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How Learning Works

A Playbook

By: John Taylor Almarode, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey

Translate the science of learning into strategies for maximum learning impact in your classroom.

The content, skills, and understandings students need to learn today are as diverse, complex, and multidimensional as the students in our classrooms. How can educators best create the learning experiences students need to truly learn?

How Learning Works: A Playbook unpacks the science of how students learn and translates that knowledge into promising principles or practices that can be implemented in the classroom or utilized by students on their own learning journey. Designed to help educators create learning experiences that better align with how learning works, each module in this playbook is grounded in research and features prompts, tools, practice exercises, and discussion strategies that help teachers to

Describe what is meant by learning in the local context of your classroom, including identifying any barriers to learning.
Adapt promising principles and practices to meet the specific needs of your students—particularly regarding motivation, attention, encoding, retrieval and practice, cognitive load and memory, productive struggle, and feedback.
Translate research on learning into learning strategies that accelerate learning and build students’ capacity to take ownership of their own learning—such as summarizing, spaced practice, interleaved practice, elaborate interrogation, and transfer strategies.
Generate and gather evidence of impact by engaging students in reciprocal teaching and effective feedback on learning.

Rich with resources that support the process of parlaying scientific findings into classroom practice, this playbook offers all the moves teachers need to design learning experiences that work for all students!

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781071856635
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2021
Page Count: 240
Publication date: July 21, 2021

Price: $34.95

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Description

Translate the science of learning into strategies for maximum learning impact in your classroom.

Describe what is meant by learning in the local context of your classroom, including identifying any barriers to learning.
Adapt promising principles and practices to meet the specific needs of your students—particularly regarding motivation, attention, encoding, retrieval and practice, cognitive load and memory, productive struggle, and feedback.
Translate research on learning into learning strategies that accelerate learning and build students’ capacity to take ownership of their own learning—such as summarizing, spaced practice, interleaved practice, elaborate interrogation, and transfer strategies.
Generate and gather evidence of impact by engaging students in reciprocal teaching and effective feedback on learning.

Author(s)

John Taylor Almarode

Dr. John Almarode is a bestselling author and an Associate Professor of Education at James Madison University. He was awarded the inaugural Sarah Miller Luck Endowed Professorship in 2015 and received an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia in 2021. Before his academic career, John started as a mathematics and science teacher in Augusta County, Virginia. As an author, John has written multiple educational books focusing on science and mathematics, and he has co-created a new framework for developing, implementing, and sustaining professional learning communities called PLC+. Dr. Almarode's work has been presented to the US Congress, the Virginia Senate, and the US Department of Education. One of his recent projects includes developing the Distance Learning Playbook for College and University Instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Continuing his collaborative work with colleagues on what works best in teaching and learning, How Tutoring Works, Visible Learning in Early Childhood, and How Learning Works, all with Corwin Press, were released in 2021.

Douglas Fisher

Douglas Fisher is professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Doug was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He is a credentialed teacher and leader in California. In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy Research Association. He has published widely on literacy, quality instruction, and assessment, as well as books such as Welcome to Teaching, PLC+, Teaching Students to Drive their Learning, and Student Assessment: Better Evidence, Better Decisions, Better Learning.

Nancy Frey

Nancy Frey is professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Nancy was a teacher, academic coach, and central office resource coordinator in Florida. She is a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator in California. She is a member of the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Research Panel. She has published widely on literacy, quality instruction, and assessment, as well as books such as The Artificial Intelligences Playbook, How Scaffolding Works, How Teams Work, and The Vocabulary Playbook.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

The Purpose of This Learning Playbook

The Learning Plan With the Modules

Learning Within the Modules

Collaborating for Great Learning

PART I

CHAPTER 1. WHAT DOES LEARNING LOOK LIKE IN YOUR CLASSROOM?

A Definition of Learning

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 2. WHAT ARE DIFFERENT WAYS TO THINK ABOUT LEARNING?

Three Different Types of Knowledge

Three Parts of the Learning Process

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 3. WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS TO LEARNING?

Acquisition

Consolidation

Storage

Challenges to Learning by Design

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 4. HOW DO STUDENTS LEARN?

Learning Myths

The Science of Learning

Checks for Understanding

PART II

CHAPTER 5. PROMISING PRINCIPLE 1: MOTIVATION

What Is Motivation?

