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Schools

Chunk, Chunk, Click!!

As high school students prepare for finals, chunking might be the answer they are looking for!

A sure sign that the school year is coming to an end —the tables at the are busy, busy, busy!

Students are meeting with peers, tutors, or even just looking for a place away from home to study for the final exam in their classes.  The review sheets have been passed out, the teachers have covered their curriculum, and students have learned the information throughout the year, or second half of the year, depending on how the final is set up. 

For some students, finals is nothing more than reviewing what they have learned all year.  They have saved all their notes, study guides from chapter assessments, tests and quizzes, and completed what the teacher has given them to review.  It is a time to take out of long term storage what was previously learned. 

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In How The Brain Learns by David Sousa, if information is truly learned than providing some review to strengthen the neural pathway and bringing the information back into working memory should be easy.  For students who haven’t learned the information the first time, though, they are in panic mode.  Especially if their grade depends on it.

Throughout the year, I’ve given some tips on how and when to study and the importance of studying.  Now it’s crunch time and some students need to figure out what to do in order to pass the class, or make the grade.

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For some, it could be the difference between an A or a B, could play a role in determining their GPA and college choices.

One learned skill that is relatively easy to do in a short period of time is called “chunking.” The brain is able to hold about seven pieces of information at a time.  For example, the word “elephant” is composed of 8 letters, but the brain perceives it as one item of information.  Obviously, the more we can chunk information, the more information we can process in working memory, hopefully leading to finding a way to store the information into long term storage. 

There are a two main ways to chunk information:

  • Pattern Chunking—Finding patterns in the information to be retained.   

When my family moved in high school, I had to figure out a way to remember my phone number.  Phone numbers have obvious chunks to them, but the last 4 digits had me stuck.  The last chunk was 8918.  I gave meaning to it by saying 89 was the year I would graduate and 18 is how old I would be when I started college.  It made sense!

  • Categorical Chunking—Definitely a more sophisticated chunking.  The learner must establish different categories to help in their learning. 
  • Ways to chunk information by categories include:
  1. Advantages vs. Disadvantages—looking at information and figuring out the pros and cons of the concept.
  2. Similarities vs. Differences – Comparing 2 or more concepts looking at their attributes.  The differences between mitosis and meiosis comes to mind.
  3. Structure and Function – This type of chunking works best with information that has parts with different functions – the digestive system, animal cells, parts of a story.
  4. Taxonomies – This sorts information into levels (animal kingdom).
  5. Arrays – Not as ordered and straight forward as taxonomies.  Often times arrays are based on what you observe – how a character looks vs. how a character acts or grouping dogs by size, shape or length of fur.  

Don’t forget, studying in 20 minute chunks of time and using  various colors to show the differences, chunks, or categories is a great idea as well. 

Most importantly, the time and effort must be put into preparing for finals.  A major league baseball player doesn’t just walk onto the field and hit homerun after homerun – he practices and hones his skills. 

If your teen knows what learning style is their preference, use that to encourage them to study in that style.  Why just look over notes when you are a tactile learner?  Do something with the notes!!

Finally, there are many ways to study online, if that is preferred.  Online “make your own” note card sites are becoming increasingly popular.  There are tools and resources to be found, your teen just has to do it.

Perhaps I will see them at the library...tell them to say hello!

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