do they want to achieve this?
REALITY
What are the issues they are facing that are hindering their goals?
What have they tried already?
OPTIONS
What have they thought about that they could try?
What do they think are the pros and cons of each option?
WAY FORWARD
What are they going to commit to trying?
What do they hope will be the impact?

12. The GROW model – improving students’ memories
GOAL
Which strategy do you want to try out?
Which students might benefit?
How might these students benefit from this strategy?
REALITY
What barriers to learning are you encountering from these students?
How are these barriers affecting their ability to think deeply about ideas discussed in your class?
OPTIONS
What have you tried already?
What were the pros and cons to what you’ve tried?
How might this strategy be better?
WAY FORWARD
What actions are you going to commit to moving forward?
What support will you need to make it happen?
How will you know if it has had successful impact?

13. Revisit threshold concepts
Improving students’ MEMORIES
Practice tasks
Plan for forgetting
Revisit threshold concepts
Think about topics you have already taught and make a list.
In these topics, note down what are the most important pieces of knowledge you need students to remember.
Devise a revision list to cover these topics and create short quizzes to test whether the students have revised these past topics.
Think about a topic you are going to teach next.
Break down the topic into the most important threshold concepts that students need to master.
Decide how you are going to teach these threshold concepts at least three times over the course of the topic.

14. Practice tasks Knowledge organisers
Improving students’ MEMORIES
Practice tasks
Knowledge organisers
Think about the key pieces of knowledge you want students to remember about a topic you have taught.
Design a one page exemplar for students to see how to create a knowledge organiser.
Then decide on the knowledge organisers you want students to make as a revision tool.

15. Reflection and evaluation
Improving students’ MEMORIES
Reflection and evaluation
Question
Response
What strategies do you already routinely use with students to improve students’ memories?
What did you want to get out of today’s session?
How has today’s session developed your understanding of how to improve retention in your students’ memories?
What specific changes are you going to commit to making after today’s session?
What further information or training would you like the lead learner to offer to support you in achieving these changes?