Chapter 9

1. How does this topic fit into what I have learned already in this course?

Our cognitive processes such as memory and attention are necessary for understanding language. Reading also takes all cognitive processes - such as working memory, long term memory, mental images, schemas all working together. Metacomprehension is a part of metacognition. Metacomprehension focuses on your thoughts about how you are comprehending(monitoring one’s understanding while reading)

2. What am I still not clear on in this week's reading(s)?

If we know that sentences with negatives are harder to process, why do we find them used often on ISAT’s and textbook tests? Are these tests trying to test the knowledge or trying to test processing?

3. Under what conditions would I apply this material to my own teaching/work.

I feel that much of this information is applicable to the teaching field.

Even though the text and articles I have read support that younger students are not really capable of monitoring their comprehension- comprehension strategies should be taught to older students an adults to help them with metacomprehension, I still think it is necessary to expose my third grade students to all the reading strategies. I feel repeated exposure to strategies makes the students realize, for one, that when they read they should be thinking while they are reading(not just reading words). Exposing students to fix-up strategies will give students ideas of what to do when they realize they are not understanding. Students will form good reading habits by practicing strategies such as summarizing, making a picture, asking themselves questions while reading, etc.

Another important piece of information for me to keep in mind is to consider the way I write questions for a test or pose questions in class. The text pointed out important information about how negatives, passive voice, nested sentences and ambiguous sentences confuse the reader(listener).

Making inferences requires that the students draw on prior knowledge. Many low achieving readers lack experiences necessary for making inferences. I need to brainstorm ways to give my student more experiences (by perhaps reading more stories and a variety of stories to my students/field trips/virtual field trips/interactive websites/ etc.)

Chapter 12

1. How does this topic fit into what I have learned already in this course?

When we problem solve we “reason through” a situation often using our background knowledge and memory of previous events or instances to help solve a problem or make decisions. On p. 399 the author explained that “conditional reasoning relies on the central executive component of working memory and that reasoning also requires language skills.” Confirmation bias –we seek out the positive rather than the negative goes along with Theme 3 of our book. In an earlier chapter we learned about how we remember positive information more accurately and we handle positive information better than negative information. We also learned about overconfidence in test taking and then in this chapter overconfidence in decision making.

2. What am I still not clear on in this week's reading(s)?

There are many terms to keep straight. When I read them and the examples given, it makes sense. To pull it out and use in my daily conversation I would be sure to mess it up.

Would the crystal-ball technique be similar to “playing devil’s advocate”? Is it tough to think in this manner? (Conditional reasoning we tend to think of the positive rather than the negative.)?

3. Under what conditions would I apply this material to my own teaching/work?

In third grade we talk about the author’s purpose and point of view. This would be a good time to point out the “framing effect”.

After reading this chapter I can see decision making reasoning and understand perhaps how a parent/student/myself came up with a solution. (Understand that the decisions could be based on a bias of some sort/use of condition reasoning/judging according to similar characteristics)

Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

1. In previous chapters we have discussed bottom-up and top down processing. These play a part in problem solving. When problem solving, a person sometimes uses background knowledge, memory of similar structure to solve the problem. In this chapter and earlier chapters referred to ways to help our memory and/or problem solve by using visual images, charts, diagrams, etc.
2. I understand the situated-cognition approach. However I always thought of it in this way- EX. that students learn “how to add”/ “how to subtract” but then do not understand when or where or why to apply it. On p. 364 last paragraph, I did not think of it turned around the other way-a student would learn skills in a specific situation like a grocery store but would not transfer to a standardized math test.
3. Application: Allowing students to use a variety of ways to solve a problem. Having students share approaches so they may learn from each other. In reading a student’s knowledge base is so important in understanding text. The same seems to be true for students and problems solving skills and strategy use. Seems apparent that background knowledge needs to be developed.

Incorporating more authentic tasks into the curriculum would be beneficial for students as well. Demonstrating/modeling/ students sharing for students (fellow classmates) a variety of ways to problem solve to overcome mental set and fixedness.(think out of the box) On p. 380 it mentioned that working memory is reduces when great effort is required to suppress thoughts. It got me wondering about text anxiety for my young students. I need to think of ways to help relieve that kind of stress for students.

