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General Study Skills

Instructors:  Retention

IF my students read the assigned text, they seem to RETAIN little of what they need to know for the upcoming class meeting. 

Part of the problem in "I assign" and "students do the assigned" is the expectations on each side of that coin.  If you want your needs met as an instructor, you need to be VERY specific about what you EXPECT when you ask students to "read" (or do anything else, for that matter).  Your expectations may change (and likely will) depending on the task you want students to perform.  For example, if you want students to read three articles that exemplify different perspectives of the same issue, you may be expecting students to come to class with the ability to verbalize how each perspective is different.  That needs to be clearly communicated to students before the reading event takes place.  Otherwise, if students read the articles passively, they may recognize that the TOPIC is the same in all three papers, but may NOT be specifically aware of the differences in perspective among the three authors.  The more specific you are with what you expect, the more actively students can read the material and therefore comprehend and retain specific information. 

Three avenues for comprehension:  what you do BEFORE you read, what you do DURING the reading, and what you do AFTER the reading. 

Repeat this brief mantra when supporting students to in better comprehension and retention:

You must REPHRASE in order to RETAIN.

In other words, you have put the NEW information in your own words and connect it to things you already know.  It is nearly impossible to retell something that you don't understand.  If you can restructure the information and then talk through the key ideas, you are much more likely to remember the information when confronted with the concepts in class. 

Here is an example of pairing graphic organizers with required reading to optimize retention and ensure that students are fully prepared to USE the information in the next class meeting:  http://www.pampetty.com/320syllabusOLD.htm

Strategies for Helping Students Retain what they Read:

Each of these links provides instructors with suggestions and strategies supporting students as they read assigned course materials. As an instructor sometimes you wish you could just pour information from the text inside the heads of your students.  When an assignment is given you expect your students to read and remember what they have read, in order to give input during the next day’s class, but you receive blank stares and/or misguided information.

Here are things that can help your students to retain information from text that is assigned, and even give your student’s ways to give input to those class discussions you hope to initiate.

Resources:
 

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