What Does This Principle or Practice Look Like in the Classroom?

How Do We Implement This Principle and Practice Into Our Classrooms?

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 6. PROMISING PRINCIPLE 2: ATTENTION

What Is Attention?

Factors Influencing Attention

What Does This Principle or Practice Look Like in the Classroom?

How Do We Implement This Principle and Practice Into Our Classrooms?

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 7. PROMISING PRINCIPLE 3: ELABORATE ENCODING

What Is Elaborate Encoding?

Components of Elaborate Encoding

Approaches to Promoting Elaborate Encoding

What Does This Principle or Practice Look Like in the Classroom?

How Do We Implement This Principle and Practice Into Our Classrooms?

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 8. PROMISING PRINCIPLE 4: RETRIEVAL AND PRACTICE

What Is Retrieval and Practice?

Timing of Retrieval

Types of Retrieval Practice

What Does This Principle or Practice Look Like in the Classroom?

How Do We Implement This Principle and Practice Into Our Classrooms?

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 9. PROMISING PRINCIPLE 5: COGNITIVE LOAD

What Is Cognitive Load?

What Does This Principle or Practice Look Like in the Classroom?

How Do We Implement This Principle and Practice Into Our Classrooms?

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 10. PROMISING PRINCIPLE 6: PRODUCTIVE STRUGGLE

What Is Productive Struggle?

What Does This Principle or Practice Look Like in the Classroom?

How Do We Implement This Principle and Practice Into Our Classrooms?

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 11. PROMISING PRINCIPLE 7: FEEDBACK

What Is Feedback and What Makes It Effective?

What Does This Principle or Practice Look Like in the Classroom?

How Do We Implement This Principle and Practice Into Our Classrooms?

Checks for Understanding

Where to Next?

PART III

CHAPTER 12. EXPLICIT STRATEGY INSTRUCTION

The Gradual Release of Responsibility

Effective Learning Practices

A Return to Germane Cognitive Load

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 13. LEARNING STRATEGY 1: GOAL SETTING

The Benefits of Goal Setting

Getting Ready for Goal Setting

The Process of Goal Setting

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 14. LEARNING STRATEGY 2: INTEGRATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

The Benefits of Integrating Prior Knowledge

Getting Ready to Integrate Prior Knowledge

A Process for Integrating Prior Knowledge

Bonus Material: Annotated Reading

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 15. LEARNING STRATEGY 3: SUMMARIZING

Essential Characteristics of Summarizing

Getting Ready to Summarize

A Process for the Explicit Instruction of Summarizing

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 16. LEARNING STRATEGY 4: MAPPING

Three Different Ways to Map

Getting Ready for Mapping

A Process for the Explicit Instruction of Summarizing

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 17. LEARNING STRATEGY 5: SELF-TESTING

Benefits of Self-Testing

What if Learners Make Mistakes?

Getting Ready to Implement Self-Testing

A Process for Implementing Self-Testing

Bonus Material: Cooperative Learning

Checks for Understanding

CHAPTER 18. LEARNING STRATEGY 6: ELABORATIVE INTERROGATION

Benefits of Elaborative Interrogation

Getting Ready to Implement Elaborative Interrogation

Bonus Material: Jigsaw

A Process for Implementing Elaborative Interrogation

Checks for Understanding

PART IV

CHAPTER 19. GENERATING AND GATHERING EVIDENCE

Planning for Evaluation

Success Criteria and Evaluation

Planning to Gather Evidence

Planning to Collect and Organize Evidence

Making Sense of the Evidence

Conclusion

References

Index

About the Authors

Other Titles in: Teaching Methods & Learning Styles | Literacy, K-12 | Visible Learning

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Related Resources

6 Ingredients that Motivate Our Learners to Engage [Blog]
7 Promising Principles to Enhance Learning in Your School or Classroom [Blog]
Finding the Right Level of Challenge for Our Learners [Blog]
Introduction: How Learning Works [Lessons and strategies]
Learning Myths [Other]
Module 5 - Promising Principle 1: Motivation [Lessons and strategies]
Show & Tell: A Video Column / Why Do Students Disengage? [Blog]
Ways to Enhance Remembering: The Role of Retrieval Practice in Learning [Blog]
What are the Barriers to Learning? [Lessons and strategies]