Chapter 8

1. Summary: This chapter explained the structure of semantic memory-organized information about the world. It explained four models. Feature comparison-memory Prototype-information is organized by the most typical member of that category. Exemplar approach-examples for a category are held in the memory. Network model-interconnection among related items. Our background knowledge also includes information from events, people and situations that is called our schema. A script is a type of schema-sequence of events of a familiar activity. Schemas can sway our interpretation and integration in our memory.

2. It connects with previous chapters on memory - how previous knowledge influences our memory. In previous chapters we have also discussed how information is organized.

3. Unclear: I understand what the word integration means in general but I felt that explanation on schemas/integration in memory in the book was lacking. I starting getting confused about priming and lots of information about different levels of categories. I tried to just keep the main idea in mind.

4. Application: Learning about the different semantic memory models may help me as a teacher to understand how students are organizing information. I noticed that our speech teacher discussed categorizing for developing language at an IEP meeting. So if students work on different categorizing activities it could develop different parts of the brain. (250) Developing different parts of the brain would perhaps add to the network of the connections.

5. Proof: I guess one example of proof is that our speech teacher uses categorizing to develop language in students. Examples in the text remind me of categorizing activities we do in reading to get students to make connections. Our routine activities (schemas and scripts) influence our attitudes toward particular situation and activities.

6. & 7. Importance and use: It could help explain difficulties of students that have trouble making connections. It could explain reactions of students to certain situations/activities. For example if they have had a bad experience they may avoid an activity. It could explain lags in student learning… Knowing this teachers can alter activities to aid in student learning. On p. 267 they discussed schema therapy. I thought that was very interesting. I guess teachers could use that same theory to help students gain trust in new schemas.

8. Other ways: I think we can look at this as another strategy. Ex. If it appears that a student only relies on one semantic memory model then perhaps instruction could include other models-different approaches.

Chapter 7

1.Summary: This chapter began with a debate over how visual information is stored. There seems to be more support for the analog code(picture representation) over the propositional code (descriptive representation) This chapter also included information about interference that movement and auditory and visual images can have on perception. The second part of this chapter was on neuroscience research that related to mental images and perception and where this occurs in the brain. The last section was on cognitive maps which was defined as a mental representation of the environment that surrounds us-like a mental map.

2. In earlier chapters 2 -4 we studied auditory and visual perception. This week we read about mental visual imagery and how it related to real objects.

3. Unclear on: Propositional code -I read that it was abstract and does not resemble natural language. What does that mean? Then on p. 214 Reed described it that people store pictures as descriptions in propositional codes. That made a bit more sense to me. Also I was unsure of masking effect as described on p.216.

4.Application: Asking students to describe steps in a process might be a way to use information from this chapter. Designing tasks would relate to cognitive mapping. If a student has difficulty making mental pictures that would signal a problem. I would need to think of how to develop this process by reading text and modeling what I am thinking and the image in my mind. Having students do more summarizing would help them with the propositional code.

5. Proof: I am not convinced about analog/propositional code controversy. It could be because I am not quite clear on the propositional code. In my own small brain it seems like mental images pull from both the pictorial and descriptions. I am not real clear what the difference really makes anyway as long as we are able form these images and use the information.

6. Is it important? Explains or predicts what? It seems important that a person be able to have a mental images or descriptions to resemble perception. If the analog code and propositional code is not present a person would have difficulty interpreting everyday situations as well as well as understanding academic areas such as reading/math etc.

7. I would use this information to help my students that have difficulties with perception. Modeling how I imagine , say for example, what is going on in a story or how I am making a connections with a story, or modeling summarizing would hopefully help students with these types of difficulties.

8.Other ways to accomplish…Not cheaper or faster but I think giving students more exposure to other life situations is a way to help students with mental images, that they can make connections with. Hands on experiences are always the best but we have the internet, experts could come to the school, reading a variety of books to students would all help.

Chapter 6

1. Summary: Chapter 6-Memory strategies help encode and retrieve information. People that want to improve their memory employ memory strategies such as: different types of practice techniques, imagery mnemonics, organization mnemonics, or use of multiple modes. There are strategies that help us remember what to do in the future(prospective memory) and to recall information (retrospective memory). Metacognition helps control our cognitive processes by directing the way we choose and use our memory strategies. Meta memory is not always accurate in predicting performance. Metacognition also includes metacomprehension which focuses primarily on reading comprehension. Chapter 13-Memory can occur in infants as young as 3 days old. Memory develops over time and as a person ages they begin to understand the importance of putting forth effort to learn new information and therefore increase their use of memory strategies. Adults understand how memory works and what memory strategies are effective. However older adults tend to be overconfident on some memory tasks. Some older adults tend to believe that poor memory comes with age and therefore do not always utilize memory strategies; however for those that recognize the importance they are likely to complete memory task in a satisfactory manner.
2. How does it fit: In early chapters we read about working memory, our immediate memory and the central executive that integrates information from working memory and long term memory. Then in chap. 5 we began our study on long term memory-depth of processing, memory retrieval. As we continue our readings in chapter 6 and 13 we learned about memory strategies that help us encode and retrieve information and the control center (metamemory).
3. Still wondering: I was a bit puzzled by information found on p. 450 source monitoring-the children that made the most source monitoring errors were those that imagined how it would feel…and then in the next paragraph further research showed that children recall performing a task but they had actually observed the task being completed by another person. That was interesting/puzzling.
4. Application to teaching: In third grade we present many strategies to help with comprehension: rehearsal techniques, imagery techniques and organizational techniques. Some students have strategies in place, others really soak up strategy ideas, and yet others appear to need many more exposures.
5. Proof: I believe the many techniques that help us learn have been tried and proven to be successful for myself, for my own children, and my students at school. I have read about many of the same strategies(sometimes given a slightly different title) in lit. reviews and other information learned at conferences or read about in books for other classes.
6. Importance: I believe it is important for the obvious reason that if one learns about how to help oneself retain and call up information-‘keep our memory abilities active- we function better overall.
7. I would specifically use techniques to help students comprehend in reading. If they can connect to the text they will be able to understand and retain the information. Study skill help: My third grade students will soon be responsible for learning information from a variety of content areas so understanding the importance of practice, understanding spaced learning, imagery strategies etc. will hopefully give the students a repertoire of strategies to put in place when working independently on activities.
8. I have had a few parents ask me about the Sylvan Learning Center. I am not exactly what they do but I think they offer tutoring service, teach study techniques etc. Students could be introduced and taught some of these strategies through the school system instead.

Chapter 5

1. Summary: Long term memory is our memory for experiences or information from our lifetime. It can be divided into three categories-episodic(memories and events that happen to you), semantic(knowledge about world, words and facts) and procedural(knowledge about how to do something). Encoding(how you acquire information)-there are different levels of processing but people have a deeper level of processing because of the use of distinctiveness and elaboration. Mood and emotion control our memory. Retrieval (locating and accessing information) Explicit memory tasks involve recognition and recall. Implicit tasks is where previous learned information and experiences help a person perform a task. Autobiographical memory is memory about events and issues related to self. We use schema and source monitoring to help with recall.
2. How does it fit with previous info.? Previous chapters discussed attention and short term memory. Attending to information helps us retain the information both long term and in our working memory. The central executive integrates information from our working memory and our long term memory. It all works hand in hand.
3. Unclear on: After reading about memory and all the bias’s I would afraid to be called as a witness for a court case…on the other hand I would hate to be relying on an eyewitness to testify on behalf of my innocence. I guess the studies are proof that these bias’/effects/controversies etc. can alter our memory.(?)
4. Application to teaching: On p. 123 the discussion was on the levels of processing. I think that if I want my students to really understand information I must find a way for the information to have distinctiveness and to get students to elaborate.

In third grade we begin to work on elaboration-making connections to self. Making the information distinctive –I try all kinds of crazy…and not so crazy ways to get it to stand out.

5. Proof: Of course there are the studies and experiments but I guess the way I think the information is true is because I am able to connect with much of the information.
6. Importance: For one, I think understanding the levels of processing could help me teach strategies to help students retain information in their long term memory. Cues, rehearsal techniques, relating to self and other tricks can be taught to improve memory tasks. Also, recognizing the difference between recall and recognition tasks (explicit) and memory tasks that are more application (implicit) would help students.
7. I would use this information for all my students. I think all students could use strategies to help with recall. This answer ties in with earlier replies of #4 and #6. I think students that have trouble keeping vocabulary straight may benefit from self-reference strategies. Also, the Pollyanna Principle –how positive or pleasant items are recalled more accurately. So controlling the presentation of information in a positive manner may effect my student’s ability to retain the information accurately.
8. Or world is so technology minded…Using computer programs to help with memory strategies may be a positive way to approach this issue. I am sure there are many programs out there that would be challenging, fun and interesting to the students.